The
Devil's Reviews

Daniel Craig—The Dour Bond

With only one excursion into the land of Bond, it's too early to characterize Daniel Craig's films. As for his take on the super spy, I can be tentative at best. As he's playing a proto-Bond, just starting in his career and still developing those characteristics that would define the man in later outings, his portrayal could be completely different next time around. For now, his James Bond is extremely athletic; he's also troubled and petulant. He shows little intelligence, less charm, and while he can "read people," is devoid of empathy. M calls him a blunt weapon (as she had in a previous film), but this time, she's accurate. He is driven, but little reason is given except for much harping on his ego which does not explain his behavior. He isn't a suave secret agent; he's a killing machine.  In the past, Bond was someone men wanted to be, and women wanted to be with. Not this time. This is the James Bond of low-budget exploitation cinema, put in a huge budget film.

It's always been tricky to put the Bond films together in time. Too many years separate Dr. No from Die Another Day for the spy to be one man (thus the multiple actors). But now things are more confusing since Daniel Craig's Bond-adventures predates those in all the other films. This is a young Bond just earning is "00" status, who is set in time after is later selves. And there's M, still played by Judi Dench, who, according to GoldenEye took the position years after Bond had earned his reputation. Is the series rebooting or just thumbing its nose at continuity? It doesn't really matter, but it is curious. I've a demon who swears that the filmmakers'  intention is that James Bond keeps dying every few years so MI6 recruits a new agent and give him the old name. Hmmmm, now isn't that the plot to the 1967 spoof also titled Casino Royale.

• Casino Royale 

 

Casino Royale

Casino Royale is the fan boy's Bond film. It answers all those questions that if you were asking, you didn't get the movies. When did Bond first wear a tux? Why doesn't he get into close, permanent relationships with women? Did he always want his martini's shaken, not stirred? Under what circumstances did he first introduce himself with, "Bond, James Bond"? 

Let's get this out of the way for all those people who failed physics and are unaware of the working of the human body. This is NOT a realistic film. The term "gritty realism" is being tossed around by uneducated critics who like to lavish praise on anything they can so label. This ain't it. Cars do not barrel-role seven times on their own.  It can't happen. Why is the one flip done in Man With the Golden Gun often criticized as silly and fake while the multiple flips here are called true-to-life? The former was actually performed by a stuntman driving a real car off a ramp, while this time the car was shot out of a cannon. Is it because Bond meant to do the river jump while it is an accident now? Similarly, no human being can leap and swing as Bond and the terrorist do at the beginning of the film. Like the crash, it is pure fantasy.

Luckily, I like fantasy, but I prefer some explanation for the non-real elements, no matter how bizarre and unlikely it is. It'd be nice if something said why a henchmen was able to do tricks that would impress Batman. He jumps around on girders and drops several stories, and he's just some average bomb-maker? Can all bomb-makers do that? Shouldn't he have been some super-villain trained for years or an Olympic gymnast gone bad? I'm perfectly happy to see all the outlandish action (there's a lot more than I'm mentioning); let's just remember that is is just that, and Casino Royale is no closer to our world than Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, just grouchier.

The plot more-or-less follows the novel's (minus the action scenes). James Bond is sent to stop a banker, Le Chiffre, who supports terrorists (of course it wasn't terrorists in the book, but terrorists are all the rage). Le Chiffre has entered a high stakes poker game (it was baccarat in the book, but it's a little too high-brow and not nearly trendy enough) and Bond must make sure he loses. He's aided by the peevish Vesper Lynd. Considering that as things turn out, she should really want Bond to like her, there's no reason for her to be such a bitch to him. But hey, Eva Green is really hot, and that's the point after all.

Casino Royale is fresh, but only for the franchise, not films in general. It is different because it is so very much the same at a more basic level: it may be the most slavish Bond movie ever to the decree that Bond flicks embrace current fads. This is James Bond starring in Mission Impossible 3. This year's cinematic trends are grit, anger, torture, and of course, terrorism. It is reminiscent of Live and Let Die and its peculiar absorption of blaxploitation. Mainstream films have gotten a bit darker, and Bond's along for the ride.

As The Devil, I was disappointed by several things in Casino Royale. What happened to the credits sequence?  Not only is the song forgettable (while it's still playing you're likely to forget it), but there's not a single nude woman in silhouette. Yes, yes, they wanted it to be all serious, but that's no reason to take away the nudes.  Make them serious nudes. The other problem is the sinning. There isn't enough and it's not shown in a good light. James Bond is an icon for the joy of sin. Yet here he comes up almost empty. Of course that could be the reason he's miserable, but I prefer lessons that show how much fun sinning is over ones that demonstrate how rotten life is without sin. This Bond needs to find some Pride, order out some good food and a lot of drinks, exercise his mind, learn a joke or two, and bed some babes.

Trendy Influences: Terrorists, gritty action pics with excessively physical leads, dark make-overs of pop icons like Batman, torture as entertainment on TV and in movies, celebrity poker.

Sins (What does this mean?)

Pride	Bond needs it to replace his egotism.
Sloth	Nada.
Avarice	Nada.
Gluttony	There are a few nice meals and Bond has a hybrid martini.
Aesthetics	Very little.
Surrogate Cruelty	Here we're in good shape: shootings, some in cold blood, a fight with a machete, lots of punching, and torture.
Thought	Unfortunately nope. This is a dimmer Bond.
Humor	Bond goes gritty and serious.
Lust	Surprisingly little.  This Bond leaves a girl before having sex with her, though he does tumble a bit with Eva Green who does her best to be sexy. For the gals, there's Daniel Craig in a swimsuit pretending he's Ursula Andress.