Glam, Bam, Thank You, M: Non-Bond Virgin Loses It to Daniel Craig

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2006)

I luuuuved this movie.
It was so good, it redeems all the boring drek I've sat through in movie theaters over the past year and makes me believe in movies all over again.
And I'm not a Bond fan. I've NEVER seen any other Bond film, and I don't care if I ever do.
Two words: Daniel Craig.
Daniel Craig made a huge impression on me in "Munich." While the rest of the excellent cast put in fine performances as international assassins, Daniel Craig appeared to actually *be* an international assassin who had somehow made it onto the movie set. With his tight behind and turquoise eyes, he was easy to look at, as well as being a fine actor.
I vowed to see anything else with Daniel Craig in it that I could see, so I bought my very first ticket to a James Bond movie.
I like chick flix and talky movies. I luuuved "Casino Royale", though, from the opening black and white sequence to Bond's first kills to the funky opening titles to the completely unbelievable but utterly breath taking acrobatic chase sequence across a construction sight.
And I luuved Daniel Craig. Watching him on the big screen, I feel I experience some of what my parents experienced watching high-charisma, Golden-Age stars like Jimmy Cagney. Craig's a bullet: expertly aimed and strictly business. And real, even if the character he's playing is mythic fantasy.
Though Craig makes you believe he's equipped with a license to kill, thoughts, complexity, and vulnerabilities flicker across his face, the way wind flickers across a silk curtain. This makes him so exciting to watch.
And he is a *man.* Oh, after too, too many seasons of boys in men's bodies, of Something About Forty Year Old Virgin Wedding Crashers Breaking Up over One Last Kiss, the Owen Wilsons and Zach Braffs and Jack Blacks, men so immature, so embryonic, their mothers could still legally abort them in some states, I can't tell you how happy this woman is to finally see Daniel Craig, a real, grown up, man on screen, a man who could stand up to legends like John Duke Wayne and hold his own.
"Casino Royale's" sets are glamorous and could make a monk feel envious; the action is furiously paced; the gizmos are fun. Why can't I give this movie a ten instead of a nine? The old Bond series did not pussy foot about who we were all afraid of: "To Russia with Love" named our common enemy. I'm a Slavic person and that stereotyping didn't traumatize me for life. In the post 9-11 world, we are not afraid of Danish men who cry blood, and this movie could have benefited from being a bit more relevant.