There's much enjoy about Craig's Bond

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2006)

Unlike some reviewers, I found Bond's antagonist, Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, quite good, and the beautiful Eva Green not quite as entertaining as Bond's love interest, Vesper Lynd. But, of course, the key is Bond himself and Craig is quite good as the most athletic and sardonic Bond ever. Any guy should enjoy this film. But while watching I kept thinking, why does this film start in Africa? Are we finding it more and more difficult to find 'bad guys' with a bit of real life in them? Truth is, the English speaking world is no more immune to greed and violence than any other. Bond is best fighting true villains for a good cause and not merely for power and resources, as in real life. With the recent death and suspected murder of anti-Putin ex-KGB agent Litvinenko I kept thinking how ironic that as that man lay dying, he was complaining about how 'ruthless' the KGB is, while I and millions of others were reveling in Bond's make-believe ruthlessness. I guess in real life it's only fun when we're not the victim.
If the scripts can at least match this one, the Bond franchise is going to make a strong comeback. What amazing luck, finding Craig.