Bond...woolala!

This might be long, since I'm riding on a wave of inspiration.

I wrote the previous post while in a highly nostalgic mood, and have since emerged from it so there won't be a Part II anytime soon...

So jus came back from watching Casino Royale...and oh man... find myself like one of those smitten critics...

After the show was pondering about my fondness for movies and books and stories in general...and yes it's coz i'm like one of the many deluded unhappy souls who yearn to escape and preferably stay in a fantasy world brimming over with adventure and romance. Alas, reality remains as harsh as ever, and it's interesting how the more one gets immersed in trying to escape, the more stark and permanent the real world becomes.

AAahhh...well...back to the show...and for the raving to begin...

That has got to be the best Bond movie I've watched...not that I've watched many...only those with Pierce Brosnan in it...but I think I got the general feel of the Bond who's portrayed by past actors - very suave, very charming, very slick, uber cool, and STD-immune. So after a few decades of that prototype, albeit with varying additional traits depending on the actor, comes this totally beguiling beefcake who obliterates every single past impression of James Bond.

(<---er, since this is after all a public blog, with respect to the readers who may not be spoiler nuts like me, THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD--->)

Yea, so he isn't what most would consider good-looking, or handsome, or wadever...but his looks kinda grow on you after a while, and without that "armour" of gorgeous facial features (the body is great), we are left with his...acting. It is little wonder why some actors who've been in the field for a long time dun really get many credits for their acting - some of them are jus too distractingly handsome (e.g. Brad Pitt). And it can be a struggle for them to overcome that. Take the reverse situation and it's a whole lot easier.

Craig brings these raw set of emotions to his character, and what I like about him is that he's just so...sincere in his role that you can't help feeling for him, and sometimes even with him. Very unpretentious, like when there were girls checking him out (which is like a bit improbable but ahem..), there was no smirk or even the faintest trace of smugness on his countenance; he jus kinda stared after them in a very dispassionate way. And he has such a disarming laugh! Can't help but laugh along with him, like, hurhurhur...very cute. He's a brute when he fights but a charmer when he talks. Aw..

Several memorable scenes, like the chases (the opening chase sequence was AMAZING - love those parkour moves), the high-stakes card game which wasn't as boring as it was made out to be - his stunned demeanour after he got tricked by his nemesis was priceless - Bond makes mistakes...whoa. I dunno why but I particularly like the part where he got poisoned and went into cardiac arrest. It all looked so real I felt quite breathless at that point myself. And of course there was the torture scene which was aptly in place to elicit collective groans from the male portion of the audience. Ouch. A completely speculative point - could his jewels have been damaged so much that in a reverse psychology sort of way it caused his future promiscuity? Hmm. I mean, it's possible, bruised testes and all. They are rather fragile (I think).

Anyway, all in all I enjoyed the show and Craig rocks (in his own craggy way). Sweet!