Humour
Lets throw our minds back a few years to the days of Roger Moores James Bond. Imagine you are a baddy facing him over a poker table, sharing barbs and downing a few Martinis. You will no doubt have been planning how to get him to fall into your pool of man-eating sharks for weeks, but now you have met him, you think you will just talk a bit more because, to be honest, you are all just having such a lovely evening. By the time he has outfoxed you, has you hanging off a cliff and delivered his lets not leave you hanging there line, you may have actually conceded that it was an honour to have been knocked off by this lovely gentleman spy. This is certainly not the case with Daniel Craigs James Bond. You can tell its his first full time job in MI6 as he is taking it all a bit seriously, isnt he? Ask him how he wants his Martini and you get a terse Do I look like I give a damn?. I know that his game of poker with Le Chiffre was a bit high pressure, what with him being handed the departments Christmas party fund to gamble with, but come on! If I was playing cards against someone whose eye was bleeding, I would at least have ribbed him about not being able to put in a contact lens properly. Who is to blame for this? Yes, its Jason Bourne again. Early in the Bourne Identity, Mr Bourne tells Marie what he is thinking while she is trying to make an emotional connection in a roadside cafe. Instead of joining her in a discussion about whether she should buy shoes or a mink coat with the $10,000, he states calmly that he is deciding whether to snap the neck of the fat bloke at the bar or just knee him in the balls. Thats right, Jason goes into his local supermarket wondering whether he should clock the cashier with a tin of beans or strangle her with a baguette. After this insight into psychosis, he woos Marie in a grungy Paris hostel, before OCD kicks in and he cleans the room, obsessively removing all evidence of finger prints and the used johnny (I hope). I think he smiles twice in the whole trilogy. No, out of these three loonies, I would be pals with Ethan Hunt. He is, after all, the only one who has friends in his movies with which he actually has a laugh now and then, and as in the case of Simon Pegg, he has friends who can bring some lightness to the whole picture. Why is that? Because, again, Ethan kept the faith with his trusted formula while Bond lost more of his and applied rules of seriousness which are applicable when the whole of the CIA want you dead and you cannot remember what you had for breakfast, but not when you are being paid handsomely by the Great British public to play cards, jet to hot countries and shag gorgeous women. To be fair, Ethan Hunt was not also being openly satirised by a Canadian comic in the Spy Who Shagged Me, but Bonds complete loss of humour and charm was manageable in Casino Royale but became too much to bare in Quantum of Solace. Now Bond can redeem himself and return to a lighter touch, but it seems that Bourne is backing itself ever more into the dark, broody mood. The Avengers showed you can have action, sadness but some laughs too. I like my spies to have some wit. For me, a clear win for Ethan Hunt here. Click "next" for "Who Is The Better Boyfriend"...