And yet on second viewing I find "Casino Royale's" distillation of the Bond mythos less than progressive- nothing at ALL moves FORWARD- and Craig is unable to emit a single funny line out of that handsome, fossilized face. (Where are Woody Allen and David Niven when you need them? At least Dame Judi Dench KNOWS she's being funny.)
Even the movie's best line ("Shaken or stirred?" "Do I look like I care?") is tossed off too angrily, without a single darn wink. It doesn't sound like Craig is playing with a classic moment- it sounds like he's never seen a James Bond movie, or would care to. We might as well be watching a Jason Statham movie.
The "free running" action scenes are still phenomenal. So's the under-used Jeffrey Wright. So's Miami International Airport. (They made it look like a decent place to have a shoot-out!) Oh, and of course there's a kickass credits sequence and some hottie born to be featured on Playboy or FHM (Eva Green). They can take away the vodka martinis and Moneypenny and Q and the gizmos, but NOT THE BOND GIRLS!
One more complaint on my way to "Quantum of Solace": what hapenned to making the opening sequence MATCH THE TITLE? The ditty howled here by Chris Cornell is titled something like "Shoot Another Octo-Day". I liked my Shirley Bassey better. Hell, I liked my Duran Duran better.
2 comments:
But why would Bond act like he'd seen (or wants to see) a Bond movie? The fact that Craig acts not like James Bond TM but like someone who kills people for his country is to my mind the prime appeal of the new movies.
Re: Ian
Because Bond likes HIMSELF as Bond TM. Otherwise he could be ANYBODY. As I said, Daniel Craig's char could had been called, I dunno, Bruce Hardford, and it wouldn't have changed a thing.
It's the same way you want Sherlock Holmes looking a certain way and dressing a certain way, and dread to see what Robert Downey Jr. is planning. If Holmes suddenly doesn't smoke a pipe, is noticeably heavier, has a Belgian accent and a mustache, and his friend's name is Hastings, not Watson- he can be enagaged in a GREAT mystery aboard a train, but he's no longer SHERLOCK HOLMES, he's SOME OTHER detective.
That's the way I feel about Craig. Kick-ass British spy. NOT the Bond I recall.
I know, I know, I'm the worst kind of nostalgia nerd.
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