Film Friday

Zero Dark Thirty 

Maya and the CIA track down Usama bin Laden and SEAL Team Six kills him.  Spoiler Alert!
I was quite impressed by Maya's level of feist.  As portrayed by Jessica Chastain, she wasn't difficult to look at either.  It was difficult to reconcile the decade or so of real-life events with the time the film had to show them.  I wish I had gotten a clearer idea of what the CIA team did between leads.  I also think the SEAL team part of the movie was drawn out a bit too much.  But over-all, I give this a modest thumb up.      
       

Crime d'amour 

Corporate shenanigans at the French office of a multi-national corporation.  Kristin Scott Thomas as an executive and Ludivine Sagnier as her younger protege.
I think there are some good ideas here, but it could have been executed better.  There are plot holes I can't forgive.  Also, the ladies' man doesn't seem the part to me.      
 
Alphaville 

French sci-fi about Lemmy Caution, a secret agent (Eddie Constantine) sent to a city on another planet to stop the tyrannical rule of a scientist who has outlawed love and self-expression.  Anna Karina also stars.  Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
It's part spoof.  Pop culture references include Dick Tracy, Ferdinand Celine, and Nosferatu.  Caution seems to me like a cross between Philip Marlowe and James Bond.  There's an evil computer, a la HAL, though 2001 hadn't been released yet.       

Skyfall   

I have now seen all of them, except the satirical version of Casino Royale*.
Anyway, seems somebody has a grudge against M and isn't afraid of some collateral damage.  Will 007 be able to stop this miscreant?
This is not one of the better Bond films.  The opening action sequence is over-done.  There are stretches of boredom.  It's one of the least sexy Bond films since the 1980's and the AIDS crisis.  That being said, Daniel Craig does a good job as Bond.  Javier Bardem plays the cray cray villain well.  There are some funny lines.
Judi Dench as M.  Directed by Sam Mendes.
* - Yes. I have seen the original TV version of Casino Royale.     

La chambre bleue  

An affair between a married man and a married woman ends with legal problems for both of them.  Stars Mathieu Amalric as the man, Stephanie Cleau as the woman, and Lea Drucker as the man's wife.  Screenplay by Amalric and Cleau.  Directed by Amalric.  From a Georges Simenon novel.
It's a bit on the short side - 75 minutes.  It's stronger in the acting department than the plot.  On the whole, it kind of ended up being a mid-range legal drama with a brief nod or two to steamy romance.  I'll never look at a red towel the same way again, though.  :)