Double O Countdown: Casino Royale

I can safely say there is nothing about this film I don't like. If I could break my own rules, there would easily be a dozen moments to highlight, although it might be simpler to just list all two hours and twenty four minutes of the film. The villain is perfect, the girl is perfect, the resolution is devastatingly perfect, and the final line is the most perfect of all. It is not just an over reaction to the sad state the series was in from the last film, it was the complete overhaul of the concept and the integration with the established that makes this movie work. This was Ian Fleming's first Bond novel and it took forty years after he died to bring it to life, I'm so glad they waited to get it right.

001  A Real Bond Moment and a Touch of Humor

The re-boot of the series takes the stories in a decidedly more serious direction. It was easy to worry that the more somber 007 would ruin the joie de vivre of the movies. It turns out, there is still humor here, it is just a lot more subtle. A single self referencing smile blows the cool demeanor of the character for just a moment as he soaks in the situation he finds himself in while wearing a brand new tuxedo.

002  Torture

From the demented mind of his creator, James endures the torture scene that created the whole aura of sadism around the series. It is brutal and hard to watch, but it is also a test of wills between two very dangerous men.

003  Least Worst Alternative

After chasing the bomb maker across half of Northern Africa, and catching him with great difficulty, James is confronted by the entire security force of an African Embassy with guns pointed at him. He seems to give up on the captive, pushing him toward the head man on the staff, but quickly makes a choice that cause all kinds of trouble but one which was the least worst he could choose.

Yep, that's our man.

004  The Free Running Chase

The bomb maker sniffs out a trap and starts to run, Bond follows. A terrific action sequence that is capped off by the previous point but which deserves it's own slot on the list.

 

He is not as smooth at the running style as his prey, but 007 is determined not to let his man escape.

005 The Black and White Opening

The re-boot starts off like a spy film from the 1960s. Not the glamorous Bond films but the John Lecarre type. Dirty, tough and Black and White.

How did he die? Not well

The Second is easier.







And then a real switch, the gun barrel logo is integrated into the scene and a new era starts.

006  Vesper Lynd [Spoilers] 

Eva Green is the most desirable Bond girl and she is a femme fatale. She is clever and emotional and just the kind of a bird with a wing down that Fleming imagined his hero would fall for.

Bond fantasizes that he can leave his job and live with the woman he loves in any way he wants.

 The dream of normalcy is enough to blind him to the clues of her perfidious nature.

The moment of betrayal hits him as hard as the rope lanyard that Le Chiffre used on his testicles.

Even with that betrayal, he does all he can to save her.

007  The Final Line

They make you wait for it. Director Martin Campbell who revived Bond with "Goldeneye" a decade earlier, does it again with a brilliant shot, just the right amount of a pause, and then Daniel Craig's delivery of the introduction that fills all of our spy dreams.

"The names Bond..."

James Bond will Return in: "Quantum of Solace"

Double O Countdown: Die Another Day

Unfortunately, this should not take long. This was the hardest post to find seven things for since it is at the bottom of my list of Bond Films. Don't get me wrong, I will still watch this thing if I happen by it on the satellite, but I won't be proud of myself. It's too bad too because there are some great concepts, they just get swallowed up by preposterous CGI and incredulous plot points.

001  Laser Surgery

The fight between Bond and a Samoan henchman in a laser lab designed to change peoples faces if the start of too much technology getting in the way of the story. Except it does have a good money shot.

002  Screwing with tradition

Purists will squawk about it, but I enjoyed a variation on the famous gunbarrel opening.



I liked the variation of the bullet coming right at the audience. Of course it is a CGI tip off of things to come.

003  Escaping from your own side.

Bond is returned to the British in exchange for Zao, and promptly put under lock and key by M and the suspicios intelligence community that thinks he broke under pressure. He fakes a heart attack so he can use a defibrilator on his Doctors and step off a ship in Hong Kong Harbor.

Of course James Bond has the audacity to simply appear at his favorite hotel in Hong Kong, soaking wet in his pajamas and still manage to swagger. ( A characteristic the villain mocks later in the film)

A call to his tailor, a fine meal and some Bollinger and all is right with the world again.

004  Fan Service Underground

In a secret vault, in an abandonded underground station, M and Q have some more uses for 007.

M grills him about what he learned while out of their sight in Cuba, and then points him at the suspected enemy.

Before "Q" provides him with the ultimate conclusion of any credibility, we get a little tour of the vault with past souvenirs from other adventures.  If you can't make it good, at least make the fans happy.

005  Honey Ryder, 2002 Style

Mimicking the first appearance of the first Bond girl, Halle Berry shows up on the screen like Venus rising from the surf.

I don't think there is any doubt about why she is in this movie. Maybe the most beautiful Bond girl since Solitaire.

006  Insider Fan Service

The sleeper agent in Cuba offers to assist Bond and while they talk in his office, Bond casually picks up a book.

The title is the same one as a book that Ian Fleming owned. He took the name of the author for his main character because it sounded so mundane to him: James Bond.

007   Torture in more ways than one.

There are two unfortunate things about my favorite element of this movie. First, it occurs very early on in the film. In fact, the best sequence of the movie finishes just after the titles.

James Bond is caught and brutally tortured to give up information.

The last bit of North Korean cruelty is that as they exchange him for their own spy, they let him think he is being executed.

The second unfortunate thing about my favorite part of the movie is that James is not the only one being tortured here. The whole audience is subjected to an atrocious Madonna song as the Torture sequence is mixed with the title credits and song. Had they used this music, 007 would not have been able to hold out for 14 months.

James Bond will Return in "Casino Royale"

Double O Countdown: The World Is Not Enough

As I go back through all of the Bond films, some things change and some stay the same. I continue to believe that Sean Connery was the Best James Bond and that Pierce Brosnan was my least favorite. I think the weakness of Brosnan's films was the dialogue. Too many times, bad puns or sexual innuendo are forced into a scene and it just stiffs. He looks great in the part and he is a solid actor. His scenes with the villains are usually solid, but his sequences back at MI6 are often leaden. "The World is Nor Enough" exemplifies this pattern. A confusing early premise, is overcome by effective antagonists and good action scenes. I formerly thought "Tomorrow Never Dies" was a better film, but I think I'm now of the opinion that is is Brosnan's second best outing as 007.

001  A Joke or Not?

Having just bitched about the bad sex jokes, I'm joining to undermine my position and list one of them as a favorite element of the film. It probably stands out because so many don't work and this one did, for the time. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it? Let's look and you decide.

In the middle of the pre-title sequence, James comes back to London and gives Moneypenny a cigar that he received from a treacherous Swiss banker. She looks at him coyly and says, "I know just where to put this."  She waits a beat and then tosses it in the trash. I think we just got a Clinton-Lewinsky joke in a Bond film.

002  Part Two of the Pre-Title Sequence

After a shootout and escape from a tall office building, Bond returns a large sum of cash to MI6 and the rightful owner. It turns out to be explosive and an Assassin with a rifle is on the Thames right outside the building during the fracas. Bond jumps into a mini-boat that Q is working on and a chase ensues.

It starts with a rocket like launch out of the facde of the smoking MI6 building.

Halfway into the chase the mini boat does several 360 degree rotations.

The boat is partially submersible and James adjusts his tie in true cool 007 style.

After several minutes of crashes, building blown through and some unnecessary comic moments, the boat launches out of the water and Bond launches himself onto a dangling rope to continue the chase.

003  Once Again, I show my fondness for James Bond on skis.

He meets Electra King out on the slopes near a mountain range where her pipeline is supposed to go, and they are attacked by a bunch of flying snowmobiles that James later calls "parahawks".

Lots of Ski action and explosions follow their arrival.

There is even a nice reversal of a moment from an earlier Bond film. As one of the snowmobiles goes off the edge of a cliff, James makes a cutting remark and begins to turn away. Suddenly, the Russian made parahawk launches a back up parachute. "The Spy Who Loved Me" is reversed and the chase continues.

004  M is Kidnapped

When M was played by crusty old guys like Bernard Lee or Robert Brown, there was never much emotional investment in the relationship with 007. In the books, although he sees James as an valuable agent, M sometimes hints of a paternalistic relationship. No such effort was made with the films.  As the series continued though, Judi Dench suggested a more maternal interest in Bond, and when she is threatened, it makes the concept more believable.

We discover Electra King's real character and in an embarassing breach of security, all of the agents with M get killed and she is taken captive and moved to Istanbul for the climax of the film.

Two long sequences of exposition occur with M and Electra and then M and Renard. Both allow the actors some chances to chew a little scenery and make their characters more interesting.

005  The Action Climax in a Submarine

Weighed down by the second most annoying Bond girl in the series (right after Mary Goodnight), Bond tries to rescue Christmas Jones and stop the detonation of a nuclear device. Oh yeah, this all happens on a sinking submarine.

Gravity applies to everyone, even under the sea.

James will have to exit and reenter the sub at some point.

Of course it is not a smooth re-entry.

Denise Richards shows us why she was cast in the picture in the first place. She is no Jacqueline Bisset, but a amateur bar t-shirt contest can't be far away.

Nice miniature work to finish off the sequence.

006  The Antagonists [Spoilers Ahead]

As usual, a beautiful Bond girl will die after making love to our hero.

Less usual, she dies at the hands of 007. In a moment of typical Bond tough mindedness, Bond shoots the treacherous heiress that he has been wooing.

Creepy Terrorist, Renard the Anarchist is revealed to be dying slowly as he gains strength and loses all feeling of pain. (sounds like Darkman)

I have liked Robert Carlyle since "The Full Monty". He had several good moments in the film. I could have used a bit more of his presense at times but generally a solid bad guy.

Robbie Coltrane

Valentin Zukovsky is not really a bad guy in this film, but he does have an occassional difference of opinion with Bond. I just appreciate that the character and actor came back for a second helping of Bond, oh yea and of caviar.

007  The Title

Being a Bond fanatic, I knew where the title came from when it was first announced. I had a conversation on the radio with Rod Lurie about it a few weeks before the films release. Sometimes it s a joy to be a geek about something.

James Bond's Family Coat of Arms with the motto translated for you who did not already guess.

James Bond will Return in : "Die Another Day"