Boston Herald Review of CR: A-

TonyDP

James Verniere of The Boston Herald put up his very positive review of CR this morning, giving it an A-. He also astutely avoids any comparisons to Brosnan or other previous Bonds, commenting on just how different both the movie and Craig's version are from previous entries.

Even a cynic like myself has to concede that this is quite an impressive accomplishment for CR. Verniere is notorious for savaging franchise and genre films (he famously gave Batman & Robin and Batman Begins the same low grade). Have a read:


http://theedge.bostonherald.com/movieReviews/view.bg?articleid=167500

Barry Nelson

Well Tony as a cynic myself, I will add that the Chicago Tribune gave CR 3 1/2 stars and said Craig is the best Bond since Connery. He also said the movie is too long and the opening credit scene lame, but the rest was positive. Personally I don't care what they say, because I doubt I will like it, but I cannot deny the movie is getting great reviews.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-061116casino-story,1,7965770.story?coll=chi-homepagenews-utl&ctrack=1&cset=true

TonyDP

The thing with a lot of these reviews is that they begin with the premise that the formula was tired and that the franchise needed to be shaken up. If you subscribe to that line of thought then CR has succeeded because even many of the positive reviews say its very different from the "typical" James Bond movie.

But for us dissenters who liked things pretty much as the were, the positive notes don't mean as much because we're coming at it from a different perspective. Anybody who preferred the OTT plots and far out gadgets is likely to be less enthusiastic about this entry.

As with everything else, it all comes down to personal preference and what you're looking for from a James Bond movie. I have very specific expectations and CR, for all its positive press, deviates too far from those expectations given my preferences. Still, I won't deny that it looks to be a well made film and apparently has succeeded in accomplishing what it set out to do.

Barry Nelson

Well said and my feelings exactly.

highhopes

TonyDP wrote:

The thing with a lot of these reviews is that they begin with the premise that the formula was tired and that the franchise needed to be shaken up. If you subscribe to that line of thought then CR has succeeded because even many of the positive reviews say its very different from the "typical" James Bond movie.

But for us dissenters who liked things pretty much as the were, the positive notes don't mean as much because we're coming at it from a different perspective. Anybody who preferred the OTT plots and far out gadgets is likely to be less enthusiastic about this entry.

As with everything else, it all comes down to personal preference and what you're looking for from a James Bond movie. I have very specific expectations and CR, for all its positive press, deviates too far from those expectations given my preferences. Still, I won't deny that it looks to be a well made film and apparently has succeeded in accomplishing what it set out to do.

Barry Nelson wrote:

Well said and my feelings exactly.

That is a good point. The negative reviews often offer the same point in reverse: they don't like it because CR doesn't feel like a Bond picture, by which they mean the Bond pictures we've grown accustomed to over the years.
It all boils down to if you liked the formula or not.