Casino Royale

[elfs]

So, I went to see Casino Royale with the very lovely desirae and j5nn5r, and I must say that I have to agree with other people I've spoken with who've seen it: it is the best Bond film in twenty years. Better than any Roger Moore, better than most of Brosnan's work, better even than Timothy Dalton's brutal in-your-face Bond. Yes, it's Bond rebooted, with M questioning the wisdom of promoting this "blunt instrument" to double-O status, and Bond clearly being far more on top of things than M expects, and M being more on top of things than Bond expects, making them both disgustingly hypercompetent, which I suppose is the point.

There are no gadgets, there is no hypertechnology. All but one of the instruments shown can be bought on the open market-- that is, if you can afford an Aston Martin DB5, and some markets may require travel for, say, the RPGs.

And the most thrilling part of the movie is a poker game. An astoundingly interesting poker game, except that the writers thought that Bond's two overseers (the local MI6 contact, and the hot babe sent from Treasury to shepherd his financials as he plays high-stakes poker) should kibitz "as-you-knows" back and forth to explain the game to audience members who might not be familiar with Texas Hold'em. (What? No Baccarat?)

But that's really the only weak spot. The opening chase sequence is nicely integrated into the storyline (somewhat unusual for a bond film) and is an astounding example of parkour, the fight sequences are meaty and efficient, the car crashes appropriate and dramatic. All in all, a very satisfying addition to the Bond oeuvre.

Comments

Spelling wank

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

ITYM "kibitz". A kibbutz is a Jewish commune thing.

Re: Spelling wank

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yep. Fixed, thanks.

[lovingboth]

Level of skill in Baccarat: almost nil.

I'd have used Backgammon, and not just because of the dramatic tension available through the use of dice, but...

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

The only 'gadget' in the traditional Bond sense was the implant in his arm. It was very small, yet could be tracked remotely - I'm not sure if it was supposed to be tracked by satellite or by the local cell network, but either way it would be difficult to make something so small with a power source and a radio capable of being tracked - AND apparently a chemical analysis kit since they could tell what he was drugged with.

But they didn't focus on it, it was just there and never talked about. I haven't watched all the old films lately (I have seen them all), but was this the first Bond movie without Q?