Casino Royale (a long time after everyone else has seen it)

[John Drake]

http://www.wateracre.co.uk/2008_01_01_archive.html

Casino Royale (a long time after everyone else has seen it)

Whilst reading about Gemma Arterton (I promise you, I am in no way obsessed by her delightful pointy nose and Uma Thurman bob), I came across an article about her in the new Bond film which had a spoiler warning.

It then said "Although, if you're reading an article about Bond 22 without having seen 'Casino Royale', you're an enormous internet geek who learns about the plots and characters of films from Wikipedia or Empire Online and not by actually seeing the films in question. Saddo. Get out more." I'm paraphrasing.

It was pretty shocking to realise, then, that I hadn't seen "Casino Royale". Despite being a Bond fan, despite my exciting fortnight working in the EON props archive, despite what everyone said about it, I still hadn't seen it.

Well, now I have.

If you haven't seen it, this review isn't going to be much help to you, but here's a cursory run-through of the plot. (Don't worry, there's not much plot in this film.) James Bond is, like, just some dude who kills two people and then instantly becomes an impassionate, cold-blooded killer. He does some running around, is in the Evening Standard, gets told off, goes to the Bahamas, annoys some guy, wins this guy's car at cards and sleeps with his wife. The guy is working for another, more mean guy, who has a scarred face. Now, this new guy is evil. The only tears he cries are tears of BLOOD, ffs! He likes playing cards and being evil, and so invites people to play cards and maybe a little evil on the side and Bond turns up to play some cards and see just how evil this guy is. By this point, there's an accountant with Bond, who is a hot chick (who'd have thought...). He plays some cards, beats up some guys, plays some cards, gets beaten up, plays some cards, gets poisoned, dies, comes back to life, plays some cards and then wins. The lady accountant is upset by all the beatings for about thirty seconds, then gets over it. Bond and lady then get captured, and the evil, blood-weeping guy plays Flicksies with Bond's testicles. Bond is hurt pretty bad, but when he wakes up, he decides that he is TOTAWWY IN WUV with the accountant. Then some stuff happens with some other dudes who aren't related to the weepy-blood guy, there's a big finish, and a smarmily self-referential coda.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but for the first ten minutes I sat there thinking "this is just like a Bond film!" It didn't feel as dramatically different as I was led to believe. They had that goofy incorporation of the gun barrel logo, and another pretentious title sequence. The parkour stunt sequence, running up the crane, fighting on the crane, falling off the crane, is bloody great. After that point, it kind of waffled on for about an hour, batting off embarrassing cameos from Richard Branson and, uh, Gunther von Hagens and doesn't really pick up until Eva Green turns up, with her smokey eyes and smirky face. I liked her in this a lot, despite the fact that - as my housemate pointed out - her relationship with Bond is pretty stupid.

My main criticism of Daniel Craig as James Bond is that sometimes director Martin Campbell shoots him in darkened rooms and in the half-light, he looks exactly like Ray Stubbs.

Because Craig looks enormous. When he first tries on his dinner jacket, prancing around a hotel room, he looks like Bongo, the bouncer from the Ink & Paint Club in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". He is clearly exceptionally muscled, as the scene in the dinky pants shows (ladies), and after forty years of a lithe Bond (apart from in "A View To A Kill", ho ho), it's quite weird to see not a gentleman killer, but a killer - like someone cast Ricky Hatton as James Bond. Bond has always been the physical underdog - think of the look on Connery's face as he sized up Oddjob. Or Moore being pounded on the head by the massive hands of Jaws. In the exhilarating parkour sequence, the villain is the leapy, sproingy lightweight, and Bond is the hulking oaf literally running through walls. And what's painful is that Craig is clearly an intelligent actor, but the script requires him to be "a blunt object". He's a thug. Maybe the theory behind the progression of this "reboot" of Bond is that, over time, Craig slims down, becoming more like the Bond we know.

(Incidentally, rather than the Bourne films, I realised whilst watching it that my enjoyment of the Bond films has probably spilled into my love of "Spooks", and I then realised that Bond should probably be played by Rupert Penry-Jones.)

Tonally, the film's a bit like watching "The World Is Not Enough" whilst someone occasionally kicks you in the head (or plays Flicksies with your testicles). The imported grittiness feels jarring, and the humour (obviously from the flamboyant purple quills of Neil Purvis and Robert Wade) doesn't sit well with the lunk they've asked Craig to be. Then there's the much-vaunted contribution of Paul Haggis, a man whose origins creating kindly-mountie cop-fluff "Due South" I will bring up every time I speak of him. I loathed "Crash", and all the cloying dialogue late in the game about how Bond has "no armour… you've stripped it from me" is textbook Haggis. Craig even speaks Haggis's dialogue with the same enormous significance as they did in "Crash" - like there's a lump of coal in his mouth, and if he gently spits it out, Tiny Tim will be warm this Christmas.

It should also be mentioned that this film is really damned long. It's two hours and twenty-four minutes. Like I said, other than the parkour chase, the opening hour is all faff, and it's only once Eva Green plonks herself unceremoniously into the seat opposite Bond on the train to Montenegro that the film hunkers down and focuses. The love story doesn't work because it is fluffy and vague - Bond has been established as a cold-hearted rogue who clearly just wants to jump Green's bones, and we're supposed to believe that, after the Flicksies, Bond genuinely is in love. It's nonsense, and again jars with the smart-arse toughnut they've spent the previous two hours setting up. And then they go all Tracy in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with the end of the film, which hopefully sets up Bond 22's excoriating examination of Bond's misogyny… it was all Eva Green's fault! Damned women! Can't trust them as far as you can throw them down a lift-shaft!

I absolutely agree that the franchise needed a re-think after "Die Another Day", which was the frothiest piece of nonsense the Bond films have ever thrown up. The good news is that "Casino Royale" doesn't have an invisible car or Toby Stephens playing the son of a North Korean general, or Halle bloody Berry. The bad news is that the weaker writing aspects of the Purvis/Wade era are exacerbated by Paul Haggis schmaltzification, and together they have contrived to make Bond a step away from being played by The Rock. Where "Batman Begins" provided an origin movie which showed the raw potential of a man being shaped into a hero, here Bond is a lump of clay, and remains a lump of clay. The hope is that Daniel Craig's Bond continues to develop over the next couple of films into something a little… well… Bondier.

[carl stromberg]

http://www.wateracre.co.uk/2008_01_01_archive.html

My main criticism of Daniel Craig as James Bond is that sometimes director Martin Campbell shoots him in darkened rooms and in the half-light, he looks exactly like Ray Stubbs.

[James]

When he first tries on his dinner jacket, prancing around a hotel room, he looks like Bongo, the bouncer from the Ink & Paint Club in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

[007]

Might as well go for the hat-trick.

...like someone cast Ricky Hatton as James Bond.

[katied]

He reminds me a little bit of Simon Le Bon!

[Mazer Rackham]

"And what's painful is that Craig is clearly an intelligent actor, but the script requires him to be "a blunt object". He's a thug. Maybe the theory behind the progression of this "reboot" of Bond is that, over time, Craig slims down, becoming more like the Bond we know."

Another person who doesn't like the brutish oafish Bond spewing out the contrived praise. An intelligent actor? Where? When did he ever portray such?

No this Bond is his concoction, the dead eyed thug by day and soccer hooligan by night is entirely Daniel Craig's responsibility.

DAD is precisely what it was intended to be. I rather watch it than either of the last two films. DAD is a movie Cubby would have been proud of. CR would have him cringing in his seat and Quark would have finished him off.

[The Sweeney]

DAD is a movie Cubby would have been proud of. CR would have him cringing in his seat and Quark would have finished him off.

I don't agree with this, Mazer. I think Cubby would have been ashamed of DAD, would have been proud of CR, but wouldn't have been overly impressed with QoS.

Either way, none of us are right or wrong with this, as sadly we'll never know.....

[Mazer Rackham]

DAD is a movie Cubby would have been proud of. CR would have him cringing in his seat and Quark would have finished him off.

I don't agree with this, Mazer. I think Cubby would have been ashamed of DAD, would have been proud of CR, but wouldn't have been overly impressed with QoS.

Either way, none of us are right or wrong with this, as sadly we'll never know.....

I feel pretty safe in saying this. Judging by Cubby's body of work I'd say he be well pleased to have it homage as it was in DAD. Don't forget this is the man who brought us Moonraker and Roger Moore

I also think he would have been ashamed of all the contortions to place Craig in the lead role at the expense of the Franchise/Series and Fans. No way in hell Cubby would have Hired Craig or approved a reboot.

[The Sweeney]

DAD is a movie Cubby would have been proud of. CR would have him cringing in his seat and Quark would have finished him off.

I don't agree with this, Mazer. I think Cubby would have been ashamed of DAD, would have been proud of CR, but wouldn't have been overly impressed with QoS.

Either way, none of us are right or wrong with this, as sadly we'll never know.....

I feel pretty safe in saying this. Judging by Cubby's body of work I'd say he be well pleased to have it homage as it was in DAD. Don't forget this is the man who brought us Moonraker and Roger Moore

I also think he would have been ashamed of all the contortions to place Craig in the lead role at the expense of the Franchise/Series and Fans. No way in hell Cubby would have Hired Craig or approved a reboot.

You are also forgetting Cubby brought out FYEO after MR, as he realised he went too far from the formula. Apparently he used to say whenever you are stuck, go back to the roots....which is what EON did with CR after the dreadful DAD.

You are also forgetting that after 2 films, Craig has been hailed as a success by the majority of internet Bond fans, and by critics alike. The opening weekends worldwide of QoS speak volumes about how people embraced CR.

And for what its worth, I personally think Cubby would have loved CR, and also Craig as Bond....

[Dr. No]

they have contrived to make Bond a step away from being played by The Rock

I don't know i think the Rock would be better at it

he was a few points a lot of the story was never really developed properly . somethings were never explained and they took cheap short cuts to try to make it emotional crap instead of good story telling. The emotion crap never really was creditable so I never could get pat the whole in the story. Bond should take you from point a to point b the for the finally to point c. With Craig's spy they tried to jump to point d with out visiting or mentioning point b adn c

[007]

He reminds me a little bit of Simon Le Bon!

He boxed like him too the other week.

[oscartheman]

He reminds me a little bit of Simon Le Bon!

He boxed like him too the other week.

Bullet Tooth Tony looks more like Bond than our boy Bongo

[Roger Devereau]

Cubby Broccoli would have been impressed by the financial and critical success of Casino Royale.

There is no chance that he would have cast Daniel Craig. That's not his type of James Bond actor. He vetoed a younger James Bond concept too.

[Mazer Rackham]

You are also forgetting Cubby brought out FYEO after MR, as he realised he went too far from the formula. Apparently he used to say whenever you are stuck, go back to the roots....which is what EON did with CR after the dreadful DAD.

You are also forgetting that after 2 films, Craig has been hailed as a success by the majority of internet Bond fans, and by critics alike. The opening weekends worldwide of QoS speak volumes about how people embraced CR.

And for what its worth, I personally think Cubby would have loved CR, and also Craig as Bond....

After 2 movies people are ready for Craig to move on. There is no throng of starry-eyed adulators out side of certain select frachise fansites. What has been the overwhelming cry after Quark, and even before. Is Bond goign to be Bond again?

Cubby would have never hired Craig for anything besides a bad guy and he would have never dealt with Brozza like his kiddos did. DAD was in no way a failure and Cubby would have never sacrificed his fan base and his legacy to reboot the series. You may not realize how shaky the frachise is now. It is still divided, on top of that its fundamentals have been worked over and against by the Eon and studio machine. The limited number of new fans brough in who that like the new Bourne Bond will not be happy with the old standards, for instance a competent M, a Moneypenny or even a Q. CR was a movie for people who didn't like Bond movies, fans be damned and because of it so blatantly different it was hailed. CR took time out to severely dissed the previous Bond movies. All of them and that is something Cubby would never have allowed.

Going back to the root is one thing, CR was abandoning of Bond's root and evacuation to somebody elses. So much so that James Bond 007, her majesty's secret servant is unrecognizable. The icon of the previous 20 movies and Books Fleming wrote is dead and a guileless,tactless hooligan is masquerading as the gentleman Fleming created.

As I said before Cubby would be happy with the franchises ability to churn out absolute crap and get away with it. As somebody else said he'd be pleased with the critical acclaim for what that's worth. But he was also in the business long enough to know what is fleeting and that the only acclaim he need to value is from his fans.

[Mazer Rackham]

something I found on cinema blend about the youtube video Quantum of Bonds. It probably has already been posted but I couldn't find the proper thread for it. If the mods want to move to the correct place fine by me.

Brosnan Bond Versus Craig Bond!
By Josh Tyler: 2008-11-14 01:17:50

Brosnan Bond Versus Craig Bond!

Quantum of Solace has left me and a lot of other people pining for the days of Pierce Brosnan as 007. He didn’t always get the best Bond scripts, but the guy really embodied the character, even when the adventure they sent him on wasn’t worthy of it.

So for those of you wishing they’d bring back Brosnan to wipe the floor with the blonde douchebag, here’s a treat. A trailer for the movie that should have been, in which Brosnan’s Bond takes on and kicks the ass of Daniel Craig’s version. Brosnan knows where Craig stands. Right next to the polar bear from Golden Compass. Watch them duke it out, man to man, in Quantum of Bonds:

[The Sweeney]

After 2 movies people are ready for Craig to move on.

Are you speaking on behalf of the entire planet here with this gut feeling?

Cubby would have never hired Craig for anything besides a bad guy and he would have never dealt with Brozza like his kiddos did. DAD was in no way a failure and Cubby would have never sacrificed his fan base and his legacy to reboot the series.

You are speaking in no uncertain terms on behalf of a dead man, knowing more than his daughter about what Cubby would have wanted.

CR was a movie for people who didn't like Bond movies, fans be damned and because of it so blatantly different it was hailed. CR took time out to severely dissed the previous Bond movies.

I thought most of the hardcore Bond critics loved CR? Graham Rye for instance.....

[katied]

out side of certain select franchise fansites

Indeed.