Debra Pickett

Don't feel bad, I've been trying to learn how to drive a manual for over a year now and I still have problems with it! But I agree with you that it has to be something wired in a guys brain automatically.

It's not a guy thing! I've only driven sticks my whole life. I definitely cannot respect a man who doesn't know how! (Uh oh! What else doesn't he know how to do?!) It's like seeing a man shrink away from a puppy. Sorry -- Just ain't normal.

It's not that hard to drive a manual transmission; it just takes a fair amount of practice and patience. If he doesn't know how, it's time to learn! He's an actor, it's his job, he needs to just do it.

His gender has nothing to do with it. I know plenty of women (including myself) who drive stick, and quite a few men (including my SO) who can't.

Michele... You're an idiot.

Give the guy a break. Why boycott when you don't know anything about the movie. It's like the people who boycotted "Last Temptation of Christ".
And getting down on the guy for not being able to drive a manual? Talk about picky. A lot of people out there act like Daniel Craig has offended them personally. He's a good actor, arguably a better actor than Pierce Brosnan. When you get down to it there's only one true Bond and that's Mr. Connery.

I have to admit, the Craig is an idiot routine is generating more press for the outdated Bond films than could almost anything else. Thank goodness for creative PR agencies. The last halfways decent Bond film was Goldeneye. It's time to reinvent Bond. Turn him into a 21st century man: A monogamous married Brit fighting enemies who avoids endless opportunities for cheating with fair and unfair vixen through sheer 'suavility' and excellent timing. He's a teetotaler, naturally, and chokes on smoke from cigarettes. His one passion is fast cars and gadgets. In short he's an impossibly 'good' good-guy.

His license to kill is transformed into a license to beat silly without a police investigation.

That's a Bond character that has a chance of surviving the 21st century - one that abandons the cheap stereotyping of mid-20th century secret agent/thug cliches.

Everything needs to be reinvented now and then and James Bond movies are very long in the tooth.

Given the monsterous previous 4 films, I'd rather see how Craig does before call the franchise dead. Bond should be about reasonably fun yet intelligent storytelling with a good actor in the lead role, that doesn't have to resort to ridiculous gadgets and idiotic stunts to entertain the masses for 2 hours.

(nor am I blaming Mr. Brosnan for the travesty of his era, he's not a bad actor; the production team wanted big effects and stunts for no reason combined with plots so paper-thin the people would NEEDED the inane stunts to keep from walking out... which doesn't help the audience if you turn them from a group of thinkers to a group of drooling eye-candy addicts...)

I say give Craig a chance. See how his acting combined with the scripts do. Rumor mill suggests Bond will be taken down to Earth again (long overdue...)

Poppycock!

If Barbara Broccoli wants to take the character down a different path, she has blown a significant opportunity.

Bond's masogonism has always been his strength and his weakness. As Ian Fleming intended. Why not go this way? Take him back.

Much has been made about the waning relevance of this character. But that is due to continuing to set Bond down in today's world and culture.

If you can recreate the 60's for Mike Myer's Austin Powers, why not do the same for the original?

And while you're there, you can use the original characterization of James Bond to show how this type of male behavior is outdated.

Make him grim, callous and detached. You can still throw in the cars, the gadgets and the women - it helps illustrate the point.

That's the Bond we know and love.

Seriously... a guy isn't a guy if he can't operate a manual car.

His masogonism?

Is that a contempt for gonads or something?--Cool!

looking to learn how to drive stick? here's a jumping off point (having taught lotsa folks, I find this works best)

1 - Find a large, open, flat place to drive with no traffic (mall parking lots after hours are PERFECT)

2 - have a friend who's fairly chill about their car drive you there and guarantee them that you won't do them any more harm than they do (they might actually learn something too).

3 - with the car in a position where it can be still without the use of brakes, push in the clutch, push the gear lever into first gear, make sure your other foot is OFF the brake then...

4 - SLOOOOOOOOWLY ease out your left foot (which is holding the clutch down). DO NOT use the gas at all for the first 10 minutes, just repeat steps 4-6
You'll feel the car start to shake slightly as the gear begins to catch

5 - hold your foot at that position (don't press down more, DON'T lift off) until the vehicle gathers a bit of speed

6 - progressively let the clutch pedal out more and more until it's all the way out. You're now in gear!

7 - Push in the clutch pedal (all the way down) and press the brake pedal until you come to a stop. Repeat from step 4 until comfortable.

For instructions about other gears, email me, I'll happily oblige.

BIG NO-NO's:
riding the clutch - leaving your foot on the clutch pedal when you're not either pushing it in or feeding it out slowly. Just that resting of a little weight can burn out a clutch in a few hours.

dumping the clutch - jumping off the clutch too early, or with too much throttle. In general, try to avoid giving gas unless you NEED to do so to get moving. Whenever gas is applied as you let out the clutch, it burns away more of it than needs to be (more friction at work). Practice without the gas, and then work it into your routine and your car will thank you!

here's the original text from CR:

"His last action was to slip his right hand under the pillow until it rested under the butt of the .38 Colt Police Positive with the sawn barrel. Then he slept, and with the warmth and humour of his eyes extinguished, his features relapsed into a taciturn mask, ironical, brutal, and cold."

Daniel Craig????

heehaw

I think the Bond franchise is almost over. They should consider new ways to heat up the stories, otherwise the Bond era is over. I'd like to find out that "James Bond" is the identity assigned to Agent 007. When one 007 retires or is killed, another person assumes that identity. Imagine how cool it would be to have Chiwetel Ejiofor as the next (black!) James Bond. Or perhaps a female James Bond. And we could have Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery with cameos as Nigel Cornflower and Ian McAdams, the retired James Bonds.
It works for M and Q! Why not for James Bond?

Well first, Daniel Craig isn't a bad actor. He was in Layer Cake, Road to Perdition and a movie nobody saw: Enduring Love.
See him in those films, and you can see he play Bond (as an actor).

Not driving stick? I don't drive manual trans, but that is more a matter of I live in the present day instead of the roaring 20s when automatics were not available. The old argument of being more fuel efficient isn't true anymore especially for people who live inside the city limits. Stop and go driving is the great equalizer between manual and automatic trans, and everyone gets tired of messing with the clutch going between 1st, 2nd and stopped for 45 minutes on the way home.

Pierce Brosnan did not learn stick shift until the middle of third movie. Why make a big deal now and not then?

PICKETT replies: Probably because Pierce is hot.

Don't feel bad, I've been trying to learn how to drive a manual for over a year now and I still have problems with it! But I agree with you that it has to be something wired in a guys brain automatically