Since Catherine is busy posting the serious stuff, it's time to get back to my post as reporter of all things vaugely geeky or entertaining.
So Saturday night I went off and saw Casino Royale. In a theater. Which was nice, since I rarely get off campus, much less watch movies on a more than 12 inch screen, and was generally amazed at how shock-and-awe cool the movie was. The relaunch of the series seems to be taking a much more Batman Begins/Bourne Identity approach; everything's more gritty and down-to-earth. The gadgets are minimal; for the most part Bond is equipped with nothing but a tux and a silenced pistol, doing actual spying things.
Daniel Craig, too, is now my favorite action hero apart from Jason Bourne. He plays a version of Bond you can take seriously as a character, and whom you root for instead of laugh at. The only elements of camp in sight were the periodic jabs at the old movies.
Eva Green, as the new Bond girl, is not only inhumanly good looking, but a great actor too. And her character is barely slutty at all (relatively speaking.)
The only weak point I could see was a somewhat disconcerting (for me) sense of overall pacing. I was sometimes unsure where I was in terms of the story arc, or even what Bond was supposed to do next. The long running time exacerbates this too, and some plot strings are left hanging. Even so, I didn't even notice the movie was over two hours long. Casino Royale gets my Best Action Movie of the Year So Far Award.
Monday
Casino Royale - 3 1/2 stars
Since Catherine is busy posting the serious stuff, it's time to get back to my post as reporter of all things vaugely geeky or entertaining.
So Saturday night I went off and saw Casino Royale. In a theater. Which was nice, since I rarely get off campus, much less watch movies on a more than 12 inch screen, and was generally amazed at how shock-and-awe cool the movie was. The relaunch of the series seems to be taking a much more Batman Begins/Bourne Identity approach; everything's more gritty and down-to-earth. The gadgets are minimal; for the most part Bond is equipped with nothing but a tux and a silenced pistol, doing actual spying things.
Daniel Craig, too, is now my favorite action hero apart from Jason Bourne. He plays a version of Bond you can take seriously as a character, and whom you root for instead of laugh at. The only elements of camp in sight were the periodic jabs at the old movies.
Eva Green, as the new Bond girl, is not only inhumanly good looking, but a great actor too. And her character is barely slutty at all (relatively speaking.)
The only weak point I could see was a somewhat disconcerting (for me) sense of overall pacing. I was sometimes unsure where I was in terms of the story arc, or even what Bond was supposed to do next. The long running time exacerbates this too, and some plot strings are left hanging. Even so, I didn't even notice the movie was over two hours long. Casino Royale gets my Best Action Movie of the Year So Far Award.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I've heard lotsa good things about this one. As for a Bond girl being less slutty than other Bond girls...well, it doesn't take a whole lot...
Excellent! I'm definitely liking these "The Batman Begins of Bond Films" talking-points. Couldn't get much better than that.
I'm a big Craig fan, even though I've only seen him in Munich. Still, he was far and away the best part about that film. (Which isn't hard, really.)
I'll try to catch this in theaters.
Oh, and come get BONE from my office.
****MILD SPOILERS****
I, for one, missed the silly Bond gadgets. The best they could do for this film was a first-aid kit in the glove compartment and.... wait for it... TEXT MESSAGING on a cell phone. ooooOOOOooo. Lame lame lame.
And how can you flip an Aston Martin 9 times and not have the air bags go off?
Papa Milton
OH! it's the next big bond gadget...no airbags.
Post a Comment