Casino Royale

I saw it a second time, this time the reels were not mixed up so it made a little more sense. Each time you see a movie again you will see new things. The sixth time I saw E.T. I was seeing new things. Same thing happened the sixth time I saw The Road Warrior. It's a wide screen and there are so many different thing happening you can't possibly see it all the first time.

I look forward to seeing Casino Royale a third time when I can watch it un-cut and un-censored.

I had missed the first 10 minutes of Casino Royale the first time I saw it. I thought I had only missed a few seconds but I was wrong. There is a black-and-white opening where Bond makes his second kill. The only reason I knew that I had missed it is because I saw an ad for the movie on TV which featured it. The opening to Bond movies are a must-see. The credits are always amazing too and Casino Royale is no different.

I remember at age 13 walking into a Bond film a little late. It was The Spy Who Loved Me. and the first thing I saw was Bond skiing off a cliff then ejecting his skis while he was free-falling. He then opens his parachute.

Have we ever had a Bond this hunky before? I don't think so. This Bond definitely breaks with some of the traditions and stereotypes of the old Bond and that's what I love about this film.

You know this is a different bond when Bond breaks with tradition. Usually Bond will order a vodka-martini shaken not stirred but in Casino Royale he orders a vodka-martini and the waiter asks "Shaken or stirred?" to which he replies "Does it look like I give a damn?"

This is the first and only Bond where he breaks into M's apartment. As I mentioned in my previous entry for Casino Royale, the part of M has been played by Judi Dench in all of the Pierce Brosnana Bond films but what I didn't realize is that M was played by a man in the early Bond films. I noticed that while watching "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" on TV.

This is the longest Bond film ever at 144 minutes. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" held the record for 37 years at 140 minutes. I also read this is the only Bond film that it rains. Daniel Craig is also the youngest Bond since George Lazenby played Bond in 1969 in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I also read that "Casino Royale" is the most often filmed of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels totaling three times: in 1954, 1967 and 2006.

I was wrong in my previous blog entry about Casino Royale where I said "I'm pretty sure this is the first time he falls in love." Here in Malaysia they played all of the Bond films and I happen to catch the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969). It's one of the only Bond films I have not seen. Bond falling in love is the main plot of this movie. At the end they actually get married but just as in Casino Royale, he can never have the girl and she is killed off.

After seeing Casino Royale I tried to watch some of the older Bond films from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s but they all seem cartoonish and silly now. As I watched "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" I kept thinking what a joke of a movie it was.

It is my hope that Daniel Craig continues to play Bond for five more movies and after that they continue with this more serious tough-guy Bond and never return to the silly nutty Bond of the past.