I will admit, this is my first full Bond movie, (I’ve seen some of the original) but I am not immune to the Bond series and the classic Bond figure. Anyway, here goes my review…
The basic plot is slightly confusing (making the movie always a step ahead of the audience) but the basic idea is this: The bad guy, LeChiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) is evil and James Bond has to stop him. After a couple of action scenes that set up the character of Bond (Daniel Craig)the main plot is revealed that through a series of events, Bond has toplay at a (very rich people’s) poker game and beat Le Chiffre, or else”our government will have directly financed terrorism.” A good portion of the movie is actually the boring game itself. But the game is anything but boring. I know very little beyond the basics of poker, which I have probably already forgotten - but still the game is easy to follow and surprisingly fascinating.
Of course, there are several heart-pounding (and I mean that literally) interruptions of the game, which I will keep disclosed as they are major plot points. But be rest assured, it is not a boring movie. Anyway, it ends and the last half hour consists of Bond getting together with the girl and resigning. Yeah, right.
What makes this movie so great is of course newcomer to the Bondrole Daniel Craig. People have been hailing him as the “best Bond ever,” etc. And I have to say that he is a terrific actor. He plays the role very well. He’s cool, clever, funny, and also scary. His disregard for human life is an issue brought up many times throughout the movie.The other characters are also amazingly acted, Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre is a mysterious and haunting bad guy.
It’s really the acting that seperates this movie from what it could have been: A nonstop hollywood action movie. Okay, well - that’s actually what it is - but it’s a good one! The locations (and there are a lot of them) are amazing and the acting is superb.
Also superb is the music. It comes in when it should and leaves when it should. It’s fitting and good. That’s all there is to say about it - it’s like that classic Bond spy theme.
The movie is a fantastic action packed, thrilling movie. But there’s one problem with the plot: All the action happens in the first half hour. Okay, not all of it - but 2 out of the 3 big action scenes in the movie literally happen in the first 45 minutes (the movie is over 2 hours long altogether.) And the ending action scene isn’t nearly as good as the other two. Is this a bad thing - sort of. I can’t argue about the bad action scenes, but their placement within the movie could have been much better.
So overall, the newest James Bond movie is a great movie - much better than most action films coming out today, especially with some awesome acting. It has a few flaws, but in truth everyone should be happy that it’s not a complete flop.
4.5/5 stars
I saw the film last night - IT ROCKED!
I saw CR also, and thought it was really good, however a big reason I like it is because of how it reinterprets the bond franchise. All the successive Bonds have been essentially the same literary character, rather flat and two dimensional. This new guy takes it in a radically new direction. And they didn’t stop with bond; the bond girl is better realized, his boss “Q” is Judith Dench for crying out loud. Not to mention the terrific set pieces and locations — oh yeah, you did mention those.
Check out some of the earlier bonds on DVD if you can, you’ll see how plastic those Cubby Brocoli interps were.
UB