Do you want to know what got me back in the theaters after an 18-month hiatus due to COVID? Well, almost anything might have done the job, really -- I have a very low "celluloid count," and going to the movies is a favorite pastime -- but I wanted my initial trip to be special, and No Time to Die fit the bill.

The movie begins in Italy, where James Bond (Daniel Craig) is living happily with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) until assassins try to kill him during a visit to his former lover's tomb. Believing Madeleine has betrayed him to his enemies, Bond sends her away, retiring to Jamaica until his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) from the CIA shows up asking for help with a mission. A scientist who has invented dangerous new technology has been kidnapped. Bond goes to Cuba, assisted by CIA agent Paloma (Ana de Armas), where they witness the mass assassination of SPECTRE's leadership.

The stakes are much higher than Bond and Leiter imagined. As the plot unfolds, we realize that the tech could threaten life as we know it. Bond of course is drawn back into MI6, where M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw) and the new 007 Nomi (Lashana Lynch) provide varying levels of assistance. Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) also make reappearances here.

No Time to Die was widely reported as Craig's last Bond film, and it's arguably one of his best. Growing up with James Bond, I've seen every actor play him so far -- and Craig's by far my favorite despite my abiding affection for Sean Connery. He's not a gentleman who is trained to kill. He's a man from the street who's trained to be a gentleman.

Rami Malek, who first impressed me playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, scared me as the latest Bond villain, Lyutsifer Safin. He's definitely an actor to watch.

I'm genuinely hoping to see more of Lynch's new 007 in future films. I've been wanting for a long time to see a female 007, and it's a bonus she's a person of color. (Note: She's the new 007, not the new James Bond. Some people seem confused by the difference.)

This is by far one of the longest Bond films I've seen, but it honestly did not feel like 2 1/2 hours. But you really won't want to miss a minute of this.