Craving the Supernatural

Last night, my hubby took me out to a movie and dinner--yes, in that order. We were having dinner at about 10:45. :-D anyway, we bought tickets for the 7:20 showing of CASINO ROYALE, the James Bond/Ian Fleming movie. The guy that checked our ticket (are print-ahead tickets not the best so you don't stand in line for 20 minutes??) and said, Right here in this line. So, we got in line. Guess what? He put us in the 8pm line. *sigh* naerly an hour of theater previews and commercials (is anyone else irked that now you have to view COMMERCIALS at the theater????). Anyway, Casino Royale was great. A typical Ian Fleming book come to life.

My assessment of the movie: This movie of how James Bond became a double-o-seven. Quite interesting. What I didn't like about this movie:

1. The super-duper-ultra long card game. Granted, it's the whole culmination of the movie, but it was WAY long. Totally saw the ending (of the game) coming, so it lost its UMPH.
   
2. The actress who played Vesper Lind (the heroine). She just didn't pull me. Didn't create in me an emotional tug that made me care for her. From the get-go, I was suspicious of her.
   
3. Edgier--and by this I mean it was much more like an action flick than an Ian Fleming/Barbara Broccoli film. Craig's first take down was much more violent than Bond normally is, but again, that was his first kill, so maybe it's explained that way.
   
4. The opening scene. You know what I'm talking about--where usually there are ghosted outlines of naked women. Well, this one was all about cards, but it was Craig's ghosted image constantly fighting, shooting...not the suave, debonair stuff we're used to.
   
5. The Casino Royale theme song. Again, they deviated a bit too much from the norm. The music had a great beat, but just didn't fit the Bond-genre.
   

Things I liked about this movie:

1. Romantic interludes are classic James Bond - more inuendos than flesh. :-D
   
2. This is the closest I've seen Bond come to death. GREAT scene in my opinion. I'd love to capture something like this in my books.
   
3. The car. LOL It's an Aston Martin (hey, Robin-Neen-Ron--it's the same car I have Everett Douglass driving and I nearly squealed to see that baby in motion!!). LOL
4. The opening scene in Uganda (I think that's where it was--or was that the terrorists) where Bond is chasing this dude and they take to the construction site where they end up at the top of a crane. I'm telling y'all, this guy Bond is chasing has super-human powers. He did things that I thought for sure would kill your average joe. LOL
5. The ending. Classic James Bond, where he (for the first time in Ian Fleming's books) says, Bond, James Bond. :-D Gotta love that line.
6. Daniel Craig. Okay, I wasn't sure I'd like this guy, but he pulled it off brilliantly. Through the movie, I never stopped once to wonder if I liked him, which I'd expected to do.
   
7. Edgier. LOL Laughing? Well, again, I wasn't sure if I liked the edginess, but it definitely added in some scenes.
   
8. Bond gets poisoned. I mentioned this where he nearly dies--and I loved that "human" aspect to this amazing hero, but I loved the whole sequence where he's trying to save himself. Totally loved that.
   

Of course, it really got my "creative juices" super-charged. :-D I'm just ITCHING to get writing again. I got snagged off on a tangent while Brian and I discussed the movie over salads, thinking about one of my secondary characters, Tony DeLuca, in Midnight Zone. This guy has started talking to me, telling me things. Interestingly enough, Tony looks like Daniel Craig--blonde hair, blue eyes. I realized last night that I can see myself totally writing a book for him. I was sitting there, this scene running through my mind, and Brian laughed. I'd apparently zoned out and he could see it in my eyes. LOL That's sad. . .nah, that's the life of a writer.

So, what research have you done that feuled you for writing???