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Casino Royale

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Myrhaf

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By Myrhaf from Myrhaf,cross-posted by MetaBlog

I enjoyed Casino Royale immensely. The Bond franchise lost its confidence during the Roger Moore era due to what Ayn Rand called “bootleg romanticism.” The filmmakers didn’t take the series seriously and as a result the movies became campy and utterly unrealistic. Some things such as the opening sequences were there just because people expect a Bond film to follow a certain formula, and these sequences became outrageously over the top and unintegrated with a coherent plot.

The new Bond takes itself seriously. Every action sequence is integrated into the plot. The movie has an excellent script; it is thrilling and romantic, with some first-rate plot twists. I would say Daniel Craig's Bond is second only to Sean Connery. He is a more naturalistic Bond who gets cut up and bleeds and he is quite intense. He has a little Mike Hammer in him; he seems to be on a moral mission and, with his license to kill, willing to be judge, jury and hangman.

SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH. The story even has a theme -- when was the last time you could say that about a Bond film? The theme is tragic: one must lose one's humanity and any chance at a normal, happy life to become a 00 agent. I believe the tragedy comes with taking a story seriously these days. Today's filmmakers cannot put happiness and seriousness together. Unalloyed value-achievement leads them to the campiness and comedy.

Unlike some, I thought the Bond girl, Eva Green, was fine. Granted, she is not an exotic type and not a supermodel, but, as a friend of mine used to say, I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers. She can act. You can’t say that about all the Bond girls over the decades.

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I enjoyed the movie myself. I enjoyed getting some sense of Bond history and the making of the man.

IMHO, Craig portrays the most physically capable (and perhaps masculine) Bond yet. (Yes, even including Connery) It is nearly believable that he could endure the damage he takes throughout the movie. (Okay, except for that one scene....if you've seen it you probably know what I mean)

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I loved it! Better than Connery I think. The plot here is less over the top and so I think it works much better.

The thing I hate about portrayals of self confident heroes in today's movies is that they almost always have to have super human powers to qualify. This Bond is human, yet heroic.

No stupid Bond girl names

No over the top gadgets

No Bond doing slapstick humor

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*SPOILER ALERT*

I also liked the movie, except for two things:

The new, "naturalistic" Bond keeps screwing things up. All of his missions narrowly avert disaster.

The romantic scenes were totally sappy and unbelievable. I laughted at his "I give what's left of my soul to you" line.

Also, the blonde, blue eyed Bond was hard to swallow. I kept wondering "Why does this guy keep calling himself James Bond?"

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** More potential Spoilers **

The new, "naturalistic" Bond keeps screwing things up. All of his missions narrowly avert disaster.

Well, I think in part that this is because he is the "new(bie)" Bond. By that I mean, he is not the more experienced agent presented in the later movies/stories. Bond learns alot in this movie and ideally becomes more capable in the missions to follow. Granted, I have not read "Casino Royale" to know how Fleming portrayed the him.

I have heard others complain about the hair. It wasn't distracting enough to bother me considering he's about the seventh actor to play Bond. Compared to David Niven/Peter Sellers...okay, they shouldn't count.

But then, I was one of the few who liked Timothy Dalton as Bond so what do I know? :(

Edited by RationalBiker
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I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was much more intelligent than the other Bond movies that I've seen. My only complaint was that it didn't have as much action I was hoping for and the Casino scene, while very well done, carried on a bit long. Also, the initial chase scene was fantastic.

I thought Daniel Craig was awesome. I was skeptical of the idea of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Bond, but I totally forgot about that once I got into the movie. I still think Goldeneye is probably my favorite...then again, the only others I've scene were Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough, both of which were downright awful.

It also gave what I thought was one of the funniest movie lines I've heard in a while: "The whole world will you know you died scratching my balls."

Edited by Moose
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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
When the ball scratching comment was made I immediately thought of Galt's tollerance of torture in AS. Was that just me?

No, I thought about it too.

But the movie generaly sucked. Was a cliche. Nice body on the bond and the woman, liked their power-games as well, did not understand why she killed herself. Silly movie overall. I do not reccomend.

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  • 1 month later...

I liked the movie, if viewed as a "this is how Bond began his career" story. That perspective allows one to excuse the flaws, and figure that the character then grows up to be in the Sean Connery mode. If he does another movie, I'd like to see more of Bond's positive motivation, and a clearer picture of an agent who does what he does because he wants to and because he enjoys it,

and not someone who is about to propose to the next romantic interest that comes along.

IfatArt, I think that's why the woman had to die. The script writer pushed Bond into a situation where he was giving up Bond-hood and probablyt going to settle down and have 2.5 kids. I would have had the bad guys kills her, and the suicide thing is a bad portent for future scripts.

As an aside, I think the inconsistencies one sees in the way movies are put together, reflects the influence of studio-executives saying things like: "throw in something for the women in the audience".

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IfatArt, I think that's why the woman had to die. The script writer pushed Bond into a situation where he was giving up Bond-hood and probably going to settle down and have 2.5 kids. I would have had the bad guys kills her, and the suicide thing is a bad portent for future scripts.

My question was from a different perspective: What was her motivation to kill herself? When I watched the movie I just thought that this was mega-strange. What is her reason for doing this?

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CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR CASINO ROYALE & GOLDFINGER

Who here has read the book, by Ian Fleming?

I've read all of Fleming's James Bond books, and I re-read Casino Royale around the time I saw the movie. The movie followed the book reasonably well, except for the death scene in Venice. I thought the woman's death was bizarre and the sinking Venice building scene unnecessary. The other bizarre scene from the movie was the poison detector Bond had in his car, which he used to save himself after being poisoned during the poker game. That also was not in the book.

Having said that, I liked the movie a lot. I like this Bond. He seems the most believable of any Bond, in terms of the sheer violence and fearlessness of his personality. I suspect that a real-life secret agent would have the toughness and physical energy of Bond in this movie. On the other hand, my favorite Bond actor remains Sean Connery. He is the most intelligent of all the Bonds, and also in excellent physical shape. He is a man fully capable of winning with his mind as much as with his fists. In fact, if he can avoid a confrontation, he will, as any smart warrior does.

My favorite Bond movie is Doctor No. I highly recommend it to everyone. (By the way, it most closely follows the book of any of the Bond movies.) My favorite Bond line is not spoken by James Bond, but by his nemesis Auric Goldfinger in the movie Goldfinger. Bond says, "I suppose you expect me to talk." Goldfinger responds, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to ___." I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie!

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My favorite Bond movie is Doctor No. I highly recommend it to everyone. (By the way, it most closely follows the book of any of the Bond movies.)

'On her Majesty's Secret Service' is the closest film to the book by a mile.

The book contains the best chapter I have ever read, entitled 'death for breakfast'. All Bond buffs should read it, it's absolutely brilliant.

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'On her Majesty's Secret Service' is the closest film to the book by a mile.

The book contains the best chapter I have ever read, entitled 'death for breakfast'. All Bond buffs should read it, it's absolutely brilliant.

That is the next Fleming book I will re-read. It's been awhile. Thanks for the recommendation.

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