I'm going to watch all of the James Bond Films [Please avoid Spoilers for Goldeneye or later Bond movies]

Cafe Society
424

Casino Royale (2006)

I jumped right into the Daniel Craig era, and nearly gave myself whiplash from the change in tone.
As mentioned upthread, in the late 1990s and early 2000s Mission: Impossible, 24, and The Bourne Identity very much redefined the genre of spy thrillers, to much success. Seeing this trend and in light of poor critical response to Die Another Day, the Bond producers decided that their trademark campy, gadgety, and gimmicky brand had finally run its course and rebooted 007 in a gritty, more realistic fashion.

Was this really necessary? I dunno. While panned by critics, Die Another Day had still pulled excellent box office numbers. Not everything has to look like everything else, and I’d wager there would still have been a market for the silly escapism of classic James Bond as a contrast to the more caustic, intense fare. We’ll never know if I’m right, though. They did what they did and there’s no going back. So let’s pour one out for the “old” 007 and welcome in the new era.

Having said all that, I’m not mad. Casino Royale is really good. The foot chase through the construction site at the beginning was an amazing action sequence, announcing the new guy’s presence with authority. The airport truck scene (though pretty much stolen directly from Raiders of the Lost Ark) was pretty cool as well. It was only then that the plot started coming into focus. The bad guy was trying to make a fortune by shorting an airline’s stock and then destroying their big new plane to tank the stock price. When that plan fails, he’s on the hook to his other bad guy investors, and the only way to get their money back is to… win it in a poker game. Well, okay, I guess there’s some silliness left in the franchise.

But once you buy that premise – and the notion that both MI6 and the CIA are willing to risk millions of dollars to play against him – it really does work. The poker game is tense and suspenseful, and of course there’s more than poker going on. Then there’s the final unexpected twist, leading to the destruction of an entire building in Venice and a gut-wrenching finish.

New Bond resembles an actual human being who screws up sometimes, bleeds, loves, and loses. Daniel Craig has a different job to do than the other 007 actors, and he nails it right out of the gate. This James isn’t going to pause to straighten his tie in the middle of a fight. He’s got to establish his character in more subtle ways, and Craig is up to the challenge. A terrific performance.

Eva Green is also very good as Vesper Lynd. Despite the early rom-com vibe between Vesper and James, Green has lots of emotional ground to cover, and she does it all quite convincingly. Her reaction to witnessing death for the first time was gripping and poignant. Mads Mikkelsen as the villain who cries blood has a tough line to walk to keep from being too cartoonish in this new, more realistic Bond world, and he pulls it off; Le Chiffre has actual human motives, pressures, and fears. Some nice supporting work from Giancarlo Giannini and Caterina Murino (who is also gorgeous). I love the casting of Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, though he didn’t have much to do. Keeping Judi Dench on as M for the reboot causes some continuity issues, but it was the right choice. She’s outstanding, of course.

So, while I will miss the silly, campy version of James Bond, I’m a Daniel Craig fan all the way, and I look forward to revisiting his run. (I’ve previously seen three of his five, including this one.)

Next up: Quantum of Solace

425

I generally agree, although I thought the “every single player has an amazing hand” ending to the poker game was a little TOO much, in part because it means that ultimately it’s won on pure luck rather than skill or nerve.

426

Green and Craig have incredible chemistry in this, the best pairing of any Bond film as far as I’m concerned. What happens in Venice is gut-wrenching and only really rivalled by the climax to OHMSS. As someone has just said, the final hand in the poker game does require some serious suspension of disbelief, but when that comes after a series that has included undetectable space stations and invisible cars, I can go with it. The basic plot is pretty similar to Fleming’s first Bond novel and due to its simplicity it works well. Set pieces can be built around it to good effect. Craig is fantastic on debut. I was really looking forward to him being Bond when it was announced (unlike many other hardcore fans), due to his turn in 2004’s Layer Cake. I think that was effectively an audition for the part. All in all a tremendous return to form for Bond and arguably the very best of the series, although FRWL is still my personal fave. Surely only something daft like a screen writers’ strike could scupper the next film? Oh…

427

Well, except they kind of went back with the nostalgia for “silly Bond” in Skyfall.

428

I’ve read that they changed the game from Baccarat to Texas Hold’em Poker. Probably a good change.

429

If memory serves, it was chemin de fer, something we do see Bond playing many times in the series, but probably not a game that could grab a general audience’s attention for the prolonged periods needed in the film. The explosion of internet poker in the early- to mid-2000s, in particular Texas Hold 'em, made that particular choice a bit of a no-brainer really.

430

For the record it was baccarat in the book (and the goofy 1960s version of Casino Royale), but very few people know anything about baccarat whereas the basics of poker are generally familiar.

The book also has the fun testicle torture scene.

431

I just happened to see the beginning of one of the Mission: Impossible movies on TV a few days ago. I didn’t catch all the details, but someone was taking something somewhere on a plane. In an effort to stop them, Tom Cruise wound up hanging on to the side of the plane when it took off. One of the other Good Guys used a computer to open the magic door on the plane so Tom could get in.

I wouldn’t say that the M:I franchise has staked out the “gritty, more realistic” genre of spy films. I’ve always thought that was a shame; the original TV series had a smart vibe to it that the movies seem to have abandoned.

432

One thing nobody’s mentioned yet is the pre-credit sequence, which is not only the best of its kind, but which is in and of itself possibly the best James Bond film ever made. The way it shifts from tense yet urbane conversation to sink-smashing action, establishing the new Bond as both an ice-cold murderer and a brutal bare-knuckled brawler, is just perfect. And then, after 44 years, finally putting the looking-down-the-barrel shot into context… I literally gasped when I saw that the first time in the theater.

433

Personally, I thought the “this ain’t your mama’s James Bond!!” grittiness was a little over the top, but that’s just a matter of personal taste.

434

I did not enjoy Casino Royale very much. I understand that the producers were going for a grittier, more serious Bond, and maybe that makes for a more believable spy (with license to kill) and is more in line with the Fleming books, but darn it, that’s not the Bond I grew to love. My Bond was a man of witty banter, double-entendres and a twinkle in his eye while he does all his dirty government business.

This is also something I disliked about the two Dalton movies.

I suspect that the producers got similar feedback, because by Skyfall, the humor quotient had returned to a Connery-esque level.

435

Okay, “realistic” may not be the most accurate term. Maybe “less campy” or “more serious.” Weightier? You get what I’m going for, I’m sure.

436

I’ve just got one question, how do you feel about double-taking pigeons?

437

What always bothered me about the poker in Casino Royale was Bond explaining that a “tell” in Poker is a subtle reaction that lets a careful observer know if someone is bluffing. Le Chiffre’s tell? He weeps blood.

Super subtle.

438

I’m not entirely sure that I do. There were several ways in which the Bond films (through the Brosnan era) were over-the-top and cartoonish; the stunts, the gadgets, the megalomaniacal villains, the bon mots at the most inappropriate times, and probably more. Of those, I’d say that Bond’s witty one-liners were pretty minor; usually just a single throwaway line in a whole movie.

Casino Royale got rid of all of that. Instead of an invisible car chase through a hotel made of ice, it’s bulldozers and broken sheetrock at a construction site.

I’ve only seen the first *Mission: Impossible" all the way through, plus trailers and snippets of some of the others. Tom Cruise was hanging from the side of an airplane, or fighting a helicopter on top of a train in the Channel Tunnel. The M:I films are just Bond without the martinis.

439

Yeah, I see the M:I franchise as closer to old Bond than Bourne. I’ll believe in an invisible car and space lasers before I believe in face-swapping masks.

440

It was a Q-branch robot. Real pigeons only do single takes.

441

Indifferent, honestly. The pigeon and that other much-derided moment of the Moore years, the slide whistle in The Man With the Golden Gun’s car stunt, are moments I didn’t remember at all until I’ve read review threads like the one here that made it out to be a big deal.

442

Great point - and the closing lines:

“Don’t worry. The second is much BANG”
“Yes - considerably.”

Another great bit of the film. “I have an itch… would you mind?”. It’s rare we see the ultimate boss villain get their hands properly dirty in the franchise, and this also serves to fully establish Le Chiffre’s desperation, as he knows what’s coming to him if he fails to get the money back.

443

Mads Mikkelsen is possibly the best Bond we never got. Not sure if he could have pulled off a convincing accent, but his looks are exactly how I imagine Bond to be.