Tarrador's "Netflix Movies 2009"

This DVD was a gift and I finally got around to watching it recently. “Casino Royale” introduced Daniel Craig as Bond and this movie tries to wipe the slate clean of the dashing Sean Connery, the tounge-cheek Roger Moore, the forgetable George Lazenby, the dour Timothy Dalton, and the basically made for TV Pierce Brosnan. This Bond is borderline psycho, more in the mold of Robert Shaw’s killer Grant in “From Russia With Love”, hard to see as anything but a remorseless killing machine who doesn’t suave his way in and out of things, he bulldozes. It’s like Rambo and Terminator with an English accent. And in both movies, it was hard for the villian to measure up. LeChiffe was an asmatic eye-bleeder with the jitters, and Dominic Green is a tree hugging sociopath who gets off killing pretty girls. Both “Bond Girls”, Vesper Lynd and Camille Montes, are well suited to the new century of action movies. Smart, capable, hard hitting women who are sexy without being dumb. Passionate without being hysterical. I am coming to like Olga Kurylenko for these types of roles. Unfortunately QS doesn’t really stand on its own as a Bond movie. Yes it is gritty, vibrant and action packed as any other thriller in the theaters today. Yes both films have been the highest grossing Bond films ever. But it has a larger debt to pay to fans of this unique genre. The film has to be smart, and Bond has to be cool. I want to be Bond when I see Connery light a cigarette and cock an eyebrown. I want to be Bond when Moore jumps into a car that turns into a submarine that turns into a airplane. I want to be Bond when Brosnan sits opposite some larger than life super villian and calmly orders champagne, cracking wise-ass the whole time. I’m not sure I want to be Craig’s Bond. That seems like a dark, lonely, scary place to be.