Movie Review: Casino Royale

I think the mark of a good Bond is the ability to run athletically. Keep the hands pointed forward. Straight back and ignore the bullets. I call it The Convincing Run. No star worth his money and I apply this comment advisedly to male stars is the ability to run with purpose. I always admired Pierce Brosnan. He had it nailed. He could just run and run and run and then stop, shoot and then run again - not a hair out of place. This year, Tom Cruise gave us a master class in The Convincing Run in Mission Impossible III when he was in China by the waterfront. As the year draws to an end and we have another Baby Bond learning the tricks, he has **almost** mastered the run. They've bulked up the baby bond and sprayed him with fake tan. They've made him come out of the water like Raquel Welsh (poor fellow) and they eventually gave him a cool car to drive. M, played by Judi Dench, still continues to play the bossy school mistress. She has that role nailed. I reckon they could just give her pages and pages of bossy lines to a blue screen and only pay her once. As they make the new bonds, all they need to do is just cut her in and we wouldn't know the difference. The baddies run and jump, some even try to out-think bond, that qualifies them for super-evil villain baddie status. The stunt doubles had their work cut out for them. The first half the movie is action sequence after action sequence. In the middle it slows down a little. For a little while there I thought baby Bond might have to show some acting range but no, it's back to the big finale. How did Craig do? You did well, my son. You did well. Now about your running... I give it a D for effort.

AIM 6.0 Beta Launches

AIM has now launched in Beta with a bevy of new features, in particular are the new Social Networking features in the form of AimPages. This is a highly advanced drag'n'drop framework where you can express yourself and search for new friends. Check it out. It's free. Get ahead of the curve.

See AOL AIM Beta

Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada

This should have been a movie review about the new James Blond movie Casino Royale but it isn't; it's about a chick flick. No disrespect but this is no dumb blond chick flick. I know. I know. I've used blond twice; oops now thrice! So what makes this movies good then? We were a day too early for the Bond movie. It opens tomorrow. My wife gave a wry smile. She was getting to see the movie she wanted. So what about it? From the outset of the movie, Anne Hataway punches above her weight. She's pitched against the veteran actor Meryl Streep who has had a makeover which makes her look like Cruella De Ville but she's not she's a magazine editor. The movie is highly engaging right from the outset. It's about identity and self-discovery. It's about finding out what's behind the stereo-types and the fashion aspect plays its part in the movie but doesn't suck the life out of it. The director David Frankel does a great job. It's clear to me anyway that the actors always had good direction and that their motivations were clear. I really liked this movie but it tries to please a little to hard. In the end it strikes the high moral tone which is not a bad thing in itself but it's a little too cheesy for me. So I liked the ending but it was the typical ending to please the audience and I mark it down for that. There wasn't a single bad performance in the whole piece and it flew along. I give it a C for freshness and fun. Well worth a watch.