That’s an interesting idea, but not quite what I was getting at.
That’s more what I was commenting on, the difference between personal opinions and group popularity.
We’re all bombarded with group wisdom about what is popular; “The Sexiest Man Alive”, “she’s not pretty enough to be a Bond Girl”, “Jackass 2 was the winner at the weekend box office”, etc. But I’ve never found any real use for that information. I can’t predict who’ll be the next rising starlet in Hollywood. I can’t tap into some essence-of-George-Clooney and make women swoon. (That’s my own limitation, though; other people grok popularity much more than I do.) And even if I could do those things, all I’ve found is a way to appeal to the masses; which doesn’t get me anywhere with the individuals that I may care about in my life.
The dissonance was that your attraction to others is personal and subjective, but that you’re pressured to aspire to a mass-market image to attract other people to you.
I’m super excited. I think the grittier edge is the way to go and that Craig is perfect for the role, but oddly perfect, somehow. He’s handsome, but not pretty boy handsome.
To the above question: Yes, I’ve read the book “Casino Royale,” and plan to see the movie. Honestly, the book was a good enough way to introduce Bond, but it is far from Fleming’s best. “Moonraker,” the book, probably gives us the best look at Bond, the human being. “On Her Majesty’s…” is probvably my favorite Bond novel and film, the latter despite the somewhat wooden Lazenby (you can almost tell in what order the scenes were filmed as Lazenby is quite polished in some scenes, bad in others. I’ve always figured if you looked at the shooting schedule, surely the less inspired acting would have been shot first, the better stuff a couple months later).
Thirded. I’ve got no problem at all with Craig playing Bond, in fact I’d be far less interested if he wasn’t in it.
I was a bit surprised to see that Martin Campbell (Goldeneye) directed, since the new film seems considerably different in tone than that one, but he’s certainly a capable helmer and the trailer, frankly, rawks.
As far as alternate choices for Bond go, I would have liked Clive Owen, but it might have been a stretch for him to play TWO suave gritty British characters who drive high-performance sports cars (though as The Driver, he drove a BMW rather than an Aston-Martin)
I think you are way overanalyzing what I was trying to say and not really understanding what I mean (and that’s all my fault, as I’m frequently not very good at trying to explain what’s in my head - if you could see what’s in there sometimes you’d know why ). But I’m not going to attempt to explain any more because it won’t get better and will probably get worse.
I did, but only because you supplied it for us.
I know the books in most cases are so far removed from the movies I consider them separate entities, and I can’t really say I’m all that interested in reading any of the books. Most of the time, if I’ve read a book and then seen the movie I’m disappointed the the movie. I’ve always enjoyed the Bond movies as escapist fun and I don’t want to mess that up. I also don’t really care for novels in general and just don’t read that many. Often the truth is stranger and more interesting to me than fiction. I much prefer my fiction in movie format. It may have something to do with the fact that I started my full-time working life as a journalist, but who knows.
Let’s hope that the trailer is not the only good thing about the movie. BTDT, unfortunately.
I confess that I’ve read none of the Ian Fleming books, but I’ve seen all of the movies. Clive Owen might very well have made a good Bond, but let’s give Craig a shot at it. The trailer to the new “Casino Royale” is way cool and I’ll be seeing it for sure.
Well, I am looking forward to seeing how Craig does, I’m just saing, Clive Owen woulda been my favorite, but then, I remember when he was acting in sci-fi video games for the Roberts brothers.
Ever see a trailer (comedies are especially guilty of this) where the movie looks pretty damn good, and then you see it, and it turns out that the only good jokes/scenes were in the trailer? If you have (and I bet most of us have), then you’ve BTDT too.
But seriously, Daniel Craig is ugly. Ugly-ugly. U-G-L-Y, he ain’t got no alibi, he ugly! And Hoagy Carmichael, based on a Google image search, was quite a handsome guy.
I’m a heterosexual woman and when I saw Eva Green in The Dreamers I thought she was one of the sexiest women I’d ever seen. The plot had her do some very unsexy things regarding sex, but Eva made me believe that guys wouldn’t care.
I haven’t read any Bond books, and I’m not sure I will after the movie. Even if I had the chance and desire, I definitely wouldn’t read it before the movie.
Honestly, I don’t think Clive Owen would have been good for this role either. A lot of anti-Craig people have expressed regret that Owen didn’t get the role, but I don’t think he has the charm. And honestly, I don’t know if he has the looks either. I mean, he’s good looking, but not in a James Bond kind of way. Personally I think he looks a little bit like Tom Hanks.
My choice would be Gary Stretch. Here is a guy who really has the dark, handsome look. I first saw him in Dead Man’s Shoes, an obscure Irish indie film. Oh, invariably people would say he’s “too pretty,” from the picture I’ve linked to, but he really looks menacing in Dead Man’s Shoes.
Stretch has the rough-around-the-edges look (he was a professional boxer,) has thick dark hair with a perfect widow’s peak, and easily demonstrated in Dead Man’s Shoes that he can supply equal measures of charm and menace, not to mention humor.
But no. Craig must be Bond. We need someone with blonde hair, thick rangy facial features, an unpreposessing countenance, and a resemblance to Vlad Putin.
I’m looking forward to it, too. I’ve had no desire to see any of the recent Bond movies, as they all looked too stale. And while I don’t think he fits in the traditional handsome mode, I must say that Daniel Craig looks damn sexy in that trailer.
It was also a nice reversal to see them have a shot of Bond emerging from the ocean in a rather skimpy suit, rather than one of the Bond girls.
Not being a Bond fan I didn’t have much invested in who the next Bond would be, but if someone had asked my opinion, Clive Owen would probably have come to mind - I think he did moral ambiguity very well in Croupier. But the trailer for CR really does look promising, and for the first time ever I’ll probably see a Bond film at the cinema instead of catching it on TV a few years later.
Lookwise, yeah he’s hot. I always found Pierce Brosnan handsome but not hot. Daniel Craig is not handsome but smoking hot.
). But I’m not going to attempt to explain any more because it won’t get better and will probably get worse.
