In this post, I review the new Bond movie with Daniel Craig which started in theatres on Friday, the 17th of November. A lot to say about this, some good, some bad. But in the end, it’s good entertainment.
This review contains spoilers but as always, is Safe For Work.
After months of waiting, the new Bond movie finally opened worldwide last Friday, on the 17.11.2006. I guess I counted myself lucky for the opening of the lastest Bond movie as being worldwide, because it seems that worldwide launches are peculiar. By this I infer about the launches of the PS3 and Wii and I am seriously wondering how I am going to get these consoles. Most likely, I will have to have them shipped from Canada by friends.
But let’s get back to business at hand.
007.
A new actor, Daniel Craig, incarnates 007 in this movie. I knewown Craig for his good performance in Layer Cake with Sienna Miller. I enjoyed the movie. A lot of critics and fans have been denigrating the “blond Bond” phenomenon, but I was more concerned about the plot. The main reason for this, is because the story is actually a prequel to the series of Bond movies, predating all of them.
Chris Cornell, formed lead member of Soundgarden and current singer of Audioslave does the title music. It was a lot better than the horrendous song that Madonna contributed to the last James Bond movie, Die Another Day. Naturally, her acting wasn’t any better in that movie either.
***** Warning Spoilers Ahead*****
One of the main thing that I didn’t like about this movie is the James Bond Girls. They weren’t enough of them and they weren’t Bond girl enough for my taste. Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd, Bond’s main interest in this movie. The villain’s girlfriend doesn’t even get to speak.
The movie starts out with an incredible free-running chase, in which Bond with his newly acquired 00 status is chasing after a bomb maker in Africa. I didn’t think that free-running could be made possible in small African towns, but this wasn’t a problem, since most of the chase took place on a construction site of a building. For more information on free-running and parkour, please read my post about that sport.
This was the best chase sequence of the whole movie, and it didn’t even involve a car. Speaking of which, the beautiful Aston Martin DBS doesn’t get enough airtime and there are not enough chase scenes or escape scenes with this beauty.
Gadgets. There are none of them. Be warned. If you expect Bond to use his latest tricks, you are going to be a bit disappointed. Mainly, he just beats men to a pulp in this movie. I liked this about the flick, it made the action more realistic. Craig spends most of the movie covered in cuts and bruises.
Craig is a great James Bond. This movie sets up S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and sets up the next series of movies in a great fashion. One of the best scenes is actually at the end of this movie, when he shoots a baddie and is immaculately dressed holding a submachine gun. He couldn’t be more British than in this scene. A quick note though; S.P.E.C.T.R.E. isn’t mentioned by name once, but my guess is that this is the mysterious organization that brokers terrorists.
The plot of this movie revolves around a ring of terrorist being brokered by some agents. Le Chiffre is the main baddie who manages the money of the world’s most notorious “freedom fighters”. Le Chiffre tries to bet against the current market by staging a terrorist attack on a new airplane that will be launched by Skyfleet. This is stopped in time by Bond and Le Chiffre looses a lot of money from the baddies.
Bond spends some time as a rogue agent, but M quickly finds him again and lets him loose in order to find the culprits.
Le Chiffre desperately tries to organize a high stakes poker game in which the buy in is a cool 10 million USD at Casino Royale in Montenegro. With 10 players, and a 5 million buy back, he will stand to make over 150 million USD if he wins it all. Naturally, Her Majesty’s Secret Service sends in Bond with an accountant to spoil the game.
Bond looses it all but Felix Lighter, a CIA agent, sets him up with another 5 million so that he can continue the game at Casino Royale. Naturally, Bond manages to win all the money and makes his escape after uncovering double agents. He gets away with Vesper Lynd the accountant who doesn’t know how to dress and looks a bit like a hoochie with her giant boobs hanging out of her halter top. This is a good intro to Felix and how Bond’s relationship with him gets started.
At this point in time, I was concerned that this movie was going to turn out like George Lazenby’s Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bad. But it all works out. Lynd actually betrays Bond and dies and Bond gets a step closer to S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Craig is a good Bond. He can probably kick Pierce Brosnan’s ass. Though I am somewhat surprised at how different this Bond movie is from the previous, Die Another Day. No gadgets, no glam, no trash, no flash.
Only Craig working as a smarter Bond, being a bit of a detective as well as a spy and hitman and trying to find out where this is all going. All in all, great fun for the lads out on the town.
I was surprised to see Bond actually drive a subcompact Ford in this movie. Wow, I guess that he started small. But in the end he does get the DBS, even if he destroys is within minutes.
I didn’t like Eva Green. She sucked. And some familiar faces where missing like Q and Charles Robinson, played well by Colin Salmon in the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies. Hopefully, they will make a return in the later movies.
memoirs on a rainy day 
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