Daniel Craig

[chuzhuchichezhan 0]

One very good review of Casino Royale, or perhaps more precisely of Daniel Craig, in the Guardian here. The Guardian is one of the "broadsheet" papers (as distinct from the tabloids) in the UK and normally writes relatively "sensible" reviews.

Edited November 10, 2006 by chuzhuchichezhan

[BobbyD 2]

Casino Royale

(U.K.-Czech Republic-Germany-U.S.)

By TODD MCCARTHY

 

A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of an MGM, Columbia Pictures and Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Prods. presentation. Produced by Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli. Executive producers, Anthony WayeCQ, Callum McDougall. Directed by Martin Campbell. Screenplay, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, based on the novel by Ian Fleming.

 

James Bond - Daniel Craig

Vesper Lynd - Eva Green

Le Chiffre - Mads Mikkelsen

M - Judi Dench

Felix Leiter - Jeffrey Wright

Mathis - Giancarlo Giannini

Solange - Caterina Murino

Alex Dimitrios - Simon Abkarian

Steven Obanno - Issach De Bankole

Mr. White - Jesper Christensen

Valenka - Ivana Milicevic

Villiers - Tobias Menzies

Carlos Claudio Santamaria

 

For once, there is truth in advertising: The credits proclaim Daniel Craig as "Ian Fleming's James Bond 007," and Craig comes closer to the author's original conception of this exceptionally long-lived male fantasy figure than anyone since early Sean Connery. "Casino Royale" sees Bond recharged with fresh toughness and arrogance, along with balancing hints of sadism and humanity, just as the fabled series is reinvigorated by going back to basics. The Pierce Brosnan quartet set financial high-water marks for the franchise that may not be matched again, but public curiosity, lack of much high-octane action competition through the holiday season and the new film's intrinsic excitement should nonetheless generate Bond-worthy revenue internationally.

Bond made his debut in "Casino Royale" when it was published in 1953, and while the novel was adapted the following year for American television (Barry Nelson played Bond) and in 1967 became a lame all-star spy send-up featuring Peter Sellers, David Niven and Woody Allen, it remained unavailable to the Eon producers until now.

 

As refashioned for this 21st series installment, the novel's focus on a high-stakes cards showdown doesn't kick in for an hour. But Craig's taking over as the sixth actor to officially portray the secret agent on the bigscreen (not including that first "Casino") provides a plausible opportunity to examine the character's promotion to double-0 status, which is neatly done in a brutal black-and-white prologue in which he notches his first two kills.

 

After the pic bleeds into color, Bond pursues a would-be suicide bomber in a madly acrobatic chase through an African construction site, at the end of which he happens to be filmed killing an apparently, if not in fact, unarmed man in images instantly disseminated on the Internet, to the enormous embarrassment of MI6. Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Bond.

 

Doubling the displeasure of his boss M (Judi Dench happily back for her fifth turn) by surreptitiously entering her flat, Bond ignores her reprimand by high-tailing it to the Bahamas, itself a nice throwback to the film series' origins in "Dr. No." Following a cell phone trail of potential terrorist bombers, Bond tracks one, then another in Miami, where an evening that begins at a "Bodyworks" exhibition ends with a high-speed tarmac battle in which the fate of the world's biggest new jetliner hangs in the balance.

 

Even by this early juncture, the pic has emphatically announced its own personality. It's comparatively low-tech, with the intense fights mostly conducted up close and personally, the killings accomplished by hand or gun, and without an invisible car in evidence; Bond is more of a lone wolf, Craig's upper-body hunkiness and mildly squashed facial features giving him the air of a boxer; 007's got a frequently remarked upon ego, which can cause him to recklessly overreach and botch things, and the limited witticisms function naturally within the characters' interchanges.

 

As matters advance to the Continent, elements even more unusual in the Bond world of late, comprehensible plotting and palpable male-female frissons, move to the fore. Bond's enemy is not a Mr. Evil type plotting world domination, but a financier of international terrorism, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), who needs to make financial amends by winning a big-pot poker game at the casino in fictional Montenegro. Bond plans to break Le Chiffre for good at the gambling table, and to this end he is fronted $10 million delivered by a most alluring messenger, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), assigned to keep tabs on the coin.

 

Their initial meeting on board a Euro fast train fairly crackles with a sexual undercurrent as they perceptively size one another up. But Vesper intends to maintain a professional distance from her temporary colleague, whose contest of wills and luck with Le Chiffre in the hushed confines of a private gaming room is repeatedly interrupted during breaks by spasms of violence and attempts on Bond's life.

 

Yarn does tend to go on a bit once it sails past the two-hour mark, but final stretch contains two indelible interludes crucial to defining this new incarnation of Bond. Constrained nude to a bottomed-out chair, Bond is tortured by Le Chiffre who repeatedly launches a hard-tipped rope upon his nemesis' most sensitive area, and Craig once and for all claims the character as his own by virtue of the supreme defiance with which he taunts Le Chiffre even in vulnerable extremis. Later, the startling, tragic turn in Bond's relationship with Vesper provides a measure of understanding for his rake-like tendencies down the line.

 

Script by series vets Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, along with Paul Haggis, hangs together reasonably well and is rewarded for its unaccustomed preoccupation with character by the attentiveness to same by director Martin Campbell, back after having helmed the first Brosnan entry, "GoldenEye," 11 years ago. Dialogue requires Bond to acknowledge his mistakes and reflect on the soul-killing nature of his job, self-searching unimaginable in the more fanciful Bond universes inhabited by Brosnan and Roger Moore.

 

Shrewd and smart as well as gorgeous, Vesper Lynd is hardly the typical Bond girl (she never even appears in a bathing suit), and Green makes her an ideal match for Craig's Bond. Danish star Mikkelsen proves a fine heavy, an imposing man with the memorable flaw of an injured eye that sometimes produces tears of blood. Giancarlo Giannini has a few understated scenes as a friendly contact in Montenegro, and while Jeffrey Wright has little to do as CIA man Felix Leiter, he does get off a couple of the film's best lines, and one can hope he may figure more prominently in forthcoming installments. Sebastien Foucan does some eyebrow-raising "free running" stunts in the African chase.

 

"Casino Royale" is the first Bond in a while that's not over-produced, and it's better for it. Production values are all they need to be, and while the score by David Arnold, in his fourth Bond outing, is very good, the title song, "You Know My Name," sung by Chris Cornell over disappointingly designed opening credits, is a dud.

 

Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Phil Meheux; editor, Stuart Baird; music, David Arnold; production designer, Peter Lamont; supervising art director, Simon Lamont; art directors, Dominic Masters, Steven Lawrence, Peter Francis, Alan Tomkins, Fred Hole; set decorators, Lee Sandales, Simon Wakefield; costume designer, Lindy Hemming; sound (DTS/Dolby Digital/SDDS), Chris Munro; supervising sound editor, Eddy Joseph; re-recording mixer, Mark Taylor; sound designer, Martin Cantwell; special effects and miniature effects supervisor, Chris Corbould; visual effects and miniature supervisor, Steve Begg; visual effects, Peerless Camera Co.; stunt coordinator, Gary Powell; associate producer, Andrew Noakes; assistant director, Bruce Moriarty; second unit director/camera, Alexander Witt; casting, Debbie McWilliams. Reviewed at the Avco Cinemas, Los Angeles, Nov. 8, 2006. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 144 MIN.

[annabeast 24]

You know, I was at the movie's this weekend, and saw the trailer, and he looked damn good! there was one cheesy line, though, that had me worried. Something like "whatever is left of me, whatever I am after this, I'm yours." It was quite sincere..... I always thought Bond was WAY more of a player.

[GimmeSumSugar 0]

Daniel Craig Opens Up About His Love Life

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 01:45PM EST

People.com

 

Daniel Craig, who will play James Bond in the upcoming Casino Royale, has been linked to Kate Moss and Sienna Miller – but now he's happily dating "a beautiful American producer" named Satsuki Mitchell, he says in a new interview.

 

"We're together, and she's been experiencing this whole situation with me," Craig, 38, tells Parade in its upcoming issue. "That's incredibly important." Mitchell has worked on movies including the 2005 Adrien Brody drama The Jacket and 2004's Godsend with Robert DeNiro.

 

 

Hmm, see this is what gets me about celebs. While it's all lovely and I'm always happy to hear people are happy, they open up and are willing to talk about their private/love/sex lives when it suits but then they bemoan the attacks on their privacy when it gets too much. Sometimes you just can't work out what they want.

[Cutielb99 0]

SHOOTING STAR

 

James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, gets snap-happy with a fan outside the Berlin premiere of his film Casino Royale on Tuesday.

 

[kappy22 1]

Daniel Craig ~ you done good!! I'm telling yah ~ for women like me who have never really cared for Bond movies before, this franchise is going to have a whole new audience.

[purplehaze 0]

I can't make up my mind if this guy is a looker or ugly. My opinon changes with every picture I see of him.

 

Although I am loving that voice. SEXY!

[cydonia 0]

I can't make up my mind if this guy is a looker or ugly. My opinon changes with every picture I see of him.

 

Although I am loving that voice. SEXY!

 

I think he's neither a looker or ugly. But when you see him on film (I haven't seen Bond yet, but have seen him in others) he is smokin' sexy. A lot of "pretty" boys can never achieve that level of animal magnetism that Craig projects

[branchop 319]

I agree - SEXY - but not ugly or good looking -just SEXY!!! I have never seen a James Bond movie but know which would be my first!!! Then Connery would be next!

[purplehaze 0]

I saw some stills of him from a movie done a few years ago. I think I figured it out.

 

He doesn't seem to photograph well but he looks good moving!

 

Anyway I love his voice.

[BobbyD 2]

Ok, saw his Bond debut. I'm sorry...I didn't like it/him. Move was almost 3hours long...and while he was believeable as a street brawler/killer who didn't give a shit...No way is he convinceable as a ladies man. Geez, he looked like a Mogwai(Gremlin) with those big ass ears and eyes...Oh, well..it's making more money than the other bond flicks...so what do I know!

[kappy22 1]

No way is he convinceable as a ladies man.

I SOOOO have to respectfully disagree with that, BobbyD! Oh my, do I disagree!!

 

As a female, this is the first Bond that I have left the theatre thinking "YOWZA!" about! He's definitely not a pretty boy in the vein of Pitt, Brosnan and Cruise but that is exactly what made him so attractive! I keep saying this is the guy that is going to bring the Bond franchise a whole new set of fans ~ female fans!

[duh 10]

I am going to see this new Bond film because I WOULD DO HIM. Haven't felt that way since Connery.

 

'Nuff said?

[strawberryshortcake 0]

I saw the film this weekend - the film was like "eh", with some stylish asides, but Daniel Craig was SMOKING hot. Seriously one of the sexiest men I have ever seen on film. I recommend it just to see his smokingness.

[BobbyD 2]

LOL! I guess I stand corrected... But if his body wasn't so toned...would he still be sexy?

[branchop 319]

LOL! I guess I stand corrected... But if his body wasn't so toned...would he still be sexy?

 

The question is - How many sexy people out there that would qualify that statement - most people are sexy because of their toned bodies etc....generally the whole package *ahem*

[strawberryshortcake 0]

To be honest, I think his sexiness is his whole demenour, not just his body (though that clearly helps) - he seems very real, and he has beautiful eyes - there is something quite raw (in a good way) about him that has nothing to do with his physique and everything to do with his persona and/or acting ability.

 

I'll stop gushing now...

[cydonia 0]

Haven't seen Bond yet, but I thought he was damn sexy in Layer Cake. I don't remember if he was ripped or not - there is just something about him. Definitely wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers

[MC 1]

I saw the film this weekend - the film was like "eh", with some stylish asides, but Daniel Craig was SMOKING hot. Seriously one of the sexiest men I have ever seen on film. I recommend it just to see his smokingness.

Double ditto! I was dragged to the film (I'm a Pierce fan) and although the film was way too long and just "eh", this was the best "Bond" character I've ever seen.

[kappy22 1]

To be honest, I think his sexiness is his whole demenour, not just his body (though that clearly helps) - he seems very real, and he has beautiful eyes - there is something quite raw (in a good way) about him that has nothing to do with his physique and everything to do with his persona and/or acting ability.

 

I'll stop gushing now...

I have to agree with the whole persona/demeanor thing, not to mention the rawness. In fact, if anything, I thought the ripped muscles were a bit much and would have preferred them being taken down a notch or so. I always feel that's done more for the men in the audience then for the women. But that's just me.

[MC 1]

I just realized that he reminds me of Steve McQueen.

[Cutielb99 0]

‘Sunshine,’ ‘Nelson’ top Spirit Awards field

Road-trip romp, classroom drama earn five nominations each

Associated Press

Updated: 2 hours, 57 minutes ago

 

LOS ANGELES - The road-trip romp "Little Miss Sunshine" and the gritty classroom drama "Half Nelson" led contenders Tuesday for the Spirit Awards honoring independent films, each earning five nominations, including best picture.

 

Other best-picture nominees were "American Gun," a drama about the proliferation of firearms in America; "The Dead Girl," a thriller centered on a serial killer's female victims; and "Pan's Labyrinth," a Spanish-language tale about a girl's dark fantasy life in Fascist Spain.

 

Maverick filmmaker Robert Altman, who died last week, earned a best-director nomination for his final film, "A Prairie Home Companion." The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, received a supporting-male actor nomination for the Truman Capote drama "Infamous," in which he plays a death-row inmate.

 

The Spirit Awards, formerly known as the Independent Spirit Awards, honor films produced on comparatively small budgets of less than $20 million. The awards will be presented Feb. 24, the day before the Academy Awards.

 

"Little Miss Sunshine," the summer mini-hit about a dysfunctional family's comic trek to a child's beauty pageant, also earned two supporting-actor nominations, for Alan Arkin and Paul Dano. Stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell were shut out in the lead-acting categories.

 

The film also was nominated for best director (husband and wife Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) and best first screenplay (Michael Arndt).

 

"Half Nelson" earned lead-acting nominations for Ryan Gosling, who plays an inspiring inner-city teacher with a drug problem, and Shareeka Epps, who plays a promising student who becomes both his pupil and counselor.

 

Ryan Fleck earned two nominations for "Half Nelson," for best director and first screenplay, co-written with Anna Boden.

 

Other nominees for best female lead were Catherine O'Hara, "For Your Consideration"; Elizabeth Reaser, "Sweet Land"; Michelle Williams, "Land of Plenty"; and Robin Wright Penn, "Sorry, Haters."

 

Joining Gosling in the best male lead category were Aaron Eckhart, "Thank You for Smoking"; Edward Norton, "The Painted Veil"; Ahmad Razvi, "Man Push Cart"; and Forest Whitaker, "American Gun."

 

Supporting-actress nominees: Melonie Diaz, "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints"; Marcia Gay Harden, "American Gun"; Mary Beth Hurt, "The Dead Girl"; Frances McDormand, "Friends with Money"; and Amber Tamblyn, "Stephanie Daley."

 

Along with Arkin, Craig and Dano, supporting-actor nominees were Raymond J. Barry, "Steel City," and Channing Tatum, "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints."

 

The Spirit Award nominations mark the beginning of a flurry of key awards announcements leading up to Jan. 23's Oscar nominations. December brings Golden Globe nominations, best-of-the-year picks from major critics groups and other film honors.

 

Since they honor independent and sometimes obscure films, the Spirit Awards often do not reflect the overall field that will compete for the Oscars and other high-profile Hollywood awards. Last year, though, many key Spirit and Oscar nominees overlapped, including "Capote," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Good Night, and Good Luck."

 

Nominees were chosen by members of the nonprofit cinema groups Film Independent and the Independent Film Project.

[sanlee 49]

A Socialite's Life

 

Daniel Craig and I Feel That Bond Should Bat For the Other Team

 

ContactMusic reports that Daniel Craig is down with 007 getting with the D.

 

Daniel Craig is urging movie bosses to revolutionise the JAMES BOND franchise by including a gay scene involving the superspy in the follow-up to CASINO ROYALE. The heart-throb actor has also reportedly told studio chiefs he is prepared to film a full frontal nude scene to please both his male and female admirers. He says, "Why not? I think in this day and age, fans would have accepted it. "I mean, look at (British TV series) DOCTOR WHO - that has had gay scenes in it and no one blinks an eye."

 

Amen, brotha!

 

Craig has my vote for hottest Bond. And it's not just because he's apparently sexually free-wheeling and spent quite awhile tied naked to a chair in Casino Royale. He has this blonde no-nonsense violent gorilla thing going on. Casino Royale was boss, and it was because he trimmed away layers of cheese and got to the nitty gritty of the whole series - Bond's a guy who kills people for queen and country.

[BobbyD 2]

007 Tux Raises Thousands for Charity

 

 

The tuxedo worn by new James Bond star Daniel Craig has sold for $23,535 at an auction to raise money for UK children's charity Childline. The 007 memorabilia was the second highest bid, after a walk-on part in TV series Desperate Housewives fetched $33,342. Other items which went under the hammer for the week-long online auction include the diary chair which will be used in British TV reality show, Celebrity Big Brother 2007, which sold for $10,787, and a visit to the Hawaiian set of American drama Lost had a final bid of $10,198. The Big Brother chair will be given to the winning bidder after the series finished next year. The auction - which raised an estimated $294,195 - marks Childline's 20th birthday, and the charity aims to collect $39 million in the next year to help an extra 1,000 children every day.

[nooseyourself 0]

I have to echo the gushing. I think the words 'animal magnetism', like someone said earlier totally sum it up. I haven't even seen Bond yet, but I am a huge fan of Layer Cake because of him, and seeing that, it's easy to envision him as Bond.

 

Add to that that he's a fantastic actor--his role as Perry Smith in Infamous, Ted Hughes in Sylvia, and in Enduring Love have blown me away.