News, albeit unsubstantiated, that James Bond 23 won't be happening is music to my ears. The franchise should have been put to bed years ago, and even the Daniel Craig-starring, supposed ground-up reinvention didn't do enough to reinvigorate the character. Instead, what was offered was an ineffective attempt to mimic the template laid out by the Bourne movies, whilst at the same time stubbornly refusing to shed the more outdated trappings of the series, most strikingly the Bond girls - you cannot successfully affect a more serious tone when you have such an obvious reference point to the "nudge nudge, wink wink" ridiculousness that has always been a staple of the films. Even the combination of Sam Mendes (American Beauty) directing and Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) writing does little to convince me that we're missing out on something special, seeing as how nothing in their respective oeuvres suggests that they'd know their way around the action blockbuster genre.

If you're looking for a more balanced view, you could do worse than read this Guardian article, although to be honest, by the end of it, Stuart Heritage isn't exactly lamenting the potential end of James Bond, suggesting that "maybe we should just let the character die with dignity while he still can." I couldn't agree more.