The new James Bond is the best ever. Really.
As I went into the theater, hearing good things about the new 007, I thought that perhaps they might have made a small error. Jason Statham would have been my choice for the new James Bond, and yet he's done quite well without the franchise. If 'Transporter Two' hadn't been such an over the top piece of junk that franchise would have worked just fine. As it turned out, Crank was just what Statham needed and it was a perfect bit of action film. But now that this new cat Daniel Craig has done it, there can be no other Bond.
The answer to the question of 'shaken or stirred'? What the hell do I care? Perfect, and in two seconds he has obliterated all of the mincing that other Bonds have done through the decades. Remember the scene in which Indiana Jones is faced with some thug who goes through the elaborate swordplay? Of course you do. Jones just shot the guy. This is what the new James Bond does to all the others.
The opening chase scene which kicks off this movie also seals the coffin for another action hero who will long be loved but probably not missed. That would be Jackie Chan, because there are new street climbing stuntmen who have just put back all of the speed Chan used to have and created some really death defying action. There's at least one jump that I can tell was CGI'd in just a bit, but there are some absolutely awesome moves in this flick. (And if you're impressed with the video in the link, you ain't seen nothin' yet).
Judy Dench once again shows the kind of stiff upper lip which has always been admirable in our British bretheren and in combination with this Bond and a handful of indoor electronic plumbing lackeys (nobody quite as useful as the diehard geeks in Jack Bauer's CTU or the cast of Alias) that duo pretty much suffices to save the free world. There are no spiffy gadgets, no tricked out automobiles, no submarines or killer satellites, just ordinary terrorists with ordinary bombs and ordinary torturers with ordinary chairs. In in the face of all this is an extraordinary man-jack who out punishes the next best thing who was Matt Damon's Jason Bourne. Of course with this Bond, there is no hesitation, no second-guessing, no doubt. He's all mission, he's all field work. He is first person singular and has damned well saved the genre.
If the Bond series can be saved from ridiculous excess and unbelievable plots, as it has in Casino Royale, it will set the standard for cloak & dagger heroics in the post 9/11 world. This film ranks well up there with Bruce Willis' Jackal. George Clooney's still admirable 'Peacemaker', and Deniro's Ronin which is somewhere Bond films never used to get. This one is that good.
But Craig's Bond doesn't really mix business with pleasure. He's all business. He doesn't dress to impress, he does what's necessary for the job. And in that I think this film reflects a kind of seriousness of an Anglo-American burden that's very real in the world. And that's something that doesn't get said enough in real life, let alone in the cinema.
So bring a stiff upper lip to this thrilling and excellent turn in the Bond series, oh, and don't forget to bone up on Texas Hold 'Em, because that's what they play at Casino Royale.
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