I can see people's ratings! Could ciao have actually fixed something?
I can see people's ratings! Could ciao have actually fixed something?
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Having just gained 007 status, James Bond is confident that he has what it takes to be a success. M is less convinced, having to clean up after Bond's body count. Then, Bond comes into contact with an associate of Le Chiffre, a man renowned for funding terrorism, and manages to put a spanner in Le Chiffre's works, losing him a large sum of money. Le Chiffre must attend a high class poker match in Montenegro to refill his coffers, or face the wrath of his clientele. Bond is sent to prevent Le Chiffre's success by playing against him, but, unable to fully trust him, M makes a Treasury official, Vesper Lynd, accompany him. Will Bond be able to fulfill his mission with Vesper weighing him down?
I am well aware that I am probably the last person in most of the Western world to have seen this film. Not being the greatest Bond fan anyway, I must admit to have been frightened away by all the hype; would it meet expectations? Would I like Daniel Craig, who is apparently so different from Bond's previous incarnations? Eventually, borrowing a copy from a friend, I succumbed, preparing for a good two hours worth of watching....
First things first. I thought Daniel Craig was good, but not brilliant, as Bond. Knowing that Casino Royale is the first episode in Bond's varied adventures, it seemed right that he looked younger and fitter than Roger Moore, Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan. However, I was expecting to find out a bit more about the man who is Bond, and from that point of view we are given nothing. He begins his career
as 007 with no history behind him whatsoever. There is some character development during the film and we see him soften, although it comes at the very end and is therefore a little late - I would have liked to know more about him as a person rather than a superhero. I missed the humour in this bond. Humour, although sometimes taken too far, did really attract me in previous films, and certainly made them more entertaining. Credit where credit is due though, he does give a really excellent performance when being tortured - his screams of pain were so realistic that I could hardly bear to watch it.
Eva Green as Vesper gives a good performance. I liked the way that her character softened during the course of the film, without flopping on the floor in a heap. She does sit under a running shower fully clothed looking pathetic at one point, but having witnessed what James had just done, it was not a great surprise. Generally, she deals with Bond very well, giving as good as she gets. It isn't an Oscar-worthy performance - the role doesn't really lend itself to that - but I liked her. I wasn't terribly convinced by the attraction between her and Bond though - it never really felt convincing and there just didn't seem to be any sparks between them.
Le Chiffre is well played by Mads Mikkelson - at least, he managed to convey a creepy kind of control over the proceedings, although he perhaps didn't freak me out as much as former Bond baddies. Judi Dench is her usual confident self as M, and I enjoyed seeing her obvious frustration with this young whippersnapper Bond. However, it is only Dench's fame that keeps her so high in the listings - her on-screen time is very short and she certainly doesn't have much of an opportunity to show off the skills I know that she has.
Plot-wise, I found this film rather dull. The storyline initially seems quite complicated, but when it comes down to it, it is the usual good meets bad, with little else to occupy the mind in between. If you like action, then you will love the first part of the film. It begins with a high speed chase round a building site, up a few cranes, in a bulldozer...it seems endless. Whereas I appreciated the stunts, I couldn't help but constantly think - that just couldn't be - when you've just swung from a girder way up off the ground, then jumped down from it onto countless hard surfaces, there is just no way you could then do an 8 minute mile in pursuit of your prey without dropping dead. Sorry, no-one is that invincible. Usually, I would turn a blind eye to these impossibilities - heck, I loved DieHard 4 and that was full of them - but I just found these a little too hard to take.
I found the run-up to the poker match generally quite tedious and overly long. There are a couple of bouts of action that stop it from being mind-numbing, but I still kept wondering when the hell the main story was going to start. It did all fall into place in the end, but I'm still not sure it needed to be so long. I was fidgeting like crazy and had to pause a couple of times before I could go on. Then the poker match starts and...well, they play poker. Oh the thrills! I don't know how to play poker and don't particularly want to; I certainly didn't appreciate watching other people play it. I knew that poker was going to play a role in the film, but did it have to be so long and boring? Thankfully, there is a twist towards the end that woke me up - just as well, because I had very nearly had enough. This twist saved the film from being a total flop in my opinion.
The stunts are excellent, as I expected from a Bond film. Despite my reservations about the 'invincibility' of Bond, they are on the whole pretty realistic in that they rely less on the silly little gadgets of previous films. Injuries are also more realistic - Bond is covered in scars, which is only proper. He doesn't walk out of dangerous situations unscathed, at least. There is a lot of violence, more so than I remember in other Bond films, and I am quite surprised that the classification is only 12. All that violence contrasts very well with the setting, which is amazing. Filmed largely in Italy, the Bahamas and the Czech Republic, the scenery is stunning and certainly added to the feeling of quality that obviously went into this film. I watched it on DVD and it looked great, but I bet it looks even better on a large screen.
On the whole, I was disappointed by this film. I loved the last twenty minutes or so, but the first two hours were quite dull and I found it hard to keep my concentration, although there is no doubt that this is a well-made film. I'm not bowled over by Daniel Craig as Bond, although I haven't written him off either. I do recommend watching, if only so that you can find out what all the fuss is about, but don't expect too much, because I don't think it is as good as the hype.
In case anyone was wondering about the title - bodacious is apparently a combination of bold and audacious.
The DVD is available from play.com for £5, both for the one disc version and the two disc collector's version.
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
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Apr 24th, 2008
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