*** Official CASINO ROYALE Discussion Thread - Page 3

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saw it last night and it totally blew me away - it was everything that i had been hoping, and i had been hoping for a lot...my favorite bond movie by at least one order of magnitude.

i was one of the guys who thought that the broccoli's had lost their minds when they originally cast craig for the role; then i saw layercake and knew he could pull it off; then i saw the film and realized that i hadn't anticipated just how well he would pull it off. craig completely inhabited the role for me, so much so, in fact, that i am already starting to think of him as just bond.

loved the immediacy of the action, especially the fighting: i thought it was excellent that bond's martial victories were always hard fought-for, and that he took a beating in the process.

loved that there were (almost) no gadgets and no ridiculous arnold-esque one liners (and that the line that there were, were understated, and had a much greater effect because of it).

loved all of it, really, from soup to nuts.

i only pray that they can keep the franchise from devolving into another caricature of itself.

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I'm glad it's not just me! I still can't place where I have seen her, though now that someone mentioned it, I Wish I have seen The Dreamers. Ha ha!

It's her mouth that makes me sure I have seen her before. This is one of the very few times imdb didn't help me!

I want to see this movie again, it was excellent.

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I liked this one a lot, though I'll get to the criticisms first. The big action sequences in the early part went on for too long, namely the chase that ended up in the embassy, and then the airport runway truck business. The latter sequence isn't all that special when compared to the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark. And the main villain is pretty short on personality.

Otherwise, lots of really good stuff. Craig is an excellent choice for this kind of Bond, a really hard-edged guy who's always teetering on the brink of going too far. Eva Green is smokin' hot and completely believable as an intelligent match for Bond. Several people have singled out the shower sequence for praise, which I definitely agree with. Very well written and beautifully played--it went a long way in fueling the development of their relationship. The double-triple-reverse-fake-out plot twists seemed like a bit much as they were all piling on top of each other, but it works out very well in terms of getting Bond's character to that particular point he reaches by the end of the movie.

Not a bad job to be the dealer in that poker game, eh? Bond left him a half-million dollar tip!

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yeah, i noticed that, too. i wonder if the high-rollers in places like that ever really leave similar tips...

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H, I see what you're driving at there, but I think it's more of a "lesson RE-learned" thing for him by the end of the movie. He doesn't really trust anyone before running into Eva, and even with her it's just about her hotness, at first. But the connection between them develops in a way that he's surely never encountered with any other woman, with her experiencing the danger he lives with and still sticking by him (i.e. staircase fight and shower scene, plus saving his life with the defibrillator), so he thinks she must be the one he can trust.

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About the initial chase, I too did question the wisdom of such an elaborate and lenghty action sequence when the audience is not privy to the stakes.

--
H

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Did anyone catch what drink Bond ordered at the card table?

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Yeah, I'd love to know! That went by too fast for me, but I'd like to try it!

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No, but it didn't sound very manly. But then again, when you go around killing people and bagging hot wives, you can afford to order sissy drinks without fear of shrinkage. It is the rest of us cubicle zombies who hinge an unhealthy amount of our masculinity on such trivial matters .

--
H

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I don't think there's been much said so far in this thread about the return of Felix Leiter (maybe a couple of people mentioned it), which I thought was nicely done.

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I just have to say that I loved the stairwell fight. One of many highlights in what may well end up as my favorite Bond film (at least of the ones that do not star Connery).

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Straight from the novel. He calls it the "Vesper", and he does so in the movie as well:

"A dry martini," he said.
"One. In a deep champagne goblet."
"Oui, monsieur."
"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, and then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?"

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Fantastic. Can't wait to try it. Thanks, Quentin!

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Agree with the latter, but I didn't like the theme song (score was fine, though, David Arnold does great Bond work!) and the opening titles seemed too "cartoony", for want of a better term.

Interesting that a recipe for a vodka martini gets inserted into the movie!
At 8:1, that is a seriously dry cocktail. Most dry martinis are 3:1 only. And I loved how all the other players, having heard the recipe, asked for the same, and especially Felix's comment "no fruit"!

The action in this movie was more "organic", more mano-a-mano, than has been the case in Bonds for a very long time. No doubt influenced by the success of the Bourne movies, where Jason Bourne had practically no gadgets at all, and a return to the Connery Bonds, in particular FRWL and that famous train cabin fight. Great stuff. And Craig certainly has the heft to pull it off convincingly -- much as I was a fan of Brosnan, my one critique was that he was a little "wimpy" and his slugfests were never very convincing.

Also agree that the torture scene was something new, and great. Brosnan's ordeal at the begining of DAD didn't come anywhere close.

Mads was great at Le Chiffre. Although, as my wife put it, it seems odd that his motivation for everything was "only $100 million". Surely there were easier ways to rip someone else off or to otherwise acquire the money? Unless we take the view that Le Chiffre was literally "just a private banker to terrorists", no more, and didn't have the ability to pull off a heist?

Speaking of which, Skyfleet S570 seemed almost a direct riff off the Airbus A380 -- Sky:Air, fleet:bus, initial, then 570:380 (shift a digit here and there by 1 or 2). And I loved how Bond hooked the keychain bomb onto the bomber's belt.

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Saw the movie over the weekend and I Loved it. No question best Bond since Connery. I did miss the Bond theme during the action scence like they done in the past. The ending was a bit weak it had a "To be continue feeling " for a moment towards the end I thought Blofeld was going to be the guy behind the everything or SPECTRE. but I guess will find out in the next movie.

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I was suprised at no mention of SPECTRE or SMERSH (although Soviet, that could easily be updated). Someone said on another board that the rights to Blofeld and Spectre are tied up in the Kevin MCClory mess.

Anyway I loved this film. I want to see it again as quickly as possible. I thought I would be very bothered by the substitution of poker for bacarat, but in the end I was fine with it. Same with Judi Dench. I was so puzzled about her role in the movie initially, but upon seeing her again, I think she was a fine choice. Just wish the opening theme song was a little better. Or maybe a different singer. I want the openings to feel a little more retro.

The last Bond film I enjoyed watching theatrically was 1987's The Living Daylights. Looking forward to a long Bond career from Mr. Craig. I've already read that Bond 22 may just be a new Live And Let Die.

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Loved the movie. Have a few nitpicks, but what's the point (and most have been mentioned anyway).
Casino Royale is clearly in my top three (Bond films) now.
For me the movie went gold when they used the last line from the book. That's the line that had to be there for the movie to really be legit.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

-Reagan

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Hey, I can understand utilizing product placement to lower the production costs, but damn! it was a bit much. Sony, Ericsson, Ford, Virgin Atlantic; Not to mention the additional product placements at the construction site and airport...

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Yeah, especially when it cost $150 million just to make the movie.

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Good call. I did think it rather incongruous for Mr Bond James Bond (Robbie Coltrane reference) to be driving a 'mere' Ford Mondeo. No disrespect to the car or its owners, but it's not quite the car you'd associated with superspy 007. The Aston Martin, on the other hand, was spot-on.

Since Ford owns Aston, evidently the deal also included pushing the more prosaic Mondeo. But if Ford wanted mileage for its less premium cars as well, then at least the entry-level Jaguar (X-Type? or S-Type?) would I think have been more appropriate.

I see CR did $40.8M at the box office, a shade below Happy Feet's $41.5M. Not too bad I guess, though I'm guessing CR isn't going to match the overall BO of the much-derided DAD, ironically. But enough to ensure the franchise continues.

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...which is how much I understand the producers got paid just in product placements on DAD. (So, who's complaining as long as the movies are good?)

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I have a few thoughts about Casino Royale. I did see it this past weekend.

I liked it and had some issues with some parts. This is the cinematic version of the new Bond. It did not truely follow the literary Bond, though neither did the other films. Brosnan, and the other actors after Connery all had to follow Connery and essentially continue an established character.

The new film threw that away and started over as we all know. Craig was good in the role, he was very brutal and tough. Though I thought it could easily have been Arnold up there doing one of his characters. As this was a re-boot and Bond isn't really Bond yet, I was able to accept it that way.

The things that bugged me was his arrogance and disrespect for M. In the book, Casino Royale and those that followed, he always respected M and would never do what Craig does in this film. He breaks into her house, he breaks into MI-6's computer system, etc. Connery's Bond was very respectful of M. Judi Dench's M is obviously not the same M of the books or earlier films. So I guess this modern M and modern Bond can steer this new course.

The brutal fights were well done, the first kill on the bathroom and later in the staircase. In the books, this kind of violence is described, but it was never taken to the level of that first chase, running up the crane and into the Embassy, that was over the top. But in-line with what Campbell did for Brosnan's big fight in GoldenEye with 009 on top of the antenna array, that was a brutal fight. The Bourne series has upped the ante, Bond has to follow. Too bad as it used to be a trend setter.

I thought the chase at the airport was over the top and could have been cut way down or eliminated.

I had some trouble with undertsanding the dialogue. I know most British terms as I used to work for an English guy. But some of the dialogue I missed. The verbal banter between Bond and Vesper on the train was great. The line that she figured he'd were a Rolex was a kind of nod to Fleming's Bond, but this Bond wears an Omega.

There was scene I had a hard time following, where Matthis first meets Bond and Vesper and the person behind Mattis is arrested. What was his story? He was portrayed by Michael Wilson (the producer) by the way, his Hitchcock moment.

I didn't care for the title song either. Was not memorable. But I did like the title design. It was a nice graphic design with cool animation. It was also interesting as it departs from what we expect, what Maurice Binder did in the first films. I bet the next film will re-establish the nude women in the titles. But I liked this one.

The film does follow the main story stucture of the book. I was wondering how they'd do the third act after the torture sequence as in the book, it follows his recuperation and falling in love with Vesper. I figured an audience would feel it was a let down and ends the film on a down note. But the addition of the convoluted plot of that shadowy organization that Vesper brings the money to restarts the action to end with that last line from the book that was earlier posted. I was glad to see that line in the film.

On the torture scene, I knew what was coming, so I didn't feel that I was on the edge of my seat, though it was well done. I kept waiting to see how it followed the book.

What I thought was odd was that while Vesper sized Bond for a tailored tux, the end of the film doesn't really explain how he suddenly becomes the Bond of Terance Young's Saville Row tailored and well appointed Bond.

I liked the new Aston Martin DBS, that was a nice car, cool interior.

I enjoyed the film, and it is a nice re-boot. It's also the first new James Bond film I saw where I actually read the book before I saw it. So for me, it was kind of like how are they doing this and that and what changed and what is the same. It almost spoiled it for me in a way. But it was interesting to see how they'd pull it off.

As for Craig's looks, he still looks wrong to me. But in a way, he does follow the book where he's described as somewhat handsome (Hoagy Carmichael), but with a cruel look to the eye and a scare on the cheek, or words to that effect.

Regarding the box office results, CR did okay, it played in slightly less theaters and had a longer run time then Happy Feet, so it did pretty well.

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Guess that's all they had to rent at the airport, no?

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believe the the dude behind them (chief of police, was it?) had a deal with Le Chiffre. Mathis sent one of the chief's underlings a photoshopped picture of the guy engaging in illegal activities in order to get him out of the way. Or at least that was my understanding of it.

I believe Craig took on this point himself. In discussing further sequels, he made sure to point out that Bond isn't quite there yet. There's still more room for the character to evolve into the suave superspy in future films.

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I totally agree! He's really good, I just didn't notice how quickly the time had passed.
However he was no good at playing poker.
Even I can play better ...but on the other hand,
I had a good coach.

I was laughing so hard, when he was asked how he wanted his martini, mixed or shaken. his answer: "do I look like I'd care"

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My take is that Michael Wilson was playing the local Chief of Police, and was Le Chiffre's man already, and would cost too much to buy. So instead, Mathis bought the Deputy Chief of Police, and photoshopped something incriminating against the Chief, giving the Deputy a pretext to remove the Chief and take over the police force, thereby allowing Mathis influence over the entire force.

I thought it was when Bond put on the tux provided by Vesper, he noticeably seemed impressed with it, which to my mind suggests that thereafter he would be making it a point to seek out better tailors etc.

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My wife and I saw this (finally), yesterday morning in an almost packed house (on Thanksgiving Day!). My son had been raving about it. He's in his early twenties, and Bond has never been his thing (he'd only seen couple of the Brosnan Bonds).

That being said, Craig is just perfect, and whoever said he reminded them of Steve McQueen was dead on. IMHO, I appreciate the reboot of the character and the series, although I will admit, when I was about 9, I saw Thunderball about 4 times in the theater.....

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Maybe for the next "re-boot" they should cast Bond as an animated penguin!

"License to Chill" comes to mind.

"Thunder Feet"

"Golden Egg" or "The Penguin with the Golden Egg"

"Coldfinger"

I could go on, but I need to take my medication now.

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Saw it today and had a blast. I'll go with the standard "Best Bond in a long, long time."

I agree with Paul, though, that it will likely improve on repeat viewings because the pacing was kind of weird. Mainly the presence of two huge action sequences so early in the movie (the first of which was probaly on a level of most movies' finales). That set up a certain expectation in my mind for something similarly flashy for the end. While the Venice sequence was very well done it didn't seem "big enough" for the finale and I was actually a little surprised when the film ended.

I'm also a little disappointed that the poker game ultimately came down to Bond having the best hand. Would have much rather have seen him victorious through a great bluff.

Any word on a director for the next film? I'd love to see Campbell back. I think he's very underrated as an action director (even as silly as Vertical Limit is, there's some really great action sequences there).

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Can't bluff to a win in Texas Holdem (but you can cripple an opponent with a bluff), but eventually it'll come to a showdown of hands.