With a new, "new" Bond on the horizon later this year, going back to the re-invention of the Bond franchise is good preparation.
In the period immediately following 2002's "Die Another Day", there was huge speculation about the future of the Bond franchise. Mainly because of simply the best action trilogy of all time - Bourne.
Putting The Bourne Identity against Die Another Day is simply unfair to the latter film. Everything that was wrong with the Bond franchise was demonstrated in a single film whereas Bourne demonstrated exactly what the Bond films should have been.
So, if you're the keepers of the Bond torch, how best to respond? Phrases such as "reboot", "back to basics", "grittier", "darker", and "more realistic" are pretty cliched by now, but they all fit.
Using the first Bond book to introduce a new Bond is just genius. And keeping the plot pretty simple doesn't hurt either. Bourne had no evil genius intent on world domination from a hollowed-out volcano so Casino Royale doesn't either. A banker to the world's terrorists loses a lot of money when Bond foils one of his schemes, so sets up a poker game to win it all back again.
A word of warning - the second half of the movie is pretty much based around a game of high-stakes Texas Hold'Em poker. If those words mean nothing to you, a lot of the tension generated by the nuances of the game will be lost for you. I'm not saying that you have to be a poker expert, but it may help if you know your flushes from your straights.
Now, Daniel Craig. Has a choice for Bond ever been more controversial? Would there have been the same uproar about Brosnan or Dalton if the Internet had been around in 1993 or 1985? Taking the blond hair out of the equation (and you do tend to forget about it after a while), it quickly becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between: (a) having someone who looks like Bond from the books, and (b) having an actual actor play the role.
No offence to Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore but they are not actors in the same way as Timothy Dalton or Daniel Craig. And it shows. A cracking emotional and physical performance from Craig, something that it has not been possible to say about any Bond since Connery.
The action sequences are excellent throughout although the early parkour chase scenes are outstanding.
There will be some who mourn the loss of Moneypenny and Q. In the same way, it will grate on some people's nerves how Bond has just been granted 00 status and yet Judi Dench's M is in charge, just as she was for Brosnan's Bond. However, these are minor continuity quibbles, and don't detract from the overall experience.
As someone who has read many of the Bond books (including the ones published after Fleming's death) and seen all of the Bond films, I can say with certainty that this is almost the closest we have ever come to a cinematic version of the literary Bond (the others being Dr No and the first third of The Living Daylights). And the franchise is clearly the better for it.
Is Casino Royale as good as any of the Bourne films? No. Is Casino Royale better than nearly every other entry in the Bond series? Yes. Can I wait for Quantum of Solace? No.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1992 - Comedy - Director: Luis Mandoki - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, John Goodman
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Very good review of the film, although I see this has been posted in the category for the Blu-Ray DVD, but mentions nothing about the new Blu-Ray format. Given that this has been posted in this specialised category, I would like to know about the quality of the new format.
Bollinger28 27.09.2008 19:20
I found the poker scenes beyond boring - they weren't at all gripping. However, Daniel Craig certainly brought a new depth to the character/genre. Lexy
MI9to5 27.09.2008 19:16
Craig is a brilliant Bond but I liked Brosnan too :) xx
John Huston was only one of five directors onCasino Royale, the expensive, all-star 1967 ... more
spoof of Ian Fleming's 007 lore. David Niven is the aging Sir James Bond, called out of retirement to take on the organised threat of SMERSH and pass on the secret...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
![Casino Royale [DVD] [1967]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78531290.jpg "Casino Royale [DVD] [1967]")
Sep 27th, 2008
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