Blog Part 1:Casino Royal

Today's Blog is going to be in 3 parts.

A Review of Casino Royal; The NWR for The Idiot's Lantern; The NWR for The Impossible Planet

OK Casino Royal Spoiler Free. In a word WOW! Bond is back and back to his roots. This is the hitting of the restart button on the franchise and they could not have found a better actor to do it with. Daniel Craig has a face that look like it has been lived in. It is not a perfect face and shows its wear and tear but the eyes light up the screen.

You actually have to pay a bit of attention to the plot because it does tie together beautifully in the end. It is nice that there is a plot rather than a series of events that moves Bond forward in the story. This is Bond becoming the man he will be and you can watch him evolve into the character we know so well. Also this is a low gadget to no gadget Bond. He doesn't use anything out of the ordinary to solve his problems. And there is a nod to the early Bond films that was a very nice touch. It is worth seeing on a big screen. Bond is back and I enjoyed it.

I am grateful that I saw this film.

New Who Review for The Idiot's Lantern

My apologies I got my Doctor Who shows out of order. I thought last week was The Impossible Planet and this week would be Satan's Pit but I forgot about The Idiot's Lantern which was not a bad episode but for some reason I thought it was after the these two episodes. I'm going to try to do this one without spoilers but feel free to talk about the show as a whole in the comment section.

The basic premise seems to be TV is bad for you um'kay. Which is a rather strange position for a TV show to take if you ask me. I liked the Doctor and Rose's look. The 50s suits them both. Of course the Doctor got it wrong. I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times the Doctor has made it where he said he was going without outside forces helping him.

Good acting all around by the cast. Nice historical set up with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd which they used the original BBC footage of in the show. Historically apparently there was an up-tick in sales of televisions for that event in England.

The villain of the piece was one of the weaker points of the story for me. By the end I understood the why and the how of it, I just didn't care that much about it. Although the results of the villainy is very scary. Remember when your mother told you you would ruin your eyes if you sat too close to the TV? I think this was much scarier.

Again there is more set up for Torchwood which I felt by this point was taking over the series.

I am grateful that I didn't sit that close to the TV when I was young.

New Who review for The Impossible Planet

This is the first part of a two-parter that takes place back in space and we don't hear the magic word 'Torchwood' for a couple of episodes. I am going to put most of the review behind the cut since this is such a discovery episode I would hate for someone to stumble on this. So spoilers are behind the cut.

I will say that this was a good set up for the next episode. More Doctor/Rose relationship stuff is brought forward and good acting all around. Will Thorp did a good job and gets my pity vote for make-up.

( Well that's Ood )