Just saw CASINO ROYALE, the most recent Bond entry, starring hot and hunky Daniel Craig. If any one person can revive that mast spy franchise, it will be this actor...
Of course, he needed a spot on screenplay, too. I’m happy to report that the film is jam-packed with great action, and just the right amount of sly humor, so kudos to screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. That’s not to say that editing twenty or so minutes of plot wouldn’t have made it a perfect 10, then again, who goes to these movies for the story?
Personally, I go for the eye candy. Or in this case, the guy candy.
You’ll know what I mean when you go see it.
I happen to live in Marin County, which is just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Those of you who have been here know that San Francisco is a beautiful place. So beautiful, in fact, that it has been used as the backdrop for numerous movies.
Well, I was flipping channels a few minutes ago when I came across another James Bond movie, A VIEW FROM A KILL. It was released in 1985, and is the last Bond flick starring Roger Moore.
Despite costarring Christopher Walken as the bad guy (was there ever a movie, other than Michael Cinimo’s THE DEER HUNTER, in which Walken wasn’t the evil seed?) and the final fight between the two takes place over San Francisco’s glorious skyline; while hanging from a rope trailing Walken’s blimp (we get a lot of blimps here in SF) first Walken tries to castrate Moore on the tippy-top of the TransAmerica Tower, then he tries to hang Moore on one of the spires of the Golden Gate Bridge…
(Sigh!) Stupid plot, albeit great scenery. Maybe that’s why it was Moore’s last Bond movie. (Actually, he claims that when he realized he was older than Bond girl Tanya Roberts’ mother, he knew it was time to move on…)
Par for the course for San Francisco, right? At least, it is always ready for its close-up. It has hosted the Hulk as well as an almost otherworldly Reese Witherspoon, and has had James Stewart, Clint Eastwood, Nicholas Cage and Richard Gere as its leading men.
So, which is your favorite San Francisco movie? Comment here, or email me at JosieBrownAuthor@yahoo.com.
Wish I were a Bond girl,
Josie
PS: Hey! Read an excerpt of IMPOSSIBLY TONGUE-TIED, my new book, here…
