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Movie Review: Spectre

I had only been sitting for two minutes in the screening of the twenty-fourth installment of the James Bond franchise, Spectre, before I met a fanatic. Sporting a James Bond 40th Anniversary Omega Seamaster ("number 007 of only 1007 made", he told me, beaming with pride), he boasted of his travels to the Furka Pass in Switzerland, to visit the location of the Goldfinger car chase, and of his Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5, the same car Sean Connery piloted around those treacherous roads just over fifty years ago. He bought it a while back for $125,000, and foolishly sold it a few years later for $160,000 (a mint 1965 DB5 will easily fetch over $1 million at auction today). The discussion of his Aston Martins continued, including his current Vantage and DB9, until the theatre started to fill up and the lights went down. This kind of automobile and movie culture is unique to Bond. 007 may have his signature drink, "shaken, not stirred," but just as famous are his cars, which, for a great number of films, are Aston Martins. This started fifty years ago, in the aforementioned Connery flick, Goldfinger, and the tradition has continued in Spectre, with a bespoke two-door coupe fittingly tagged the DB10. This latest Bond car is more concept than production. Built around the current V8 Vantage VH platform, the DB10's handsome styling is a look into the future for the British manufacturer. Perhaps outshining Bond's chariot are the cars of the villainous organization after which the movie is named, a highlight being the beautiful the Jaguar C-X75, driven by the eye-gouging villain, Hinx (Dave Bautista). The Jag is introduced when Bond infiltrates a Spectre meeting. His attendance doesn't go unnoticed, leading to a C-X75 vs DB10 race around Rome's midnight streets. Those who are going to see Spectre for the great car cinematography, prepare to be disappointed. The scene ends early on when – spoiler alert – 007 dumps the DB10 in the bottom of a river. Spectre is the longest of the 24-film canon, and due to an overstuffed second act, it feels like it. The first hour is fantastic, revealing enough of Bond's backstory to get the audience hooked, but somewhere in the second act we lose our way, torn between two predictable story lines.

Autoblog Podcast #402

Episode #402 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Brandon Turkus talk about the Audi A3 TDI Challenge and luxury car features we not-so-secretly love. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #402: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: Audi A3 TDI road trip Luxury features we're sort of ashamed we love In The Autoblog Garage: 2014 Land Rover LR4 2015 Aston Martin Vanquish 2015 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:17:40 Rundown: Intro & Garage - 00:00 Audi A3 TDI Challenge - 42:51 Luxury Features We Love - 01:00:05 Q&A - 01:09:17 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts Aston Martin Audi Dodge Land Rover Diesel Vehicles Luxury Performance aston martin vanquish

Chris Harris pits Aston GT12 vs 911 GT3 RS vs McLaren 650S

The Geneva Motor Show is never lacking in exciting performance machinery. And this year was no exception. Our eyes, like those of Chris Harris, were drawn by two hardcore, track-focused versions of existing sports cars. Both wore the name GT3, and now Harris has brought them together for a supercar shootout. And he's thrown one more in for good measure. Those natural rivals are the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 and Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the latter manufacturer having pressed the former to drop the GT3 name to which it claims exclusive domain. There's a great deal that separates them, of course: one's got a V12 up front, the other a flat-six way in the back. But what binds them together is a common approach of taking an existing model, stripping it down, and tightening everything up to make it more of a weapon than a grand tourer. What that means in the Aston's case is a rather high price tag, much higher than that of the Porsche. But scarce demand and speculation on the open market have left British customers, at least, paying as much for the GT3 RS as for the limited-edition Aston. And that takes both into proper supercar territory. So to show what else that kind of money can get you, Monkey has brought along a McLaren. Not the similarly track-focused 675LT, but the standard 650S... Spider, no less, and with worn hard rubber. So which one performs best on the road? Which clocks the fastest lap time on the track? And which gets Harris' vote? You'll have to watch the video for yourself to find out, but it's well worth the 25 minutes of your lunch break. News Source: Chris Harris on Cars via YouTube Aston Martin McLaren Porsche Videos porsche 911 gt3 chris harris mclaren 650s