The Hottest Bond Since Sean Connery...

...perhaps, the hottest Bond of all?

Daniel Craig may be the "Blonde Bond," but he's a Little Brother Bond that Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan can be proud of. He's...real. He's just handsome enough; rugged enough; falls down a few times; counters M (Judi Dench) to the point of exasperation; looks at--but woos--the ladies one at a time; shows both outer (and inner) strength; is not afraid to show pain; is not afraid to be tender: to say, "I love you" to his fellow co-star, Eva Green (of "Kingdom of Heaven" fame); is not above trying to save her when (well, I'd better not give it all away). In other words: he's a man; a man who happens to have the skills and cunning to be a 007 when he has to. The movie's various locations--including Prague and its environs; Venice; Lake Como; The Bahamas; and, briefly, our very own I-95 and the Miami International Airport--provide us with the "classic Bond backdrops" that we've come to love and expect. All the swashbuckling, pyrotechnics, and gravity-defying stunts are there, but so is some very witty and intelligent dialogue between a man and a woman that give substance to what might possibly lead to a meaningful relationship. At the very beginning, I wondered if this was truly a Bond movie (you'll see), but, by the end--at the very end--Daniel Craig has ushered in the era of the new James Bond. If his Big Brother Bonds agree--and I read that they do--who are we to say otherwise?

Well, there it is. Hard to compress. It's Daniel Craig's not being quite as perfect--not quite as airbrushed, as it were--as some of the previous 007's (with the exception of Sean Connery, who will remain, forevermore, the one and only original...at least, in my mind)--that I think will endear him to this generation of Bond watchers. Ninina needs 4 popcorn boxes!