My thoughts on the latest James Bond movie, “Casino Royale”? Well, the initial impact was that Daniel Craig looks like a sort of “Russian, Greco-Roman wrestler” (he’s got blue eyes) and somewhat less emotionless than Brosnan (who wasn’t all that bad as 007). He certainly though comes across as quite the tough guy. The theme song isn’t bad either (sung by Chris Cornell) as are the images with the opening credits. Very colourful, indeed.
This is one Bond that takes a LOT of hits, including several to the gonads. No “Q” or Miss Moneypenny (the original one was from Toronto) this time and very little Bond theme music throughout the movie. “M” is again Judy Dench, her 5th appearance in that role (I saw M’s home—the real one—in London a few years ago. The front window is bomb-proof! I also saw the home of the Hungarian architect Bloefeld, just one of the many “meanies” in the Bond series) and is always hard on Bond as she thinks of him as simply a macho pig (but deep down has a soft spot for him anyway and hates to see harm come his way). At one point I was very disappointed as I was anxiously awaiting THE world’s most famous phrase: “My name is Bond. James Bond”! Luckily, right at the end of the movie Craig says it after shooting a poor bloke in the leg on the shores of Lake Como (where George Clooney has his villa), leading many to believe that there will indeed be another Bond movie with him in 2008 or so.
And what does this Bond have to do with Italy? I think this Bond movie also holds a small record of Italian actors in a Bond movie, three of them to be exact: Giancarlo Giannini who plays Mathis (and who usually dubs Al Pacino), the VERY sexy Caterina Murino who plays Solange and who has a rather ill-fated love affair with Bond and Roman-born Claudio Santamaria who is one of the meanies who tries to destroy the new Airbus plane and has the misfortune of also tangling with Bond (and who says absolutely nothing during his short part in the movie). Santamaria says the following during a fight scene with Craig: he gave the 38 year-old English actor a head-butt but came out the loser. Craig looked at him and said, “Welcome to my world”! He also says that taking part in that fight scene was like living in a “video game”.
Nice also to see Venice in the movie (we went there the very day before to see the Picasso exhibit). I personally have been going there for the last 41 years and it remains my all-time favourite city, in the entire world. One small faux pas: you see Bond on a private sail boat on the Grand Canal. Private boats are off-limits there. Nevertheless, we had been walking around St. Mark’s square on Thursday. We saw the movie on Friday. It was nice to see the same square in the movie (history repeats itself: I recall that for “Moonraker” with Roger Moore I was in Winnipeg. It was August. Shortly after while I was on vacation in Italy I also went to Venice. There I stood in front of the glass shop, located right on the side of St. Mark’s Basilica, the very same shop which Moore had entered in the movie!). There’s also an airport scene in Miami of people going through the metal detector. One fellow turns to the cameras and smiles: it’s Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin airlines (and records and a lot of other things).
As with fine wines, it’ll take me a few times to see this one to truly appreciate Craig. The next time will probably be in English and through a DVD. Amazon has on sale a special silver suitcase with the previous 20 Bond movies. I may ask for that one for my 50th birthday (if I’ll make it by then). This one is the longest of them all and clocks in at 2 hrs and 22 minutes (or so). The opening scene shows Bond on a New Holland tractor. Fiat should be happy as I believe they bought New Holland years ago (for the Italian premier of the movie a few weeks ago in Rome, they had a New Holland tractor there with the entire cast).
And how times have changed: when he’s asked if he wants his Martini shaken or stirred he answers that he couldn’t care less (in Italian at least)! But Bond is Bond and still drinks Bollinger champagne (not to mention driving a stupendous Aston Martin)!
The very latest reports say that “Casino Royale” has now become THE most popular Bond film of all time. It seems that Craig has hit the spot with Bond fans worldwide. After now having seen him twice—and with all my utmost respect for the great Sean Connery (in the picture the original Bond in Rome a few years ago for his wife’s art exhibit. Ursula Andress was also there, perhaps the most famous of all Bond girls, at least the one that knocked everyone’s socks off back in 1962 when she came out of the water with that skimpy bikini!)—I’m convinced that had Craig, albeit much too young, taken over from Connery’s role, he would have become perhaps THE most popular Bond of all time.
I’m proud to say that the other day I tried guessing the titles of the 21 Bond films made so far. I “only” managed 19 of them! I’ve seen every other Bond movie at least 62 times to the point of actually memorising the lines while in the process driving others around me crazy as I can always anticipate what the actors are about to say!
Check out “Casino Royale”, it’s well worth the price (all pics by M. Rimati).
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