Casino Royale

The game has changed.

What a stark and memorable way to start an entire new era to Bond. Undoubtedly throughout the course of the series the films have had loose continuity and you can track the career of Bond from the early 60s to after the Cold War, but Barbara Broccoli and the producers of EON took some inspiration from Batman Begins and wanted the series to be rebooted and modernized to staggering effect in my estimation. Casino Royale is an excellent Bond film, the filmmakers knew exactly what they wanted and how to do it. Daniel Craig, despite the howls of heresy and betrayal to have a blonde Bond, is probably the closest iteration of Ian Fleming's books while still having the charm of Moore, the action man status of Brosnan, and the intensity of Dalton, yet nevertheless takes the role as his own and does exceptional work being a much more less experienced, reckless, and cold blooded killer. That's why I really stood up for Dalton cause I knew this was what they wanted and they refined it more for this era. I do truly believe Eva Green is objectively one of the best Bond girls, not only because of her relationship with James and I still to this day stand by the only women he ever loved was Vesper and Tracy, but because they give her such an amazing character with attitude and undeniable charm that compliments Craig so damn well. I'm not even going to spiral down that rabbit hole of praising Eva Green, cause I would be here for the next decade so we will move on. And of course they got my man, my sexy man, Mads Mikkelsen playing the villain. He's perfect, they gave him just enough to make him honestly one of the most striking physiques of the entire series, with the slight Pleasance scar, the blood tears, it's a wonderful performance and will no doubt be incredibly difficult to top in the upcoming films. I cannot even begin to say how happy I am they kept Judi Dench onboard for this revival, they could have so easily recast this role but they brought her back and I can understand why, they needed some familiar face in the production to better gauge the change for audiences. And she is my M, she was the first M I ever saw and is still my favorite though Bernard Lee was grand throughout his tenure, so I'm just so thrilled it wasn't a 4 movie stint for her. I am not even able to discern which is better, the cast or just the total production value. This is the best looking film of the series, and I don't just mean because of the modern age filmmaking, the set design is nothing short of magnificent, the locations could not look better, the action is thrilling with a capital T, I can forgive entirely the lack of gadgets because of how well done these action beats are. You think I would find it inexcusable that we don't have any gadgets, that John Cleese did not get to return as our Quartermaster (which still breaks my heart to this day because he had unconditional love and respect for the part), but I can understand why they wanted to take a very realistic approach and it obviously payed off in aces. It's not even a question in my mind that this is top 10 material, it gets nothing but 4 stars, 8.5/10. This could be someone's jumping on point for the series before they get to something spectacular like The Spy Who Loved Me or more espionage antics like From Russia With Love, so I do believe it deserves the praise and recognition. Will the trend continue? Only one way to find out as we look at Quantum Of Solace tomorrow.

Dumbo

I don't get the hate.

You would have thought Dumbo personally butchered people's inner child with how much bad word of mouth this movie got. Now I will freely admit, I never watched Dumbo as a kid. I owned the VHS tape but I never watched it. So is that why I'm not shrieking betrayal from the highest mountain into the lowest valley?? I saw a decent cute kids movie. I only had two major problems with the movie which we will get to, so the movie follows a travelling circus who just got an elephant and before long she has a kid, a cute little pachyderm named Dumbo with adult sized ears. Two kids form a connection with Dumbo while their dad has returned from World War 1 and readjusting to circus life. Some stuff happens and sadly Dumbo is seperated from his mother and forced into the circus as a flying elephant. The press attracts an amusement park owner played by Michael Keaton who takes on the whole circus as his employees and wants Dumbo as the main attraction. More stuff happens which lets us meet more new characters including a trapeze artist named Colette played by the practically perfect in every way Eva Green before they find Dumbo's momma and plan to free both of them. It's a decent movie, it's not insulting to your intelligence or panders to the really young kids out there, it just shows a story about a flying elephant. I feel bad I can't compare notes on new and old, but it's worth a rental in the future. Colin Farrell is a decent lead, Eva Green is wonderful as always, Michael Keaton hits an almost Christopher Walken level of acting where you're not too sure what he's doing but he's so damn entertaining you don't mind and he is the best part of the movie, the kids are okay. I take that back, one of the kids is okay, the young boy does okay but the girl....I don't want to bash on her but she does not act. She's supposed to be a scientific orientated character but that doesn't mean you're a Vulcan! She has one face and it never changes even when she sees an elephant fly before her little eyes! It's like watching a doll act, black eyes, lifeless eyes. I mean I'm not trying to be an asshole but we have movies and entire critically acclaimed series with all kid leads and they do pretty dang good. I just don't understand. I am severely disappointed at the handling of the Pink Elephants, I was expecting a real experimental, crazy, Tim Burton style musical number but they don't do anything with it. I saw this movie for two reasons, Michael Keaton and the Pink Elephants. You delivered on one but failed on the other. But beyond that it's fine. Dumbo's cute and seeing him fly is really cool to see, and I didn't walk out of the theater in a ball of hate and betrayal. Somehow I knew this would happen. Fair warning though if you aren't a clown fan, I am because clowns are very entertaining and fun, they have a presence. It's not overwhelming but you know if they scare you, steer clear. I give it a thumbs up. Worse than Beauty & The Beast my foot, did you see that movie? Ugh, I'm disgusted just thinking about it. Give it a try when it hits video and I will see you Friday for the next DC superhero movie!

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Hooray, I'm back and with a really good movie!

This is easily the best work of Tim Burton I've seen in a good while. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is a charming, very well done, and slightly nightmarish film following a young boy named Jake who after years of hearing tales of monsters and a group of peculiar people, actually discovers that shock and surprise, they actually exist. But not all is well, the monsters are on the move again and to protect the children Jake must take up arms just like his grandfather before him. First thing I got to say is, I really enjoyed the tone of this movie. It's very difficult to describe but by God it has an excellent stride in it's story, characters, setting, and dialogue. The casting is so out there it becomes genius, we have Eva Green, Dame Judi Dench, Terence Stamp, and friggin' Samuel L. Jackson! What?? Brilliant! So obviously the major players are great, but how about the kids? I love them. I wish I could adopt them all. They are kind, considerate, some gushing with adorableness, but the movie never lets their peculiarities become the character. They have moments of doubt, sadness, anger, jealousy, and love. You really believe they do exist. I love the setting in this movie from a straight up Edward Scissorhands style suburbia, to the cold and dark shores of Wales, to the eponymous home which is very beautiful and is filled with much character. The soundtrack is beautiful to listen to, combining very creepy yet lovely music which does indeed make me want to track the soundtrack down. I got to say it didn't take much for me to want to see this movie, it wasn't Eva Green, it wasn't a new Tim Burton film, it wasn't even this strange and great looking new film, it took exactly two seconds of a tv spot showing skeletons with weapons, a la Jason And The Argonauts to make me say, yep I'm going to go see this movie and I am so glad I did. It's a very good movie with a quite frankly awesome mythology, characters who I cared about, and although it got nightmarish near the end, I would recommend it to families and children, I think they'll enjoy the world and characters very much like I did and might even enjoy watching it quite often. But we all know it's great just because of Grandpa Zod. Just kidding. Have a great night everybody, see you (hopefully) next week!