casino ¼ pounder, hold the cheese

we saw casino royale last night with jo and her mom.

we likey.

it’s a darker bond, which is nice and refreshing.

although if you think about it, it’s sort of unclear where this sit in the bond chronology. it’s depicting bond just as he’s promoted to 00 status, but it’s clearly in set in the present. so how does that fit in with all of his 60’s adventures? it’s being billed as a restart/rebooting of the franchise, so maybe it’s a reimagining of the concept: here are the bond themes, and let’s go! not unlike what they’re doing with battlestar galactica, with similar fantastic success. highlight for teeny spoiler: love jeffrey wright as the new felix leiter. just the second african-american felix, but the first “official” one. good thing, because didn’t the last one get his legs gnawed off by a shark?

i’d really like to think that it’s the approach that the original spoof casino royale took: that james bond/007 was symbolic of the spirit of the secret service, and when you get 007 you not only get the number, but the name/identity as well. lazenby in ohmss hinted at this, saying “this never happened to the other fellow,” yet in the new casino royale, they make it clear that bond is bond first and just getting 007, so it’s not quite the case. too bad.

in any case, i do like that it’s a more serious bond, ala the early connery films. no gadgets, just tough and edgy.

love:

• the opening film noir sequence
  
• the opening titles. gorgeous!
  
• the opening parkour fight/chase sequence
  
• eva green. remember bertolucci’s the dreamers? yummy.

quick aside: these fancy computer scenes look less fake. is this because they’re getting better at them and making them less stupid (ala mission: impossible mailing the internet) or because we know that computers are getting so powerful that we now think, “i guess that could happen, who knows? these computers got mad skillz now!”

Posted at November 25, 2006 12:52 PM