Casino Royale
Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Judi Dench
Rated: PG-13
Length: 144 min.
Released: Nov. 17th 2006
Trailer
Synopsis:
Actor Daniel Craig assumes the role formerly occupied by such screen greats as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan to set out on the character’s very first 007 mission. James Bond has earned his “00″ status by masterfully executing a pair of death-defying professional assassinations. Now assigned the task of traveling to Madagascar to spy on notorious terrorist Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan) for his maiden voyage as a 007 agent, Bond boldly goes against MI6 policy to launch an independent investigation that finds him traversing the Bahamas in search of Mollaka’s notoriously elusive terror cell. Subsequently led into the company of the mysterious Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian) and his exotic girlfriend, Solange (Caterina Murino), Bond soon realizes that he is closer than ever to locating well-guarded terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), the man who has personally bankrolled some of the most prevalent terrorist organizations on the planet. When Bond learns that Le Chiffre is planning to partake in an upcoming high-stakes poker game to be played at Montenegro’s Le Casino Royale and use the winnings to establish his financial grip on the globe, M (Judi Dench) assigns beguiling agent Vesper (Eva Green) the task of watching over the fledgling agent as he plays against Le Chiffre in a covert attempt to destroy the nefarious gambler’s well-established monetary stronghold in the underworld once and for all. Bond will need more than his legendary gambling skills in order to win this dangerous game, though, and after allying himself with local MI6 field agent Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and CIA operative Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), the endlessly suave super-spy puts on his poker face for a high-stakes game of cards in which the stakes are not measured in dollars, but human lives.
My Thoughts:
So we finally come to Casino Royale and the new James Bond…Danial Craig. At first thought I wasn’t sure how to take this movie since it is such a departure from the rest of the Bond films. Though Martin Campbell returns to the directors chair and since I am a huge fan of Goldeneye I had my hopes up. In Casino Royale the franchise finally tackles Bond’s first mission as a 00 and Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel. In all honestly this was the perfect time to reboot the series.
And that is the real heart of this film. Casino Royale is not a “prequel” or “sequel” it’s a total re-envisioning of the Bond Franchise. United Artist took the liberty to start the series over from scratch and they hit the ball out of the park. If you ever get the chance to watch the special features there is a really cool documentary following the odd journey this Bond book/film has taken to get to this point. Ironically, the last official Ian Fleming novel to be made into a movie…was the first Bond book he wrote. Talk about taking the long way around, but it was well worth the wait.
Casino Royale is not the typical over the top carnival action the franchise had been known for. There’s no Q branch, there aren’t explosions every five minutes, no odd villains with absurd characteristics like a guy that can’t feel pain or a giant with metal teeth. Honestly it’s closer to the Jason Bourne movies than the previous films of the series.
I thought I would really miss the lack of gadgets…but to my surprise, I didn’t miss them at all. It’s so raw and honest in it’s portrayal of Bond. It’s a much more serious portrayal of the character making him easier to connect with. There is more emotion in this film, and it makes the twists and turns feel that much more personal. That’s what makes this film so much different. As a result it makes me totally forget that there are no “gadgets” in this movie. In fact if it did have gadgets they could easily become distracting and detract from the more serious and emotional tone that makes the film one of the best in the series. Casino Royale gets 5 stars out of 5.
So, agree…disagree? What was your reaction to Casino Royale and the new direction of the Bond franchise?
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