After today, there are only 100 days left to the year which means I have a 100 movies left to watch (I know the blog is titled 365, but my mistake cause there’s 366). Believe it or not, there are a lot of James Bond films that I still have to see and so for today I chose to watch Casino Royale which is the first Daniel Craig (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) film in the series. James has just gotten his 00 status and he gets sent into the field for the first time. His immediate result is not a desirable one, but he looks to make it up with a poker game. You see James follows a weapons dealer named La Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) to a poker game in Luxembourg where James will have to outsmart him to stop him. The film also stars Eva Green (300: Rise Of An Empire) as Vesper Lynd, Judi Dench (Skyfall) as M, Jeffrey Wright (Boardwalk Empire) as Felix Leiter, Giancarlo Giannini (Man On Fire) as Mathis, Caterina Murino (The Story Of My Life) as Solange, Simon Abkarian (Zero Dark Thirty) as Alex Dimitrios, Isaach De Bankolé (The Skeleton Key) as Steven Obanno, Jesper Christensen (Spectre) as Mr. White, Ivana Milicevic (Banshee) as Valenka, and the film was directed by Martin Campbell (Goldeneye).
On the scale of all of the Bond films that I have seen, I actually enjoyed watching this one because it was fun to watch. The series took a dark turn with Skyfall and it continued through Spectre (I still have Quantum Of Solace to watch). This was as fun of a movie to watch as Goldeneye was and it was one heck of an improvement from it’s predecessor Die Another Day. This is definitely a side of James Bond that we had never seen because it was a young version of him who is adjusting to being in the field. We figure out through this film why he has a hard time keeping the ladies (he has no problem getting them). I really liked Mads Mikkelsen as a bond villain, but he’s certainly not my favorite. He’s everything a Bond villain would be and I love his choice of torture (I don’t really love it, it’s just extremely painful to watch). I am in love with Eva Green so I think it’s safe to say that I loved her as a Bond girl. She was the perfect counterpart to James Bond as she matched wits with him on plenty of occasions. The great thing about these films besides the action and special effects is the locations that they travel to. They filmed in the Bahamas, Italy, Czech Republic, and England. Do yourself a favor and give Casino Royale a shot because the film showcases why I love Daniel Craig as James Bond and why I wouldn’t be upset if he returned to the role once again. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade only because Skyfall and Goldeneye are better than this one.
One of the greatest movie franchises of all time in my opinion are the action adventure James Bond series which has now seen six different men assume the role (Sean Connery,George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig). Out of all the Bond’s, Pierce Brosnan is the one that has played Bond that I have not see very much of so I took the chance and watched GoldenEye for today’s film. After following a couple of leads, James Bond learns that someone is trying to steal GoldenEye, a weapon that destroys through electronic devices. He teams up with a Russian woman (Izabella Scorupco) who survived the first attack with the weapon to try and stop the syndicate that is using it. Although when Bond meets the man behind the syndicate, he turns out to be a familiar person Bond thought was dead. The film also stars Sean Bean (Game Of Thrones) as Alec Trevelyan, Famke Janssen (X-Men) as Xenia Onatopp, Joe Don Baker (Cape Fear) as Jack Wade, Judi Dench (Skyfall) as M, Desmond Llewelyn (Thunderball) as Q, Samantha Bond (Downtown Abbey) as Miss Moneypenny, Alan Cumming (X-Men 2) as Boris, Gottfried John (Proof Of Life) as Gen. Ourumov, and the film was directed by Martin Campbell (Green Lantern).
There was definitely something special going on with this film especially seeing as it’s the first film Pierce did in the series that took six years to come out. They literally almost went with a whole new staff with a new M (Dench) who was the first female to play M in the series and a brand new Moneypenny. The only thing that didn’t change was Q who was once again played by the legendary Desmond Llewelyn. The film had plenty of action scenes to satisfy any Bond fan, it had the perfect Bond girl(s) in Famke Janssen (She is vicious and strange and Izabella Scorupco as well as a good enough Bond villain in a former 00 agent. Who better to match wits with James Bond then another former agent. The only thing I’m not really sure about is how I feel about Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. The only other film in the series I had seen that I didn’t like was Die Another Day. I thought the film itself was very good and I can see why people hyped this one up a lot (I was told that I had to see this one). I think I’ll have to see the rest of his films to really judge where I think he fits among the other Bonds. He’s got suave which I will give him, but he doesn’t exactly have the swagger like Connery or Moore. The car racing scene in the beginning of the film is very cool to watch and the scene with the army tank is another must see. The film was enjoyable to watch which is why I am going to give the film an A- because it may be the best Brosnan-Bond film for now.
For today’s Ass Whoopin Wednesday film, I wanted to check out a flick that starred Pierce Brosnan (Goldeneye) in the ever popular world of taking old stars and making them action stars (e.g. Liam Neeson in Taken, Denzel Washington in The Equalizer, and Sean Penn in The Gunman). Brosnan plays ex-CIA Agent Devereaux, a man who was considered one of the best agents. He gets pulled back into the game when someone close to him gets into a little trouble when they are in the middle of a cover up that can harm a Russians chances at the presidency and a high level CIA operatives career. Devereaux will have to do whatever it takes to protect the key in all of this mess in the form of a woman named Alice (Olga Kurylenko). The film also stars Luke Bracey (Point Break) as Mason, Bill Smitrovich (Ted) as Hanley, Amila Terzimehic (So Hot Was The Canon) as Alexa, Lazar Ristovski (Underground) as Federov, Mediha Musliovic (Twice Born) as Natalia, Eliza Taylor (The 100) as Sarah, Will Patton (Remember The Titans) as Perry Weinstein, Patrick Kennedy (Atonement) as Edgar Simpson, and the film was directed by Roger Donaldson (The Ban Job). To see the rest of the review, please visit my other site 
365moviesin365dayschallenge 