The old, new James Bond...
by Erik Bates on November 28, 2006

Scott Hardie | December 2, 2006
That is a good coincidence. We used to joke about the man serving us with a name tag identifying him as "Waiter #3." Talk about being born to a particular job.

From what I've read, this film is intended by the producers to be independent of everything else that came before it, a clean slate. They enjoy Judi Dench's work so they asked her to play M again, which adds to the confusion, but this M is not the same as the other M she played in the Brosnan films. Maybe it would help to borrow a page from sci-fi and think of this film as taking place in an alternate dimension - different but with many shared elements?

In keeping with toning down the other elements, I think the portable defibrillator and other things in his glove box were intended to be the gadgets this time around, without a Boothroyd to pitch them.

Erik Bates | December 2, 2006
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Kris Weberg | December 2, 2006
Eh. I said it in the comments to Scott's review, and I'll say it here: what, exactly, is the point of a gritty, realistic Bond movie?