Language: English
Directed : Martin Campbell
Writing credits (WGA) : Ian Fleming (written by)
Cast: Daniel Craig (as James Bond) , Eva Green (as Vesper Lynd)

Review

James Bond gets a major makeover, and it’s not just because new leading man Daniel Craig is filling his shoes. "Casino Royale" is a revamping of the entire franchise, an attempt to stay close to the heart and soul of the original Ian Fleming novels. Bond still has a license to kill, but he is missing some of the gadgets that prompted previous Bond movies into cartoon action. Bond is now a serious bruiser. He inflicts pain, and he’s vulnerable to pain. Bond is now serious stuff. An action scene early on set in Africa is typical of a Bond movie. Craig as Agent 007 has to chase a suspect bomb-maker through a construction site that is exploited like an American Gladiator obstacle course. It’s a typical, an almost obligatory action set-piece, that is also terrifically choreographed, photographed and edited with panache. It’s what we expect from a Bond movie. An explosive action scene also takes place at a Miami airport, and he’s more of a Die Hard hero than vulnerable agent for momentarily.

Eventually the movie becomes more grounded, and more serious. These are the early days of Agent 007, and the movie wants to make it clear that it’s establishing an entire new take on the character. Craig is a British actor whom has certainly impressed the critical community with "Layer Cake" (an entertaining down-and-dirty gangster movie) and "Munich" (superb work as a member of the assassin team). Craig is a sturdy actor who brings greater depth and inner turmoil than any previous Bond actor. Not that Sean Connery has anything to worry about with his Bond legacy. Connery’s mystique is untouched.

As for the convoluted plot, it comprises an entanglement of terrorism, the stock market and the effects the two have on global economy. Villain Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) wants to cash in on the stock market following terrorist calamities. We know he’s a villain because he has tears of blood coming out of his eyes. As for the romance angle in "Casino Royale", Bond is suckered in by government Treasury Official Vesper Lynd (Eva Green, "The Dreamers"). Bond still loves gorgeous women.

Lynd supplies Bond $10 million in cash to enter a high-stakes poker game that will be attended by Le Chiffre, as well as character actor Jeffrey Wright as American CIA agent Felix Leiter (is this guy a future Oscar winner once he finds the perfect role, or what?) There are mano-to-mano fight intervals with henchmen, but mostly the poker game dominates the second act of this story. The third act is dense with character detail as well as action, as the casino money itself becomes a pursuit. Bond’s ballistic heroism in Venice, Italy where he literally brings a building down is a rip-roaring action highlight.

Still, I kept wondering, whatever happened to the SPECTRE plots, with the laser guns and the larger-than-life villains that sought world domination? I had really enjoyed the last Bond movie with Brosnan with the invisible car speeding across an ice path while trying to outrace a laser beam that was being blasted from outer space. But I guess that’s past now. Bond movies used to be about fantasy-oriented action-adventure. Now it’s a serious spy drama that just happens to arm a lethal hero with contemporary weapon devices. I suppose Bond creator Ian Fleming would actually be pleased.

Once I set aside my original expectations of "Casino Royale", and accept that it was going to be an entirely differed Bond movie I was then really able to enjoy the film. I was most certain that it was much different once it arrived at the poker tournament in the Czech Republic – I was no longer rooting for Bond to kick butt generally speaking (those feelings were cast aside), instead I was involved with the outcome of Bond at the casino. Is Bond going to outplay and outwit Le Chiffre at the poker tables? Has Bond studied Matt Damon in "Rounders" enough times to understand the art of the check-raise?

The locations are definitely one of the film’s assets. There has never been a more luxurious and decadent ambience for a Bond movie. And it’s not like Bond movies haven’t trekked over the exotic in the past. But it was a superficial Hollywood take on exotic globe-trotting. When Craig’s 007 travels to the Bahamas, or Prague, or Lake Como, these feel like genuinely rich settings filled with real upscale people. It feels like less fake Hollywood extras were dispensed on this project than a typical movie. The final scene of the movie, by the way, is a shocker. It is shocking because it reveals a side of Bond that we’ve never seen before – a sadist that adheres first to personal agenda, second to love of country. I definitely am looking forward to the next sequel.