Bond -- Not Just Camp Anymore

Rating: 10/10 (26 August 2008)

If you read any of Ian Fleming's books on Bond, then you know the stories are high-spirited, intense and with detailed descriptions. The devil is in the details and that is how he tempts us to partake. So, perhaps you, too, have ordered a martini the way James Bond prefers them made.
What Fleming's books are not, is campy comedy with an insincere protagonist and disposable attractive women.
If you have never read the books, then Saltzman and Broccoli probably defined Bond for you. You have my sympathy.
So, this movie returns to Bond's roots in more than one way. It starts at the beginning, more or less, and it starts without tongue in cheek. It is about time, too. The camp had been done way past the point of exhaustion -- of the writers, the actors and, most importantly, the audience.
Let us all hope that this Bond does not degenerate the way Saltzman and Broccoli's Bond did in that franchise.
Welcome back, Ian Fleming's James Bond. You have been a long time away.