Something of Boris

[pyat]

From the CNN review of the new James Bond movie:

Intriguingly, the new-look Bond seems to be developing a skeptical political outlook that would come as a shock to Ian Fleming.

Uh… maybe they’re thinking about a different Ian Fleming? One that didn’t write a series of novels about a government hitman?

This puts me in mind of my high-school James Bond campaign. (Me? Thinking of an old RPG game? Never!) The game started with the players as ordinary agents assigned to investigate a smuggling ring in London. After sinking a cargo ship full of contraband jeans, crashing cars, throwing people out of other cars and stealing those cars, setting off explosives, firing submachine guns, and generally… well… acting like James Bond… they were demoted to “Double-Oh” status.

The reason being that the “Double-Oh” department was stocked with dangerous (but loyal) thugs who could only be relied on to cause mayhem. In short, that’s where they sent all the player characters. Their first assignment involved blowing up a hotel in Monrovia. Actually, it didn’t. But they blew it up anyway.

Comments

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

...department was stocked with dangerous thugs...

Federation Admiralty to Enterprise: "You're the only ones in the area, Kirk; your orders are to proceed to investigate the disappearances, and prevent any Klingon incursions into the neutral zone..."

Federation Admiralty to all other ships in Sector Zero Zulu Alpha: "Immediate alert; depart sector immediately; we are activating Team Red Cannon! Repeat, make all haste to depart sector immediately..."

[pyat.livejournal.com]

So you've played in my friend Everett's Star Trek games, have you? ;)

Every adventure ends with the Corbomite Maneuver, or the words "ramming speed."

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Amusingly enough, that was the basis for Bond's double-O status, presented in the books but not emphasized in the movies. He was a SAS commando whose father had political connections and got him status as a spy, except actual spy work was boring and he wasn't competent enough to even keep a cover identity, so he got assigned to the only division which didn't need a cover.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

*Nods* Discussions about that were sort of the inspiration for my decision to run it that way.

[neosis.livejournal.com]

The History Channel just had a sort of biography show on Ian Flemming and his career as the author of James Bond.

[aslowhite.livejournal.com]

Daniel Craig = le hawt, and I really liked his debut as 007. The reviews I have heard and read about the new one say that the movie is devoid of the camp that typifies the Bond movies, and that the character has been turned into a psychopathic serial killer. Don't know if it's true (I don't think much of the Post reviewer who panned it (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111304154.html)), but I think I'll wait for the DVD.

Lines from the preview:

"This is the vurld's most precious resource. Ve must control as much of it as possible!"

"Ve have already begun ze process of destabilizing ze government!"

*facepalm*

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Ebert really hated it, which is usually a bad sign. I don't always agree with him, but I usually do.

Breaking stuff, killing people...

[ronyon.livejournal.com]

Heh, my current DM is struggling to motivate our party.
He made a mistake and crafted a heroic campaign,failing to realize that we where a bunch of skeevy bastards.
How skeevy? Well I play the anti-hero (TN)necromancer, and along with the redeemed(chaotic good) Drow priestess, make up the soft hearted moralists of the group.
Town after town is left in ruins as we pass through.Its gotten so bad that my character is purposely avoiding a visit to his homeland.
I actually asked a friend who had moved out of state if this was normal gamer thinking or was it just my local circle of freeks.He asured me that many gamers actually play Heroes,often without any irony what so ever!
We concluded that our gaming group of origin had scared many of us, forming us into paranoid,skeevy ne'r do wells, with a penchant for ambushes and eager retreats in the face of very reasonable odds...yup,good times.
All in all,Call of Cthulhu is the game that brings out the worst in gamers I know. Nothing like ultimate world destroying evil as an excuse to "do what must be done".
Very liberating, in a "Patriot" Act, War on Terror sort of way...

As for the Bond thing, well Flemings original intent means little to me,ever since I read Dr No.
Im pretty sure the movie version didn't have his island protected by ChiNegros, a hybrid race, combining the high intelligence of the Chinaman, with the physical superiority of the Negro. Or, maybe I just missed that part.
I like the new Bond. Haven't seen the newest film, but the first one of the new branding felt real and gritty, plus more human than I have ever seen Bond to be.
It's Noir Bond,instead of Slapstick Bond.
I feel like the "adult" me can really enjoy it, without having to crawl back into the confines of the 14 year old me.Im developmentally delayed already, turning back the clock doesn't help!

[hillarygayle.livejournal.com]

I saw that same review this morning. I was thinking "Wait...political skepticism coming as a SHOCK to Ian Fleming? Whut?" Does this person know anything about James Bond material?

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

I feel for you; I once played with a group assigned to covertly extract a captured member under light guard at a hospital. They blew up City Hall as a diversion....