I finally watched Casino Royale yesterday, and he is, hands down, the best Bond ever. Sorry, Sean.
And OMG, Caterina Murino. Move over, Sophie Marceau.
Also saw half of Borat (I will watch the rest while on the exercise bike today), which was not as funny as I thought it would be, and there were some scenes (the rodeo, for example), that were downright depressing.
maf54
We don’t want you any more. Go back to Bushism, damnnit.
Connery 4 EVA.
Darrell
He’s certainly a different type of Bond… more marine-like badass with less of the traditional Bond debonaire-ness.
Ned R.
Craig needs one more movie to show himself the best ever. (Partially because I have this strong hunch that they might actually be able to do that rarest thing in a Bond movie, namely have the character’s actions in the new one logically *follow on* from what happened in the one previous to it — and thankfully they have both the financial incentive plus the same director to see it through — but all bets are off until that one is filmed and released.)
Right now, though, he ties Sean easy.
demimondian
I dunno if one is really better than the other; they’re both great portrayals. Connery was such a different Bond than Craig is. Connery’s Bond was a playboy, a cad, a roue. He didn’t feel physically threatening as much as he felt emotionally threatening. Craig’s Bond is more human, in one sense, but far more physically dominating. He’ll pull out a pipe and bash your face in, but he won’t really enjoy it; Connery’s Bond would pull out a stiletto a drive it into your kidney — but then he’d grin at you as you died.
Ned R.
Even Connery had his dour moments, though. Consider the scene in Dr. No where he shoots Strangways twice, the second time in the back after he’s already down and probably dead. (As compared to the relative jollity of spearing Vargas with the harpoon gun in Thunderball, I suppose…)
RSA
I have to agree, though I never would have expected Peter Sellers to be able to pull that off. . . .Oh, Daniel Craig! Yeah, he was excellent. It’s fun to think of someone having a license to kill being as dashing as Connery, but it’s also reasonable to think that he’d be an ice-cold asshole much of the time, like Craig.
Nikki
Uh…David Niven was Bond in Casino Royale, not Peter Sellers.
RSA
Oh, yeah, sorry; there were several playing the role, sort of, in the movie, but you’re right that Niven was the real Bond. (If my vague memories, now corrected, are right.)
Nikki
I remember because it was another reason for me to love Niven. :)
Tsulagi
If you haven’t seen it yet, you gotta see Idiocracy. Funniest movie I’ve seen in at least a few years. Add some Jesus juice to it and you’d definitely have today’s Gooper party. The smart, strong version.
Dave
Never saw Bond, but Borat had me in stitches. Oh well, to each his/her own.
Nick Kasoff
They had Borat at the Redbox yesterday, I just couldn’t bring myself to get it. So we got Holiday instead … now that was a good movie.
Nick Kasoff
The Thug Report
Jackmormon
I think it was the writing that was so much better in this iteration of Bond. Not that Daniel Craig wasn’t good–because he was good–but few of the other actors were ever given much of a chance to be human beings within a sensible plot. Let’s see if the writers and producers continue to give this new Bond good lines.
John Cole
The writing was awesome. My favorite line of the movie was when the bartender asked Bond “Shaken or stirred,” and he said “Do I look like I give a shit?”
RSA
What I liked about this Bond movie was that it was more than gadgets, stunts, and Bond’s charisma. (It had all of those, too–I especially liked the parkour stunts.) It seemed more character-driven, if that makes sense.
KC
For me, it was just nice to go into a movie theatre and actually enjoy the experience. It’d been a long time for me since I felt that way, but that’s how I felt after watching Casino Royale.
Richatd Bottoms
Best Bond ever.
And as a Lazenby fan, it nice to see much of the post Connery the comparisons of this film to OHMSS and Dalton’s two turns as Bond, rather than any of the Moore or Brosnan films.
Jon
Best Bond ever, because most faithful to Ian Fleming’s original vision ever. The suave smooth Bond of our childhood memories bears little relation to the one who staggered in, gooned on champagne and benzedrine, in the original novelization in the early 50s. But he’s a much more compelling figure, and I hope it bears up through the next movie.
The lesson is the same one to be drawn from Batman Begins: don’t be afraid of your source material. it’s good for a reason.
fwiffo
I thought Casino Royale was the first half of a really gritty, exciting new Bond movie and the second half of some really stupid boring movie that I couldn’t be paid to care about.
After the first 20 minutes, I was thinking to myself “gee, even if the movie sucks from here on out, it was totally worth the price I paid already.” And it was. I can’t regret having paid to see the first half. I can regret not walking out half-way through. Daniel Craig was great. That gritty first scene where he drowns that guy in the sink – awesome. That crazy chase scene in Africa? Who knows what was going on, but it doesn’t matter, cause it was just fucking cool. Let’s have more of that!
But then there’s this thing where Bond’s got his bare ass stuck through a chair and is getting smacked in the balls with a rope by a lame-ass nemesis who’s just given up all pretension of being menacing by conducting the most boring torture ever. Then we have to watch James Fucking Bond roll around in a wheel chair in a convalescent home for like 40 minutes sobbing about some shit, then going to Venice to have a couple more hours worth of scenes that are pointless and don’t make sense.
I hope there are more Bond movies on the way that are exactly like the first half of this one, and that they actually hire an editor next time so that there isn’t two extra hours of pointless boring shit stuck on the end.
CaseyL
I can’t agree that Craig’s Bond is better than Connery’s, but it’s certainly as good. I look forward to the next one.
I’m also excited about “The Golden Compass” – a movie based on the first book in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, a dark fantasy series. Craig plays Lord Asriel in that one, and Nicole Kidman plays the villian, Mrs. Coulter. I read the trilogy, and liked it very much.
Craig is also in something called “I, Lucifer” (not, unfortunately, the Modesty Blaise book) that sounds interesting, too.
Ned R.
Exactly! When I first saw the trailer for this, that was the movie I was mentally comparing it to, and for good reason in the end.
True about the writing as well, which I’ve neglected a bit in my comments elsewhere. I don’t think it’s flawless, I should note, but it’s a cut above.
I floated a semi-joking argument after seeing this that the way to see ‘Bond’ as a film character now is to imagine that each new actor playing him represents a different person inheriting a preset identity — ie, there’s always a ‘James Bond’ out there, a cover for whoever the actual agent is — and so this is the first story of the new guy who took over from the one Brosnan played. Which explains Judi Dench as M’s different dynamic with Craig, for instance. (I then stopped this argument for fear of turning into a fanfic writer or worse.)
demimondian
And here I thought I was the only person on Earth who remembered Modesty Blaise. (And was that now a perfect misnomer?)
Ned R.
Hahah, this puts me in mind of my favorite literary Bond sequence — the part in the first third of Moonraker when he exposes Hugo Drax as a card cheat while ripped on said combination or close to it. Absolutely perfect as a portrayal of vicious mental warfare under a smooth veneer.
I’ve long thought that the only other way to do James Bond right (now that the Craig model has turned out so well) would be to go right ahead and actually film the original books as total period pieces, with Bond as a complete bastard in a post-WWII world of austerity and uncertainty. Nothing against the brilliant Connery confections, which I adore, but it would be a fascinating contrast.
Ned R.
Nope, me too — if only because one of my favorite bands in time and space, Sparks, recorded a theme song for an eighties version (that they then had to release with the alternate title of “Modesty Plays” — shades of Pulp revamping their own Bond theme song pitch as “Tomorrow Never Lies”!)
Jackmormon
Oh my god, if they remake Moonraker with the original Fleming benzedrine-and-bridge sequence, I will be so very happy.
CaseyL
I never got into the graphic novel/comic book Modesty, but I’ve read every single one of the novels. I have not read the (infamous) short story O’Donnell wrote as the coda to the series, nor do I intend to.
demimondian
I will shamefacedly admit that I did not even know that there *were* graphic novel/comic books about Modesty until today, but that I gobbled up every one of the novels I could get my hands upon.
Krista
Definitely. I’ve only seen two Bond movies. (/ducks). I saw Die Another Day and thought “This is the cheesiest-ass shit I’ve ever seen in my life. You have GOT to be kidding me.” Then, I saw Casino Royale, and thought, “Ahhh…NOW I get it.” I had a feeling Daniel Craig would do a great job, ’cause he was so phenomenal and dark in L4yer Cake. The one-liners were actually witty, as opposed to groan-inducing. I think my favourite line….well, it’s a toss up between these two:
Vesper Lynd: It doesn’t bother you; killing all those people?
James Bond: Well I wouldn’t be very good at my job if it did.
or
James Bond (laughing): Now the whole world will know that you died scratching my balls!
demimondian
I personally loved the way that exchange proceeded after that. Bond tries to threaten the baddie “I’m your only hope” and the baddie absolutely nails him: “You’d like me to think that, but you know and I know that your service will gladly take me in I’ll talk, or, if not them the Americans.”
I confess, I didn’t see how they were going to get Bond out of that; the bad guy had him dead to rights.
The Other Steve
Agreed that it’s the best bond ever… I also concur that the shit in the nursing home and venice was downright boring.
It did appear though that they are setting that all up as part of Bond’s past. A turning point that takes him from just another agent to a cold blooded killer who doesn’t give a damn about anybody or anything except his job.
I wish the guys who did Bourne Identity had read the original novel, expecially with Bourne Supremacy. I’m curious to figure out how they are going to do the story of Ultimatum now that they’ve already killed off David Webb’s wife and his pal Conklin. And will it take place in China? Or will they consider that too politically delicate to touch?
Borat, I laughed my ass off, I thought it was so funny. Not sure I’m interested in buying the DVD though.
To Mr. Thugmeister’s recommendation for Holiday. I must agree, it was good. Better than I had expected. The feel good comedy of the season.
And finally… I’m still trying to grasp 300. I wish they had made a real movie out of it rather than tried to make a comic book on screen.
The Other Steve
He was also good in Munich, along with Eric Bana.
Andrew
I am a little disappointed that they didn’t use the great, “That silly bitch” line from the book.
Bubblegum Tate
Ditto. I wasn’t expecting to find it as funny as I did. So many hilarious bits there.
RSA
I thought it was too bad that they killed off Marie, too, but good God those books were badly written. Plots, not bad; characterization, dialog, even basic narrative structure–the pits. (Yes, I did read all three Ludlum novels. The movies were a great improvement.)
CaseyL
I haven’t read Ludlum for many years. I mostly remember the over-use of urgent, breathless punctuation. Ludlum, bless his heart, needed to have his exclamation point key and his italics font taken away from him.
Zifnab
Didn’t this site have that big post on Parkor when the movie came out? How can you have that much discussion of “The French Martial Art of Running the fuck away” and not go see that movie? :-p
RSA
I think this is a great phrase, even if I am a French-loving, quiche-eating, Galois-smoking liberal.
Jimmmm
No, Borat wasn’t as funny as I’d expected, either. But the DVD package is HYSTERICAL!!! The clamshell case cover is blurry, to resemble a street bootleg; the disc inside is a blank silver disc with “BORAT” written on it in Sharpie. No studio label, no FBI boilerplate.
The producer’s lawyers must have fought tooth-and-nail with Fox’s compliance team, but it’s worth it. In fact, the DVD packaging is funnier than the movie.
Andrew
I believe I recommended the Parkour movie District B13/Banlieue 13 at the time. Let me re-recommend it.
The opening Parkour is one of the best 3 minute action sequences ever captured on film.
The Other Steve
Yes, not terribly great writing… but it was a good tale.
I don’t know. Bourne books were about as long as Clancy books, but I didn’t get bored out of my skull like i do reading clancy.
RSA
I can’t read Clancy either. So having trashed Ludlum, I’d like to be able to come up with better choices for writers of thrillers, with a political subtext. I don’t know; I’ve found some of Baldacci’s books fun, haven’t read Martini, think Patterson is a bore. . . Any suggestions? I’m not very well-read in this genre.
Larv
I thought Casino Royale was the best Bond in years, but I wish they had stuck to having Bond play Baccarat. The poker scenes were unbelievably awful. Almost everything about it was wrong. They’re playing six handed and there’s a straight, a flush, and two different full houses out there? Yeah, that happens all the time. And the second half of the movie did drag a bit. But it’s still so much better than, e.g, that utterly awful Pierce Brosnan/Halle Berry P.O.S. that those are fairly minor problems.
Sal
Caterino, ow baby! You are right there, John. I’d have had drool all down my chin if my wife hadn’t been slapping my face every time she was on screen.
Jess
I’ve been enjoying Lee Child’s books, and Stephen Hunter’s series starring Bob Lee Swagger, coming soon as a movie with Mark Wahlberg (film: The Shooter; book: Point of Impact). Smart writing and bad-ass main characters.
Daniel Craig is a truly fascinating actor, especially in L4yer Cake–loved that film!
BIRDZILLA
SEAN CONNERY and ROGER MOORE were by far the best JAMES BANDS they ever had tis guy is too much of a wussie little dweeb
RSA
Thanks, Jess! I haven’t heard of either author, but I’ll pick them up. (Much better than browsing through the shelves with no way to judge.)