*** Official CASINO ROYALE Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Anthony Hom]

The movie The Spy who Loved Me is more like the Moonraker the novel. Yes SWLM the novel is an isolated thriller of a woman being terrorized in a small out of the way lodge and James Bond appears and saves her from her ordeal.

BTW, I could figure out some of this movie because the 1967 Casino Royale has some of the same elements. Some things I remembered:
Vesper, played by Ursula Andress fronts the money for the card game. She ends up double crossing the Peter Sellers Bond (for different reasons). LeChifre (played by Orsen Welles) is utlimately killed by his superiors. Bond is tortured on a chair with a hole in it, but tortured in a different way.

 

[Greg_C_T]

Saw this last week and loved it, although the fiancee thought it was a bit overly-violent.

That had to be the most uncomfortable torture scene I've ever had to cringe through. Loved Bond's almost psychotic jokes about "scratching an itch" though. Sheesh, what a scene...

 

[Chris Atkins]

The torture scene was a classic, no doubt. It really hit home too, if you know what I mean.

 

[Josh.C]

Saw this last night with old friend and fellow HTF'R Timobi Wan Glover, and here are some quick thoughts (don't have time to read through all of your thoughts, but I will catch up tomorrow).

Likes-
-Craig as Bond. Not quite as suave, but makes up with tough appearance and well timed dialogue. Still knows how to talk to the ladies (a must if you're gonna be JB)

- Grittier fight scenes. The killing isn't quite so "clean" in this film. Bond gets a bit dirtier with his kills, which is much more realistic imo.

- Not so many trinkets and gadgets. Latest Bonds have used an excess of these, and quite frankly, it was getting on my nerves.

- Lack of corny names and one-liners. I know, I know, for all of you hard core Bond fans outs there, this is part of the territory. The latest Bonds have already done a better job of this, and CR is no exception. I thought the one liners in this film were much more original and well timed.

- Eva Green.! (that's period......exclamation point!!!!!)

Dislikes-

- Story line and plot. I thought they could have hit a grand slam here (Tim's comment after the movie, and I second it) by condensing the story and making it a bit easier for the audience to follow. It got a little jumbled for me going from the monkey man chase sequence (very nicely done), to the Arabian looking guy (with the Hot Wife ) getting off'd in the exhibit, to the Miami Airport sequence, and then tying it in with a high stakes No Limit Holdem match??? Just seems like a bit of a stretch to me, and I feel that they could've accomplished the same purpose without the heavily tangled and choppy plot lines. Also, the jury is still out on the way they ended the film with Vesper's character.

- Sony advertising. C'Mon guys, we don't have to have it in our faces all the time to know who's footing the bill. Give us movie goers a little credit.

All said, I really like the way the Bond franchise is heading, I just hope they can get a little tighter story for the next installment.

8 of 10

 

[Tim Glover]

Yeah, Josh and I had fun watching Bond. His review pretty much echoes mine.

LOVED the way Bond was re-introduced to us. That was genius and was far more interesting than anything else other than Eva.

I am somewhat mixed on this overall but like Josh liked it enough to give it some love. I do feel an opportunity was missed though. So much going for it in terms of style, purpose, re-invention....that the villain side and plot was weak to me. Where this was going deserved better.

I do want to see it again though. Craig is good for the most part. One thing for sure....after that torture scene, he's the baddest m_____f______ I've ever seen.

 

[Phil Florian]

This movie was, as some noted on here, better than I had thought it would be. And I was going in with fairly high hopes as I was an early adopter of Daniel Craig as Bond (I thought it was perfect casting from the get-go) and liked that they were, essentially, re-booting the franchise.

The black and white opening was great and established a) the level of violence and b) the fact that it isn't easy, clean, or emotion-free for Bond or those around him. It was a very violent movie but it wasn't random and there were always consequences to it. His destruction of the contruction site at the beginning, killing the informant, the death in the stairwell (and Eva's response), all the way to the ending for Vesper showed that this was serious and (as noted) adult-oriented. No slapstick at all. But also cool. It didn't sacrfice the level of cool that it showed us. No jump cutting (a clear sign of people who are confident in their lead's ability to sell the fight...which he did in spades) and also not entirely mistake-free shows us a Bond learning the ropes. His years in the SAS taught him to be a killer but he apparenlty hadn't done any up front and personal if at all and it showed.

The strong relationship with M and Bond was also nice to see. It was a bond formed on a sort of mutual respect and a bit of fear which was nice. M wasn't kidding that Bond is a gonner if he screwed up with her and at least I believed it (and maybe Bond, too).

I liked the parkour chase scene at the beginning and not just for stunts, which were great (and thankfully made parkour cool again after District B-13 stunk up the place), but also it showed a smart Bond who thought things through and didn't just rely on his physique or smarm to get through (though the former helped).

This was honestly the first Bond movie I have ever been tense in. Seriously. I love good action movies but the Bond movies are action-lite, typically. Lots of flash, no substance and no risk. This was was brimming with tension, even in scenes when the outcome was predicted (the plane scene, obviously, but others weren't so much...again, back to the Parkour scene or the finale or even the stairwell scene). That needs to continue. I have had 20 films of Bond winking his way easily through every firefight or chase. Nice to see him (and the rest of us) sweat a little.

The gambling scene had some great stuff but also had some odd editing that was a bit off-putting at times. I was able to keep up with the story and, like the guy I went with, picked up on the fake Le Chiffre "tell" that lost Bond the first batch of money. What made that fake "tell" so nice is that the character clearly had a REAL tell but even after using it on Bond, he had to still work to contain it later. That made it clear someone had ratted Bond out. Didn't see Vesper, though, until the end. I knew it wouldn't end well but that wasn't how I thought it would go.

What a nice, bitter-sweet ending, too. The last (?) bit of soul of Bond has been squashed out and now we know why he is so cavalier with women and, except in once instance, never gets close to a woman again. Sure, he is fond of women and some more than others but never to Vesper's level. And his resolve was well established, too.

I hope they continue to make this new Bond live on. Even when Craig eventually leaves the role, I hope they continue with the bolder casting. The time of the British Fop or Dandy in the role meant for a SAS badass is over.

On a side note, for fans of Eva and Daniel, both are in major roles in next year's "Golden Compass" adaptation. I just found that out after reading up a bit on Eva (who also impressed the hell out of me, visually and as an actress...loved her) on IMDB. Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel makes me giddy as can be.

 

[KurtEP]

I just saw this. I'll give it a 9/10. I'm glad to see Bond's back. I've seen some people complaining about the Sony product placement, but I caught far more from Ford. Of course, I bleed motor oil, so what do you expect.

 

[PatH]

A Jewish Bond. Is everyone here too young to remember Israel Bond?

 

[Tino]

Best Bond film in years. From start to finish, a completely entertaining, suspenseful. well acted film. Craig IS the best Bond since Connery, and I never thought I would say that.

:star::star::star:1/2

 

[Chris Atkins]

Tino:

At this point, I would certainly agree that he is one of (if not the) best actors to ever inhabit the role. But I wouldn't agree that he is the best since Connery. I definitely prefer him to Moore and Lazenby after one film, and he can easily surpass Brosnan, but it will take a long, sustained run for him to pass Connery and Dalton (the latter was another good "actor" to inhabit the role).

 

[MikeRS]

Dalton is/was awesome.

 

[Tino]

I also thought Dalton was terrific and he is my pick for third best Bond.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I always find I choose Sean Connery too as "best" Bond. But I really wonder if he is, or are we just unable to shake that he was the first guy to play the part?

 

[Sam Favate]

I think Dalton was great in Daylights, but was ill served by the material in Licence.

Connery is more than the first guy to play the part (indeed, you'd have to go to Barry Nelson for that). He was both charming and brutal, funny and vicious. He embodied the part better than it had even been conceived.

 

[Tino]

Again, I agree completely.

 

[GerardoHP]

Indeed, by the material and by John Glen, who has to be one of the worst directors ever. IMO, the whole series went down the drain when he took over, and came back with a roar when he left. They didn't get rid of him a moment too soon.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I thought License to Kill was pretty solid up until the semi-truck chase, which was too ridiculous for me.

 

[Phil Florian]

And "first" is only to those who saw him first. I was a wee lad when I first saw Bond but even in the late 70's, that Bond was Moore for quite a while . He was "Bond" to me until I caught a run of the original on TV (and long before the TBS all week Bond marathons, so it took a while to catch up with all of the other Bond material). As a kid I loved Moore, who played a more silly Bond but by teenage and beyond, Moore was too goofy to enjoy again and Connery was the one to have real staying power.

I think Craig has that staying power in spades and may over take Connery if the next movie or two hold up to this one's standards. Because of all the Connery Bond movies, they started to drag in quality, too. Never Say Never (not official, I know) and Diamonds are Forever kind of were "meh" to me.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Same thing with me. My very first Bond film was THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in the theater when I was 15. To me, Roger Moore was IT. Later on I discovered the Connery films as well, and now I like Sean better. All the same, I find I can enjoy Moore as well today; you just have to accept a different persona to his Bond.

 

[Tim Glover]

Well said Joe. I was really too young to appreciate Connery. I think I was only 8 or so when he quit. But I didn't like Moore or his Bonds until Spy Who Loved Me. That's really the one critics like Ebert were won over and most of the fans too. With Spy Who Loved Me, Moore made Bond his own style and it worked most of the time.

Connery was great in some of the early ones and like many here, I really loved The Living Daylights with Dalton. I can pick 1 or 2 of each actor's best Bond movies and have a great Bond library. We certainly haven't seen the best of Craig either.

Seems like the franchise appears to be going in the right direction.