Santa drives an Aston Martin
Rob Price

This is the season of holiday movies, and last week several hundred of our immediate relatives who were staying with us over the Thanksgiving weekend trooped off to watch the new "Santa Clause" flick.

My wife and I feel differently about holiday movies and watched the new James Bond movie, "Casino Royale," instead. This movie contains scenes of intense violence and, in the midst of an extended family weekend, suited our mood perfectly. I recommend it without reservation for anyone who prefers assassination and torture to singing "Jingle Bells."

In case you have been visiting other planets the past year, let me fill you in on the important details of the new Bond. Advance publicity for "Casino Royale" created a stir when the newest actor to portray James Bond turned out to be Daniel Craig - a man who happens to be blonde. Not only is he blonde, his hair looks spikey, as if Blofeld tried to murder him by sticking his head in an electric fan. Shocking.

In short, I had my misgivings. I even considered skipping "Casino Royale," which would have made it the first Bond film since the late 1960s I missed. Sadly, I have to disappoint anyone applauding this sign of maturity. By the time "Casino Royale" opened at our neighborhood theater, I was eager to spend the thousands of dollars necessary for drinks and popcorn, not to mention a ticket for the show.

Now I'm happy to report Daniel Craig is excellent as James Bond and "Casino Royale" is a superb addition to the Bond tradition. Yes, Daniel Craig has blonde hair. And no, he is not suave like Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan. But his own mixture of cruelty and thuggishness have create a new, refreshing public servant, a man as cruel and thuggish as any clerk who worked for the New York State Division of Motor Vehicles. Surely, this is was what Ian Fleming had in mind when he created the world's favorite sadist years ago.

I just wonder if the more youthful customers of the franchise will find "Casino Royale" entertaining. The last Bond movie, starring Pierce Brosnan, featured a sports car that absorbed all surrounding light frequencies and disappeared. The car also packed a wallop: rockets, surface to air missiles. In short, it's just the sort of car I wished I had when I was 17.

No such car exists in "Casino Royale." Bond first appears driving a Ford. Later, he wins an Aston Martin in a card game, but the car has no ejector seat or revolving license plates or hidden machine guns. What does Bond do with this car? He drives it!

That's exactly what I now would enjoy doing with an Aston Martin, but I wonder whether today's 17-year-old lad would prefer something a little more lively: a 12-cylinder weapon of mass destruction, basically.

So I was pleased this week when I read "Casino Royale" has earned enough to put it solidly in second place - just behind "Happy Feet," an animated movie about a penguin; go figure. Audiences apparently are flocking to see Daniel Craig portray a Bond who just received his double-O license, the license to kill. They seem to be content with a Bond movie that climaxes with a high stakes poker game. Of course, the producers deliver a pleasant dessert: the destruction of a palazzo on Venice's Grand Canal. Kids may not be able to find Venice on a map, but they'll love a collapsing Renaissance palace.

Now that I've had my holiday fix of Bond, I can turn my attention to the larger canon of holiday movies. There will be evenings at home with "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." Eventually, we'll get an itch for something livelier and and rent a newer Christmas movie: say, "Lethal Weapon."

Yes, this movie is set during the holiday season and ends with Mel Gibson chasing Gary Busey down the Los Angeles freeway on Christmas Eve. It even ends on a placid note, with a slightly bruised Mel Gibson showing up at the home of Danny Glover for Christmas dinner.

Holiday movies don't get much more uplifting than that. And if you ever get tired of the persistent holiday fare, your local video store will be happy to help you vary your video diet.

Personally, I would recommend an evening with "Goldfinger." That Aston Martin really was something!