Monday, November 20, 2006

Casino Royale

I've just seen it, and Significant Other doesn't go 'til Wednesday - O the power! That's one evening out I could destroy with a word. OK a few words. Like

That Eva Green is one odd-looking woman. As is the Lollipop-head he tangles with early in the movie. I have to fall back on criticizing they way they look as there was no glint of personality to distract me. No wonder Craig is so stilted in the romantic scenes - he can't pretend hard enough that they are even slightly attractive. Who could?

The editing is rubbish. The Baccarat game in particular has no flow, jumping from beginning to end to beginning of sessions so you have no idea of how much time is elapsing, and consequently no proper build-up of tension.

And then they call a patently Italian bloke 'Mathis'! I ask you - for a start you wipe the name from your consciuosness as soon as you hear it, because - well, the bloke's Italian! He's not going to be called 'Mathis'! Remind self to get ears checked. (As if SO hadn't been suggesting it for a while now.) And then, o bugger, someone called 'Mathis' all of a sudden gets even more important plot-wise, and you are left thinking 'Mathis? Which one's Mathis?'

The shoot-em-ups are terrific, really visceral. The opening sequence is edge-of-the-seat, the external shots of the Venetian house are tremendous, the airport sequence had me not knowing which way it was going to go - a very unusual feeling for a Bond movie.

Craig does a perfectly servicable job, and I saw what Wyndham meant by the gayness of it all, though I'ld have put it more in the S&M line. I read the book when I was about 14, about a quarter of a million years ago, and the one thing I remember is the seatless-chair bit. I found it shocking then, and - yup, it all came flooding back.

7 comments:

FirstNations said...

dang...i have to follow that?

anyway, thought I'd stop by and say howdy! as my daughters' final research project in engineering was building a functioning trebuchet i already feel a keen affinity for you. now I must backread.
and what did you tag me for ezzacly? or did you just spraypaint your gang name on my car or what?

Wyndham said...

I'd fogotten Mathis or whatever his name was. If he had burst out into a rendition of When A Child Is Born I would have loved the film forever.

Wyndham said...

I'd forgotten about Mathis, or whatever his name was. If, during the interminable Bccarat sequence, he had burst into a renditon of When A Child Is Born I would have loved the film forever, but it wasn't to be.

Mangonel said...

O-oo-K - the fact that Wyndham looks a tad foolish here for commenting twice is because - oh *£$(*"£, see the next post. My fault entirely, the man leaves this blog without a stain on his intellect.

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Wyndham said...

I feel a tad foolish. I now have a stain on my intellect.

Anonymous said...

But you can delete. Delete away. Delete that anonymous bastard comment. Click on that little bin icon and kick the sod to the virtual kerb.

Mangonel said...

BiB - I love you! Bastard kicked into touch. Embarrassingly obvious really.