Casino Royale

As stated in an earlier blog, OJJ and some Family members went and checked the Bond on Turkey Day. Many of you don't know this, but OJJ was and is somewhat of a 007 fanatic. I even have al the Ian Flemming and John Gardener books. I think my edition of Dr. No and Casino Royale are both 2nd editions. Unfortunately no first editions. To hard to find.

The new movie........not bad. I thought it was a decent adaptation of the 1st James Bond novel. Daniel Craig did a great job as 007. I wouldn't go so far to call him the best. He was gritty, but so was Sean Connery. He was a bad ass when fighting, but so was George Lazenby in his one outing as 007. I wouldn't say he was debonair like Roger Moore. Maybe a little dark like Timothy Dalton. In my opinion, a much better Bond than Remington Steele.  

The story, as in the book, is an introduction to Bond. He has just been given "double 0" status. It also shows how Bond becomes cold as ice.

My biggest problem is that they keep advertising as the movie were Bond finds the one love of his life. uh, Hello! Her Majesty's Secret Serve, Bond (George Lazenby) meets Teresa, whom he later marries. She is then killed by Blowfelds henchmen at the end. Later in For Your Eyes Only, the beginning starts with Bond (Roger Moore) visiting Teresa Bond's grave and placing flowers there before getting his chopper hijacked by Blofeld (in full Doctor Evil mode) which he re-hijacks and then drops Blofeld in a smokestack. Did they forget all of that. At least the marriage parts are in the book, so they can't discount that!

I am glad, however, that they finally made Casino Royale in to a real Bond movie. All we had before was the camp with David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen, and of course the very first Bond that was live on American TV with Bond played by American, Barry Allen.

Overall, I liked it and would put this movie in the top 10 Bond movies. Hey maybe next TBS or Spike does Bond week, I'll Rank the movies.

In the meantime go see Casino Royale.

OJJ