I hate that movie, the one starring Stephen Chow as Sun Wukong and a lot of others, including a very young looking Karen Joy Morris (don't know who she is? Just google her. If you're too lazy to do that, her Chinese surname is Mok). It's ridiculously funny and all that but I just hate the way the movie ended. Can't a monkey just stay with the one that he love and say 'Screw you' to a very annoying monk (He sings 'Only You'...in Cantonese...in a terrible voice)? Apparently not.

Why am I writing about this? Simple. My brother felt the sudden urge to watch this movie again during his SPM break. So I have no choice but to listen to tons of 'Boyi Bolomi!' and watch the poor guy race through time so many times that deja vu is even funny anymore.

Again I ask,why can't the monkey just stay with the one that he loves?

TTFN.

Everything from the 20th century is being reinvented for the 21st. Can't be living in the past now can we? After all, everything has to move on or be left behind. Icons too, otherwise they'd be considered too campy and unsignificant for today's more...'enlightened' audience. Let's see, we have Superman retconned, Spider-man re-origined, Batman resetted and now meet Bond. James Bond. Would you like your martini shaken or stirred, sir? Do I look like I give a damn about how I want my martini done?

Re-imaging is necessary for today's audience. Too frivoulous and they call it campy. More outrageous than real life and they call it 'Tipu!' Don't believe me? Watch the two Transporter movies and you'll see what I mean. So, when it comes to everyone's favourite super-spy, he needed to be re-imagined as well. More gritty, more morose and definitely more brooding. Less flirting, less skirt-chasing. More realistic for today's times. More like...say...Sidney Bristow.

Anyways, enough about my ranting and back to the topic at hand. Bond. James Bond. My favourite Bond has always been Sean Connery. Numero Uno. Hands down. No one is better at being Bond than he is. Hell, he's the same nationality as Bond, for God's sakes. He was suave, he was cocky, he was debonair and he was scared shitless when Honey Rider told him the story of the black widow. He was the epitome of everything that is Bond. Forget the other Bonds. He is the Bond for all life.

Not that I don't like Casino Royale. I enjoyed it actually. Hell I'll give it three thumbs up but first I'd have to cut off someone's else hand just to make up for the third thumb. Here, Bond looks like how Bond did in the original short story, right down to the scar on his right cheek. Vesper Lynd was so gorgeous when she appeared in the accountant suit, she made me forget the other woman in the movie (what was her name again? I never did quite get it. No, seriously. I didn't get her name at all). If she's that gorgeous in a suit (with slacks, mind you), let's not even talk about how she looks like in a dress. Yes, I can see how a woman like that could change Bond completely.

Casino Royale is the story of Bond and how he came to be the Bond that we would later love and admire. Unlike the others adventures that were to come later, this adventure was his darkest one ever. Am I talking about the book or am I talking about the movie? An excerpt from Casino Royale, the short story, of course:

"Le Chiffre was serving a wonderful purpose, a really vital purpose, perhaps the best and highest purpose of all. By his evil existence, which foolishly I have helped to destroy, he was creating a norm of badness by which, and by which alone, an opposite norm of goodness could exist. We were privileged, in our short knowledge of him, to see and estimate his wickedness, and we emerge from the acquaintanceship better and more virtuous men."

Note that the above paragraph was stated by Bond while he was under the influence of a local anesthetic. Makes you wonder about the man, doesn't it?

Thus making Casino Royale the perfect story for our 21st century audience. We want a gritty and darker Bond, so we turn to the 1950's for our original inspiration. The irony of it all doesn't escape me one bit.

Go and watch Casino Royale. I can guarantee you that the critics are right about this movie. Some may say that it isn't true to the spirit of Bond but you can't get as true to the spirit of Bond as the short story now can you? Watch it, enjoy it and decide whether or not all of this darkness and grittiness is necessary in our viewing lives.

Until then, I want a drink. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large, thin slice of lemon-peel.

TTFN.