Comments on: Casino Royale

By: Maz the Librarian

Maz the Librarian — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:06:35 +0000

Loved the film, was pleasantly surprised by Daniel Craig being great as Bond, liked the edginess and the real-looking stunts and the lesser reliance on gadgetry. Theme music sucked in a big way, as did the opening sequence behind it. Glad however that I’m not a secret agent. Turning up to a poker match and having to ask if the facey cards are good may not have gone down well.

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 20:44:28 +0000

Well, for those wondering, Chris Cornell was the singer with Soundgarden for about ten years til 1996, who formed out of a project entitled Temple of the Dog (themselves formed from the remnants of Green River and Mother Love Bone, the latter’s dead junkie singer being the subject of a couple of the songs). In 2002, he joined the remains of Rage Against The Machine (after the departure of humourless angry-man Zach de la Rocha) to release the first Audioslave album.
My personal theory as to why Cornell made the Bond soundtrack was someone saw Michael Mann’s really rather excellent Miami Vice movie, replete with Audioslave soundtrack, and made the mistake of thinking it appropriate to get Bond “down” in a similar style (luckily not seeing fit to bedeck Daniel Craig with a mullet of Farrell-esque quality).
As for Parkour…it looks really cool when it’s well filmed, but there’s something a bit desparate about the amateur free runners doing backflips outside a Folkestone supermarket and threatening to jump on people’s cars. Less double-0 than ASBO…

By: kelvingreen

kelvingreen — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:22:53 +0000

I’m not sure I can imagine what kind of trauma would turn Daniel Craig into Roger Moore, no. ;)

Actually, my favourite Bond is From Russia With Love, that does all the grounding in reality this new one tried to do, but also has that essential Bond-ness that this one lacked. This was a fine action movie, but a Bond movie? Not for me.

In related news, Nintendo are negotiating with various corporate entities to resurrect Goldeneye on Wii! Huzzah!

By: Courtney

Courtney — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 04:01:03 +0000

I didn’t know all the crazy running-around-the-building site stuff was called parkour, but I actually really appreciated that aspect of the film. It was nice that they didn’t just go for the “okay, how can we get the biggest explosion possible?” way of making a film. Instead of crashing a helicoptor into a building or something, they just made it about two bodies flinging themselves all over the place (and, it must be said that they were two quite attractive bodies at that). It certainly didn’t seem a rubbish move to me, instead it seemed unique and interesting. And again, it tied in nicely with the emphasis that Bond was not fully “Bond” yet – surely a later Bond would have pulled out some gadget to help him make some of those leaps. :-)

By: James Leahy

James Leahy — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:48:51 +0000

I really enjoyed “Rounders”, especially John Malkovich’s dodgy Russian accent. Everyone’s going to hate me for saying this but I thought the poker games in “Lock, Stock…” were really well filmed. Rehash, Speaking as someone who knows very little about the game, I found all three movies’ poker scenes exciting so maybe they only work if you’re not familiar with it?

James Bond movies have never been grounded in reality so maybe it’s a testiment to the re-booted franchise that we’re being harsher on the specifics rather than the entire plot! K, you’ve just never gotten over Roger Moore retiring, have you?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:49:51 +0000

I meant it was good for a film, because at least it showed the right order of hands, and people had a sense of what’s going on. Rounders being another good example.

By: Rehash

Rehash — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:18:17 +0000

Paul:

I actually thought the poker was kind of poor, for a number of reasons.

1. There didn’t seem to be enough raising. Most of them were basically “calling stations.” Maybe it was a way of focusing the story, but only Bond and La Chiffre raised, and only when something was about to “happen.”

2. I don’t recall the exact cards, but I thought the last hand was played poorly (and unbelievably) all the way around. There were like, four or five players at the showdown. The board was full of straights and flush draws and I believe a pair. The first two guys seemed awfully pleased with themselves for hitting pretty low hands on that board, something like two pair (including the board pair), and a low part of the straight (i.e. his pocket cards made up the bottom cards of the straight). I remembered them smirking when they turned over as if they expected to take the pot with those hands. Le Chiffre I thought had a full house or 4 of a kind or something like that. Bond had a straight flush, which I believe he made on the river; that’s a pretty dumb play hanging in there, waiting for ONE card out of the entire deck to hit. I mean, I guess that teaches us that Bond is lucky, but a good poker player? I can accept Bond being lucky, but there was that line in the movie about Bond being the best poker player in MI6 or something.

By: kelvingreen

kelvingreen — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:10:16 +0000

The bit I did like about the parkour was when the fella dives through the window, and Bond, all no nonsense like, just bundles through the wall. “None of that fancy French poncery for me!”

You know, if this had been a film about Sean Bean’s Goldeneye character, and the silly poker plot wasn’t in there, I may have liked it more.

By: James Leahy

James Leahy — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:09:14 +0000

Yeah, I loved that Bond wasn’t as agile or quick as his quarry throughout the parkour and maintained his pursuit only by being more creative! I don’t think that the poker scenes (Baccarat Chemin de Fer in the novel) can have been easy to film and maybe Campbell didn’t do a good enough job of making sure that his audience knew what was going on but it felt suspenseful. I think it’s precisely these sorts of pretentious occaisions and tenuous excuses for rivalry that have made the Bond films so distinctive. Because of Bond’s ability to provoke he usually exposes his enemy’s roots or their agenda whilst at the same time being dressed suitably for the occaision (a Bond villain also gives themselves away through their suspect fashion sense or dodgy taste in some other area). The interesting thing about Bond’s attitude towards women is that he was almost there before Vespa.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:29:24 +0000

Sorry Neil, the Chris Cornell song was just bad – decent singing ruined with an 80’s bland feel guitar mood.
The parkour was decent, because it didn’t work as well as James being smart. The window dodge was a rip-off from a french film.
The Poker did work for me, but then I play it and understand how hard it is to be truly good.
Noone’s mentioned the love interest – perhaps because it was done well – how do you hurt a man into being Bond-ish with women.