A little less polish, a lot more edge?

So is our long international nightmare over? After all the rumors involving every good-looking actor with a British/Australian accent, do we finally have a new James Bond? Fried Rice Thoughts and Mis Hooz favorite Clive Owen? No, he shot it down. Ewan McGregor? Nope. Eric Bana. 'Fraid not. Hugh Jackman? No way - he's Wolverine, okay?! Hey, how about Pierce Brosnan again? No chance. Rowan Atkinson? Just kidding.

It looks like Daniel Craig is going to be the man with the license to kill.* He'll want his martini shaken, not stirred. He'll be the man sexually harassing flirting with Miss Moneypenny. Okay, stop me now. All of these cliches are part of the reason the James Bond flicks seem kind of stale. I think I've seen two out of the last five Bond movies.

So why care? As Mis Hooz and I were discussing the other night, why the interest in a character and movie franchise we barely pay attention to anymore? After thinking about it, I think this is why: I want to pay attention. James Bond is a cool character. (And I feel that way, despite being raised on the rather dandy Roger Moore as Bond.) Men want to be him, and women want to be with him - remember that? Wouldn't it be great if the next Bond movie was as good as either of the Jason Bourne flicks?

Anyway, we here at Fried Rice Thoughts like the choice. (Slate's David Edelstein does, too. Here are his thoughts on the matter.) Daniel Craig has seemingly been in every other movie I've rented from Netflix over the past two months, including the outstanding Layer Cake. (Enduring Love was also quite brilliant, as the Brits might say.) Maybe he's not as classically handsome as his predecessors, but he's a very good actor. And he looks like he might eat you to save his own life, which could give Bond an edge he probably needs. A little less polish, a lot more edge? That's a Bond flick I'd go see.

* EDIT (2 pm): According to the Associated Press (via the Washington Post), it's official.