A Royale visit

Many of my acquaintance know of the character quirk that is my obsession with Bond, James Bond.
I have long harboured a desire, neigh ambition, to own all 20 movies on DVD.
Last night New-Thom-With-An-H and I went to see Casino Royale - the 21st instalment of the franchise, loosely based on Ian Fleming's original novel.
As everyone knows, it focuses on how Bond becomes a double-0 and his first mission. It was also Daniel Craig's first outing as 007.
It was brilliant.
This would have been a brilliant film on it's own merits, even if it hadn't been a part of the Bond series. But the fact that it is a part of that cinematic history, and carried with it all the baggage and expectation, made it all the more wonderful and delicious.
There are things that you wouldn't find believable in a normal film, but we suspend our disbelief because this is BOND.
Characters like Jaw and Oddjob, even Blofeld and Goldfinger with their ludicrous obsessions, aren't literally believable, but they're bloody great Bond villains.
And Casino Royale carried on with that legacy.
I think Cubby Broccoli would have been proud of this film, and of Craig's characterisation. The film is still high action, but there are long slow sequences - like the older Connery films. It is shot in the traditional Bond style we have come to know and love. It's not as kitsch as Brosnan's last outing (Die Another Day), which was essentially and homage to the franchise (enjoyable nonetheless).
They've also continued to play with the tried and true. You have to mix-it-up a bit, I think, to keep things fresh. Especially in a franchise where even the opening credits and music, receive so much attention and criticism.
This is traditional Bond fair of the Connery variety. Craig is excellent (and fking hot... witness the nude/chair/torture sequence and two shameless Ursula Andress-style emergences from the ocean in tiny trunks), as is Eva Green.
Look I could clearly bang on about this for ages. I won't. Go and see it.