It won't kill you to smile

Rating: 5/10 (9 December 2006)

007 fans, i watched the film tonight. I am huge 007 fan. Always been. So was my father before me. And my grandpa was a huge fan. So it runes in the family. You can say I would know James Bond when I see one. I haven't seen one tonight. It is not Daniel Craig's fault. The man did the best he could. But, people, he is not James Bond. Not in "Casino Royale" at least. Remember Connery, Moore? Now they played Bond as it was meant to be played. And I happen to like the Timothy Dalton as 007 best. It's just that James Bond disarms you with his smile, he is too cool to be worried about bullets flying towards him. He comes in, with a cool line, kills the bad guy with help of Lady Luck (what else is the 7 in 00 for?), grabs the babe, winks at you and storms out just before the place is blown to bits. It may not be a thriller, there is not a mystery to be solved, there are just a few romantic scenes. You may not call it the Oscar category, but it has been like that for half of century. And people loved it. This is a good movie, but that is just it. It would be a great movie, if the lead character isn't called James Bond, and if he is not addressed as 007. If he were John Smith and was a CIA agent, for example, i would give him praises. And one more fact. All of my friends that are fans of the serial, didn't like it. My friends that didn't like the Bond movies, liked it. It tells you one thing. They looked at "Casino Royale" as just another movie, and it was good. The rest of us, wanted to watch James Bond movie, and we were preparing for that. We didn't get what we expected, and we were disappointed.
One funny thing. I am a Serb. The original character upon who Ian Fleming based James Bond, was also a Serb by the name of Duan Popov. I am sure a lot of you did not no that fact, not that it has some meaning. He was a spy, and he was working for British Intelligence. And only a Serb would be dumb enough to be so cocky, when a spy has to be someone invisible. But that's not the point. I live in a country called Sebia. It used to be called Serbia & Montenegro. And then those two countries parted. Do you recognize the name Montenegro? It is that beautiful place in the other half of the movie. Except I never saw that country and I used to live in it. My friends, it has all been filmed in Chech Republic. I am sorry to say that you will not see those sites in Montenegro, let alone travel on a train like that. It may be a small matter to you but everyone here laughed when they saw "Montenegro".
Anyway to sum up. It could have been a great movie, if it wasn't James Bond. Next time little more focus on the previous movies, and for gods sake Daniel Craig smile. It won't kill you to smile. Connery smiled, Moore smiled, and they did it often, so can you.