Ooh, I don't know .. 'seeing him run and sweat' would be quite fun in my
eyes.
Still to see it yet.
Grand review. Thanks for posting it, Freeman.
Shelly
----Original Message Follows----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [email protected]
Subject: [MOPO] Just For Those Curious The New Bond Getting Some Outright
Rave Reviews
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:13:08 EST
Here is a quite remarkable 3.5 out of 4 Stars review by Travers in Rolling
Stone for Casino Royale
There's one whopper of a reason why Casino Royale is the hippest,
highest-octane Bond film in ages, and his name is Daniel Craig. This
rugged, jug-eared
Brit, whose irregular features improbably radiate a megawatt star charisma,
gets the last laugh on the Internet buzz killers who've been ragging on him
at
craignotbond.com for being blond and blue-eyed and too short (five-eleven)
for Bond duty. Not only is Craig, 38, the best Bond since Sean Connery,
he's
the first of the Bonds (great Scot Connery, one-shot George Lazenby,
charmer
Roger Moore, stuff-shirt Timothy Dalton and smoothie Pierce Brosnan) to
lose
the condescension and take the role seriously.
Craig reinvigorates a fagged-out franchise that's been laying on bigger
stunts and sillier gadgets to disguise the fact that it's run out of ideas.
And
he does it with an actor's skill, an athlete's grace and a dangerous glint
that puts you on notice that Bond, James Bond, is back in business.
Sad to say, Casino Royale is also weighed down by action-business-as-usual.
Craig's a live wire, closer to the blunt instrument Ian Fleming imagined
when
he created the character in 1953, but he can't mess too much with the
winning formula begun with 1962's Dr. No. Bond producer Albert "Cubby"
Broccoli,
who died in 1996, left the golden goose in the care of his daughter Barbara
Broccoli and his stepson Michael Wilson, who fully grasp that the four
stunt-loaded Bond flicks with Brosnan are the most lucrative in the
twenty-film series
and that they can't spend $150 million to produce a 007 art film.
Still, the producers deserve credit for busting Bond at least partly out of
the box. The film opens promisingly with a scene - strikingly shot in
black-and-white - that sets up Bond as an MI6 agent who may be too much of
a hothead
to earn double-0 status and a license to kill. Then come the familiar
credits, and the typical song ("You Know My Name," by Chris Cornell),
followed by a
full-bore, full-color foot chase across rooftops in Africa. Though
efficiently directed by GoldenEye's Martin Campbell, the chase stalls the
movie and,
worse, delays getting us up close and personal with Craig. Seeing him run
and
sweat isn't half as much fun as seeing him act.
After that, everything gets better. Casino Royale, heavier on character
than
action, was the first book in Fleming's Bond series, making it the ideal
place to start the wheel spinning anew. That's right, Casino Royale acts
like
the other Bond movies never existed. We're back at square one, only the
time is
now, the fantasy is limited and the story is anchored in reality. Q, with
his gadgets and invisible cars, is nowhere to be seen. The tone is set when
Bond orders a martini. "Shaken or stirred?" asks the bartender. Craig
delivers
the answer straight-up and bone-dry: "Do I look like I give a damn?"
And we're off, with even the stock elements getting a fresh twist. Take the
villain: He's Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a banker who launders money for
terrorists. It's a bit of a Dr. Evil parody that Le Chiffre cries tears of
blood, but Mikkelsen, a star in his native Denmark, gives off a genuine eww
vibe,
especially when he tortures Bond with a testicle squeeze and pauses to leer
at his naked body. Hero and villain go at it most excitingly over a poker
table at Montenegro's Casino Royale, where a test of character, not
strength,
will determine the eventual winner.
What about the Bond girls? The gorgeous Caterina Murino sizzles as Solange,
a babe he takes back to his hotel room for a roll on the floor that causes
serious rug burns. But it's Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, a British treasury
operative sent to stake Bond at the poker tables, who lifts her role to
class-act
status. Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash) contributes sly dialogue to a
script
that goes far beyond kiss-kiss/bang-bang. A scene in which Bond and Vesper
attempt to guess each other's past histories trumps its comic zing with
romantic gravity.
It also helps that Craig is mixing it up with a first-rate cast, including
Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter, Giancarlo Giannini as MI6 contact
Mathis, and most especially Judi Dench, back in the game as M, Bond's boss.
Dame Judi put her power on hold in the lightweight Brosnan films, but with
Craig
she comes out blazing, knowing she's found an actor who can give as good as
he gets.
As the plot globe-trots from Prague, London, Miami and the Bahamas to an
overblown climax in the canals of Venice, Casino Royale uncovers something
unique in the 007 dossier: an unformed secret-agent man, lacking polish,
vulnerable to violence and helplessly lost in love. Craig gives us James
Bond in the
fascinating act of inventing himself. This you do not want to miss.
PETER TRAVERS
(Posted: Nov 13, 2006)
freeman fisher
8601 west knoll drive #7
west hollywood, ca
90069
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