Casino Movie Ebert
This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made. Anything goes. Consistency and planning must have seemed the merest whimsy. One imagines the directors (there were five, all working independently) waking in the morning and wondering what they'd shoot today. How could they lose? They had bundles of money, because this film was blessed with the magic name of James Bond.
Casino Royale Review Ebert
Perhaps that was the problem. When Charles Feldman bought the screen rights for 'Casino Royale' from Ian Fleming back in 1953, nobody had heard of James Bond, or Sean Connery for that matter. But by the time Feldman got around to making the movie, Connery was firmly fixed in the public imagination as the redoubtable 007. What to do?
Siskel And Ebert Movie Reviews
Feldman apparently decided to throw all sanity overboard instead of one Bond, he determined to have five or six. The senior Bond is Sir James Bond (David Niven). He is called out of retirement to meet a terrible threat by SMERSH.
Unfortunately, the threat is never explained. Other Bonds are created on the spot. Peter Sellers is the baccarat-playing Bond. He meets Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) in a baccarat game. Why? The movie doesn't say.
Directed by Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston. With David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles. In an early spy spoof, aging Sir James Bond comes out of retirement to take on SMERSH. You have to make a choice in life: Be a gambler or a croupier. So believes Jack Manfred, the hero of 'Croupier,' whose casino job places him halfway between the bosses and the bettors, so he can keep an eye on both. He is a cold, controlled man, at pains to tell us, 'I do not gamble.' True enough, he does not gamble at casino games of chance, but in his personal life he places appalling bets. This is the original review of For Your Eyes Only by Siskel & Ebert on 'Sneak Previews' in 1981. All of the segments pertaining to the movie have been included. Casino Jack (known in certain territories as Bagman) is a 2010 comedy-drama thriller film directed by George Hickenlooper and starring Kevin Spacey.The film focuses on the career of Washington, D.C. Lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff, who was involved in a massive corruption scandal that led to his conviction as well as the conviction of two White House officials, Rep. Bob Ney, and nine. Political movies often play cute in drawing parallels with actual figures. They drop broad hints that a character is “really” Dick Cheney or Bill Clinton and so on. “Casino Jack” is so forthright, it is stunning. The film is “inspired by real events,” and the characters in this film have the names of the people in those real events: Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon, Rep.
Joe Pesci
The five directors were given instructions given only for their own segments, according to the publicity, and none knew what the other four were doing. This is painfully apparent.
There are some nice touches, of course. Woody Allen rarely fails to be funny, and the massive presence of Welles makes one wish Le Chiffre had been handled seriously.
But the good things are lost, too often, in the frantic scurrying back and forth before the cameras. The steady hand of Terence Young, who made the original Bond films credible despite their gimmicks, is notably lacking here.
I suppose a film this chaotic was inevitable. There has been a blight of these unorganized comedies, usually featuring Sellers, Allen, and-or Jonathan Winters, in which the idea is to prove how zany and clever everyone is when he throws away the script and goes nuts in front of the camera.
In comedy, however, understatement is almost always better than excess.
Casino Royale Ebert
Sellers was the funniest comedian in the movies when he was making those lightly directed low-budget pictures like 'I'm All Right, Jack.' Now he is simply self-infatuated and wearisome. And so are the movies he graces.
One wishes Charlie Feldman had sat down one bright morning, early in the history of this film, and announced that everyone simply had top get organized.