CASINO ROYALE -- Reactions

[Monterey Jack]

I really HATE the idea of Judi Dench continuing in this series on general principle. If you're going to reboot then get a new Bernard Lee for goodness sake.

I read a blurb on the FSM board that Timothy Dalton is being considered for the new "M".

[Carlson2005]

That won't happen. Much as EON like Dalton (especially after all the problems they had with Brosnan from his second film on), they've said they would never cast a former Bond in a non-Bond role in the series.

[Monterey Jack]

You have to admit, it'd be cool to have all 5 previous 007s appear in cameo roles in a new Bond film. And weren't there plans to have a bunch of former Bond Girls appear in one of the Brosnan films...?

[Eric W.]

You have to admit, it'd be cool to have all 5 previous 007s appear in cameo roles in a new Bond film.

I'd love to see it as a gag. I don't see what harm there could possibly be in doing it. It would be a nice, broad wink and salute to the fans and it would just be about the best "passing of the torch" situation you could ever hope for, especially while Sean Connery is still around and in good health.

And weren't there plans to have a bunch of former Bond Girls appear in one of the Brosnan films...?

There was some talk. Nothing ever came of it, obviously.

[John Johnson]

A three disc version has been announced for 3rd June.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=67325

[Eric W.]

A three disc version has been announced for 3rd June.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=67325

Some cool stuff there, but this sure seems like a needless and shameless double dip at first glance...

[AndyDursin]

At this point these re-issues are par for the course. You expect them every couple of years for titles that sold well the first time around, or here, when a new Bond movie is coming out. DVD is the new VHS, we're just seeing what used to happen routinely on tape with repackagings and such.

What will be really shameless is when they start re-issuing all the Blu Ray discs that have no extras again (which is basically 80% of them), this time WITH the extras, and then charging $40 for it. If BD ultimately takes off it'll happen, mark my words.

There is no excuse for that with all those 50GB's of space, not even putting a commentary track on there. You hear me, Fox?? I'm coming for ya!! lol.

[John Johnson]

How many more times do we have to get Bond Girls Are Forever??


Casino Royale R1 CE in October.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Casino Royale (3-Disc Collector’s Edition) on 21st October 2008. Daniel Craig’s first outing as 007 returns to DVD as a 3-Disc set with the following content…

Disc 1: Main Feature & New Extras
2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English and French DD5.1 Surround
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Director & Producer Commentary
Crew Commentary

Disc 2: Original Special Features
Becoming Bond documentary
James Bond: For Real Documentary
Bond Girls are Forever (2006)
Chris Cornell Music Video

Disc 3: New Special Features
Deleted Scenes
The Road to Casino Royale
Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation
James Bond in the Bahamas
Ian Fleming: The Secret Road to Paradise
Death in Venice
The Art of the Freerun
Catching a Plane: From Storyboard to Screen
Storyboard Sequence: Freerun Chase
Filmmaker Profiles

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=67325

[Eric W.]

How many more times do we have to get Bond Girls Are Forever??

Casino Royale R1 CE in October.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Casino Royale (3-Disc Collector’s Edition) on 21st October 2008. Daniel Craig’s first outing as 007 returns to DVD as a 3-Disc set with the following content…

Disc 1: Main Feature & New Extras
2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English and French DD5.1 Surround
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Director & Producer Commentary
Crew Commentary

Disc 2: Original Special Features
Becoming Bond documentary
James Bond: For Real Documentary
Bond Girls are Forever (2006)
Chris Cornell Music Video

Disc 3: New Special Features
Deleted Scenes
The Road to Casino Royale
Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation
James Bond in the Bahamas
Ian Fleming: The Secret Road to Paradise
Death in Venice
The Art of the Freerun
Catching a Plane: From Storyboard to Screen
Storyboard Sequence: Freerun Chase
Filmmaker Profiles

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=67325

^^ I think they're doing this on Blu as well.

I may get this down the road but I'm more eager up about the other Bond Blus I'm seeing lined up later this Fall.

[John Johnson]

Would have been nice to include something about David Arnold.

[Monterey Jack]

Hey, I'm just pleased that they're including ALL the extra features from the previous 2-disc set, plus a lot more. Nothing aggrivates me more than an "ultimate" edition of a title that adds new content, but then drops several features from the prior edition(s).

[Eric W.]

^^ Agreed with the last two posts.

[Eric Paddon]

I am setting a record for a thread bump here (I think) because ten years later, I finally did see this. Only because it's in the big boxed Blu-Ray set I've had for a couple years. I wanted to go back and read everyone's reactions at the time and because this is a thread that obviously wouldn't know anything about what follows (and I have to make time for the next two and don't want spoiler revelations) my reactions would more easily fit in with the category of what people experienced from a first time impression of Craig and the film "clean". So after all these years, did I gyp myself not seeing it at the time?

In the end, I still say no. I didn't dislike this film ultimately, but I remember the feeling I felt when I saw "Goldeneye" theatrically in 1995 and really came away with a solid "Bond is back!" feeling after what I felt was the misfire of "Licence To Kill." This film isn't bad, but it is too different from what Bond means to me and my feeling from afar that the presence of Judi Dench calls unnecessary attention to the presence of someone from what is now officially an alternate universe Bond was vindicated.

I was also groaning at that chase scene after the credits. It had the aura of being *too* tightly choreographed and was no less cartoony for my tastes than all the scenes that the Brosnan films were condemned for. And the modern-era trend of actors delivering their lines in a way that sounds more like mumbling to me once again drove me batty and often made it hard for me to follow the dialogue with the result that until we finally got to the plot elements of the novel that I was familiar with, I wasn't latched into the film. And another problem....I didn't recognize "Mr. White" from earlier in the film at the end. That detail just got too lost in the shuffle for me.

It's easier for me to look at this now for the first time when I'm at a stage in life where I recognize that so much that was familiar and comfortable is gone for good and never coming back. So too is it with Bond as I knew it best. I will give the other films their look eventually but I don't envision ever actually preferring any of these to a single one of the Bond films that came before them for comfortable fun entertainment.

[AndyDursin]

SKYFALL is very solid. It's not as outstanding as some fans claim it is, but it's rock solid. The other two Craig films are at the rock bottom of the entire series, albeit for different reasons.

I don't "love" CASINO ROYALE but I would much rather watch it again over GOLDENEYE...even despite the "Bourne" influences (like that chase) and some of the elements you mentioned Eric. Two many leaden elements in GOLDENEYE and it's heavily dated between some of the FX work and the godawful score. I also found certain elements like M's dialogue cringe-worthy ("you are a relic of the cold war, 007" that whole thing). Thinking back on it I like TOMORROW NEVER DIES the most out of all the Brosnan films, though it has been a long time since I sat through all of "Goldeneye." I might revisit it seeing as we've reached a new year and it might be time to go through this entire series again!

[Eric Paddon]

No argument from me on the bad score in "Goldeneye". That was the one misfire in the film I felt.

I'd probably add regarding "Casino Royale" that there was zero reason not to give us a rebooted Moneypenny character either. Since they were showing us the workings of MI6 why not simply give us Bond reporting in the office and giving us a quick insight into establishing the working relationship that already existed there? It would have been a welcome light touch the film needed at that early stage (and providing a welcome nod to putting in a traditional element early on). And I also couldn't buy for one minute the idea that a Bond who had just worked himself up to a double-oh would be able to break into "M's" house etc. That's something I could buy Brosnan's Bond doing as a veteran who can get away with anything because of his reputation and not because he's on the way up (indeed Craig's exchanges with Dench come off as the one leftover from Brosnan and again call attention to the fact that she's a distraction)

I also recall the complaints that would be leveled against a couple of the Moore films when he would pull out gadgets to save himself that we hadn't been briefed on earlier. This film did that even more with the defibrillator in the car that I didn't remember hearing about.