Director James Watkins
Staring
Rated M
Score 5/6

A young con artist and former CIA agent embark on an anti-terrorist mission in France.

I’m sure there is more than a few who would remember recent discussions about possible actors to take over the mantle of James Bond when Daniel Craig hangs up his Walther PPK and martini glass that Idris Elba was close to if not at the top of the list of potential new James Bond candidates. If I remember rightly Elba was howled down as a being a potential Bond candidate. Now granted Elba might not have the sophistication that other Bond actors brought to the role, yet he still has the coolness and the flair for cinematic brutality that the Bond role needs. And if there ever was a need for him to have an audition tape to land the role as Bond I believe that Bastille Day could do that for him. I was completely unfamiliar with James Watkins’ work as a director considering that this was only his third time in the director’s chair (the only actor apart from Elba that I was even remotely familiar with was Charlotte Le Bon). Watkins really delivered something that was really worth watching. Bastille Day does not have the level of destruction that you expect from a Bond movie but it’s easily on the level of most Bond Movies. However, it should be noted that I could not help but in part draw comparisons to the 2004 movie directed by Pierre Morel District B13 (due to the civil unrest in both films) and I firmly believe that the 2014 English remake Brick Mansions directed by Camille Delamarre should have been more like Bastille Day (it should be noted for the record that what let Brick Mansions down was the half-arsed stunt work).