There was a Modesty Blaise film in the 60s, and Quentin Tarantino produced this low budget version to preserve the rights until he could direct a big budget film. It stars Alexandra Staden as Modesty. No shame in not knowing who she is, as she has no great credits.More likely, you will recognize Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau (Nightwatch, "Game of Thrones"), or Raymond Cruz (Training Day, "The Closer"), or even Eugenia Yuan (The Eye 2, 3 Extremes II).Lots of talking and little action until the very end. Staden is just a bit too skinny to be believable.

The film My Name is Modesty is based around an episode that takes up about one page in the 10th modesty Blaise novel called Night of the Morningstar. It describes an incident in which the young Modesty (17 in the book, mid twenties in the film)asserts her leadership in a war over a casino. As this is set before the actual Blaise adventures her trusted sidekick Willi Garvin is not in the film. That is one of the main problems as the relationship between Blaise and Garvin was certainly always one of the fascinating aspects of the novels and the long running comic strip. The other problem is that the film is quite simply incredibly boring because it really is just one small episode blown up into a screenplay. The casting is okay but Alexandra Staden is not really convincing as the heroine and actually too old for the role to play the young Modesty. I get the impression that this film was a quick and dirty solution as not to lose the rights to the Blaise franchise.

It has been years since Modesty Blaise was a homeless girl living out on her nerves and luck in the bombed out shell of the Balkans and it is years before she would form her criminal gang "The Network". We find her working as a skilled croupier in the casino of Henri Louche. When her employer is murdered by a gang led by criminal Miklos, Modesty and the other staff are held in the casino while they await colleague Garcia, who has been called to return and open the casino vault. With Miklos threatening to kill staff until he gets what he wants, the cool-headed Modesty buys time for as long as she can.The fact that this film was made to retain Miramax's rights to the character and allow them to make more films in the series, and the way that this film was just dumped onto DVD in Europe and was hardly pushed in the US suggested that this film would not be made to any high standard and indeed was just a commercial move by the studio who had their eye on future films rather than this one. Despite this though, with a passing knowledge of the character, I decided to give it a try; plus, like many others, the link to Tarantino caught my eye.Indeed my suspicions were found to be warranted because, although not without value, it is hardly any good. Others have already said it, but it does feel exactly like a TV pilot that is setting up backstory and character to then run a series. Of course released as a movie and with no series coming off the back of it, you do have to wonder what the point is for the viewer (like I said – we already know what point the film does serve, but it is to Miramax's benefit, not mine). The concept is interesting enough, with the casino scenes actually working reasonably well. However the flashbacks fail to really engage and, giving these are the heart of the film, then it is a problem. The end result is a rather dull and talky affair that is slightly interesting but ultimately doesn't feel like it is doing anything other than just filling time.The cast aren't really given a lot to do. I'm not so familiar with the character of Modesty that I was fussed by Staden for those reasons. However I did find her performance limited. She works well in "cool-headed and confident" mode but when asked to go below the surface she is unable to do it and in the flashback scenes she is clunky at best. Coaster-Waldau is a very simple character but he works it well and has a good presence and an easy sexuality that I thought worked well with Staden. Pearson is an obvious "wise old man" cliché – not all his fault perhaps as his material is weak, but he can't do anything to counter it. Teodosiu, Yuan, Cruz and others all provide basic fillers but nothing else.Overall then a basic film made for studio reasons and thus tends to not really have the audience in mind. It is vaguely interesting but doesn't really hang together and, like many others have said, it does feel like a pilot for a television series rather than a movie in its own right – which is a shame because it is as the latter that it has been presented to the audience.

I have been reading Modesty Blaise comics and novels since the '70s. The character is strong, intelligent, charismatic. The stories are, for the most part, action-packed, well thought out and not campy.So what is it about Modesty Blaise that makes people create second or third rate movies of her starring actresses who couldn't be less like her unless they 90 year old women with blond hair and no teeth? I think Modesty could be a very successful movie if the producers/directors/whoevers would stop trying to make the character and the stories into something entirely else. Even if they have no respect or interest in the books or comics (which is obviously the case), don't they want our money??? Modesty Blaise fans are used to paying graphic novel prices for our Modesty (which are almost $20 per book) and we pay much more than the price for the average paperback for the novels when we have to replace one.So what is the point of giving us something most of us will never enjoy and will never pay good money for? I love Peter O'Donnell's work but his involvement in a project does not guarantee anything. His involvement in the DC comic certainly didn't save it - even though it was taken from the novel. But even if DC convoluted the story so no one but a Modesty fan could enjoy it, they DID try and I did buy a copy for my collection. That's certainly more than can be said for either movie :(I would love to see a reasonably well-cast version of Modesty, Willie, Sir Gerald. I'm not greedy - I don't expect great casting, although I would be ecstatic. But a story that looks and feel like Modesty will get me to the theater several times minimum and guarantee I will be buying the DVD. The sad part is with each failure, this wonderful and dynamic character gets thrust into the mind of the movie industry and the public as a failure. And that's a real shame!