My family has a long running appreciation for the James Bond series of films. I mean, part of the reason I’m named Sean is because of Sean Connery. I think I’ve seen the most Bond films out of the Cat Fancy crew, but you can never be too sure with that Colin. Anyway, with Quantum of Solace (ugh) out this week, and without the willpower to put together a retrospecticus (plus there are plenty of Bonds I haven’t seen), I thought I’d just run through what I thought about Casino Royale, and what I’d hope to see in the new film.

First of all, I think it’s important to understand where Casino Royale is coming from. It is a reboot of the franchise, a complete reimagining of the character. I certainly went in to the theater that fateful November evening expecting to see a younger version of the superspy, but that simply is not the case. In fact, the new 007 has very little to do with that classic character.

James Bond films, to me, mean high tech gadget and classy kills. Casino Royale had neither, in fact, one of the series staples, Q, was completely absent. Too bad, because John Cleese had just gotten that role a few films earlier. Gone too were the witty little remarks that we all grew to love over the years, when this Bond kills someone, it’s taken very seriously. Indeed, when on the job, this 007 is very rough and tumble, engaging in gritty chases and straightforward gunfights.

Beyond all the questionable character changes, Casino Royale is not a very good movie. I remember leaving the theater disappointed, but confident that this was a competent action flick, but upon a second viewing, it is just not very good. Something about classy, rich people playing Texas hold’em really bothers me. That they interupt the card game several times so characters can go kill people is ridiculous. The love stuff is so hammy it’s painful to watch. And then there’s the stupid emerging from the water scene. Damnit Craig! Didn’t you see Die Another Day? It’s the woman who emerges from the water, you dolt!

Casino Royale did have some touches that hinted towards this Bond becoming a character we better recognize. They were able to work in the classic gunshot opening, at the end of the film he finally says “Bond, James Bond,” they make references to Money Penny and “shaken, not stirred,” and he’s becoming increasingly unable to connect with women. Hopefully with Quantum of Solace, we’ll see the character develop more in this direction.

I’ll probably end up seeing this soon enough, but I don’t want to deal with opening day crowds. I’ll go into it skeptical, but hopeful to see Danile Craig become the character I want him to be. If not, at least I’ll get to see the new Star Trek trailer, now there’s a franchise you can’t mess up by modernizing. Oh wait…

It has recently come to my attention that one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, The Soloist has now been moved from it’s November release date to March 13, 2009. Yes a movie that has already started it’s trail of promotion and been described as potential “Oscar Bait” will now be moved by Paramount Studios to meet their 20 something films a year agenda. At least that’s all I could find out (I assume a studio can only push so many different films during Oscar season)

This totally gets me down and though I of course have not seen the movie had a strong feeling it would be a nice addition to this Oscar season. It practically had oscar nominations written all over it with it’s oscar craving star Robert Downey Jr, talented award winning co-star Jamie Foxx and it’s director in Joe Wright, whose last two films (Pride and Prejudice and Atonement) had their fair share of nominations. So I’m pretty bummed that I’m gonna have to wait to see this, but it also got me to thinking about the jerks that make up the academy.

The fact that a movie now has to open in late fall to early winter to get nominated at all is bullshit. Of course there are exceptions every once in awhile, but the fact that a movie that let’s say opens in January or February, could never be nominated for any major awards no matter how good they are. Zodiac was easily one of the best movies I saw last year, but due to it’s March opening wasn’t even considered. I’ll bet you if it had opened in December it would of had nominations and when you look at it like that, the Oscars are kind of a cheat. They’re not about giving recognition to the best films of the year, more just the one’s that are prepped for the oscar season. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of the fine crafted dramas that open up in November and December, but I think there are too many quality pictures falling through the cracks. Even the critically praised The Dark Knight has to theatrically reopen this winter to get attention from the Academy, and that’s messed up.

Hopefully I can take solace in some of the other pictures coming out, but with now The Road and The Soloist moved to 2009 it’s beginning to look like a less exciting Oscar season, at least for myself… I mean who knows, maybe those films wont even end up being that good, the fact they were moved must indicate something we don’t know about… It’s hard to say and even harder to take in.

Hey just thought I’d hit you up with some quick news about this and that. The Killers released another single this week “Spaceman”, which is the other song they played on their last SNL appearance. I managed to find a free download deep within the womb of the web and definitely dig it, I can’t wait for their new album due out November 25th which is the same week that Coldplay will release their new 8 song E.P Prospekt’s March. I also heard on 107.7 that there are plans to possibly release a new Nirvana dvd from one of their live shows. Krist Novoselic supposedly described this show as one of the coolest experiences the band ever had. Unfortunately I’m yet to find anymore on this story, but hopefully more info will surface soon enough.

On to my main focus of this blog, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s latest animated venture. Starting last September, a new series of animated shorts called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” (distributed by Burger King) premiered on Seth MacFarlane’s YouTube channel “SethComedy”. There’s a new one roughly every week (last time I checked they were on the 11th video) and they’re basically just one to two minute animated shorts about everything from “Jeff Goldblum Wafers” to “A Scotsman Who Can’t Watch a Movie Without Shouting at the Screen”. Basically it’s just like watching a collection of the “Cuttaway gags” on Family Guy but they all have that Family Guy charm. It’d probably be nice if they were a little longer but perhaps that might wear out the jokes in a few segments. I really don’t know how this went without me noticing until now, I think Burger King should of advertised this more aggressively but whatcha gonna do.

I hope everyone has a fine weekend, after all that’s what were all working for. For your enjoyment I posted the first segment of McFarlanes web series .. Remember to keep an eye out for these, they’ve planned to release 50 shorts all together.

Beloved author Michael Crichton has lost his battle with cancer. He was 66.

Most people know Crichton for Jurassic Park and it’s sequel The Lost World, and the movies based on them. He was known for stories of the dangers of pushing the technological limits of science and medicine.

Crichton wrote many other books that have been made into movies such as The Andromeda Strain, Congo, and Timeline and was also a creator of hit TV series ER.

He will be missed.

At 6’9″, Crichton probably had to deal with lots of height-related problems all his life. As a fellow taller, I know what that’s like. When us tall people die, we fall the farthest.

I don’t have much to say, but I really felt like saying something here. It was quite a moving experience today seeing Barack Obama elected president. I was glued to the TV and radio pretty much all day with the exception of when I went to vote. I voted at Peter Kirk Elementary and though it was slow and tedious, it felt pretty good to fill out my ballot at one of those rickety little covered desks. Not only was this exciting due to the fact that this was my first election, but to be alive to see such a a historic moment take place in US history, it makes me proud to be an American and almost gets me a little choked up.

Barack has really won over the hearts of this nation, I mean to see a Democratic candidate take a state like Virginia (Which hasn’t voted Democrat in 44 years) along with other swing states like Ohio and take such a commanding lead really shows that this nation is ready for some change and I welcome it. Last time I checked most of our personal Washington state positions, amendments and propositions were going in a desirable direction too (at least that is for me) and I look forward to the final results. I’ll keep it brief here as I could go on and on regarding my excitement, this was a very special day that I’ll never forget.

I hope all you men out there spent the last moments of Halloween with razor in hand, because November has begun. Yes, November, month of turkey, sales, and unbridled facial hair. It’s No Shave November. I believe the official rule is that you can shave nothing on your face from now until midnight December 1. Sounds horrific.

I think the whole Cat Fancy crew is going to give this a shot, but I can’t say we’ve talked about it in a while. Really, though, what have we got to lose? Sure, gross facial hair might hurt our social lives, but the end result is increased masculinity, right?

Personally, I’m confident that this month will result in me growing a vicious neck beard, and little else. But that badge of nerdom is one I’m willing to bear. It should at least make for an interesting Thanksgiving.