Casino Royale (1967)

Ian Fleming published the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1953. It brought a new super spy to book shelves and became a massive success in the United Kingdom. Sales were a little slower in the United States, but the book would soon find success there as well. A year after the release of the book, CBS optioned a television special based on it. More books came out, more success followed. Eventually, it led to a film franchise that began with 1962’s Dr. No. A decade after the release of the first book, there was a successful film franchise to support it.

The James Bond franchise by Eon productions churned out film after film following the success of Dr. No. There was one noticeable absence, however. There was no Casino Royale film. In the 1950s, the rights to adapt Casino Royale had been sold to Gregory Ratoff, who didn’t work with Eon. He never made a film from the book. When he died, his representatives got the rights. They saw the success that Eon was having and decided to make their own version of James Bond. This resulted in 1967’s Casino Royale.

James Bond (David Niven) was brought out of retirement to form a team of spies who would each work to stop the evil SMERSH. The team included Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet), The Detainer (Daliah Lavi), Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), and Coop (Terence Cooper). Along the way, the team crossed paths with Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen), Le Chiffre (Orson Welles), and Lady Fiona McTarry (Deborah Kerr). It was a James Bond film with an ensemble cast, like all James Bond films. Right?

There were five directors for Casino Royale, and it very much felt so. Each director was given a segment of the film’s script to work with. They filmed their portion and headed off to their next project. It was up to one person to put each part of the film together and they never really fit together in a cohesive way. The movie ended up being a mess because of how it was assembled. Characters would be in one place then all of a sudden be somewhere else. How they got there wouldn’t make a lick of sense. Other characters acted without motivation, which also made no sense. Everything was a mess.

That included the tone of the film. For the most part, Casino Royale was a spoof. It was a comedic take on the James Bond stories that people already knew and loved from watching the Eon films. The introduction of James Bond included David Niven sitting on what looked like a giant accordion, slowly lifting and lowering himself. Someone got abducted in a flying saucer. There was a game that involved throwing giant rocks, which resulted in a bunch of strong men injuring themselves while David Niven was perfectly fine. Things were being played for laughs as much as possible.

The laughs stopped whenever Evelyn Tremble was on screen. Each of his scenes took a much more serious tone. They felt more akin to the Sean Connery movies that Eon was putting out, even though Evelyn Tremble wasn’t as gruff as Sean Connery’s Bond. It wasn’t farcical, aside from one notable shot where Evelyn got into a racecar and said some goofy joke before driving off. It was played straight. He was recruited by MI6, played baccarat against Le Chiffre, got tortured, and that was his story. There weren’t too many jokes in there, aside from the James Bond jokes that are standard in the Eon productions. It was like watching a Bond film within a Bond spoof, which made it stand out in an odd way.

Many of the problems in the disconnect between different sections of the film and the tonal shifts could be attributed to Peter Sellers’s work on Casino Royale. From accounts online, it seems like he didn’t want to play the movie as a comedy. He did whatever he could to make his scenes more serious, closer to the tone of the books and other movies. The script was made to be a farcical spy movie, but Sellers improvised to get the movie closer to what he wanted. It led to some behind-the-scenes disputes with directors, with one notable instance involving a fist being thrown. This is all hearsay based on what I’ve read online, though.

There were other issues that Peter Sellers brought to Casino Royale as well. He was a major trouble to the production. I saw something that said he was the person who got Orson Welles to join the film. However, there was some tension that came between the two, leading to scenes having to be shot around them not wanting to be in the same room. Sellers would also disappear for days at a time, eventually just walking off the film without finishing his work. His absence led to some editing issues as the editors had to work around it without any new scenes being added. The pacing was already a mess because of five directors working separately. The loss of a star without any rewriting only made those issues worse.

Casino Royale was a messy movie. The intentions to make something interesting were there. In the planning process, it was meant to be a spoof of the popular James Bond movies being released by Eon. That shined through in a few moments. But the way it was put together, along with the troubles that the cast caused, meant that Casino Royale wasn’t cohesive at all. It felt like a bunch of disparate parts instead of a satisfying whole.

There was no sequel to Casino Royale. The Eon franchise would go on, but the spoof series would end at one movie. It was an interesting attempt at trying something a little different. However, it didn’t quite work the way it was intended. People didn’t want another messy half-spoof. They wanted more of the James Bond that had already been a success. And they got more. They got over fifty years more. Sure, there was another competing James Bond in the 1980s, thanks to all the Kevin McClory stuff. It was Eon productions that outlasted them all, though. There’s even a new movie coming out this week.

The James Bond franchise has come a long way since Ian Fleming wrote the novel Casino Royale at the Goldeneye estate in 1952. There have been over twenty movies, with even more books. People kept the series of novels going well after Fleming’s death. Over that time, there have been a few takes on the material while it was adapted. Some focused more on realism, others on spectacle, and others yet on comedy. The different ways people interpreted the material helped it become everlasting. There’s something for everyone. There’s a version of James Bond for everyone.

It’s time for a few notes before we head out:

• One of the directors of Casino Royale was Ken Hughes, who directed Sextette (week 141).
• Caroline Munro had a small role in Casino Royale. She was also in Starcrash (week 1) and Slaughter High (week 279).
• John Hollis returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Casino Royale after appearing in Flash Gordon (week 81) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (week 403).
• Peter Brace, Eddie Powell, and Terry Richards were all in Flash Gordon (week 81) and Casino Royale.
• Anjelica Huston made a quick appearance in Casino Royale. She could also be seen in The Ice Pirates (week 128).
• George Raft has appeared in Casino Royale and Sextette (week 141).
• Rocky Taylor has appeared in two Sunday “Bad” Movies that were both James Bond movies. They were Die Another Day (week 153) and Casino Royale.
• Vladek Sheybal has finally returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Casino Royale. It has been a while since he first showed up in The Apple (week 196).
• Finally, Casino Royale featured Burt Kwuok, who was in I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (week 203).
• Have you seen Casino Royale? What did you think? Was it as messy as I made it out to be? Messier? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
• You can use the comments or Twitter to suggest movies I should be watching for Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’m always looking for movies I might not otherwise know that would fit into the blog.
• Head over to Instagram to check out more Sunday “Bad” Movies fun. Trailers, clips, posters, and some other stuff sometimes.
• It’s time to look forward to what’s coming up in Sunday “Bad” Movies. Next week is the first week of October, which means we’re getting into some horror. Things are kicking off with some 1980s horror. Specifically, things are kicking off with 1981’s Graduation Day. Come back next week and I’ll have some words about it. See you then!

12 Rounds (2009), 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded (2013), 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown (2015)

Action movies take up a huge chunk of the theatrical movie market. The blockbusters that fill the summer schedule are frequently built upon action scenes. The spectacle gets the oohs and aahs of the audience in a way that comedy, horror, and dramas don’t. People pay big bucks to see popular actors fight each other, fight creatures and monsters, fight nature, or even fight themselves. Physically, I mean. Audiences love to see people get punched, shot, or driven through.

So many action movies get released on such a frequent basis that it can get hard to tell them apart. The actors might change, but the action feels relatively the same from one movie to the next. The action flicks that truly stand out do something different. They do something to make themselves stand out among whatever else is being released at the time. It could be a visual thing, it could be a tone thing. In some cases, the action movies have a hook within the storytelling that brings audiences in and makes them feel like they’re watching something special.

That was the case in 12 Rounds. Danny Fisher (John Cena) was a police officer out on patrol with his partner, Hank (Brian White). They got a call that one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals, Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen), was in town. They tracked him down and Danny caught him, but not before Miles’s girlfriend, Erica (Taylor Cole), was struck by a car and killed. One year later, Miles escaped from prison and started to exact his revenge on Danny. He kidnapped Danny’s girlfriend, Molly (Ashley Scott), and said that Danny would get her back if he survived 12 rounds of increasingly tough and law-breaking challenges. Danny had to live through the day while not getting arrested by the FBI.

The hook in 12 Rounds was pretty obvious. It was where the movie got its name. Miles Jackson was giving Danny twelve rounds of terror. Each round was win or lose. If Danny won, he would get his girlfriend back. If he didn’t, she would die, and he would likely die as well. It was like a boxing match with higher stakes. The person who won the most rounds of the bout would come out the victor. Until the twist, that was.

Danny’s first round was a round he couldn’t win at all. He didn’t even know he was playing at that point. Miles set off a bomb in Danny’s house, ensuring that Danny would know the stakes. That was claimed as a victory for the villain, meaning he was up one in the twelve rounds. Following that, Danny went into each round knowing what he had to do to succeed. He could be chasing down a ferry, stopping a runaway streetcar, or robbing a bank. Whatever crazy idea that Miles came up with would be one of the rounds.

This hook was a rather entertaining one, giving some reason behind the exceedingly insane tasks Danny had to overcome. The reason behind why Miles was doling out tasks wouldn’t be revealed until near the end of the movie. It would all make sense. Until then, it was a nifty little story conceit that helped make 12 Rounds stand out among the average action hero chasing the bad guy movies that flood the multiplexes all summer long.

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded was more of the same, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Nick Malloy (Randy Orton) was an EMT working the night shift with his partner Jay (Colin Lawrence). After picking up a man who looked like someone had forced surgery on him, they realized their new patient was a ticking time bomb. Literally. The guy blew up in their ambulance and Nick was thrown into a whirlwind adventure where a man on a phone gave him a series of twelve tasks to complete so he could survive. It was twelve rounds of terror once again.

The concept was still there. A villain, in this case Heller (Brian Markinson), was in a contest with someone that would last twelve rounds. He was sending the person to do some crazy things in the name of a competition that person did not want to participate in. That person’s significant other was put in danger, which was a driving force behind their participation. It even included the one year earlier opening, which gave some insight into why the current events were occurring. It was the same model with different characters and a different WWE Superstar in the lead role.

What didn’t quite translate over was the motivation behind the villain choosing to do things in twelve rounds. Miles had a reason for putting Danny Fisher through twelve rounds of crazy missions. There were ulterior motives that each of the twelve rounds set up. Heller didn’t have that kind of reasoning behind going twelve rounds with Nick Malloy. He was simply terrorizing an EMT through a twelve-step process. Heller was out for revenge, even if it was partially directed at the wrong people.

12 Rounds and 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded shared some similarities in how the action played out. The main characters each progressed through the story by going through twelve different trials given to them by a villain over the phone. It was a cookie-cutter premise that made for a sequel that felt like what came before. It felt like a lesser version, though, because it didn’t have the same amount of thought put into the villain and his motivations.

12 Rounds 3: Lockdown, on the other hand, changed up the formula completely, making for something that felt new for the franchise. John Shaw (Dean Ambrose) returned to the police force after being put on leave. He had been shot in the line of duty, while his rookie partner had been killed. It didn’t take long for Shaw to uncover a group of dirty cops, lead by his former partner, the non-rookie Tyler Burke (Roger Cross). When Burke found out Shaw had some evidence that could take down a lot of police officers, he ordered a lockdown of the precinct and began a hunt. Shaw only had twelve rounds in his gun to protect him from a crooked police force out for the kill.

It was a bold move for a franchise built on a specific formula to change up that formula for the third film. It wasn’t unheard of, but it was a bold choice. The twelve round battle between good guy and bad guy was gone. Instead, there was a one versus twelve situation where the one good cop had to clean up the precinct that had gone off the rails without him around. The twelve rounds in the gun was the new gimmick to give some life to the movie.

To be fair, the idea of twelve rounds in the gun was what I expected the entire franchise to be. When I went into the first film, I assumed the title was talking about a gun. I wasn’t expecting the idea that there would be a twelve round battle between a good guy and a bad guy. I was pleasantly surprised to get an unexpected gimmick. That said, it was nice to get a movie that felt closer to my expectations. That didn’t necessarily make 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown stand out as much as 12 Rounds. It did manage to make it feel like a fresh entry into a franchise that had already felt tired and repetitive in the second film.

The 12 Rounds franchise was an action series with a couple of hooks to get viewers interested. The twelve rounds came into play in different ways over the three films. The first two featured a hero and a villain going toe-to-toe in a series of exceedingly bad tasks. If the hero completed the task, he won the round. If the task was incomplete, he lost. That changed in the third film, where there was a hero being ambushed by a group of dirty cops while only having twelve rounds in his gun. Two different hooks from a franchise with one title.

Action movies nowadays frequently need to have a hook to catch people’s interest. There have been so many action flicks made that there must be something to help an individual movie stand out. It could have something to do with the stars. It could have something to do with how the action scenes were filmed. In many cases, however, it has to do with the story itself. The people behind the movie come up with some sort of gimmick to get viewers interested in the story they have to tell. It’s just like in professional wrestling when a wrestler takes on a unique character to make themselves stand out among the other wrestlers. It’s all about the gimmick.

From this point on, this post will be all about the notes:

• 12 Rounds was directed by Renny Harlin, who also directed The Legend of Hercules (week 77). He was also featured in both films.
• Roel Reiné is one of the most decorated directors in Sunday “Bad” Movies. He directed 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded, but he also directed Death Race 2 (week 9), Death Race: Inferno (week 9), The Marine 2 (week 30), and The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (week 380).
• Peter Navy Tuiasosopo appeared in 12 Rounds, after appearing in Batman & Robin (week 138), Street Fighter (week 280), and The Scorpion King (week 380).
• 12 Rounds was the fourth appearance of Cathy Cavadini in Sunday “Bad” Movies. She was also involved in Jaws: The Revenge (week 240), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (week 310), and Ghost Dad (week 435).
• Lochlyn Munro also made a fourth appearance this week. He was in 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown. His previous appearances were in Hansel and Gretel Get Baked (week 38), In the Name of the King: Two Worlds (week 220), and Space Buddies (week 270).
• Sam Medina showed up in Sunday “Bad” Movies for the third time with 12 Rounds after showing up in Freelancers (week 14) and Tracers (week 133).
• Brian White was a major part of 12 Rounds. He was also a major part of DOA: Dead or Alive (week 191) and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220).
• Another three-timer was Cynthia LeBlanc, who has been in Fant4stic (week 172), Jonah Hex (week 249), and 12 Rounds.
• Michael Wozniak was in Road House 2: Last Call (week 200), Jonah Hex (week 249), and 12 Rounds.
• The final three-timer for 12 Rounds was Barbara Harris, who also worked on Jaws: The Revenge (week 240) and Ghost Dad (week 435).
• Roger Cross played the villain in 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown. He was also in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (week 33) and Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD (week 284).
• The final three-timer of the week was Tony Skinner, who was in 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown, The Marine 5: Battleground (week 237), and Santa’s Little Helper (week 315).
• Four actors were in Jonah Hex (week 249) and 12 Rounds. They were Edward R. Cox, Chaz Smith, Daniel Vincent, and Bill Martin Williams.
• Two actors were in Fant4stic (week 172) and 12 Rounds. They were Hunter Burke and M. Jearl Vinot.
• Douglas M. Griffin was in Freelancers (week 14) and 12 Rounds.
• John Cena starred in two WWE Studios franchise starters that have been featured in Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was in The Marine (week 30) and 12 Rounds.
• David Frye made his return to Sunday “Bad” Movies in 12 Rounds after previously appearing in Anacondas 4: Trail of Blood (week 80).
• Nick Gomez first popped up in Sunday “Bad” Movies in Aces: Iron Eagle III (week 90). Now he has popped up again in 12 Rounds.
• Louis Herthom appeared in Road House 2: Last Call (week 200) and 12 Rounds.
• Gonzalo Menendez played a police officer or FBI agent in both 12 Rounds and Superfast! (week 229).
• Two actors appeared in American Ultra (week 261) and 12 Rounds. They were Geraldine Glenn and Billy Slaughter.
• 12 Rounds was the second Sunday “Bad” Movie for Judi M. Durand, who was in Jaws: The Revenge (week 240).
• Greg Finley and David Randolph were both in 12 Rounds and Ghost Dad (week 435).
• Jason Pace had a role in 12 Rounds. He also had a role in The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (week 380).
• The final 12 Rounds returning Sunday “Bad” Movies actor is Shaun Grant, who was also in 3 Musketeers (week 384).
• Now onto 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded, where we have Phillip Mitchell returning from The Marine 3: Homefront (week 30).
• Colin Lawrence played Nick’s partner in 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded. He was previously in House of the Dead (week 59).
• Sophie Lui was in both Repeaters (week 62) and 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded.
• Venus Terzo was in 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded after originally appearing in Warriors of Virtue (week 88).
• 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded’s Cindy Busby was also in Ghost Storm (week 97).
• Fraser Aitcheson returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded following an earlier appearance in The Marine 4: Moving Target (week 154).
• The final returning actor in 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded was Rachel Hayward, who was previously in Jingle All the Way 2 (week 160).
• We start 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown with Daniel Cudmore, who was also in Alone in the Dark (week 152).
• 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown featured Britney Ever After (week 258) actor Matthew Harrison.
• Andrew Herr was in 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown and The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (week 337).
• Finally, James Michalopolous appeared in 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown. He also appeared in Far Cry (week 364).
• Have you seen 12 Rounds? Have you seen 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded? What about 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown? Did you like any of them? Did you like the gimmicks they used? What other action movie gimmicks do you like? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
• If there are any movies you think I should check out for this blog, Twitter and the comments are good places to get a hold of me and let me know.
• Make sure to visit Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram for more Sunday “Bad” Movies fun on an almost daily basis.
• Next week, I’m back into the one movie a week flow as I take a look at a movie that ties into another movie that will be coming out shortly. Specifically, I’m taking a look at a James Bond movie. Even more specifically, I’ll be taking a look at the 1967 version of Casino Royale. I saw it once, many years ago. I don’t remember too much about it. I’ll give you some of my thoughts in next week’s post. See you then!