To preserve the legend, we learn, British Intelligence always has a James Bond, 007, on the roster, and Niven's Bond is disdainful of his current namesake, whom he describes as a womanizing bounder relying on gadgets and leaving a trail of beautiful corpses in his wake.
The nut of the plot actually has potential this could have been a good movie, had someone had the vision to take the helm and direct it properly.ĭavid Niven is 'the true, one and only, original James Bond,' dubbed 'the greatest spy in history' by a quartet of world espionage leaders who assemble to beg, then force Bond's return from retirement. If it's a Bond spoof you want, watch Austin Powers. It's billed as a spoof, but too much of it is just plain not funny it's obvious the cast and crew are trying too hard. Even the movie's large cast of well-known and, in some cases, widely respected actors can't save this embarrassment from happening. The film boasts five directors, and the result is a mishmash with little to no sense about it. While not an official part of the series, it does use the Bond character, as well as M, Q, Moneypenny and other familiar names, so it seems to belong from a completist's perspective.
It was with a sense of pain and resigned duty that I slipped Casino Royale into my VCR for my ongoing rundown of films in the James Bond milieu.
