Daniel Craig Brings Bond Back in "Casino Royale"

Saw the excellent new James Bond film, Casino Royale, last night at Hollywood's historic Grauman's Chinese Theater with my friend Heidster. It was Heidster's first film at the Chinese and I think she enjoyed the experience.

First of all, the controversial new Bond is fantastic! Daniel Craig breathes new life into the role which had become little more than a cartoon superhero since the franchise ran out of original Ian Fleming stories back in the 1980s. Casino Royale is based on the very first Bond novel from 1953, and although the story has been updated to the present era (Bond fights terrorists instead of Communists), all the gritty realism and humanity in the books is back on the screen.

Craig's Bond is one bad-ass motherfucker who can take it and dish it out in equal measure. This Bond bleeds and he's not afraid to show his scars, both literal and emotional. Craig also has the best body of all the actors who have bared their chest in the role. He's buff and he's hot!



Like all the Bond films, Casino Royale has plenty of mystery, intrigue and spectacular action sequences and fight scenes, but they seem more realistic and deadlier than the bloated special effects extravaganzas of the more recent Bond epics. The producers claimed they were going back to basics with this film and I for one am delighted they did. I've long hoped to see a faithful presentation of Ian Fleming's original James Bond on the screen instead of the foppish dandy the character had become over the decades. Mr. Fleming would be proud of Craig's new incarnation. The character again has all the brains, brawn, and charm the world's most famous gentleman spy must have to survive his ruthless profession.

Now don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to rag on the other actors who have played Bond. I love all of them! I'm a huge fan of the entire Bond franchise and I've watched all the films dozens if not hundreds of times. Roger Moore played Bond while I was growing up so I have special fondness for his interpretation, but I thought Connery's movies (more faithful to Fleming's novels) were of much higher quality than the later films.

George Lazenby was forgettable in one of the best Bond stories, and Timothy Dalton suffered from poor scripts with no connection to the Ian Fleming source material. Pierce Brosnan brought back the series with great panache after an extended gap following the end of the Cold War. Brosnan was born to play Bond, and he would have done so 20 years ago if NBC had let him out of his Remington Steele contract.

As a student of film music, I also appreciated David Arnold's more traditional Bond score, which seemed to quote or at least allude to the romantic, lushly orchestrated John Barry themes from the classic films in the series. I've enjoyed Arnold's work on the last few Brosnan films but the music had become more electronic and pop-based to reflect the current times. The only musical disappointments in Casino Royale were the lack of Monty Norman's classic "James Bond Theme" during the film except over the end credits; and rocker Chris Cornell's theme song "You Know My Name" was hardly memorable.

As the closing credits proclaimed: "James Bond will return." I can't wait!

Read CNN's review.

2006 Nicholl Fellowship Dinner

Just got home from a fun evening with my friend Barry Dennen. He invited me to join him at the Beverly Wilshire (the Pretty Woman hotel) for the 21st Annual Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting awards banquet. This is an Academy event and not only is Barry an Academy member, he is one of the script readers for the Nicholl fellowship, the most prestigious screenwriting fellowship in the country.

We arrived in time for cocktails (I had the most delicious Belvedere vodka martini) and elegant hors d'oeuvres (my favorites were the fresh salmon sashimi and the succulent rare lamb chops -- yum!) Dinner was also spectacular: rare roast beef, baked sea bass, baked potatoes, steamed asparagus and a colorful tomato medley. Oh, and did I mention the ever-flowing Pinot Noir? The waiters left no one with an empty glass.

The food and drink were spectacular, but the highlight was the keynote speech from filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Jersey Girl, etc.). Not only did he swear like a sailor throughout his speech, he had everybody rolling with laughter. Keep in mind these Academy events tend to be populated with stuffy seniors so it was at first shocking when Smith used the f-word in the first line of his speech! But the laughs soon followed and then every speaker who followed used the f-word as well!

Smith read a list of the last six Oscar winners for Best Screenplay and then jokingly wondered why he had been asked to deliver the keynote speech considering he's never even been nominated. Every year when he watches the Oscars on TV, he said, he sees the winner delivering his acceptance speech, and the same thought comes into his head: "I'm a better fucking writer than that guy!"

Smith warned the young writers in the audience to beware of actors who want to improvise dialogue and change the script. He told a long and involved story about a scene in Chasing Amy where the film's star Ben Affleck added a line that Smith didn't write. Smith cut the take and scolded Affleck for improvising during the shot. "If you want to make up shit, write your own damn script," Smith told him. "So Affleck did write his own screenplay," Smith dead-panned, "and he won an Oscar for it." That was, of course, Good Will Hunting.

After Kevin Smith's hilarious keynote address, the Nicholl Fellowship awards were presented and several of the presenters were notable professionals in the field. One that impressed me was Daniel Petrie who wrote the Beverly Hills Cop movies, Turner and Hooch, and The Big Easy. Not a bad resume! My favorite presenter however was the lovely actress Eva Marie Saint who exclaimed she was enjoying herself despite the foul language. "My father was a Quaker," she explained.

Barry and I sneaked out before the ceremony ended so we could make it to another party at The Lot, the old Warner Hollywood studio where I saw the JCS footage a couple weeks ago. Our sound man from Superstar, Doug Mountain, was celebrating the opening of his new post-sound facility at the studio. There were just a few people left, including Jack Nakano and Joe Gunches (the Superstar producers), and Craig Barna (conductor and music director for Superstar). We also met a handsome and talented young composer who is currently writing music for the sitcom Till Death, starring comedian Brad Garrett. This young man also wrote a song which is a current hit record in Asia by the pop diva BoA. I happen to know of BoA a lot because many of my Japanese and Korean students have mentioned her before. She is a superstar in Asia, kind of like Christina Aguilera is here in North America.

All-in-all, another fun Hollywood evening!

Don't Bother to Vote

It's Election Day here in the good ol' U.S. of A. and I for one will be exercising my Constitutional right NOT to vote this year. Why not, you ask? "Why bother?" is the more appropriate question.

Already this morning there have been problems with voting machines and poll workers who don't know how to operate the equipment. And let's not forget that the president of Diebold Corporation, the largest manufacturer of computerized voting machines, promised in a 2003 fund-raising e-mail to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush in 2004. Mission Accomplished, indeed.

The United States is one of the only democracies in the world that hires private, partisan companies (3 out of 4 have close Republican ties) to tabulate votes with little or no oversight from the government. These voting machines are easily hacked and there are no paper records to recount in case of machine errors.

Since the elections in 2000 and 2004 were both completely rigged by the Republican Party (a federal judge in Ohio actually ruled that the Republicans had violated the public's Constitutional rights to have their votes counted properly), I have no faith whatsoever in the electoral system in this country. It is all controlled by greedy corporate interests who seek only personal gain.

So, you may participate today in the charade we call a democracy. Just say a prayer to those brave souls who worked and died to build this country into the most respected and admired nation in the world. And then see what a mess we've made of it.

Haggard the Homo

"He doth protest too much"

"It takes one to know one"

"You smelt it, you dealt it"

It's always fun to see a hypocritical gay-basher get caught for having gay sex, especially if that asshole happens to be an evangelical Christian minister.

Ted Haggard, married father of five and leader of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was outed this week by a former male escort who claimed to have a three-year sexual relationship with Haggard, which included methamphetamine drug binges.

Haggard resigned as pastor and was evicted from the church he founded for "sexually immoral conduct."

MSNBC: Haggard resigns from Colorado church

It just goes to show that people who are comfortable with their sexuality don't feel the need to condemn anyone else's. Those who are repressed are usually the biggest critics and the biggest closet cases.

Don't worry, Ted. I'm sure Jesus still loves you. And your family will forgive you once you sign that big book deal. I can't wait to see the TV movie. Who do you think they'll cast as you? Tom Cruise?

Saddam Sentenced To Death

An Iraqi court today sentenced Saddam Hussein to hang for crimes against humanity. The decision automatically goes to an appeals court, but if upheld the execution must be carried out within 30 days.

Hope that doesn't disrupt the other war crimes case pending against Hussein.

MSNBC: Saddam sentenced to death by hanging

Doogie Howser is Gay

I knew it! Good for you, Neil!

CNN:'Doogie Howser' star comes out -- with pride

Will Smith is Happy

Special Hollywood treat this week. My tour boss Philip, a SAG member, gets free tickets to screenings all the time. Thursday night he invited me to a special private screening of The Pursuit of Happyness and the film's star, Will Smith, appeared for a Q&A after the film.

Philip kindly took me to dinner, on the company. We tried the newly reopened Boardner's at Cherokee and Hollywood. The decor was lovely, but the music was heavy industrial rock. It felt like an Art Deco biker bar. The food was decent, though.

The show was at the Egyptian, an old haunt, and we arrived late enough to be left to sit up front in the fourth row, which is not the most comfortable position to watch a movie despite the steeply raked floor toward the screen. However, it was an ideal location to get up close with Will Smith, who looked slightly thinner than he usually does on screen. He wore a sharp black suit and his hair was shorn close to his skull.

Will Smith is a refreshlingly earnest and down-to-earth guy. A handsome man, he charmed the audience with witty anecdotes about his acting career and his experiences making The Pursuit of Happyness and other films from his now lengthy career. He takes acting quite seriously and revealed a lot about his artistic process.
Mr. Smith introduced his lovely wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, sitting in the audience, and recounted several stories about his adorable, scene-stealing young son who also stars in the film as Will's son. When the moderator called for the last question, Will protested that he wasn't ready to stop: "I'm gonna take some more questions. I owe it to y'all for making Wild Wild West."

The Pursuit of Happyness tells the true story of Chris Gardner, a bright and nearly homeless single father who raised his young son while learning to become a stock broker. Chasing the American Dream, Chris Gardner overcame enormous obstacles to earn a successful position with Dean-Witter and he became a millionaire.

It's an emotional and uplifting story, with excellent acting by the whole cast. The San Francisco locations shine on the big screen. See it in theaters starting December 15th. And remember to vote for Will Smith when awards season comes around!

Brian Wilson: Pet Sounds 40th Anniversary

I treated myself to a special event at UCLA last Wednesday. Brian Wilson, the legendary creative force behind the Beach Boys, celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the classic Pet Sounds album by performing the entire work live in concert.

It was so much fun! The band were awesome. They sang great and almost everybody played a multitude of instruments, including keyboards, guitar, banjo, percussion of all sorts, trumpet, horn, and saxophone, accordion, harmonica, and so on. Joining the band on stage was original Beach Boy Al Jardine. It was fantastic to hear such beautiful music performed by talented musicians in an elegant concert hall where hundreds of great artists have performed over the decades.



Royce Hall, where the show was performed, is an intimate concert hall in a beautiful historic building on the UCLA campus. The acoustics were fantastic even for a loud rock show and the view was excellent from the center balcony. The house was completely sold out and everybody was moving to the music, except for the enormous woman to my right who kept playing with her stupid glow-in-the-dark PDA. Get a clue, sweetheart.

Anyway, the show was fantastic. Well worth the 68 bucks. Now you know why I went by myself.

What Happens in Vegas...

I've gotten so behind in my posting lately, busy with work but also with fun!

The weekend of Friday the 13th of October held many exciting and agonizing moments in Las Vegas. I flew out to see my mother and sister compete in the Sweet Adelines International Competition. If you're not familiar with the Sweet Adelines, they are an international organization of women's barbershop choruses. As quirky a concept as that sounds, it's actually quite a lot of fun and many different kinds of talented women are involved.

My mother has been singing in Denver's Skyline Chorus for a decade, and my sister joined only recently. It was Sherea's first International Competition and the first trip to Vegas for both of them. My sis wrote a great recap of our experiences on her blog, so I don't have much to add. It was fun to hang with family that I haven't seen in a while, and the entertainment in Las Vegas was spectacular.

I actually hate the atmosphere in Vegas. I grow increasingly disgusted with cigarettes and tobacco smoke with each passing day. Unfortunately, Las Vegas is choked by smoke and air pollution. And the whole town is bloody expensive, to the point of not being worth the trouble. The day I paid $10.99 for a 12" SUBWAY sandwich instead of $9.99 for the 6" one was the moment I realized, "OK, I'm over Vegas."

Take a lot of money with you to Vegas and you'll have a great time! There were so many shows I wanted to see. We were lucky to get to see the updated Folies Bergere at the Tropicana (topless!) and the legendary Liza Minelli in concert at the Luxor. Tremendous fun all around. I've had a good run of seeing living legends up close lately and Liza was no exception. She's quite a talented and professional entertainer. I'd love to see her again, and I hope I can return to Las Vegas some time to see a few more shows.

This Woman is My Hero!

Check out this hilarious story!

School Bus Driver Flips Bush the Bird