Casino Royale (2006)
Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis
Directed by Martin Campbell


I saw Casino Royale several days ago, but am only now writing about it. I enjoyed this film so much it scared me. You know that saying, “Words cannot express...”? Well, it was definitely true with Casino Royale and the new and improved James Bond. Being a big James Bond fan and having high expectations for the 21st installment in the franchise -- I simply didn’t know what to expect. All the critics were bashing Daniel Craig, the females in my family thought he looked ugly, my dad ranted about how Sean Connery could never be replaced... and here I was saying -- “Just give him a chance”! I am proud to say the new Bond and Casino Royale did not make a fool of me or themselves.

Casino Royale takes us back in many ways to the beginning. It was Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel and probably had the truest definition of who James Bond really was, before all the trips to space and invisible cars. Sean Connery captured it first on the big screen and Daniel Craig is probably the closest actor to capture it again since Timothy Dalton (nice try Timothy, but I think you were in the wrong decade for grit and depth). Sean Connery was good, but Daniel Craig is bad -- and that is so much more enjoyable to watch. I don’t want to say that he is better than Connery (like comparing later lovers to a first love, just too hard to beat), but Craig is definitely second on my list of best Bonds ever. He can actually act and is surprisingly funny, which all the haters seemed to have forgotten when they were too busy bashing his looks.

Casino Royale features Bond before he became a double-O agent for His Majesty’s Secret Service. A time when he was less skilled and more naive if you will with the world of espionage and killing for country and queen. Oh, what a beautiful time it was. James Bond was cocky, still believed in love, and made lots of mistakes. Kind of sounds like the people who watch his films. Fantastic. The more I feel like Bond, the more I can relate to him, and the more I can relate to him, the more money I will spend at the box office. His first mission is actually quite simple: Bond needs to win a card game against terrorist banker, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) and do so with the help of MI6 accountant, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). As the first evil villain, Le Chiffre is absolutely wonderful with his one sinister bleeding eye and asthma inhaler. As the first official Bond Girl, Vesper Lynd is smart both psychologically and physically -- matching Bond’s wit and sex appeal equally.

Casino Royale also marks the return of Goldeneye director Martin Campbell, aka the director who saved James Bond. Back in the mid 90’s when MGM was thinking about rebooting the Bond series after almost a seven year absence -- they went with Martin Campbell and boy did it pay off. He took a TV star in Pierce Brosnan and made him a movie star and he took a stale James Bond and made him part of the social conscience again (I know you have a copy of Goldeneye on N64 in your house, don’t try to deny it). Goldeneye was a huge success. It reminded the audience why we loved James Bond and it hit all the right notes without playing the old song that was 007. And after almost a decade later, Martin Campbell helps us remember that tune again and does so again with such originality and bravado. He knows how to make Bond look good and he does so without all the gadgets and cheap jokes. Bond is a killer, a womanizer, and not a very nice man. These are things the last three Bond films (Die Another Day, The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies) forgot. We like that he is a killer, we like that he is a womanizer, we like that he is not very nice -- believe it or not, we like these things when we go to the theater to see Bond, James Bond. If we didn’t, we would go see Superman and clearly nobody when to see Superman.

Casino Royale is raw, gritty, and full of attitude and having seen the box office returns for its first weekend -- a huge success as well. From the black and white pre-title sequence to the rocking Chris Cornell title theme, to Bond learning the spy game ropes the hard way, to the extremely satisfying final scene -- Casino Royale is a winning hand and money in the bank for the James Bond franchise. Welcome back James, nice to see you again!


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: Full of grit, raw emotion, and attitude.

The Bad: No appearance by Q.

The Law: One of the best James Bond films ever made.