Best Bond

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2006)

I'm not a huge fan of Bond movies, but I love the James Bond character. What has always turned me off from the movies were the over-the-top villains, unbelievable stunts, and ridiculous gadgets. This Bond movie has excellent action sequences, especially the opening chase sequence which supposedly features the co-creator of "free running", but they're actually believable (although not necessarily probable). Gone are silly gadgets in favor of old-fashioned guns, torture, poisoned drinks, and repartee between fairly well written characters. It's almost as if, by going back to the first Ian Flemming novel, the producers were set free from having to follow the tired old Bond formula.
Daniel Craig is a realistic government secret agent. He's human in that he bleeds, makes bad calls, and has vulnerabilities. Craig's more gritty and realistic Bond allows the writers to give more thought to the characters relationships with others. In previous Bond flicks the agent's relationship with his minders back in London was peripheral at best. Here there are the beginnings of a deeper, more emotional relationship, with M being something of a mother hen to the presumably orphaned Bond.
The only weakness in the movie, if it really is one, is that the Bond girl, Eva Green, is NOT stunning and their relationship is tepid. I was shocked when the character produces her business card reading "Vesper Lynd." Up to that point I figured the attractive but not stunning woman was a brief walk-on character. Ursulla Andress, Jane Seymore, Maud Adams, even Grace Slick---really stunning and/or unique women who literally could stop traffic. My favorite moment of the film was finding out Vesper was "bad," in a way, and Bond had to forget about her and move on! My noon-time audience was fairly large, and the reaction to the movie was very positive. Hopefully, this film will do well and more Bonds with Craig will follow in the same style.