Monday, December 11, 2006

Casino Royale


It took me absolutely ages to go and see this film, both times I went to the West End to see it the cinema was being used for some premiere or something. I ended up going elsewhere to see it.

Daniel Craig is the newest Bond actor in this Parkour-meets-Poker tale that is fair to say, completely different to the Bond movies that have come before it.

No rocket launching baguette or ridiculous invisible car this time around, just a nice looking Aston Martin that can do 7 barrel rolls (the most from a cannon launch apparently).

No scenes where the bad guy explains to Bond how he's going to dominate the world whilst killing him slowly (in fact its not Bond that saves the day, and he has to be rescued).

No dumb women with names like "Vagina Itch", in fact of the two women in the film, one ends up dead very quickly and the other appears to be smarter than he is (its just a shame she didn't think to leave the scuba apparatus attached to her face when the camera was on her, there's an obvious line around her eyes where she's been wearing it).

No cheesy chat up lines. In this film Bond quite happily admits to going for married women because you know where you stand with them. Oh, I take this back there is perhaps the most rubbish piece of flirting dialogue I've ever come across.

Vesper Lynd: "If the only thing left of you was your smile and your little finger, you'd still be more of a man than anyone I've ever met."
James Bond: "That's because you know what I can do with my little finger... "

No five minute opening gambit with explosions and crazy stunts. This film begins in black and white and shows Bond smashing a guy into a tiled wall before drowning him in a sink. It does however soon lead onto a great 20 minute chase through a building site featuring the founder of Parkour (Free Running) Sebastian Foucan who shows a new way of descending a stairwell by not hitting the steps at all, preferring instead to hop from wall to wall. Utterly insane.

No fifty-year olds taking out a dozen guards with nothing more than a bit of fluff on his tuxedo. Bond gets bashed up pretty badly in this one.

In fact the only thing it does seem to have in common with the other Bond movies is the glamorous locations. Montenegro in particular looked amazing!

Its definitely the best Bond film I've ever seen. It really needed to be brought up to date as the Bourne movies were taking its crown. I think it might also be the best movie of the year, I liked it that much.

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