I have to admit that I’ve followed all these Bond movies including the original Casino Royale with Woody Allen — a comedy/farce. That said this new character is just not Bond unless Bond is now KGB. It’s more of a intense dark comic book style character with no apparent humor and a lot of inner turmoil without the cornball sensitive Bond characteristics of Timothy Dalton.
This is all fine and good, but Bond movies have tradtionally not taken things too seriously and were loaded with great humor. This looks like another me-too tentpole action film with no Bond cachet.
Bring back Blofeld and his cat!
My favorite Bond movie (and James Bond) was “The Man with the Golden Gun”. I even traveled to that famous island (known as James Bond Island by the locals) in Thailand where you can stand on the beach where Bond was. The freakin’ island is so remote but the scenery is unbelievalbly gorgeous. The movie also has my favorite Bond girl. James encounters her swimming naked in a pool. They greet and introduce eachother: “my name is Bond. James Bond.” Her:
“my name is Mi. Chu Mi.” Hilarious. And the MOST beautiful Bond girl. I’d marry her in a minute.
Other fun Bond-girl names:
http://www.slangcity.com/movie_quote/bondgirls.htm
Bond movies have tradtionally not taken things too seriously
No! BAD bond movies have taken that route. The good ones found the humor IN the serious nature of the movies. Sean Connery was a stone cold killer, but with style and grace. Brosnan touched on that too with his early movies (later self-parody aside).
THAT is Bond. As much as I didn’t like the idea of Craig in the role, it looks like Bond is back.
I agree with Gregory.
The REAL Bond is the one Ian Fleming created in his novels. An agent with a very violent and dark persona.
Can’t wait to see the movie!
I’m with Stephane. I’ve read many of the novels (which were out of print but I found them on eBay) and the Bond character from the books is better. He has a Scottish housekeeper that gives him crap, like when he kicked booze and smokes in Thunderball. He even chided his secretary (yes, he had a secretary) for bringing him tea because, as he said, “Tea is what brought down the Empire. Bring me coffee.”
I would have preferred Jeremy Northam as Bond, but I’ll give this guy a chance. The movie can’t possibly be any worse than Die Another Day.
The Bond movies were getting kind of goofy. I’m glad this new one is more serious.
Ditto 2,3 & 4.
When Bond became just slapstick, I began to tune out. The peaks of my dismay coming in movies that had Bond bowling with badguy as ball and hearing a descending whistle sound effect to accompany. Then there was the tilted-forward helicopter in an alley chopping away at everything with its rotor. Same movie: the PC-extreme Bond & girl equally controlling their destinies by co-steering the motorcycle. Just shoot me.
Bond was at its best when everything was outrageous but still barely within the realm of the plausible.
But someone tell me… How do you remake the original Woody Allen Casino Royale and make it look like that trailer?
RBG
Isn’t it about time to retire this 007 series gracefully? It’s just not working for me anymore!
How about a movie about the Special Intelligence Service called The Sandbaggers. Bring back Neil Burnside and Willie Caine!
It may not be working for YOU, but it’s not about you. It’s about the revenue stream. Like Star Trek. The flow of cash drops, so does the movie.
I’ll be on line to see the next 007 movie. The opening sequence and then the Bond music… the rest is just the ride after that first roller-coaster drop.
This Bond, btw, has a resemblance to Steve McQueen’s style it seems.
Read one of the Bond books… James was not a happy guy.
Ah Geeze… Craig looks great… He reminds me of Connery. In real life, he’s rather average, but on screen hes as bad a bad ass as you can hope for.
I am very happy to want to see a Bond movie again. It’s been a long time since one of these looked good.
If you want “funny” 007, go watch the scene in Octopussy where he swings on a vine while a Tarzan-yell sound effect plays in the background. We’ll be watching the new JB while you do that.
I just got back from the bookstore where I noticed Richard Dawkins’ new book, “The God Delusion”. On pages 142, 143 there was an allusion to James Bond’s agent number 007. I wonder if Ian Fleming had this in mind when he assigned Bond’s number. To quote Dawkins:
“An example of Ree’s six numbers is the magnitude of the so-called ‘strong’ force, the force that binds the components of an atomic nucleus. The nuclear force that has to be overcome when one ‘splits’ the atom. It is measured as E, the proportion of the mass of a hydrogen nucleus that is converted to energy when the hydrogen fuses to form Helium. The value of the number in our universe is 0.007, and it looks as though it had to be very close to the value in order for any chemistry (which is a prerequisite for life) to exist.”…
“The relevant point here is that the value of the strong force CRUCIALLY determines how far up the periodic table the nuclear fusion cascade goes. If the strong force were too small, say 0.006 instead of 0.007, the universe would contain nothing but hydrogen, and no interesting chemistry could result. If it were too large, say 0.008 all the hydrogen would have fused to make heavier elements. A chemistry without hydrogen could not generate life as we know it. For one thing, there would be no water. The Goldilocks value– 0.007– is just right for yielding the richness of elements that we need for an interesting and life-supporting chemistry.”
0113addiv
You buy LSD in the time release capsule form… I just know you do.
It ain’t a bad thing. I rather like you. But your world has a radically different sky than any of ours and I’d love to witness one of your sunsets.
0113addiv & OhForTheLoveOf :
Both of you just made my day. Thanks.
RBG
Every time I hear those horns from the Bond Theme, I get goosebumps. While I’ll admit, Fleming’s Bond was darker, half of what makes the movies so much fun is the tongue-in-cheek dialog of the Connery/Moore (and to a lesser extent, Brosnan, who was born to play Bond) movies.
Here’s my take on what needs to be in a Bond movie to make it great:
1) The moving gun barrel with bond at the end, only to have him draw and kill the camera and blood spilling down…
2) Kick-arse opening sequence with some guy stroking a cat, a high-speed chase and explosive ending…
3) Naked-go-go dancers in silloette during the credits with a great rock song behind it (not Madonna, Tina Turner , but maybe Carly Simon – Nobody Does It Better!) like McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”.
4) A really bad dude with a really cool name (Blofeld, Zorin, Jaws)
5) A really hot girl with a really sexy name (Pussy Galore, Dr. Goodhead) who utters the phrase “Oh, James!” at least once
6) Some really neat gadgets that Bond always misuses, demonstrated by Q (“Do be careful with that, Double-Oh-Seven!”)..
7) And finally, a really fast car with rocket-launcer-headlamps!
14, OhForTheLoveOf, I’ll take that as a compliment, but honestly, I can’t understand why you think I’m strange. LSD, btw, I’d love to try someday– better yet, DMT. There’s actually a religious order in Texas that won the right by the Supreme Court to use a form of DMT (ayahuasca tea) in their ceremonies. I’m gonna make a trip down there one day. IT’S LEGAL!
Two words….”George Lazenby” he’s the precedent…not this guy.
Loved that movie & its title music. Though fun, I wince a little bit when Lazenby says, “This never happened to the other guy…” at the beginning. He should have pointed out the cameras and crew around him at the same time. ;^)
RBG
16. Max, great deconstruction of 007 movies!