Over THE EDGE BonVoyage Bond- April 11, 2007 A Counter To The ~ Casino Royale Review | Moircu Grant Puoto Epiror In the last Issue_of OTE’s Cameron and Kristy at the Mov- ies, Cameron reviewed Casino Royale, the newest of the James Bond series. After reading Cam- eron’s solo review and reading many others I felt it neccesary to respond to them with what I thought of the movie. I dont know about you, but I grew up watching the original and newer Bonds with my dad when the different channels would throw on the marathons two or three times a year, as well as whenever they came on the movie channels, this works out to mean that we were watching Bond pretty much constantly. This may make me sound like a geek but I dont care as I have really enjoyed the Bond series up until the last two mov- ies. In my mind Casino Royale was a great spy movié, and a Sfeat action movie, a half decent love story, but by no means was it a good “Bond” movie. Now if you havent seen the movie, I will do my best not to give away large portions of the film that so many have raved. about but I must.give away parts to defend my argument. For all you Daniel Craig fans I will not be bashing him for the most part so do not fear. I think Craig would make an amazing Bond (though NO Bond will ever surpase Sir Sean Connery) with his peircing eyes and great Bond like attitude that he pegs on the nail, probably the only part of the movie that held true to the series. First continuty comes into play, especially in a prequel. James Bond occured for the most part during the Cold War and James therefor was constantly competing against the KGB and Spectre, the agents of the Soviet Union. Logic- ally then, any prequel to the “first” James Bond movie, Dr No, should therefore be during the Cold War or even prior to it. This is not the case with Casino Royale. Instead continutity is immediatly broken when M is caught complaining that not only does “she” miss the Cold War, but also can be quoted saying “since 9/11” at a point in the movie. Can James time trav- el? Also on the-continuity note, I placed she in italics because in the original James Bond movies, the character M is a man. Not that fe- male can not play a great leader of an international spy organization, but if this is supposed to be before James got his 00 licence, when M was still a man, perhaps it should have remained so for continuity purposes. The next parts of my argument may be loose but they are based around the idea that is “Bond, James Bond”. First, while they utalized an Aston Martin (one of the two more famous “Bond Cars”, the other one being a BMW) in the tradition started -by the first James back in 1965 in Goldfinger, and totaled it, in true tradition, it’s lack of gadgets was disapointing but at least fit in with the “pre-career” theme of this “007” movie. Secondly, many of us have come to look forward to hearing James patronize the fam- iliar Q character, replaced in the last Bond movie because of his unfortuante death. No Q what-so- ever, even for a.minor gadget like the tracker Bond uses in the movie was a definate feeling of lack. And abh the tracker, convienietly tied to a cellphone to limit suspicion. While a nifty gadget, this once again throws out the timeline con- tinutity of the movie, cellphones did not exist prior to the 1990’s. And what is Bond without a “Bond Girl”? This is something Casino Royale didnt neccisarily overlook with the stunning Eva Green, but instead over emphasized. Bond does not fall in-love, at least not in any of the previously produced 21 movies. While the arguement could be used that this movie and story holds the key to why James does not fall in love, that is not my arguement, simply that the love story of this movie, pulls from the whole overall James Bond feel- ing. They managed to mix in the classic martini, but made it far too specific instead of the classicly ut- tered, “shaken not stirred”. Ultimately I could continue this rant, and pull in info from the books and other comparisons, but when I think of it, to summarize, this movie just came up short as a Bond film. And while it will join my collection for the simple fact that its cover reads “007” it will not be often watched and will most likely gather dust. This so called Bond movie recieves one and a half shaken martinis as a Bond movie and four explosions out of five as a action/spy/love story from me. Strong performance of Drama Club in 7 Stories ReBecca CARMICHAEL Co Eniror In Crier UNBC is known for a lot of things, but excellence in perform- ing arts isn’t usually one of them. The UNBC Drama club proved this assumption to be wrong dur- ing their recent performance of*7 Stories, a play written by Morris Panych and directed by Charlyn- Vicki Bulandus-Polard. The play is centered on a char- -acter.simply known as “Man”, played by Gareth Hopkins. We meet him standing on a ledge, contemplating jumping. He’s in- terrupted from this when the win- dow of the apartment next to him is flung open to reveal a couple STORIES who keep trying to kill each other, played by Sophie Mc- Clair and Reece Foster. The play unfolds as he meets the other strange inhabitants of the floor, each one so wrapped up in their own concerns they don’t seem to notice or care that the man they’re talking to is about to commit suicide. The over the top, quirky char- acters he meets manage to be both hilarious and sad. By Morris Panych My particular favorite was the freaky paranoid psychia- trist Leonard, played by Steve tmeatecguas Grtaboski. Others included a man living a double life for the sake of his fiancée’s money (Jesse Law), a flamboy- ant interior decorator and his cli- ent (Steve Grabowski and Sophie McClair), a religious nut who answers the prayers of those on the floors below (Cara Halseth), and a group of partiers wander- ing aimlessly from one party to another, one who claims to have 940 friends he doesn’t much.care for (Reese Foster, Becca Thomp- son, Jesse Law). Over the course of the play it seems like the pedple in the apartment are far more in- sane than the Man who is about to jump to his death. The only sensible one seems to be Lillian, (Coralee Forrest), an old woman shut up in her apart- ment for the last few decades, with a cynical nurse waiting for her to die (Cara Halseth). She en- courages him to jump, and fly in- stead of falling. “They don’t want people flying around all over the place. They’d have to make up a whole bunch of new regulations. That’s just bullshit. Just go.” And indeed, he does. The play is quite funny, with an underlying darkness. The ac- tors all manage to convey the lives and personalities of their characters quite well, with strong voices and professionalism. Many of them play more than one role, transitioning smoothly between characters. Gareth Hopkins does particularly well on stage for the entire play at conveying the con- fusion and hopelessness of his character. The cast worked tirelessly on this play all semester, and their hard work clearly paid off. They also had a lot of help and support from people not in the Drama Club. The set was well construct- ed by Andy Hogh, a simple design that works quité welt at sefting the scene for this surreal comedy. The lighting and sound were also very well done by Mellisa Menu, An Intimate Night of Music Scott LaPointe and The Wrong Approach at Artspace CAMERON OrR News Epiror Saturday, March 31, provided a night of intimate entertainment with the performances of the SL band, featuring Scott LaPointe, and The Wrong Approach, for- merly known as Exidist. The show was at Artspace, which occupies the upper floor of the Books and Co. building on Third Avenue. Scott LaPointe opened up the evening with his variety of alterna- tive rock music. His material is a mix of original compositions and covers, including one rendition of the classic Brown Eyed Girl. He was joined onstage with guitarist, Chris (last name unknown), who infused the moments between sets with a bit of charming humour, and highlighted the songs with talented displays of guitar solo- ing. Kyle Elder played the bass for the music; Kyle is also the bassist for The Wrong Approach, who followed. The Wrong Approach featured Josh, who is the lead singer, Brett on guitars, Kyle on bass, and Nick on drums. Their music follows more punk-rock traditions, and their line-up is composed entire- ly of original songs. The Wrong Approach maintained a cheerful demeanor and playfully mocked themselves while their line-up faced a few difficulties, such as problems with their equipment, and some forgotten lyrics. They can certainly be credited for the energy necessary to keep an audi- ence awake. Both performances of the evening did suffer shared prob- lems which hopefully can be ad- dressed for future performances. The sound level for the vocals was off for both bands. Scott La- Pointe’s voice level overpowered even the instruments. As he con- tinued his performance I fre- quently prayed for ear plugs to at least dull the volume. The Wrong Approach suffered some simi- lar problems. The vocal level for their singer, however, was a little low, and while their playing was loud, it was impossible to under- stand any of the lyrics. Small, communal perform- ances like these are great experi- ences, and for 5 dollars, it cer- tainly beats over priced drinks at the bar. Despite some technical problems for both bands, it was a fun way to spend an evening.