Daniel Craig, the best James Bond since Connery?

daniel craig

wonderful collection of replys very interesting indeed thankyou to all who have so far contributed ,,as an aside i always felt Tom adams would have made an exellent 007(he was used by furniture firm DFS in the eighties for their TV adverts campaign) Daniel Craig fits the bill 100% thanks again

I suppose all UK civil servants drive Aston Martins and fly around in chartered jets…(and know how to fly a C-47). 😀

No they didn’t, but Connery was closer to the real thing “from Russia with love”, than the (Matrix, Spiderman, Die Hard, Grand Theft Auto type :rolleyes: films thats being passed off as Bond films

Everything a secret should be:eek: do you think MI5/6 agents are like that:D:D

I suppose all UK civil servants drive Aston Martins and fly around in chartered jets…(and know how to fly a C-47). 😀

[QUOTE=Dave Homewood;1324331

I still love the old films but Daniel Craig’s Bond is hard nosed, energetic, tough, quick thinking. Everything a secret agent should be. He doesn’t ponce about in safari suits delivering one liners to impress the Bond girls. He doesn’t drink his martini shaken, nor stirred. He just gets on with the job, and does it well.[/QUOTE]

Everything a secret should be:eek: do you think MI5/6 agents are like that:D:D

There was nothing in Casino Royale that said to me it was a bond film apart from the lead characters name.

On the other hand read the books and you will realise that increasingly since From Russia with Love there is little in the film that has any relationship to Fleming’s creation apart from the lead character’s name.

Moggy

I have to agree with you, the bond films have been turned in to something like the shoot em up games you
get for your PC, thats probably why the younger people
like them so much. 😀

As opposed to the soft porn, psuedo comedy romps full of catchphrases and cliche’s of the earlier versions, with the campest baddies in spy film history. Many of the car chases were farcical. Many of the henchmen were straight from comic book creations. The elaborate underground lairs that no-one knows about despite the obviously hundred of people working there and immense earthmoving had to have taken place to build them. The gadgets that are only there to titilate the viewer and serve little purpose to the plot. Hmm.

I still love the old films but Daniel Craig’s Bond is hard nosed, energetic, tough, quick thinking. Everything a secret agent should be. He doesn’t ponce about in safari suits delivering one liners to impress the Bond girls. He doesn’t drink his martini shaken, nor stirred. He just gets on with the job, and does it well.

Sorry – I disagree with that 100% There was nothing in Casino Royale that said to me it was a bond film apart from the lead characters name. Change that and the film name and all you had was a mediocre action film – not a bond film. As for the latest one, if it is in the same mould then I for one will not be seeing it.

I have to agree with you, the bond films have been turned in to something like the shoot em up games you
get for your PC, thats probably why the younger people
like them so much. 😀

Bond is not, nor ever has been an “American ” film.
Made with American money, yes, distributed by Hollywood studios, but hardly a American film.
They’ve rarely been filmed in the US, and usually have UK directors, but the director of Casino Raylae was a Kiwi.
The main stars are British, and lately, a very international supporting cast with rarely an American in sight.

I was referring to the owners of the film rights and the film franchise, producers Albert R. “Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who were the two men very instrumental in moulding the books into the films we know and love, and influencing the whole culture of the James Bond myth. Your post forced me to look them up, and I concede that I found Saltzman was in fact a Canadian, which I did not know. But Cubby was certainly from the USA, from New York. I was aware that their company Eon Productions was UK based, and there have been three James Bond films made by New Zealand directors so far (one of whom we’d rather forget and we’re glad he’s gone to live in hollywood).

Even Miss Moneypenny and Q are gone from Casino Royale, but oddly they are not really missed.

Sorry – I disagree with that 100% There was nothing in Casino Royale that said to me it was a bond film apart from the lead characters name. Change that and the film name and all you had was a mediocre action film – not a bond film. As for the latest one, if it is in the same mould then I for one will not be seeing it.

Golf – Zero (instead of Oscar) Charlie for the bizjet?

That was the one I was thinking of, yes.

Made me wince. Surely somebody would have picked that up in production?

Moggy

Went to see Quantam last night.

Anyone spot the scriptwiters’ blunder in the airport scene?

Moggy

Aside from the Registration…
I could have swon the front shot of the bizjet landing was NOT a Canadair they took off in…or was that supposed to be Bond’s jet landing?

I agree about film editing…some of us can take shots longer than 2 seconds without becoming bored.

Too much cutting breaks up the pace and doesn’t allow you to get an overall picture of what’s going on. If you shoot everything in two second burts, you really don’t need to be doing any real stunts. It can all be done on CGI or on a blue-screen soundstage.

Compare the opening car chase to the one in “Bullit”.
No comaprison. Bullit looks real because it WAS real..and more impressive.

all the fluff that was added later by the US filmmakers has been dropped out.

Bond is not, nor ever has been an “American ” film.
Made with American money, yes, distributed by Hollywood studios, but hardly a American film.
They’ve rarely been filmed in the US, and usually have UK directors, but the director of Casino Raylae was a Kiwi.
The main stars are British, and lately, a very international supporting cast with rarely an American in sight.

Went to see Quantam last night.

Excellent movie, Bond as it should be, though I might take issue with the speed of some of the editing at moments of excitement.

Anyone spot the scriptwiters’ blunder in the airport scene?

Eager for the next one. The franchise is well and truly refreshed.

Moggy

Golf – Zero (instead of Oscar) Charlie for the bizjet?

Saw it yesterday too,fantastic film, the opening scene was just brilliant! Good flying action too

In my opinion the last two Bond films are in the same mould as all the other shoot em up films,( Die Hard, Rambo). I mean the opening scene of Casino Royal would put Spiderman to shame, just stupid.:D

Ahh, but at least Casino Royale didn’t rely on CGI characters! :diablo:

The thing is, though, in order to keep up with the competition each new action movie, be it Bond, Bourne or McClane, they have to top the one before it in order to put bums on seats. Simple maths, really (even for me! :D)

Still, the greatest action movie ever is, of course:

😉

In my opinion the last two Bond films are in the same mould as all the other shoot em up films,( Die Hard, Rambo). I mean the opening scene of Casino Royal would put Spiderman to shame, just stupid.:D

Many people don’t know that Sean Connery was not the first actor to play Bond on screen, that goes to Barry Nelson – the forgotten Bond, who played him in the original version of Casino Royale in 1954. See
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310853/
I have that on tape. It is interesting. One of the best screen baddy actors, Peter Lorre, plays the baddy!

I ahve seen all the films (except the 1967 spoof Casino Royale) and read most of the books, and I think all the movies have entertainment merit and are certainly products of their time, but Daniel Craig is the first actor to play Bond as I imagined he should be from the books. He in my opinion is the best portrayer of the written character, and all the fluff that was added later by the US filmmakers has been dropped out. Even Miss Moneypenny and Q are gone from Casino Royale, but oddly they are not really missed.

In saying that Daniel Craig is closer to the books than all the others, I’ll add that Quantum of Solace is the first James Bond film in the series not to be based on a book by Fleming. So I guess they can now take him in any direction they want and it is very interesting thatthey made it a direct sequeal, picking the story up. I’m looking forward to seeing the new film.

How can any red blooded male with testosterone running through their veins think Moore was good Bond..Moore is girl full stop

I take it for granted that the films are only made to make loads’a money for the makers.:dev2:

check out the product placement in casino royale – every card a ford (think, land rover ownership etc) sony, sony and sony…. virgin airlines…. not so bad in the new one but still there. a coke ad on a billboard I can accept, but in casino they google something and there is a huge great sony bravia ad there as well….

For some of us, Connery will always be Bond.
For (younger) others, Moore gets the nod.

Craig isn’t bad. He fits perfectly into the modern version of Bond.
Could he have carried the early semi-realistic Bond films of the 70s, or the half comedy films of the 70s?
Probably not as well as Connery and Moore did with their respective films.

Moore may have been very good with better (more modern ) scripts.
It’s not that he’s bad, it’s just that the Bond films of that period are rather silly by today’s standards.

But as others have said, times and tastes change.
For the sake or argument compare comedies. Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Hope & Crosby, the Carry On films, early Woody Allen, Tootsie, Airplane!, Jim Carey…all had their time in the spotlight and were the height of comedy in their times.

The same is true with Bond films and the actors who played him.

I had been thinking about this for a while, but BSG beat me to it.

Actors come, go and times change.
What was good for my generation when the Bond movies started, is old hat now, so no one under the age of 60+ can be a reasonable judge.

If we could all have been 20 something at the time each of the movies was released, had the hindsight and foresight of things past and to come, we would all be able to offer a fair appraisal.
As that isn’t possible, the best thing to do is treasure your favourite actor, which for me isn’t possible, cos I take it for granted that the films are only made to make loads’a money for the makers.:dev2: