Casino Royale - Film Review
July 1st, 2008 by Robert
If you were a power-hungry, morally corrupt, fearlessly determined and super powerful villain, which of these agents would you be the most unhappy to find yourself pitted against: Jack Bauer from 24, Jason Bourne from the Ludlum books and films, or suave old James Bond himself. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather see an aging Roger Moore blocking my path than a trigger-happy Kiefer Sutherland or a moody yet scarily efficient Matt Damon. Yes, James Bond has been in need of a 21st century makeover for some time now, and in Casino Royale, we finally meet a representation of the character that we can believe in, regardless of how outrageous the premise may be. Read the rest of this entry »
The latest film from Quentin Tarantino is a clear case of style over substance. But it struck me as I was watching: I don’t think he needs any substance. His style packs such a punch that even a piece of self-indulgence like Death Proof manages to provide a pretty satisfactory couple of hours of entertainment. 
You can just imagine the pitch to the producers: “It’s Godzilla meets the Blair Witch Project!” Yep, when you put it that way, it sounds pretty silly, but there’s a lot to like about this modern take on the old giant monster movie format. 
Star Wars, Indiana Jones… are there any more great films produced by George Lucas in the last 30 years that he can now cynically revive with so-called sequels designed solely to cash in the nostalgia of Generation X-ers? Phew, looks like he’s done the lot, unless of course he wants to release a CGI-augmented version of American Gigolo… 
Well, there’s certainly a lot of blood involved. In fact, in the swordfight scenes that are strewn haphazardly through this trash heap of a film, all it takes is the slightest contact between sword and body armour for a veritable fountain of the red stuff to burst in a torrent from the unfortunate protagonist. Not that there’s anything wrong with a C-grade vampire/fantasy flick going a bit overboard with the gore. What’s less forgivable is the execrable acting and a truly atrocious script. 
Okay, I get it, the joke is on all those silly action films with their ludicrously choreographed shoot-out scenes and ridiculously butch leading men. But, even accounting for the fact that Shoot ‘Em Up is aggressively sending itself up, you’re left with one inescapable conclusion - it’s still pretty shit. 
On paper it all looks so uninspiring: take a successful Hollywood blockbuster, bring back the main actor, throw in an actor who’s currently hot, cast a British legend as the villain, blow lots of stuff up and give it a big score. But somehow Die Hard With a Vengeance just works.