Boy, do I miss Lazenby...

Rating: 3/10 (30 December 2006)

When I started reading the reviews for this movie, many of those focused on... well, James Bond. Or Daniel Craig, for that matter. A lot of divided opinions, on whether he was the worst James Bond since Woody Allen, or the closest to Ian Fleming's original idea. And I'm leaning towards the first man.
But don't mind me wrong... It has nothing to do with the fact that he looks like an Average Joe, that he's blonde or that he doesn't even have an English accent. Its the lack of... "that". If I was talking about football, its the "intangibles" that make a good college player a great prospect. "That" which makes any men in the audience to want to be James Bond right when you leave the theater.
Sean Connery obviously had it. Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan too. Timothy Dalton didn't have it, but his theatrical background kind of balanced his performance. Daniel Craig has nothing of that. Lazenby neither, but at least he decided no to take himself that seriously, and therefore was kind of comical.
A bad James Bond choice is enough to take 5 points away from the score. And why is that I'm giving it a 3 out of 10?...Ah, where to start? Well, Judi Dench as M is one good place... I mean, if this was supposed to be the start of everything, did they miss the little fact that she was promoted to M when Bond was already an agent? Yeah, I can forgive another details, but this... And Le Chiffre... he has to be the most pathetic and less imaginative villain I have seen since Franz Sanchez (althought Elliot Carver is right there). And finally, the details... Bond with a machine gun instead of his Walter PPK, Bond leaving a girl to chase the bad guy, Bond not drinking his Martini... Yeah, maybe little details, but little details have been the cornerstone of this franchise.
My conclusion is that, if this wasn't a Bond movie, MAYBE I wouldn't be so rough and give it a 6 or 7. But when you are talking about the longest saga in the history or movies, you have to be more careful than this.