Daniel Craig is 007: Deal with it

Hasn’t poor Daniel Craig suffered enough this week? First, he reportedly gets two teeth knocked out while filming a Casino Royale fight scene. Now, along come some disgruntled James Bond fans with a new website, craignotbond.com, that urges fans to boycott the upcoming film because they don’t think Craig is fit to check the oil of Bond’s Aston Martin. (Their chief complaint seems to be that they don’t like his looks, as is apparent from this cruel but funny page of separated-at-birth photos.)

Enough. You Craig-hatas out there need a license to chill. All you naysayers should rent Layer Cake, where Craig proves he can handle the gunplay, nightlife, and international intrigue requirements of the 007 role; in fact, he plays a guy so cool he doesn’t even need a name. Craig’s dramatic work in such movies as Road to Perdition, Enduring Love, and Munich speaks for itself, and if you’re worried that his unconventional appearance means a lack of sex appeal, allay your fears by watching him smolder in Sylvia or Love Is the Devil.

Okay, he’s not very funny or polished, but then he’s not being asked to play the quip-a-minute, every-hair-in-place Bond of the Roger Moore era; rather, he’ll be the brutal, two-fisted Bond of Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel.

Think of Craig as one of Q’s cunning and deadly gadgets: now that he’s been given to you, don’t you want to take him into the field and see what he can do?

addCredit(“Casino Royale: Greg Williams”)