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Overall Rating
 Awesome: 48.89%
Worth A Look: 29.33%
Average: 6.67%
Pretty Bad: 5.78%
Total Crap: 9.33%
10 reviews, 165 user ratings
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| Casino Royale (2006) |
by Lybarger
"James Bond is finally back"
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At the end of every James Bond movie since 1962’s “Dr. No,” the credits have always promised that “James Bond will return.” While Bond has resurfaced nearly two dozen times, the initial excitement has only occasionally returned with him until now.“Casino Royale” finally restores 007 to his Cold War prowess. By going back to Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, director Martin Campbell (“Goldeneye”) and screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis have ironically given the series a vitality that has been lacking for years.
New leading man Daniel Craig certainly deserves a lot of credit. His take on the world’s least secret agent is not the high living womanizer who saves the world while he’s having fun. Instead, he’s a recently promoted spy, who, while highly intelligent, makes potentially catastrophic blunders and is unsure is espionage is such a wonderful career.
Craig’s cold blue eyes give the impression he wouldn’t think twice about killing a terror suspect, but he projects just enough charm and vulnerability to make Bond more compelling that he has been in a while.
In this outing, Bond has to neutralize a banker for terrorists named Le Chiffre (eerily played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen). Le Chiffre, has potentially gotten himself in trouble because he’s squandered his clients’ money on stock market schemes.
To restore his fortunes, Le Chiffre takes part in a well-heeled poker match, and Bond enters in the hope of breaking him so that he can learn about Le Chiffre’s underground contacts.
Even the British treasury doesn’t have enough to stake Bond’s plan, so he’s at the mercy of a beautiful but suspicious handler named Vesper Lynd (French actress Eva Green) and a wily local contact named Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini). The three quickly discover that Le Ciffre could become more powerful if he wins the match and may be a particularly sore loser.
Fleming’s original storyline only kicks into gear around the second act, but immediately “Casino Royale” takes on a different approach from its recent predecessors in the action scenes depend more on a stuntman’s agility than CGIs.
While these sequences, like a chase through a construction site, are amble fodder for nitpickers, they are more thrilling and down to earth than anything 007 has encountered in some time. The gadgets and some of the regular MI6 personnel aren’t around this time, but the always great Dame Judi Dench seems to be having a ball as M, Bond’s frustrated boss.
The script features fewer of the quips that have been more obligatory than amusing in recent Bond films, but the wisecracks that remain are actually witty and appropriate. It’s also nice to see Bond in a relationship that depends a more on an actress’ character and less on her neckline.At two and a half hours, “Casino Royale” takes too long to wrap up. Nonetheless, it’s amazing how much the filmmakers have brought the series back to life by simply returning to the roots. Note: This review was originally published in County Cable (countycable.net).
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=15275&reviewer=382
originally posted: 01/13/07 17:45:06
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James Bond: For more in the James Bond series, click here.
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USA
17-Nov-2006 (PG-13)
DVD: 13-Mar-2007
UK
17-Nov-2006
Australia
07-Dec-2006
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