Casino Royale

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 23, 2006

Release Date: November 17, 2006

Bond is back. And in many ways he never left. Wait, no, that’s not true. Bond has been gone a long time. For whatever reason, I could never get behind Pierce Brosnan. I sort of liked Die Another Day and I wanted to like Goldeneye, but most of these Bonds didn’t leave me stirred or shaken. Timothy Dalton never did it for me either, and Roger Moore was good in a “I’m nowhere near as cool as Sean Connery” way and George Lazenby, well, he gets a bad rap, at least On Her Majesty’s Secret Service tried to be different.

While I’m name dropping, ignore Never Say Never Again too, because that’s dumb. Ok, so what I’m saying is I really really enjoy Sean Connery as Bond. Even though he’s not as cool, I liked Moore’s films too. I’m a James Bond fan. And now here comes blondie Daniel Craig to claim the bow tie and “re-invent” the series as something new. Does it work?

[Censored] yeah it does! Casino Royale rocked my damn socks off. I love this film. You know how I can tell I love it? I saw it opening night and four days later I’m still thinking about it. I might even go see it again in theaters. It’s that good. And Daniel Craig is perfect for the young, arrogant Bond being forged into the Connery character. Connery did a great job of being Bond. Craig does a great job of becoming him.

Now you know me and I don’t like dishing out too much plot, but basically we get James Bond earning his 00 with two kills in the opening, nice stuff. Then Chris Cornell rocks your face off with the title song, You Know My Name, which is great. Bond goes a little overboard while on assignment in Africa and gets a spanking from M. So Bond does what every super spy on vacation does - foils an evil villains plot in a tropical paradise.

Bond gets teamed up with Vesper Lynd, a strong, confident accountant who is authorized to back his play in a high stakes gambling tournament at Casino Royale. Our baddie, Le Chiffre, lost a bunch of money thanks to you know who and as a master mathmatician and oddsmaker, he figures he can win it back at a poker tournament to pay off some very angry African warlords.

Things aren’t exactly smooth at the Casino. After the card game, the movie is far from over, but what follows was genuinely surprising to me, so I won’t go into it and ruin it for you. Let’s just say we get to see a lot of things happen that start to forge the Bond we know and love.

In conclusion, we get a well written, well directed, well acted, and well thought out Bond adventure. It’s different from the gadgety over-blown stuff we’ve known and loved inspite of itself, but this approach is better. I loved it. You will too.

The Upside: This movie is awesome. Lots of action, lots of bad assedness, great realistic fight sequences. It was what the franchise needed.

The Downside: The movie is 2 hours and 24 minutes long and probably could have been trimmed down a bit more, but it didn’t bother me.

On the Side: No silhouetted Bond girls appear in the title sequence because the director felt it “wouldn’t fit.” Rumor has it, Bond 22 will have the barely clothed beauties back.

Final Grade: A

Be sure to check out our additional Casino Royale coverage, thanks to the Movie Style Guy!

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