Casino Royale (2006) on 3/13/07 (1 Viewer)

[Jonny P]

It did lose a certain amount of momentum during that part...

Maybe it is just because it looked incredibly painful and made me wince. I don't know for sure.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I remember really liking GoldenEye a lot when it first came out (still do), and being so excited at the news of the next Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. Then it came out, and it was dreadful I thought... one of the series' very worst titles. I only saw it once in theaters and not again on DVD until very recently, that's how bad I thought it was. And I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

So now we have another Martin Campbell directed Bond film, again introducing a new actor to the part. Whatever comes after Casino Royale, I just hope it's not another Tomorrow Never Dies.

 

[Jonny P]

Agreed.

"GoldenEye" in my mind is one of the stronger Bond outings.

"Tomorrow Never Dies" was very mediocre.

 

[Ben J Loews]

Goldeneye is great, apart from the ridiculous free-falling chasing the plane off the bike sequence.

 

[Sam Favate]

See, I think the opposite is true. Goldeneye was sort of a generic action movie in many ways. I liked it okay, but every single scene seems to end in an explosion. It's overkill. The movie had some good moments, some good locations, but suffered from some elements of parody (Joe Don Baker).

Whereas, Tomorrow Never Dies had a cool, modern day villian, great Bond girls and great locations. And great action without overkill. I think it's the best of the Brosnan films by a mile, and the best in the series since Living Daylights 10 years before.

The other two Brosnans, World is not Enough and Die Another Day, were bad and badder, IMO.

 

[Jeff*H]

Count me in the loved Goldeneye, hated Tomorrow Never Dies camp. Teri Hatcher and bad plotting ruined that movie for me.

 

[Matt Czyz]

The opening sequence is my favorite part of the whole movie.

 

[David_B_K]

I liked Goldeneye just because I thought Brosnan did well in the part in his first outing. When he was first announced for ther role, during his Remington Steele days, I thought he was extraordinarily lightweight for the part. By the time he made his debut in Goldeneye, he really seemed ready for the role (Sean Bean was also effective in the film as well). Tomorrow Never Dies did not build on the impact of Goldeneye, but reverted to formula. Even though there were some fun (typical) Bond moments in Tomorrow Never Dies, the lack of chemistry between Brosnan and Michelle Yeough killed that film, IMO. It did not take long for Brosnan to seem too old to play Bond. Realistically, an actor only has an open window of 3-4 films to play Bond, as he must be mature enough and not too old foir the role. By the time they got to naming a character "Christmas" so that Bond could use the bon mot "Christmas came twice this year", it was apparent that Brosnan's era was over.

Sadly, the same thing happened with Timothy Dalton. Though Dalton was never the way I imagined Bond from the novels (too pretty), he was a good enough actor to take the character seriously, and he brought a tough intensity to the role. I quite liked The Living Daylights because it was such a departure from the dismal Moore comedy/Bonds. However, the second Dalton outing, in spite of some savage moments, reverted to Moore/comedy type (Wayne Newton, anyone?).

The makers of Casino Royale are very much in the same place they were after both Dalton's and Brosnan's initial outings. But the pressure is even greater, IMO, as this new incarnation of Bond was even more dramatic a departure than any "new" Bond that has come before. Casino Royale is the most exciting thing to happen to Bond since the Connery/Bondmania days. The pressure of delivering something equally fresh and exciting will be immense, IMO.

 

[Rian]

Did anybody else notice that the Chris Cornell song at the beginning and the end of the movie is different on the DVD then it was in the movie?

 

[Ben J Loews]

How so?

 

[Ray H]

Can you elaborate on that, Rian?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

My parents were in Boston this weekend and shacked up on the futon in my apartment. When my dad started feeling ill, it killed the previous plans. Instead, we watched Casino Royale. My mom is a big literary Bond fan, and saw all of the Connery and Moore films. When Jeffrey Wright introduced himself as Felix, her interest shot right up. "Oh, I love Felix!" It was a real pleasant surprise for her; he's her favorite character from the books. Needless to say, all the good will Casino Royale garnered in this lapsed fan would plummet if Ben's spoiler came to pass.
Jeffrey Wright's too well known of an actor for his extended cameo in this. But I'd prefer he not come back than come back in that way.

 

[Carter of Mars]

It's the same as it was in theaters. The film features a different mix of the song than the various singles that were released.

 

[Rian]

I can't remember for sure but I know I bombarded myself with that song before seeing it and I thought for sure I would've noticed the difference right away. Also, the song in the music video has changed which is another reason why I believe it's changed.

The differences between the two are subtle but they are there. The one on the DVD have more horns and it goes a little slower and the part where he says "I've seen diamonds cut through harder men" he says "I've seen THIS diamond cut through harder men". It's a slight difference but it just goes to show that it is a different song.

 

[Chris Atkins]

I'm with Sam on TND. I vastly prefer it to Goldeneye.

 

[James Bond]

Thats how it was in the movies. The Movie version and the Music Video version are different, also there is the single Rock version which is also different. And the German Pop Mix single. Essentially there are 4 versions, although I believe there may be another one lurking (live performance, etc.)

1.Film Version (Same one on the DVD that you saw in the theaters)
2.Music Video Version
3.Rock Version, (On the Single)
4.Pop Mix (On German Single)

[rant]
Now talking about difference from Film to DVD, the one problem I have is that the opening trumpet/horns that play before Cornell Sings are toned down a lot. In theaters it was powerful and awesome, not so much on DVD. Although it may be attributed to lack of DTS. Someone ripped the version from the R3 DVD and it sounded like the theaters, so either that was from DTS or R1 (and maybe 2?) Have sound errors.
or it could be because theaters have 10x the amount of speakers
[/rant]

 

[Lyle_JP]

Wow. I couldn't put it any better myself. Thank you for coming to TND's defense. Tomorrow Never Dies is truly Brosnan's best IMO, because it is the most Bond of his Bonds. The girls, the gadgets, the classic megalomaniac Bond villain (complete with "invisible" lair), Arnold's best score (well, not including Casino Royale), how does this film not make you geek out?!?

Goldeneye was good, but hampered by a weak score, overblown action sequences, and some rather over-the-top silliness from minor villains Onatop and Boris.

The World is Not Enough, curiously enough, has the very best story of the 4 Brosnan Bonds. But it is done in by the worst casting ever for a leading Bond girl. Every time Roberts opens her critically untalented mouth is cringe-inducing. If she can't convince me she even understands what she's saying, how the hell am I supposed to buy that she's a nuclear physicist? Renard was also a less-than-menacing villain.

Die Another Day... wow. Where to begin? I'll just say, it's Brosnan's "Moonraker", complete with gratuitous Madonna. You've been warned.

 

[Sam Favate]

I'd go further and say it is Brosnan's View To A Kill (the nadir of the series IMO). Halle Berry's unintentionally comical vulgarity near the end of the picture (in her fight against Frost) may be the worst moment in all 20 pictures.

My friend and I were against casting Brosnan when we first heard his name come up in the 80s. We thought he'd bring the series to a level of parody that Moore did on occassion. We were glad to see he did as well as he did in his early pictures, but I remained convinced that he was hampered by bad scripts and poor overall production. The direction the series was taking wasn't good.

I'm very glad to see the producers did an about-face and changed the tone of the series with Casino Royale. It really is my favorite in the series since the first four films. (Which is not to say there weren't other high points along the way - Spy Who Loved Me comes to mind.)

 

[Lyle_JP]

Whenever anyone asks me why I hated Halle Berry (an otherwise talented actress, Catwoman notwithstanding) so much as a Bond girl, I show them that scene. Mind you, the film had already done itself in before that point. It's just the final nail in the coffin.