When a beautiful woman mentions that the astonishing scenery (and art direction) of her mountaintop clinic can be a distraction, Craig’s smooth throwaway as he focuses intently on her (“Really? I hadn’t noticed”) is typical of the kind of laugh only he can get. Craig doesn’t get Connery-Moore quips, but allows much more wry humour to sneak into his hardman-in-a-suit hero. Since it’s part of the Bond remit to evoke the franchise’s past, this does for Craig what You Only Live Twice did for Sean Connery, down to the welcome return of the evil white cat stroked by the head of Spectre throughout the 1960s.Īfter three films more rooted in real-world worries than Pierce Brosnan’s mostly fantastical vehicles, Spectre relaxes a little (even if it debates the ethics of surveillance and the relevance of licensed-to-kill boots on the ground in an age of drones). For the second year in a row, more films were classified at 15 (383) than at 12A (321).Īustin said the most striking trend in 2015 was the growth of non-statutory work being carried out by the BBFC, providing age ratings to mobile networks and online streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.Having handled Skyfall, the 50th anniversary entry in the 007 series, Sam Mendes is back for Spectre, a direct sequel to the earlier film - a vital clue is found in the burned-out ruins of Skyfall, Bond’s childhood home - which also picks up story threads (and the odd character) from Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace and retcons Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond into one slightly wonky super-saga. In total, the BBFC classified 983 films for theatrical distribution in 2015, a rise of 2.7%. The realistic risk of harmful imitation is very low indeed.” “The scene takes place in an unrealistic, comic and slapstick manner which is likely to be familiar to young viewers, who expect the Minions to survive. Other film ratings which people complained about included that for Minions, which received 16 complaints because of a scene set in a medieval-style torture dungeon.
The BBFC report said, as with Spectre, censors had advised the film’s distributors on toning down scenes in order for it to get a 15, not 18 rating. It was solidly in the category and not borderline.”Īfter Spectre, the teenage spy caper Kingsman: The Secret Service was second with 38 complaints, mostly relating to violence in the church fight scene. “Once the edits had been made we didn’t really think Spectre pushed the boundary of 12A. That included taking out bloody detail in the eye-gouging scene. “Given the lack of detail, and the audience expectation that Bond will inevitably escape and survive such threats, the scene is within the BBFC guidelines’ allowance for depictions of violence at 12A,” it says.Īustin admitted he was surprised that Spectre was the most complained about film and said the BBFC had worked with the film’s distributors on what would make it a 12A, rather than 15, film. The BBFC’s annual report points out that there was no blood and no sign of injury and the film “instead uses sound and Bond’s facial expressions to suggest his pain”. The chief executive of the BBFC, David Austin, said: “By our standards it is quite a lot of complaints but the box office for Spectre is £94m so in context it is a tiny proportion.”Ĭomplainants also thought the torture scene, when Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld inserts a micro-drill into Bond’s head, was too much for the movie’s 12A rating.
But that did not stop the arrival of 40 complaints about the film’s age rating, the highest number for any film last year, the BBFC said.