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Casino Royale v GoldenEye: Metro Film Fight Club
The name’s McD. Ross McD. Oh, and Ross McG is here as well. Let the guys behind movie argument website http://www.rossvross.com take you through a Bond battle to decide which 007 does it better. Do you expect us to talk?
Casino Royale takes on GoldenEye in this week's Metro Film Fight Club Casino Royale takes on GoldenEye in this week's Metro Film Fight Club
Ross McD: Casino Royale
‘Now the whole world is going to know you died scratching my balls.’
When Casino Royale hit the big screen in 2006, we were crying out for some realistic 007 after so much campness. So. Much. Campness. How much campness? Twenty films full, that’s how much. How the Bond franchise survived that long without reinvention, I’ll never know. Bond, James Bond, foils (insert megalomaniac name here) while driving (insert car here), uses (insert gadget here), stops to shag (insert sexist name pun here), makes quip, wins. The end.
Twenty times we paid into the cinema to see that. Granted, GoldenEye was one of, if not the best of the old batch. But just like the old batch, it was stale, covered in mould and in serious need of some fresh dough.
Let’s start at the start. GoldenEye’s opening scene – the dam bungee jump – while impressive, was clearly set at the dam just so he could show off by doing the d**n bungee jump. And who hasn’t done a bungee jump anyway? The freerunning/parkour chase at the start of Casino is exhilarating and fresh, something we had never really seen before.
Despite having a body that would justify it, Craig doesn’t once pull a stupid smug grin and wait for some honey to mount him: Casino for once casts a woman who actually matters to the plot. We pity Craig’s young Bond for falling for Eva Green’s wiles, but wouldn’t you have just loved to see the smarmy grin wiped off Connery’s, Moore’s or even Brosnan’s face after realising they’d been had by a lowly sex-mannequin? I mean, woman? While Vesper might still sound like something you’d like to ride, it is a little more subtle than Onatopp.
Casino Royale’ s poker scenes are edited superbly, keeping hold’em veterans and noobs equally engrossed. And although the final set of hands were as likely as an invisible Aston Martin, it made for a great watch. Equally great, but so much harder to watch, was probably cinema’s most creative torture scene: whod’ve thought a chair and a bit of rope could be so effective?
And just like Le Chiffre cutting out the seat of that chair, director Martin Campbell knew what to get rid of to leave himself with just the jewels: Q – out. Moneypenny – Out. Cringe-worthy kiss-off lines – out.
Besides the greatest first person shooter of its generation (on the N64), GoldenEye holds just one trump over Casino Royale. It’s not lace or leather, and it sure beat the crap out of that Chris Cornell rubbish. But even Tina Turner would have to admit this sequel theme tune was simply the best:
Ross McG: GoldenEye
‘One rises to meet a challenge…’
Most Bond movies are crap. Their vile combination of shameless marketing, ruthless copying of current trends and lame dialogue do not always make for a pleasant movie-going experience. But among the muck there are a few gems – The Spy Who Loved Me, for instance, is not merely a good Bond film, it’s simply a good film. The same can be said for GoldenEye and Casino Royale. Both were directed by Martin Campbell and both were first outings for new 007s. But one is a streamlined thrill-ride that condenses the best of Bond and forgets the rest. The other, sadly, is Casino Royale.
GoldenEye is a stunningly good action film, from its jaw-dropping opening bungee jump to its implausibly fun tank pursuit. There is always an exciting sequence around the next corner. They would count for little, however, were it not for the new Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan.
While not the greatest of actors, the Irishman embodied Bond in the same way Sean Connery did years earlier – there is not one moment where he looks uncomfortable in the role. The freshness he gives to 007 here just makes it all the more depressing that he was later forced into grimacing his way through a derisory cocktail of invisible cars, shockingly bad innuendos and Madonna.
Conversely, Daniel Craig – who is a good actor – cannot replicate the ease with which his predecessor slipped into the part. While a brooding presence in Casino Royale, he is let down by the film’s desire to turn him into a charmless killer, tacked-on love story excepted. While the first hour in particular is stirring, Craig is largely reduced to playing a Bourne/Bond hybrid – BoBo we can call him – who shoots first and doesn’t ask any questions later. Because he’s too busy punching someone in the face.
Although wisely ditching the lame gags of Dire Another Day – this is no Royale with cheese – BoBo soon runs out of room to beat people up in. So instead of watching him kick people in the groin, we watch him play poker. And then we watch him play more poker. He takes a break to punch and kick some people and then he plays more poker. Watching people play poker is boring, almost as boring as watching Quantum Of Solace.
In GoldenEye, Bond doesn’t have time to sit down and play cards – he’s too busy blowing things up and saving the day. He also has some decent baddies to kill. The voluptuous but deadly Xenia Onatopp is arguably the best Bond girl ever, while BoBo must take down a guy who’s good at adding up numbers and can’t stop crying. Couldn’t he just get a primary school bully to sort him out?
Casino Royale is a good film – to say otherwise is ridiculous – but GoldenEye has a better Bond, better baddies, better action and a better theme tune. In fact, no Bond does it better…
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WHICH IS THE BETTER BOND? TELL US IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW…
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If there's one example of a movie that looks like a TV film in places, that's Star Trek: Insurrection. GE has a cinematic feel and is a true definition of modern Bond film.
) and his excesses were there to help him maximize his enjoyment of life, which he knew would soon have to end, either thru death or retirement. GoldenEye matches that tone from a different source with Bond feeling out of place in the new world and wondering if his usefulness was finally over. It leads splendidly to the final fight with 006 - a fight which is almost the equal of the FRWL train fight - where you can almost feel Bond taking out his angst on Alec, as if he knew that his displacement started with Alec's betrayal of him and the country he had always believed in.
, hell if brenden frasier does another mummy film cregg could be the mummy, hell he could've been the sandman in spiderman 3, he could use his dry acting as bond in that role since the role calls for someone dry (ie turns into sand).