The issues you brought up with the Bond franchise is why Casino Royale will always be my favorite, because, in my interpretation, the film frames James’ journey to becoming “Bond, James Bond” as a tragedy, rather than some power fantasy.

This was dope, I'mma smash that like button!

I've always maintained that Skyfall was Adele's best song ever.

As pointed out by other commenters, I don't think the "waste of good scotch" line was meant to be taken literally. He says it as to not appear flustered, which is what the villain and his henchmen were hoping for by killing her. However, I do agree that him creepily pursuing a woman who had been revealed to be a sex slave was pretty fucked up. I know Bond's womanising is a massive part of his character, but surely there is a way to keep that aspect whilst also treating the female characters with a bit more respect.

Damn, Mikey, that dramatic reading of Adele's Skyfall was superb. As was the overall message of the video. Bravo!

I always thought the "waste of good Scotch" line was an attempt to act as though he was unphased by her death, to show that Silva wasn't getting to him. Obviously, taken literally in a vacuum, it's super gross and fucked-up, but I never really saw this character who is clearly damaged by the loss of life, specifically of women's lives, actually meaning that kind of thing in earnest. But I digress. My boyfriend disagrees with me, so I'm out of the argument.

Hi Mikey. Been following and enjoying your film analyses for a few years now, but first time I decide to write a comment back. I was ecstatic to see you review Skyfall, since it's a film I worked on as visual effects lead. Of all the films in my vfx career, I have high confidence in rating it the best film, cinematographically speaking (and certainly photographically. It was joyous to work over Deakins' gorgeous shots every day for weeks on end. I also always say that I'm proud to have worked on the best Bond film, somewhat jokingly (because I have not, by far, seen all the Bond films), although I am also fairly confident that I'm not too far off the mark. So thanks for confirming that, yes, it might be a good, or the best Bond film even, but also for reminding me that it is still, after all, and for better or worse, a Bond film. That said, from Craig's performance throughout the scene, I always undoubtedly interpreted the "What a waste of good scotch" remark as a second degree. Not of humour, but of Bond stoically playing a façade, his "hardboiled, untouchable" façade, as not to show vulnerability in front of his enemy, while in truth, inside, he is deeply emotionally hurt by what just happened. Think about it. We see his vulnerability countless times throughout this film, but only when he is alone, not when he has his habitual "role" to play in front of others, allies or foes. This would be an emotional complement to all the instances of hidden physical vulnerability. Or maybe that's not in the actual performance, and I was just projecting my own feelings. Will be very attentive to it, next time I watch it. Thanks again, and congratulations for the great job. A joy to watch and enjoy your work, and to participate in your passion for cinema, as always!

11:32 What is that? Have you watched a different cut? James doesn't callously leave him to die at all, very much the opposite: Bond: Ronson's down. He needs medical evac. M: Where is the hard drive? Bond: It's gone. M: They must have it. Get after them. Bond: I'm stabilizing Ronson. M: We don't have the time. Bond: I have to stop the bleeding! M: Leave him! Bond reluctantly follows the order of his superior against his own instinct, Micky!

Watching Mikey struggle to walk smoothly in the intro hurt my heart. Love you bro, keep powering through.

I had always thought of the "Waste of good scotch" line as Bond suppressing his rage at getting another woman killed, but trying to play it off as cool in front of his enemy while just really coming off as saying "Oopsy doopsy, I muffed it up again!"

“I hope you’re not a lesbian.” Does that chat up line usually work?

Bond was told to leave the wounded agent in the beginning. It wasn't a "callous" decision by Bond -- he was ordered by M.

Bruh. Born and raised with these movies and your feelings are the exact manifestation of my Janus style heartache over the series.

“I love loving movies. It’s my love-lovingest thing!” This is why I subscribe, Michael. Because I love loving movies too. Thanks for the consistent effort.

Seeing a Movies with Mikey vid pop up in the notifications is one of the greatest joys in life.

I don't think the character of Bond has to change, he can remain a relic of the Cold War, but I do think the film around him must. This is what made watching Skyfall and Spectre so awkward for me. Completely agree with you when you say those around Bond enable his toxic behaviour, both in his world and ours.

Yeah mikey since you referenced killing eve I think I ought to mention that it's creator phoebe waller bridge is helping to write the next bond movie, so you might want to think again before saying a final bye

"waste of good Scotch" is just a mask. he never liked to show weakness in front of bad guys. All the books were a fantasy of an old man, a very kinky old man... I can "forgive" sexism, I've read a lot of 40s and 50s books, I'm used to not judging the time period. The only time Bond was kind to a woman was is the book Dr No and Live and Let Die. I recommend both, the Bond girls are incredible and he cares about them. Daniel Craig's Bond along with Timothy Dalton is my favourite. I like my Bond gritty and with small doses of humour. I think I'm one of the few people who loved Spectre and I can't wait for No Time To Die.

Every new video you release reminds me again why you're one of my faves 😭💛

I agree - Skyfall is the perfect *final* Bond movie.

Hats off, Mikey. You are the only person who can make great analytic video essays that actually at the same time make me feel sooo many things! Such a great use of music, editing, jokes, and insight. I should comment more often, just to let you know how much I appreciate your videos.

These thoughts have been stirring in me for years now, nice to see them so well articulated, thanks for making this man

My username has 007 in it so I can't claim to be impartial BUT... I think this essay would be stronger if you talked about the franchise's history with misogyny, specifically where it began with Connery and how it evolved. The oft-maligned Brosnan era goes out of it's way to show how a misogynistic character like Bond survives in a 90s culture. In Goldeneye, M is now a woman who deals with workplace sexism like a boss. Moneypenny tells Bond his advances constitute sexual harassment. In Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond's ally is a woman named Wai Lin. She is his equal, besting people in fights without his aid, and is shown to be his superior by being able to write in more than one language and having the gun Bond wants. The World Is Not Enough had the first female Bond villain. Die Another Day repeats the Wai Lin formula to lesser success. That brings us to Craig's era, which starts him off as a cold and unfeeling bastard, before falling in love with Vesper, being betrayed by Vesper, and going back to being cold. That's what makes that film a tragedy, rather than a triumph. I don't like the scene in Skyfall where Bond sleeps with Silva's sex slave. That feels like a carry-over from the "well, he's gotta sleep with someone" angle. But the Scotch line is very clearly him not allowing Silva under his skin. The same is true for the scene when Silva plays with Bond's chest and thighs and Bond says "what makes you think this is my first time?" Bond is a master spy trying to control his emotions and not give anything away. Furthermore, you can see Bond's distress IN THE SCENE when Silva whispers "let's see who winds up on top." You can see Bond flinch. I don't think your argument that he reverts is accurate. You can make the case if you think that the whole movie is about Bond and misogyny, but I don't think that it is. I think it is a movie about whether or not we still need Bond films and whether or not he is relevant. I think that he still is, but Skyfall is maybe my favorite Bond film. (Casino Royale, Skyfall, and Goldeneye duke it out for that top spot). If I could cut one scene from Skyfall, it would be the scene where he sleeps with Severine, which I think is gross and unnecessary. I think if he truly reverted, we'd see him hit on Moneypenny. Instead, I think this movie shows Bond defending and ultimately losing a woman he loved, just like Casino Royale. He ditches M (England) when she tells Moneypenny to "take the bloody shot" resulting in him being almost killed and the baddie getting away. He comes back when her life is threatened, and he spends the whole movie trying to protect her. Skyfall is an entire movie about Bond doing what he couldn't do in Casino Royale, still failing, and coming back because his mother country still needs defending. At least, that's what I took from it.

Wow. This was a spine chilling ride among powerful video essays if I've ever watched one. Thank you Mikey. You're beautiful!

I love how Mikey reads the excerpt of the novel with that sarcastic excitement hiding true disdain. The way he says “...that silly bitch” with such disgust lmfaoooo I loved it.

The quality of Movies with Mikey episodes is so far above every other movie channel. Great job again, dude.

I also think that you've got the bit with Severine wrong. She isn't necessarily surprised by Bond, she had been waiting for him for quite some time and had given up waiting for him and went for a shower, similarly like the girl we the viewer to some extent believe that Bond isn't going to come and have also given up it is when he arrives and is in the shower that we are happy as we believe that Bond can save her- the convention in every other Bond film. The film then subverts this by what follows, and critiques Bond at this moment and shows that he shouldn't be looked at as a God or something like that and instead the film grounds him with reality as he calls for backup to save the day, this moment also raises the stakes for the last act. (You should also note the way Skyfall explores the origins of Bond and it is clear that Bond and the girl form a mutual understanding for each other due to the traumas high they had to endure when they were children)

Good timing, I just started rewatching them in order last night :b

Not at all what I was expecting. Great video.

Epic work as always, Mikey. It's always a special little holiday for me when a new MwM comes out! Thanks for calling out this BS in such an eloquent way.

Your editing is insane man. Keep up the good work.

What an amazing video essay. Bravo

“Real Boys don’t have feelings based on traumatic event” that lines shouts my teenage self and I felt that.

This was awesome. In the original sense of the word. And so are you.

Praise Mikey. Always seem to have a new video out at the end of my worst days

I will be perpetually perplexed that this guy doesn't have all of the subscribers. Like All the subscribers. More folks need to wake up and enjoy movies with Mikey.

Expressing how much I love filmjoy without a parasocial weirdness is impossible. Your just one of my favorite things.

Thank you for clearly explaining the frustration and love so many of us have with this series.

Beautiful as usual

I have a strained relationship with the Bond franchise for this exact reason. While I believe Skyfall to be the most internal of indictments of Bond's psychology, it also reaffirms that in spite of everything, the status quo will always persist with him, be that for better or worse. It's vital to update aging franchises with the modern sensibilities of the world around it, but Bond seems content to coast on all the same features that defined his inception. So it's tricky.

God your stuff is fucking dope. I am just fucking stunned by your content. Thank you so much for sticking with it and releasing stuff like this. Wow!

The casual use of "she-shed" had me cackling

Great video essay on one of my faves too! Cheers!!!

this is brillianttt.

Mikey, you always make great content, but I think you have gained another level or unlocked some new achievement. This video says something like everything. I have knew ideas about Bond and better phrases for my critiques for the first time in a long time.

Amazing Video!!!!

The immeasurable joy my heart feels when our dear boi Mikey Neumann hops on the screen Never gets old.

Is that Billie Eilish's bad guy in the background? Interesting music choice.

Mikey, this was awesome. thank you

I'd just like to point out that Bond's had a couple of villains prior to Silva who were basically "James Bond but evil": Scaramanga, Trevelyan, and Graves.

this is mayb your best work

Love you brotato, best movie review channel on the internet.

I used to enjoy watching movies, but now, thanks to Mikey, I can enjoy them fully. Thank you for that.

God damn, Mikey. Even when you piss me off I love ya. The world is undeniably a better place because you are in it.

“Oh hey JuRY” lol great episode Mikey!

I'm living for your dramatic reading of Skyfall

Mikey this is brilliant. Well freaking done.

So... I came for the drop, thanks.

My favourite Bond moment in the books that I didn't realise were in there when I revisited was a moment where a woman cooly brushes Bond off and is acting aloof and he contemplates kicking her in the shins. Classic Bond shenanigans.

I’m sad that this channel doesn’t have more subscribers. One of my favourite KZfaq channels

Oh my god Mikey, you've left me breathless more than you ever have before. Amazing. I love this video to bits and I don't even like James Bond that much. The aesthetic, the argument, the flow, the humor..... damn, Mikey!! Thank you so much!!

“Catawumps or Perish.” 🥴 Beautiful. 😆✌️👍

I've missed you Mikey great to see you back 💜

The Jack Ryan show from Amazon is actually good.😀 Your editing is still so damn entertaining.😂 Three cheers to the editor!👍

I think a bit of media that subverts all of this rather well is Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Loved the vid, glad there's a new mwm but how do u not include the hobby/resurrection line?!

Omg Mikey’s stuff is always so damn good and I love it. Also I would totally subscribe to an entire channel of Mikey dramatically reading Adele songs and I’m not even sorry.

The "waste of good scotch" line always seemed to me to be for the villain, to make it seem as though Bond was cold and therefore strong. His expressions and body language in those scenes tell a different tale. Though I grant you she wasn't mentioned again later in the film, and she should have been if modernizing Bond was a desirable end in the view of the producers.

I’m giving this a thumbs up (as always for Mikey’s videos) specifically for the “REAL BOYS HAVE FEELINGS...” freak out delivery 😂😂😂

that gave me chills

you are a special youtuber in the best way imaginble

I'd really love to see you do Seven Psychopaths. New to this channel, but thoroughly digging your insights thus far

I mean... the wasted scotch line was obviously feigned detachment. You get that, right?

Bond's legacy has not aged well in the modern age, that's for sure. I think the page turn with Goldeneye and Judi Dench helped tuning the franchise, but a lot of the old tropes remained the same. But, I like to see Bond as a flawed character. Well, more so in the Daniel Craig films anyways (he's flawed in the other ones, but its romanticized to an extent). I think its clear that he exhibits traits that are not exactly condonable in this day and age, but you can kind of see the forest for the trees now. He's a stone cold badass half the time and then the other half you see the paint peeling to reveal the actual flawed man underneath, as though this way of life and the events that led him to the present day have molded him into the figure of a person one should not aspire to be despite this charade that he should be idolized. Casino Royale cements this best for me. It comes when Bond wakes up as Vesper is watching over him. After she accuses him of putting up his guard again (you've got your armor on) when he starts acting like his old self, he proceeds to tell her that she's stripped it from him, implying that he was willing to give it all up for her, even if it he feels like a hollow person (whatever is left of me). The classic, giving it all up for a woman, nothing particularly original (or hell even new for the character). But it feels even more poignant that her dying kind of sends him completely over the edge (Quantum/etc). There is no redemption for him anymore. And this makes him feel more like an anti-hero to me at the end of the day, something I find much more interesting than his character was back in the Connery/Moore eras. I'll always love the Bond movies (well, Spectre was a tougher pill to swallow I guess) but I feel like the Craig movies, despite keeping some of the more traditionally despisable characteristics of the character, shows us a more deeply flawed individual, rather than one to be propped up as some sort of "godlike" being. Great video as always Mikey. When I saw this one on your upcoming list that you teased us with, I was super excited. You did not disappoint. Looking forward to the next MwM!

Wow this video is good. I love Skyfall but I also have problems with it. I did not watch this video instantly on the 3rd or the 4th for I had some trepidations about this movie, and Mikey you perfectly captured my feelings and also gave me some to thinks about. Thank You.

Well, I never thought I'd see a video essay on Skyfall where it was compared to TMNT 2: Secret Of The Ooze...

24:12 - 24:56 Shakespearean and chilled me to my core! YES! Great job Mikey!

Hahaha, that Twitch streamer impersonation!

I love this video

Fucking hell, that was good. Awesome job as usual.

Not only a wonderful video, but Mikey in that suit...be still my beating heart.

Damn Mikey but you rock. Love ya.

This is a (pretty) concise telling of the issues and joys I've had with the Bond films, especially Casino Royale and Skyfall. They are beautifully made, with tons of art in the acting, lighting, cinematography, sets, costuming. But in the end (heh,) you cannot deny the misogynistic imperialism at the heart of the films. Its important to keep a critical eye on the media you enjoy. Great job, Mikey.

RIGHT.IN.THE.FEELS. thank you. thank you. thank you.

This is how you analyze good art with a bad message. Very well done, Mikey.

Well that's Mikey smashing it outta the park again.

Thank you!

Holy Shit! That ending. Was. Intense.

Look at Mikey, lookin' dapper AF. Go on, Mikey!

Love your work, as always Mikey, great video. I loved JB as a kid; the action, the gadgets, the glibness, all of it. But I completely agree with M when she says he is a dinosaur and a relic of the cold war. James Bond is a product of his time and as such obsolete. Goldeneye was the last James Bond movie I truly enjoyed (also because of Boris) and, truth be told, while I have seen some of the later films, including Skyfall, I don't miss them. If Bond and M had died at the end it would've been a good send-off for a character that has endured decades, but ultimately has been left behind by the changing times.

Haven't seen it yet but I'm hype, love this movie!

I like your show. Just found it. I'll be busy for a few days.

Great, now that Adele song is stuck in my head again.

that '17f' reminded me of 'club 96 from RuPaul's drag race

Thanks for this. Bond is my second favourite franchise behind Star Wars. And yes I am an American and just spelled "favourite" in the British manner with a "u." So beat that!

You are very nice to look at and to listen to thanks for the suit bit thank you.

Is this why Spectre felt so dull, cramped, and lifeless to me? Because SM had told the story he wanted to tell, and was forced to Do It All Again?

A few years ago I went through a rough trot. No job. Running out of money. Alcoholic. My friends, out of a term of endearment, called that time for me, The Scorpion Days....for obvious reasons...

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier had a depiction of "Jimmy" which was a thinly veiled version of Bond. He was a venal, thuggish bully, who thought he was far more charming than he was. They never outright call him bond but by the end of the story it's pretty clear who this tool is meant to be, and it's not a shock. I think of bond as a weapon, and like a weapon, much of his existence is evocative, at times beautiful and elegant, but ultimately his purpose is rather ugly. He's always been the hero you love to hate, charming slick, deadly, and amoral, but ultimately a weapon for good. But he's not a good man, he's never been a good man.

Goddamn this is what I’ve been needing Mikey