A Bond for the 21st Century

Rating: 9/10 (11 December 2008)

Daniel Craig kicks butt as Bond, simple as that. Though I enjoyed Pierce Brosnan's foray into the film genre, he (Brosnan) simply isn't as believable as a top-notch, living-on-the-edge-of-danger spy like Craig's version is. That all being said, this film was extremely good. I liked the fact that it was tied (at the beginning) to the previous movie, "Casino Royale" and that "C.R.'s" villain was part of a much larger and more dangerous operation. It was also refreshing to have a Bond Girl (Olga Kurylenko as Camille) who wasn't a bed buddy to our hero but rather, an equally driven partner. It should also be noted that Mathieu Amalric's Dominic Greene is one of the nastiest and creepiest looking villains yet and he's very easy to despise for his cold-blooded sicko ways (a credit to a great acting job by Amalric). The amazing locations are almost like a co-star in this film and the action never disappoints. My only qualm is with the ridiculously shaky filming sequence at the beginning of the flick that was entirely unnecessary....more and more film-makers are using this "vomit-motion" filming technique, thinking it's avant-garde or exciting or some such crap but it's just annoying. Otherwise? A great Bond film. See it.