I just saw the trailer for the latest 007 movie, Quantum of Solace. Now, I wasn't a huge fan of Daniel Craig in Casino Royal, but this new movie looks good!

Anybody else seen it? Want to argue about who's the best Bond ever?

...

*cough*Brosnan*cough*

hmm, I liked Daniel Caig, I first thought that a blond Bond was a no go, but i like that he crerated his own Bond and it paid tribute to modern times.

I thought Brosnan was great as Bond. I still think Daniel Craig just doesn't have the classiness of a James Bond - using 'class' in an old-fashioned sense. He's great as an action hero, and as an actor, but not as 'Bond, James Bond'.

Bond shouldn't be a contemporary action hero, evidently of working class roots. Bond should be more aloof, removed in the public-school, privilaged way. That's why he's so at home in the world of expensive tastes, like high-class casinos, huge private yachts, diamond necklaces and fine wines. Bond should look like he's spent his life in this kind of environment, not like the son of a builder.

Admittedly Sean Connery was working class, and bordered on looking like the son of a builder. He was a good Bond, I think, but Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton both fitted the role better, for me. Roger Moore had the class, but wasn't enough of a heavyweight. Bond is fantasy, so why not stick to the fantasy in the novels, of the very English, upper-class spy who is a fabulous and ruthless secret agent ?

You said exactly what I think, CD. The first thing I said after seeing Casino Royal was "He's too working class." He didn't have the suave feel that Bond needed. He didn't even seem very much like a secret agent. Everybody knew who he was, all the time. Plus his gadgets amounted to his mobile phone. CR was like a really long episode of 24.

I really liked Dalton's Bond as well. I'd go Brosnan, Dalton, Moore, Connery, Craig.
The only Bond movie I haven't seen is the Lazenby one, so I don't know where he'd fit in.

Well, I'm a born-and-bred Connery fan, so....

But Brosnan was fabulous and I was sorry to see him go. Craig is a good action star, but he's not a good Bond for all the reasons others have given.

I haven't seen a trailer or anything much for the new Bond, but no doubt there'll be plenty of publicity in due course. And I'll go see it, preferably on the opening night. I've seen every Bond movie on its first cinema release since 'The Spy Who Loved Me'

I love Judi Dench, and apparently she has a larger role in this one, so hopefully that'll be alright.

She is fabulous.

I miss Q.

Yeah, I loved Desmond Llewelyn as Q. Nobody will ever be quite as good a Q as him. He was just the perfect foil for Bond.

thought I'd bring this up to date. I saw Quantam of Solace a couple of weeks ago. It was efficiently done, but I was a little underwhelmed.

The biggest problem was the very fast, impressionistic way the action sequences were shot and edited. There were a lot of very fast cuts, and rought glimpses, presumably trying to give the impression of what it is like to be in the middle of fast, confusing combat. Unfortunately, it tended to be just plain confusing. When you've got two white guys of roughly similar build, wearing roughly similar clothes, leaping around inside a bell tower, you need clear shots so you can follow which one's which.

A lot of the time, there were quick glimpses of people leaping, landing etc. during chases. The rooftop chase in Siena could have been really spectacular, like the freerunning chase in Casino Royale. Unfortunately, the director was so intend on his fast-cut, impressionist style, you never saw anything really clearly. I'm sure there were some great stunts performed, but you only got to see fragments of them, instead of seeing the whole action.
Afterwards, a friend complained that although there were the expected beautiful locations, there were no good establishing shots that let you really see the settings.

So, OK, I thought, and best seen in the cinema rather than on telly, but could have been better.

Oh, and when I was getting ready to go out, I looked to see if I had any suitable earrings for a James Bond night. I was tempted to wear my VW Beetle earrings, although it's hardly a Bond car. Instead I wore the shuttle orbiter earrings that Astronut sent me, in honour of Moonraker.
And then in the movie, the heroine shows up in one scene driving a Beetle !