Casino Royale

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Post by Penelope »

Here's where I think Casino Royale ranks in the canon:

1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
2. Goldfinger
3. For Your Eyes Only
4. From Russia With Love
5. Octopussy
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. Casino Royale
8. Goldeneye
9. Dr. No
10. The Living Daylights
11. Thunderball
12. The World Is Not Enough
13. The Man With The Golden Gun
14. Diamonds Are Forever
15. Live and Let Die
16. Moonraker
17. You Only Live Twice
18. A View To A Kill
19. Tomorrow Never Dies
20. Die Another Day
21. License to Kill

One thing I would agree with Reza is the lack of originality in the locations: Montenegro is new (even though it appears to have actually been filmed elsewhere), but the Bahamas have been used before (Thunderball), so has Miami (Goldfinger) and Venice (From Russia With Love, Moonraker). There are so many locations that have yet to be used: why not, say, Seattle, or somewhere in Canada, or Australia....
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Post by Reza »

Sonic Youth wrote:Did Rex Reed hack into Reza's account?

Mess?! This was the first time I was able to follow the damn story all the way to the end! It's the most coherent Bond in years.
Darling Sonic,

Unlike the Bond films that came before CR, this was the first time I could not make sense of the ''damn story'' (probably it was the boredom factor that set in). The two action scenes - on the crane and later at the airport - were not up to mark in terms of originality. Merely an excuse to give chase, shoot bullets and crash vehicles. Scenes involving a game of cards is never a good idea as they invariably slow down things, particularly in action films. We obviously have opposite views on this film!

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p.s. I know we tend to differ on a lot of things but my telepathic mind knows that we DID agree on the torture scene (straight out of the book). I could sense that you got a real kick out of that sequence. S & M par excellence!
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Post by Reza »

OscarGuy wrote:It's also the first time a Bond girl showed true vulnerability that I can remember. That one shower scene was probably the film's best, IMO.

Glenn Close was Oscar nominated for a similar scene in The Big Chill. And exposed her breasts to boot! And talking about vulnerability (and plot points), the Diana Rigg character in OHMSS predates the Vesper Lynd character with an alarming similarity.

Been there, done that!
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Post by OscarGuy »

I think this was an admirable film. It wasn't necessarily the best Bond (they all kinda blur for me) but I have to say I liked Craig as Bond a great deal. MoF, I might even say he's my favorite yet.

I also think Eva Green did a fine job. She's the first Bond girl I can remember who actually gave a performance. It's also the first time a Bond girl showed true vulnerability that I can remember. That one shower scene was probably the film's best, IMO.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Did Rex Reed hack into Reza's account?

Mess?! This was the first time I was able to follow the damn story all the way to the end! It's the most coherent Bond in years.
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Post by Reza »

I thought Judi Dench was the best thing about this film. That comment about the cold war was classic!

I just couldn't get past Daniel Craig's funny ''stick-out'' ears and that awful hair cut. That totally ruined the film for me. And why choose the Bahamas and Venice as locations? Been there (far too many times), done that deja vu set in immediately. And those leading ladies just didn't do anything for me as well. I did, however, love the closing bit when he introduces himself followed by the familiar theme music over the closing credits.

I won't even bother to lament about the days of Connery. Compared to this mess I am even ready to lament about the days of the awful Roger Moore Bond films!
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Post by Sabin »

I agree Sonic. A lot of the fun was thinking "Did Bond just...?"

It's not a great story, but the narrative is pretty driving. To the best of my recollection, 'Dr. No' isn't that great of a story either. I remember Bond and Ursella Andress ending up on an island with a horrible FX dinosaur or something, but who cares? 'Casino Royale' is just the appearance of cool and a breezy good time with a genuinely sociopathic hardass. A great time. Craig is terrific, and beyond being just a fantastic Bond girl, Eva Green is outstanding.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

I quite enjoyed CR, but much of the enjoyment was due to the calculations I kept making in my head of where the differences lie between this Bond movie and the other Bonds, and where it excels in comparison. But is it such a great spy thriller in and of itself, and would it be so highly thought of if it really were the first Bond film? Hard to say.
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Post by Penelope »

I really enjoyed Casino Royale, it was certainly more Flemingesque than any Bond epic since For Your Eyes Only; Daniel Craig is a fantastic 007, and Eva Green is one of the most fully developed Bond girls in a long, long time. All the techs--cinematography, editing, sound, art direction--are top-notch. It admittedly goes on too long--everything after the baccarat game ends is rather anti-climactic--and the Chris Cornell song is hideous (tho the rest of David Arnold's score is wonderful). A solid *** effort.
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Post by rudeboy »

cam wrote:I thought there was a thread for Casino Royale somewhere, but if it has gone, I want to say that I hope the producers or Casjino Royale had the good sense to include " The Look Of Love", as in the original. The song won an Oscar nomination, but was beaten out by the absurd and loathsome Talk To The Animals.

I don't think so, the Bond producers have always distanced themselves from the silly and overblown Casino Royale movie. The music was about the best thing about that film, although my song choice for that year would be The Bare Necessities, best Disney song bar none.
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Post by OscarGuy »

It looks like Casino Royale is a hit with critics.

The film has an amazing 96% fresh rating with Rotten Tomatoes, with a 93% fresh rating form its Cream of the Crop (read "only critics for famous publications").

Happy Feet's at 80% with CoC @ 86%

FYC's a dud with 55%, CoC @ 63%
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Post by 99-1100896887 »

I thought there was a thread for Casino Royale somewhere, but if it has gone, I want to say that I hope the producers or Casjino Royale had the good sense to include " The Look Of Love", as in the original. The song won an Oscar nomination, but was beaten out by the absurd and loathsome Talk To The Animals.
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Post by Franz Ferdinand »

After GoldenEye, I felt the Bond series degenerated into any number of generic cookie-cutter action flicks. Although seeing Paul Haggis' name associated with Casino Royale is enough to give me cold shivers down my spine, I will give it a chance based on Daniel Craig: from the previews, he looks like an intense Bond, but hopefully not Timothy Dalton-intense.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

For those still repelled by Haggis' credit, it looks like his contribution here is rather small.


Casino Royale

By Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter



Daniel Craig brings the James Bond character back to its roots as a rough-around-the-edges sociopathic killer as the movie eschews high-tech gimmicks in favor of intrigue and suspense.

In "Casino Royale," James Bond is back. Back to his roots as Ian Fleming's driven, bare-knuckled, rough-around-the-edges sociopathic killer in Her Majesty's Secret Service. The movie is so retro it begins with a black-and-white sequence in which Bond brutally earn his 00 status with two textbook-perfect killings.

With every new actor who steps into the role of Bond, the producing team descended from the original producer, Cubby Broccoli, retools the series. For Daniel Craig, the handsome English actor who appears chiseled from raw granite, director Martin Campbell and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli go back to Fleming's first novel, published in 1953, "Casino Royale" -- previously made as a joke movie with comics Peter Sellers and Woody Allen -- to re-establish Bond's origins in sex, sadism, murder and dry martinis.

What a relief to escape the series' increasing bondage to high-tech gimmicks in favor of intrigue and suspense featuring richly nuanced characters and women who think the body's sexiest organ is the brain. To demonstrate the difference, the movie's first major set piece is a five-minute foot chase, albeit with the acrobatic stunts one associates with Hong Kong action movies.

The film is far too long, with a protracted third act pushing running time to 144 minutes. Yet the new Bond should help newcomers and older viewers rediscover what made Sean Connery's early Bond movies the best of the series. Boxoffice looks promising here and overseas.


It's been awhile since a Bond movie was actually based on a Fleming novel, but the screenplay by Bond veterans Neal Purvis & Robert Wade with an assist by Paul Haggis does take many of the characters, settings and themes from the original novel while eliminating the Cold War trappings in favor of cell phones, computers and infinite data basis that now rule the world of international chicanery and espionage. It all still comes down to a high-stakes card game at the Casino Royale only instead of Chemin de Fer, it's Texas Hold 'Em.

For "Casino Royale," things begin afresh with Craig's Bond evolving from wannabe assassin to the real deal -- his first hit, first major mistake, first dressing down by M (Judi Dench, who too seems reinvigorated by this more "realistic" Bond), a woman to fall in love with and a slap in the face to form his callous, cold-hearted character forever. It's so early in his career he tells a barman he doesn't care how his martini is made.

The surrounding cast has been retooled as well. Instead of a megalomaniac out to rule the world, the villain is Le Chiffre (Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen), "the Cipher," a banker to international terrorists who is only in the game for the money. His quirks are a tear duct that drips blood and the need for an inhaler.

The heroine is Vesper Lynd (French actress Eva Green), a female counterpart to Bond -- cool, calculating, untrusting but drawn to sexual adventure if it comes packaged to suit her whim. Their exchanges contain none of the usual tired double entendres but rather sharp dialogue as the two suss each other out.

Jeffrey Wright is suitably low key as Bond's CIA ally Felix Leiter, while Italian veteran Giancarlo Giannini is his unruffled local contact. Caterina Murino, also Italian, plays Bond's first sexual conquest, who pays dearly for her extramarital fling.

Major sequences -- that chase in and around an African construction site, a fight aboard a runaway fuel truck on an airport tarmac, a shootout in a collapsing Venice, Italy, canal building and a grueling torture sequence -- emphasize the physicality of the stunt work rather than special effects. The old James Bond musical theme is saved for the end as David Arnold's superb score chooses to mirror the rise and fall of tensions and emotions. Phil Meheux's cinematography and Peter Lamont's design take full advantage of the great locations ranging from Prague and Venice to Lake Como and the Bahamas. Campbell, who previously retooled the series when Pierce Brosnan came aboard for "GoldenEye" (1995), has done the series proud.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Roald Dahl wrote a James Bond screenplay.
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