David Niven seems to be having a good time, and Woody Allen has a couple of nice small parts, but the rest of the film is a tragic mess. Any Austin Powers movie is a better Bond spoof than this one.
Rating: 2 (out of 10)
Category: Review
Movie: Casino Royale 2006
There’s been a lot of hype around this new Bond film. Complaints about Bond being blonde, for example. Whatever. The real story is that this Bond film, while it felt more energized, still failed to tell as cohesive a story as either of the two Bourne films have.
The film starts off well with some fun action as Bond chases a villain with Jackie Chan like moves. And the coarser Bond in this film, who hurts and kills villains, works much better with the expectations of moviegoers today who would laugh at the quaint moves of Roger Moore’s Bond. But somewhere along the way, the plot started to unravel. The action never let up, but by the time a Venice building is defying physics (like an invisible car in an ice castle), the story was lost.
Rating: 6 (out of 10)
Stage: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Tracy and I saw the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee last night. For the uninitiated, it is a musical set around a spelling bee. Although it sounds like a stretch, I haven’t seen a musical I enjoyed as much since Urinetown. And like Urinetown, the Putnam Bee was part social commentary, part silly musical, but mostly just hilarious. An added bonus are the “guest spellers”, audience members asked to participate in spelling, who can really add something to the show as the volunteers did last night. If you get a chance to see it, you’ll definitely be entertained.
Rating: 9 (out of 10)