And even more unofficial: Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter in the 1954 Climax! adaptation of Casino Royale
Sir Rhosis
Just got back from seeing it. A few random thoughts of my own.
No spoiler boxes. Anyone that’s read the thread this far either has seen it already, or doesn’t mind spoilers.
I don’t think anyone actually answered this one yet. At one point Bond watches surveillance camera recording, with time and date on it. The date was given as 6th July 2006.
somebody else mentioned Bond wearing (shock) white socks. Actually, this is a nice touch. Bond doesn’t learn his dress sense until Vesper teaches him the right way to wear a tuxedo, later in the movie.
Which brings me to my next point. I thought that DC wasn’t suave enough to be Bond. Yerah, and that’s the point. He changes over the course of the film, only becoming the Bond we know in the very last shot.
Mobile phones were an over-used plot device. How many times did Bond check someone else’s phone for messages? And ringing the phone of the corpse hidden in the car too.
How many times has Bond resigned now?
So, in the fuel truck sequence, the cops shoot at the tires. Isn’t shooting guns around a fuel truck a Very Bad Idea?
How did Le Chiffre know the security code ELIPSES that got the bomber through the door?
I liked the way that the traditional gunbarrel opening was actually part of the plot - Bond’s first kill, no less.
There should have been a Q. Not John Cleese. But the tech guys who instructed Bond about the defribulator and gave him his implant should have had a definite leader identified as Q or Major Boothroyd. Did they even have any names, in fact?
No Moneypenny. But there was a weak joke about “money” and “penny” which was lame. Generally, the film lacked humour, and what there was was weak.
All in all, about 100 times better than the last one.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Joe Don Baker play Felix Leiter in one of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond movies and then play a heavy in Timothy Dalton’s “The Living Daylights”?
I’d also like to agree with Daniel Craig’s appeal in this movie. He’s no pretty boy, but he’s got some major animal magnetism going on.
Baker was the villain in “The Living Daylights” (Colonel Whitaker, iirc), then later played a CIA agent in a couple of the Brosnan’s, but I’m sure he wasn’t playing Felix, though I forget his character’s name.
Sir Rhosis
For that matter, from what I’ve read, Jeffrey Wright only became Felix in “Casino Royale” at the last moment. The script just had this character as an unnamed CIA agent, but it was decided to call him Felix Leiter just before filming began.
Sir Rhosis
I find that hard to believe. It was Felix in the original book, Bond’s first meeting with him. The second half of the film follows the novel fairly closely. Why would they change such a significant detail?
Jack Wade, I think.
Peter, I know what you mean. I cannot recall exactly where, but I picked this up a couple months ago when I read of review of the script on one of the “spoiler” websites out there (may have been “Ain’t It Cool,” but I don’t remember).
Anyway, the review attracted questions and one asked if Felix was in the movie. The reviewer responded with something like, “No, but there is an unnamed CIA character who helps Bond who could easily be Felix.”
So, I could well be wrong if this reviewer was bogus.
Sir Rhosis
Here’s the script review where I got the “Felix wasn’t in the script” idea from. It was just a review and not a question and answer session as I misremembered.
Sir Rhosis
He was Felix in Tomorrow Never Dies. Bond spotting him says, “Felix, what are you doing here?” Felix replies, “James, didn’t I tell you that my office was the world?”
I was thinking that Joe Don Baker also played Felix Leiter, but not according to IMDb.
I suppose I lead a sheltered life, because I had no idea what those big yellow plastic-wrapped cylinders were that James Bond shoots at the end of the movie, causing water to boil out. Was it lime? Something to do with construction?
Tasty, too.
I believe that those were airbags used to support the building while the foundation was repaired.
The rent-a-ford was a preview of the newest Ford Mondeo, not bad looking and a hint of the new Jag XK in there too.
Bolding mine, WTF was that about? Not the best product placement ever.
Well since frontal airbags are designed to go off in a frontal or near frontal collision, and the Aston did not get hit in the front, it is entirely possible that the bags would not deploy. It is a common misconception that airbags always deploy in every accident, they don’t. Even if they had deployed they would have been laying in Bond’s lap in when he was removed from the car, they might not have been visible in that shot.
The Aston has side airbags which could be expected to deploy, but again they would have been deflated, and unless the door was opened, they would not have been visible.
I get a kick out of all of you that loved the crouching tiger hidden dragon chase scene at the start of the movie where Bond does many things that are either a violation of the laws of physics or of medical science, yet you have a problem with not seeing an airbag deploy. :rolleyes:
I work with air bag systems, and I didn’t think that this was at all improbable.
::: shrug:::
That’s what I was looking for, I assumed they’d be visible if they’re meant to deploy at head height, but then I’m only thinking now that the car was upside down and they’d probably be hidden.
My only grip about the film is related to the “Batman Begins” comparison. I assumed this is a continuation of the Bond franchise and not a complete restart, so does the 9/11 reference mean all Bond films have taken place since September 11 2001? Or that we should have had a male M?
My impression from watching the movie was that it wasn’t a continuation, but a restart: the other movies (and, therefore, grand machiavellian plots with space stations and orbital lasers) didn’t happen.
Ah, so is Bond then to enter a universe of horribly practical bad guys who just blow up buses in busy streets? Or who are similar to past bad guys except for their tendency to not lock Bond in an easily escapable room by himself for ten minutes?
I did and, like you, no one else in the theatre seemed to notice.
The movie should have been back in the '60’s rather than present day. And they should not have been playing Texas Hold’em.
I liked Craig. His kills were brutal; he really had to work for them. Not like the refined killing machines we’ve seen in Connery and Moore. He was handsome enough for a tux but still looked rugged. Like someone posted earlier, he came across as a blunt instrument that was honed a bit after Vesper died.
Another vote for too long.
The best Bond movie since Goldeneye, IMO. And Goldeneye had been the best since Moore left.
Pushkin Here is what I wrote about that in post #109
This is borne out by the final line in the final scene, “Bond, James Bond.” He is now the 007 we knew from before.