Skyfall (2012)

James Bond is back in form in “Skyfall” after the dive that was “Quantum of Solace,” a film as meaningless as its title. This third in the Daniel Craig series nearly equals 2006’s “Casino Royale,” the best of the 007 series since the Connery days. The plot: A mystery man from M’s (Judi Dench) past is plunging MI6 and London into chaos, unveiling secret agents and blowing HQ to chunks. The weapons of death and madness are not nukes or giant lasers hidden in volcanoes, but laptops; the trigger is the [ENTER] button. The sword cuts both ways: Both the villain (Javier Bardem, sexually ambiguous in an Oscar-worthy turn) and the new Q (Ben Whishaw) both hawk hacking as their life’s trade, setting old-fashioned Bond off his game. Craig as Bond is at his best when thrown off, clawing back from the dead and irrelevance. The admittedly comic-book plot mechanics clank, but director Sam Mendes (“Road to Perdition”) and his writers invoke the Connery era as if were Scripture, pulling a “You Only Live Twice” stunt and a ’64 Aston Martin homage, and then set a new path for the 50-year-old franchise by tearing down its past. A-

Bright Star (2009)

Directed by Jane Campion, who gave us the 1993 gem “The Piano” and has done few great films since, “Bright Star” tells the absolute, ultimate, momma-of-all Tale of Doomed Romance. Tweens and other gals who get weepy at “Twilight” will need oxygen tanks after watching this dramatized take on John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fannie Braun (Abbie Cornish). Y’know, Keats was the prince of romance poems. Braum was his muse and love. He died at 25. She might as well have, too. I love many of Campion’s films -- the way she can pulsate drama and God-knows-all simply by having a camera track a woman being followed by a man, through the woods, or her use of natural light. I also dig the way she demonstrates the sexism of the 1800s, the brick wall in life that every woman faced, without banging a frying pan over the viewer’s head. “Star” might not have the same explosive drama of “Piano,” but it’s a solid (albeit too low key at times) drama. It certainly surpasses most every eye-roller romance drama out there now. All that sobbing feels true. Loved the end spoken-word end credits. B+