House of Eratosthenes

New JAMES BOND movie CASINO ROYALE has already been voted one of the top 20 most mistake-filled films of the year (06) – less than one week after its release. After spotting onscreen errors, fans have flooded film continuity website MovieMistakes.com to voice their complaints.

So what’re we looking at here…some dude gets off’d thirty minutes into it, and an hour after that you see the guy walking around in the background, maybe with speaking lines and everything? No, nothing of the sort. For detail, we go straight to the forementioned Movie Mistakes website (warning, spoilers be therein) and we find stuff like this.

During the scene at the restaurant in Monenegro (actually filmed in the Czech Republic) you see a payphone with a Czech Telecom logo on it (itself a piece of history as these are all now rebranded O2).

When James Bond is supposedly in Montenegro, this was filmed in the Czech Republic – although they changed most of the signs they forgot some. When they are having a drink in the square there is a visible sign saying “Bily Kun” which means “White Horse” in Czech.

On the train to Montenegro, Bond & Vesper are swaying or rocking with the train, but the wine on the table is not.

Oh me. Oh my. I fear the movie has been ruined for me.

No, of course I’m being sarcastic. What a bunch of buttholes.

Okay, here’s some information you can use about the new Bond movie. First: It is a “reboot.” M, as in the female M who started her stint in the seventeenth Bond film, is James Bond’s first boss. Yeah, so in other words, all that stuff that happened in the previous Bond films, never happened. Nor has the stuff since then. All twenty Bond movies…events described therein, never took place. You over it yet? Good. Read on.

Bond becomes a Double-oh. So yeah, you get to see the origin of James Bond. And here’s the cool thing — it’s got something to do with the famous gun-barrel opening sequence that has been present throughout all the Broccoli films since From Russia With Love. Something cool. Rather trivial, but it’s really snazzy. I liked it a lot. So from now on, you can dig out one of the other twenty Bond films, and you’ve got an explanation for what went on with the gun barrel sequence. But remember…it is a reboot. References are made to the September 11 attacks; James Bond, himself, is a counterterrorism weapon created to address the new threats in a post-9/11 world.

Casino Royale follows the For Your Eyes Only scheme of things. Light on the gadgets. With a dark and brooding Bond. Great stunts, a complicated story from the pulp novels kept more-or-less intact, lots of intrigue. Little itty-bitty kids who were able to appreciate Moonraker and Goldeneye and Die Another Day — they might not be able to get into this. As for the new actor, he is good. Very, very good. But he does fail to capture the overlap between the manicured foppish upper-cruster and the cold-blooded hired killer, as Sean Connery did. Daniel Craig is decidedly rugged, with the splotchy pale skin of my own Nordic forebearers and a big honkin’ potato nose. That’s fine. Some of the dialog suggests there is difficulty involved in spotting the real James Bond, and figuring out he doesn’t come from “old money.” This is inconsistent with the actor chosen for the role. If this fellow comes from old money, something is terribly wrong. He looks like a swedish hog farmer and his hair is sticking out in several different directions.

But I can get past this stuff…and a bunch of signs that say Bily Kun. This film is a work of quality…bordering on a work of art. It captures a new perspective of an old action hero, and manages to blend in an attribute of youth and inexperience. Certain events the Bond fan may recall from the other twenty installments, are “prequeled.” The wedding, and events leading up to it, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service — this comes immediately to mind. Our new vision of this gentleman, this hired killer, comes straight out of the Fleming novels, and yet it blends in easily with the Broccoli contributions. It’s fascinating, really.

But I can give a much shorter review of this film. I can shorten it to one word, if I really try. Just one. And here it is.

Five.

The new James Bond movie is the fifth-best.

Here’s how I see the 21 films at this point. Best-to-worst, each entry contains ranking, title, installment number, and the actor who played 007. See how it squares with your own list.

1. Goldeneye (17) (Brosnan)
2. From Russia With Love (2) (Connery)
3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (6) (Lazenby)
4. Goldfinger (3) (Connery)
5. Casino Royale (21) (Craig)
6. License To Kill (16) (Dalton)
7. Thunderball (4) (Connery)
8. Octopussy (13) (Moore)
9. For Your Eyes Only (12) (Moore)
10. The Man With The Golden Gun (9) (Moore)
11. Die Another Day (20) (Brosnan)
12. Dr. No (1) (Connery)
13. Moonraker (11) (Moore)
14. The World Is Not Enough (19) (Brosnan)
15. Diamonds Are Forever (7) (Connery)
16. The Spy Who Loved Me (10) (Moore)
17. Live And Let Die (8) (Moore)
18. A View To A Kill (14) (Moore)
19. You Only Live Twice (5) (Connery)
20. The Living Daylights (15) (Dalton)
21. Tomorrow Never Dies (18) (Brosnan)

[…] Just generally interesting stuff. What would have happened if Goldeneye had been made with Timothy Dalton returning to play James Bond a third time? Plot overview, car, devices, bad guys all here. Yakuza gangsters. The Aston-Martin DB5 returning for “one last ride.” Motorcycle with front-mounted missile launcher. Some asshole named “Nigel” who wants to shut down the double-oh section for good. What more could you want? Share This Article With Others:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 01/19/2007 @ 01:58

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On The New Bond MovieThursday, November 23rd, 2006

On The New Bond Movie
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006