IS JAMES BOND DEAD?

That's the question being asked in this week's Entertainment Weekly - article Here

Personally I think Bond will return but I am convinced that Daniel Craig will never play the role again - (thankfully, in my opinion.). A similar thing happened with the wonderful Timothy Dalton (far closer to Fleming's actual creation than Craig.), when the franchise was halted after Licence to Kill because of a situation not dissimilar to what is happening now. And when the franchise returned Pierce Brosnan was wearing the tux.

Many people, long time Bond fans included, love Daniel Craig as Bond and seem to be of the opinion that Craig is the most faithful ever screen incarnation of Fleming's spy. That's not true - Fleming's Bond may have been a professional killer but he was never a bland thug. The character always had style and charm. And that line from the movie, Casino Royale, when Bond is asked if he wants his drink shaken and not stirred and retorts that he doesn't give a damn, is totally anti-Bond. True Casino Royale was an effective adaptation of the wonderful Fleming novel but miscasting the main character ruined it for me.

Ahh, they say, this was Bond before he was Bond, when he was developing. Bollocks, I say.

POST MODERN BOND

Was a time when the Bond films were unique from all other action movies but with the last two they have become merely part of the pack. There is now very little difference between a Bond movie and Lethal Weapon 59 or Die Hard 3000. There was also a time when the Bond movies allowed us red blooded,meat eating, hetrosexuals to oggle skimply clad girls but now we have to look in dismay at the sight of Daniel Craig emerging from the sea in his knickers.

Please don't think I've anything against Craig - he is a superb actor with a far greater range than most of the other actors who have carried the 007 number, but he's just not suitable for Bond. He would make a brilliant Red Grant in a remake of From Russia with Love, though.

I'm something of a Bond nut - I've seen every Bond film on the big screen during the opening week since The Spy Who Loved Me - well except for Quantum of Shit which, I walked out of the cinema only half way through feeling that they had finally laid James Bond to rest. I've still not seen it, despite owning it on DVD. So how can I have such a strong opinion when I've not seen the entire thing? Well put it this way -  if I was eating shit I wouldn't have to consume the entire turd before realising it's shit.

So is Bond dead?
I think he is for now...and good riddens.