They don't make em like they used to!

Rating: 2/10 (15 November 2006)

Let's start positively. The basic story is far more believable than the more recent Bond movies. Gone is the pretence of Britain being a major power with agents equipped with hi tech gadgetry and armed forces that span the globe. This Bond could be an agent of any minor power. On the downside you could drive one of the tank regiments that Britain no longer has through many sections of the plot. Then we come to perhaps the biggest disappointment - Bond himself. Bond is the character all guys like to identify with - he's tall dark and handsome. He looks equally at home dispensing with street thugs as he does in the world's classiest casino. Daniel Craig's Bond is pretty good at handling street thugs, but then he looks like one, even when he's in a DJ in a casino. Bond is irresistible to women. You'd have to be on a desert island for a very long time before you'd start getting hot and bothered over Daniel Craig. Bond always outsmarts his enemies. Craig's Bond screws up regularly. Apart from some of the stunts and fight sequences that beggar belief, this Bond is far more believable. By that I mean that now we know how incompetent most secret services are, one can believe this character. But is real life what one goes to the movies for? Full marks to the producers for dispensing with the laughable 'Britannia rules the waves' scenario. But can't we still have a Bond that the men can wish they were and women can wish they were with? And a story that's not full of holes would be nice too.