Casino Royale

It’s not a Bond movie.

Here’s why. (Caution: Spoilers ahead.)
~ There is no infatuated secretary. Moneypenny did not make an appearance.
~ There is no gadget man. No signs of Q.
~ There are no snazzy gadgets except for the tracer and the machine that saves Bond’s life.
~ There is no modified car.
~ There is no bevy of beauties. Only two.
~ There is not much fooling around. There is not much wild, fun-loving romp.

~ Bond has to work too hard for his mission.
~ He has to get too physical; too much fist work and blood are involved.
~ His Martini is neither shaken nor stirred.
~ He falls in love! A big NO NO since he usually just love ‘em and leave ‘em.
~ He is too serious. So is the entire movie.
~ The movie is too long.
~ Some parts of the movie are too mushy.

~ And Daniel Craig is just not Bond material.

I can envision him as a cold hearted killer. But I can’t envision him as a suave, charming, womanising, cold hearted, secret agent!

For that, we have to look back at previous Bonds.
* Sean Connery oozed with that.
* Roger Moore had quite a fair bit of that.
* Timothy Dalton had some of that.
* And of course, Spaghetti legs … oops! … I mean Pierce Brosnan had loads of that.
* But Daniel Craig, sadly, just DO NOT have that! He is a good actor but he is just not Bond.

Don’t get me wrong though. It is not a bad movie. In fact, I would have enjoyed it more if it is marketed as another secret agent movie. It started off with a great chase scene! It has some good car chase sequences. There are a few interesting twists here and there (nothing unpredictable though). And I enjoy the wittiness on Bond’s part during the torture scene. It’s certainly a good watch for a free weekend.

But, it’s clearly just not a Bond movie! For me at least.