I thought Dalton's Bond was humorless and missed the point. Bond movies are fantasy/comedies. I saw Casino Royale yesterday and thought it was not just a good Bond movie but also a good movie in its own right, despite the fact that it didn't leave me feeling a good as a Connery or Brosnan rendition. Craig's Bond is free of the campy one-liners but he's far from humorless. He has his own smart sense of humor, and it's easy to believe that this a younger, cocky, more arrogant version of Connery's bond. My favorite line in the movie is delivered by M after Bond screws up, "...[it used to be that] an agent would at least have the decency to defect! God, I miss the cold war!" Casino Royale is very true to the novel and the length is just right unless you have a short attention span. In fact, there was an abrupt edit during the poker game and I realized they had cut some of the game. The "interrogation" is handled really well. We get to see Bond at his macho best, using humor to ridicule and humiliate and antagonize his interrogator, presumable to get it over with quickly. But, my all time favorite is still From Russia with Love. Maybe it's because it's so true to the novel, or maybe it's that lovely Daniela Bianchi, who hardly did any other films, and none in English I think.
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"The cordial quality of pear or plum
Rises as gladly in the single tree
As in the whole orchards resonant with bees."
- Emerson