Copious Notes

Daniel Craig as James Bond and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter in the new 007 flick, "Quantum of Solace." Photo by Karen Ballard.

Sean Connery, our readers' favorite James Bond.

The results are in for our James Bond poll we conducted here at le blog. Here’s the big qualifier: This was not a scientific poll, just people who responded to a series of seven questions about the world’s favorite British superspy. Undoubtedly, Goldfinger was the big winner, with readers picking it for best picture, best villain in Auric Goldfinger and best gadget in the Aston Martin DB5 with many features that were not standard, to say the least. Technically, since it was a Sean Connery Bond, and the great Scot was our readers’ favorite Bond, you could also give the 1964 classic that category. Goldfinger was also a strong contender in best song and henchman.

But there was support for Bond’s new incarnation as well, with Daniel Craig coming in second in the best Bond race, and Casino Royale almost edging out Goldfinger for best picture — it actually did pull ahead for a while on Tuesday, the last day of voting.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and here are the results:

Best James Bond
Sean Connery, 58.6%
George Lazenby, 0%
Roger Moore, 4.5%
Timothy Dalton, 0.9%
Pierce Brosnan, 12.6%
Daniel Craig, 23.4%

Best Bond movie
From Russia with Love (1963), 10.3%
Goldfinger (1964), 35.9%
Thunderball (1965), 5.1%
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), 0%
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), 10.3%
Goldeneye (1995), 5.1%
Casino Royale (2006), 33.3%

Best Bond woman

Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), Dr. No, 31.6%

Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), From Russia with Love, 8.9%

Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), Goldfinger, 19%

Tracy di Vicenzo Bond (Diana Rigg), OHMSS, 6.3%

Tiffany Case (Jill St. John), Diamonds are Forever, 5.1%

Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), The Spy Who Loved Me, 11.4%

Jacintha “Jinx” Jonselle (Halle Berry), Die Another Day, 17.7%

Best Bond villain

Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman), Dr. No, 3.9%

Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), Goldfinger, 35.5%

Ernst Stavro Blofeld (several actors), You Only Live Twice, OHMSS, Diamonds Are Forever, 31.6%

Dr. Kananga, aka Mr. Big (Yaphet Koto), Live and Let Die, 6.6%

Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), The Man with the Golden Gun, 14.5%

Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), A View to a Kill, 5.3%

Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), Tomorrow Never Dies, 2.6%

Best theme song

Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey, 25.8%

Diamonds are Forever, Shirley Bassey, 3.0%

Live and Let Die, Paul McCartney, 40.9%

Nobody Does it Better from The Spy Who Loved Me, Carly Simon, 9.1%

For Your Eyes Only, Sheena Easton, 4.5%

A View to a Kill, Duran Duran, 10.6%

The World is Not Enough, Garbage, 6.1%

Best henchman (or woman)

Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), From Russia with Love, 11.6%

Oddjob (Harold Sakata), Goldfinger, 34.9%

Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint (Putter Smith and Bruce Glover), Diamonds are Forever, 2.3%

Tee Hee (Julis W. Harris), Live and Let Die, 0.0%

Nick Nack (Herve Villechize), The Man with the Golden Gun, 2.3%

Jaws (Richard Kiel), The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, 41.9%

May Day (Grace Jones), A View to a Kill, 7.0%

Best Bond gadget

Briefcase with dagger, rifle, etc. - From Russia with Love, 6.7%

Aston Martin DB5 with oil slick, etc. - Goldfinger, 46.7%

Jet pack - Thunderball, 6.7%

Little Nellie, tricked out helicopter - You Only Live Twice, 3.3%

Rolex with high-powered magnet, circular saw, etc. - Live and Let Die, 6.7%

Submarine Lotus Esprit - The Spy Who Loved Me, 16.7%

Cellphone with stun gun, car controls, etc. - Tomorrow Never Dies, 13.3%

The late Heath Ledger could be up for a posthumous Oscar in February for his performance in "The Dark Knight." Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

After this year’s Academy Awards, the question was whether the Oscars were still relevant, or if they were going the way of art galleries and modern dance, perceived as too elite and avant garde to appeal to the masses.

Of last year’s best picture nominees, none of them had cracked the Top 10 or $100 million mark at the box office.

Numerous reasons were cited, including studios obsessed with movies calculated to open big, art be damned, and the presence of boutique subsidiaries such as Paramount Vantage and Warner Independent Pictures to release “specialty” and “prestige” fare.

Well, the buzz is Oscar night 2009 may look quite different.

Not that we will suddenly see Harold and Kumar contending for best picture or anything like that.

But you could have Batman.

The late Heath Ledger, a 2006 best actor nominee for his performance in Brokeback Mountain, is seriously being talked about as a best actor possibility for his consumed-by-evil turn as The Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight.

Think that’s funny?

Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller, left) and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr., right) are shooting an epic war movie and wind up in a real battle in “Tropic Thunder.” Photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace | DreamWorks.

A lot of people think that Robert Downey Jr. was brilliantly funny as a method actor who darkened his skin to play a black soldier in Ben Stiller’s Hollywood-bashing Tropic Thunder. Now, he’s a serious contender for a best supporting actor nomination for the box office hit that has made more than $110 million.

Dark Knight, also considered a best picture and director contender, as well as a shoe-in for numerous technical award nominations, now sits atop this year’s box office chart, and it’s likely to stay there. Why? For a while, during the summer, Dark Knight was threatening to overtake Titanic for the all-time box office record of $600 million, though with a home video release of the Batman movie set for Dec. 9, it appears that won’t happen.

Speaking of Titanic, the 1998 Oscar winner for best picture marked the last time the Oscars generated true mass hysteria, and its leading man and woman are back together this year. A Paramount Vantage offering with the downbeat plot of a crumbling 1950s marriage, Revolutionary Road isn’t likely to be all the rage with teenage girls like Titanic was. But it does have an intriguing A-list cast with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Other A-listers on short lists for Oscar contention include Brad Pitt, Clint Eastwood, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and, seriously, Beyonce Knowles for her role in Cadillac Records. We should also mention that Lexington native Michael Shannon is getting buzz for Revolutionary Road.

This isn’t any concerted effort to help Oscar avoid going the way of the Tony Awards in terms of its national spotlight. But there are a few trends that may be boosting the awards’ star power and box office relevance this year and in years to come:

Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting. In the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, Benjamin Svetkey wondered what would preoccupy him and many of his friends after the election, and in the same issue he penned the cover story on what I know will be my preoccupation:

The new James Bond movie. The Quantum of Solace.

The introduction of Daniel Craig as the James Bond of the 21st Century has raised anticpation for a new 007 flick from high to hotter than a Bond girl emerging from the surf.

So, to get psyched for the new movie, we’re going to run some polls here at Copious Notes, starting today with everyone’s favorite Bond debate: who is the best Bond? Did anyone do it better than Sean Connery? Did you like Roger Moore’s witty take, Pierce Brosnan’s cool, or Daniel Craig’s grit?

Wander to the right there and make your voice heard. Also, feel free to comment, and even suggest other polls. I’m definitely doing best villians and favorite Bond women, but I am open to suggestions for other categories.

Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the James Bond franchise and the world are in good hands. Craig’s hands, Daniel Craig.
Now, last year, when Craig (photo, below, by Jay Maidment) was announced as the new James Bond, there was a loopy wing of Bond-heads who immediately decided to denounce him, without actually having seen him play a scene.
Well, Thursday, I got to see Casino Royale, Craig’s debut as 007. And I can tell you without reservation that even if Craig pulls a Lazenby and never plays the part again (He is contracted through 2012), Daniel Craig is the best James Bond since Sean Connery.
In some ways, he may even be closer to Ian Fleming’s vision for the super spy than the original movie Bond. (We’ll reserve the overall movie review for the  Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com on opening day, Nov. 17.) Certainly some of that authenticity derives from the script, a much darker take on Bond than the other films, save maybe for the second Timothy Dalton Bond, License to Kill (1989). Craig is as physical a Bond as we’ve seen. He takes his lumps, but he’s also a suave presence who looks at home at a high stakes poker game. This performance is about more than looks though. There’s actual acting for Craig, who comes to the role with a strong resume. His Bond is as human as any of the actors who have played the part, and I don’t mean that in a ’70s sensitive male sort of way. I mean, I buy him as a real person whose job is to walk virtually alone into impossibly perilous situations, and he is at peace with that. Other Bonds, particularly Roger Moore, seemed to just serendipitously stride in and out of danger. Craig engages it and wears the scars. And he does struggle with the human side that he has to keep in check to do his job. He is quite real; not just a catalyst for a male fantasy about danger and women. As is tradition, the closing credits for Casino Royale include the phrase, “James Bond will return.” Considering it will be Craig, I can’t wait.