Archive for James Bond

Two radio gigs this evening

In addition to the one already scheduled at 5:10, Ill be on WKRS in Lake County, Illinois at 7:30 this evening.

Also, it seems my interview yesterday on Ontario radio was taped, not live, so I don’t know when it will air.

Full Radio Update

Lots of additions for James Bond related interviews: Upcoming media appearances (these are all for James Bond):

Deborah, Queen of Radio

Upcoming media appearances (these are all for James Bond):

I’ll keep you posted.

Oh, for Amy, Casino Royale spoilers below the fold:

» Read more..

Monday Movie Review: Casino Royale

Casino Royale (2006) 10/10
James Bond (Daniel Craig), newly-promoted to 00 status, follows a trail of clues and bodies to LeChiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world’s terrorists. LeChiffre has bungled his playing of the stock market with terrorist money, and now he needs to win big at a high stakes poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro. LeChiffre is known as a math genius and a brilliant gambler, so M (Judi Dench) sends in Bond—the best card player in the service. Accompanying Bond is treasury agent Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), there to keep an eye on the money.

Wow.

Casino Royale is a masterful movie. Not so much “Bond is back,” but a fantasy of Bond coming back that the movies have never truly fulfilled. Not since, oh, say, 1967 has there been so much power behind Bond’s punch.

It’s a dark movie, and will displease the fans pining for Roger Moore‘s return. There is exactly one classic Bond quip in the film, and Bond utters it at his own expense. There’s another moment which seemed to cry out for a death quip, and Bond is resolutely silent.

In many ways the movie is flawless. Any complaints I have are nit-picking. Yes, some plot points were confusing. Yes, the product placement was egregious; Bond wasn’t served by having Sony buy MGM, and apparently the right to have every MGM character use lots and lots of Sony cell phones and laptops. Lots. And lots. And yes, the change to the gunbarrel is imperfect. But these are tiny, tiny flaws.

This is truly James Bond as fans want him, as Fleming saw him; blunt, hard, yet vulnerable. Capable of love, capable of killing, and feeling the effects of both. That director Martin Campbell and the producers have managed to package that Bond in a way that the general movie-going public will love is sheer genius.

Craig has an un-lovely face that manages to be appealing, and a naked body that will make women in the audience forget his face. This is a very sexy movie, although a monogamous one. Interesting, isn’t it? Because the last time we saw a hard, edgy Bond was Dalton, and fans complained about his monogamy.* I don’t think fans will complain this time.

The movement and scenery is fantastic. My Bahamas trip really paid off; we spent a lot of time at the Ocean Club, as well as at the Bahamanian Defense (Bureau? Ministry? Thingy) where the running stunt stuff was filmed. The Bahamas are suffused in sunlight, Venice is run-down and interesting rather than touristy lovely, and Montenegro is gorgeous. We also visit Prague, Miami, and I forget where the running sequence is supposedly taking place…it was filmed in the Bahamas.

I have to see it again and take notes, dammit.

Speaking of running, I’ve never seen a “special running stunts” film credit before, but boy did Sebastien Foucan prove his worth. The chase sequence that opens the post-credits film is fantastic.

So, what’s in this movie? Real espionage, like fans have been begging for. Bond follows one clue to the next and learns from spying, rather than having the villain just give it away. A team behind him; MI6 pulls through for Bond when he needs it, so we don’t see him as a superman. Beautiful women. Caterina Murino makes her brief appearance as Solange worth the price of admission, and Eva Green is a fascinating Vesper. She is snooty and aloof, yet fearful and sweet. She is Fleming’s “bird with a wing down” and we know that Bond will fall for her. There’s a scene in the shower as emotional and touching as anything that has ever been in a Bond film, and it’s that scene, I think, that really sold me that Craig could do it all. Up until then we’d seen the brains, the brutal action, the arrogance, but his own feelings showed here and it was beautiful.

The action is unbelievable. Killer “running stunts.” An amazing chase at an airport. Brutal fights in Prague and in Montenegro. Torture. A building collapse. I mean, you can’t imagine that this is a scaled-down film from that description, but these huge sequences are immediate and real.

And as the credits rolled, the audience burst into applause. The whole sold-out house.

*Trivia time: Dalton’s Bond actually slept with two women in each of his two movies. The only monogamous Bond movie prior to Casino Royale was Diamonds Are Forever. Yes, Connery was the monogamous one!

Another cool interview

An article about James Bond in the Baltimore Sun, wherein I am extensively quoted.

I get the closing paragraph, and I really like it. Sometimes you read interviews with yourself and you want to crawl under the rug, but I’m proud of this one.

Universal Exports Interview

The good people at Universal Exports: The Home of James Bond, interview me about Bond and my book.

The book is shipping!

If you ordered The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book via Amazon, you may already have a copy. I am starting to get happy mail from people. At last! At last!

Update on the Ultimate James Bond Fan Book

A lot of people are asking, and believe me I want to give good answers.

The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book is about to go into a second printing. The first printing was an exclusive, shipped to Barnes & Noble, and given front-of-store table space in their 120 biggest stores. Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, there were some things that had to be left out of that printing. The main thing is that the second printing will have a rather lavish index. It will also correct some typos and a handful of factual errors. (See, that’s the thing about writing late at night; instead of a typo, you actually type the wrong actress’s name. The whole name. In the wrong movie.)

The second printing was scheduled to be out in stores by October 1. You may have noticed that October 1 has come and gone, and this isn’t an announcement about oh thrill oh joy the second printing is here. My poor editor has discovered that a lavish index has some drawbacks. Mostly in her ability to sleep at night. This is a highly specialized project, and almost impossible to farm out to assistants who aren’t super-familiar with it. So she’s suffering alone. As did I.

The revision should go to the printer on Tuesday the 10th, at which point, it’s just a matter of printing it. Don’t forget, though, that black ink takes longer to dry. (The black ink is soooo pretty, though.)

Several people have asked me if Amazon will be shipping the first or second printing. I honestly don’t know. I thought the first printing was an exclusive to B&N, but someone told me last week they saw it in Borders. So I can’t be certain.

Once the second printing is out, I will have copies available for autographing if you’re willing to pay the extra shipping cost.

In the meantime (shameless plug), you can shop at my James Bond Store.

Monday Movie Review: Sylvia

Sylvia (2003) 4/10
Poet Sylvia Plath (Gwyneth Paltrow) meets poet Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig). They fall in love, marry, and have two children, but are plagued by Ted’s infidelity and Sylvia’s depression. Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1963.

In anticipation of the release of Casino Royale, I’ve been seeing as many Daniel Craig movies as I can. There’s no doubt he’s a talented actor and physically powerful. But Sylvia is not a good movie.

It starts off promisingly. The scenes of Sylvia’s first encounter with Ted and of their early relationship are imbued with passion and intensity. Here I thought to myself, ‘How refreshing. A movie about a person who committed suicide that isn’t gray and heavy and sad.’ But soon it turned into exactly that movie.

Sylvia’s depression is shown with little insight. The movie is entirely from her point of view; sympathetic and kind of romantic, exactly the sort of thing that fans of Plath are criticized for—romanticizing suicide. But this single-minded focus damages the movie; without perspective we just can’t tell what’s going on. Sylvia is so brittle and mutable that when she suspects Ted of infidelity it appears to be her own paranoia. In fact, I had to read articles about the movie and the poets themselves to discover that Ted was, in fact, unfaithful virtually every time she suspected him.

Sylvia is filmed as such a neurotic, so terrified and clinging, that when, late in the movie, we see Ted in the actual act of adultery, I still thought it was a paranoid fantasy of Sylvia’s (the editing definitely allowed for it).

Because this is a “classy” project, it is stocked with name actors in brief roles, including Paltrow’s mother (Blythe Danner) playing Sylvia’s mother. Michael Gambon is charming and wasted as Sylvia’s neighbor.

Bond fans will note that Craig dyed his hair a dark brown for the role. Apparently he doesn’t object to changing his appearance when playing real people.

So you’re dying to hear about the new Bond song, right?

You want to know what I think of Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name“? Of course you do.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Wha..? Sorry…fell asleep.

It’s bland and boring and who the hell cares? Seriously, if they’re going Startle The World! with their Bold New Choice! for a Different! Kind! of Bond Song! then they need to keep us awake.

I hear people saying, hey, they’ve changed direction, it’s not Shirley Bassey. I agree it has been time for a change. For a while, the trend was towards attempting to replicate the success of Nobody Does It Better, the 80s gave us two rockers and some mildly pleasant love themes. But the 90s songs were all old-school belting.

So I, like many Bond fans, was hoping for a male lead singer, something new and edgy. (I had my heart set on Counting Crows, and thought after the Oscar nomination, they had a real chance.) Madonna’s song for the last movie was exactly right (except for the male part). It was a total direction change, it startled (and sometimes pissed off) the fans, and it was a huge hit.

So Chris Cornell is announced, and that sounds promising, doesn’t it? A non-traditional choice, and then there’s all this chatter about being edgy and new.

And what we get is a bland melody with a chorus that sounds like it was composed by committee. At least nothing will distract me from paying attention to the visual title design.