Casino Royale
So Steph and I saw Casino Royale last night. I’ll steer clear of writing any spoilers, but here are some thoughts:
- The intro song is appalling. It doesn’t win the Madonna award for “Worst Bond Theme Ever”, but it’s a slice of soft-rock rubbish that you just have to ignore and watch the visuals for a couple of minutes.
- Blimey, that film was the longest Sony advert I’ve ever seen.
- Daniel Craig is excellent. Nostalgia forbids me from declaring him “Best Bond Ever” (that will always be Sean Connery), but he makes the character his own. I haven’t read the books, but the film opens by saying “Daniel Craig is Ian Fleming’s James Bond” - something they’ve not said in so many words before, but here it’s true. This Bond isn’t some poncy “International Man of Mystery”, he’s a nasty piece of work.
- Judy Dench is a much harder-edged M that in the Pierce Brosnan films.
- There’s no daft antics. No Q with silly gadgets (although he has a couple of tricks up his sleeve), no Roger Moore-era girls with names like “Ivana Shagalot”. No Mega-Moonbase for the villain. This is no Royale with Cheese.
I’d say they’ve done a great job of re-invigorating the franchise, and reminding us all that Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne etc are all fine, but there’s only one Bond.
Recent Posts RSS
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I’m rather happy to say he’s certainly the ‘Best Bond Ever’. Connery never really looked at ease in the fights despite his Burton ‘Action Slacks’(tm).
Craig’s not Brosnan good looking, but he has the charm and that ‘bit of rough’ sex appeal. He’s more as one would imagine an MI6 agent.. perhaps ex serviceman, handy with his fists but a bit of a brain too.
Love the ego, I sure hope that stays, Bond as vulnerable and cocky works so well, no idea if that’s in the books but this is the first Bond film that makes me want to pick one up.
The progression of character is also something new, in the films Bond even gets married and loses his wife without any development. Here we see a Bond marred by tragedy that goes some way to explain his womanising ways (if that’s in the books too and not just there to sell Bond films).
As for the Audioslave song, sure it wasn’t ‘Live and let die’, but it was a cut above ‘The world is not enough’. Coulda done without the crappy titles though, if we’ve got rid of all the other Bond baggage from the other films, why keep that?
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Ugh yeah, I’d forgotten that one. Garbage by name…