CASINO ROYALE Released Nov 17, 2006
Directed by Martin Campbell, Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright. Running Time 2hrs 24mins!
Rumors persist that Daniel Craig was cast as Bond because the Pierce Brosnan films had flopped. Not true. The Brosnan films were all money makers. The reality is that Brosnan was asking for a lot of money and the producers were considering a needed reboot of the series.
James Bond embarks on his first mission as an ‘00’ agent— the rare member of the British Secret Service who have a ‘license to kill’. His target is the international villain Le Chiffre, which is french for I should put some cream on that.
After Connery’s departure the series changed in tone to near parody becoming overloaded with gadgets and sight gags- how many times have we seen a wedding party surprised when Bond crashes in via parachute, jet ski or power boat only to dash off after some witty quip? The series first reboot was 1987’s THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS when Timothy Dalton took on the role and there was an effort to get back to the source material, the pulpy novels of Ian Fleming and the entire cast except for Q was recast. After Dalton came Pierce Brosnan who started out with a bit of Dalton’s menace but soon slid back towards Roger Moore’s flippant silliness. A rebooted reboot was in order so they opted to start fresh again.
For the first time in the series history the opening before the credits sequence is in black and white, showing us James Bond making his first brutal kill as a secret agent— and announcing to the world that this isn’t the James Bond you’ve grown accustomed to, this is Ian Fleming’s assassin brought to the screen for the first time.
CASINO ROYALE was the first James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. A failed attempt to bring it to the screen in 1967 as a “non official” film starring David Niven, Woody Allen and Orson Welles was a box office disaster. The book itself is the slowest of the Fleming novels, with literally dozens of pages devoted to a game of baccarat at a Casino against the book’s primary villain— that’s a tough thing to turn into a film.
For the film the producers opted to dumb down the game to Texas Hold ‘Em.
Daniel Craig shocked the world as the first Blonde Bond and he’s terrific in the role. Not classically handsome, he’s got a ruggedness to him and he’s in the shape that you would hope a 00 agent would be in. Returning as his boss “M” is Dame Judi Dench— which throws continuity into the wind since she was M for Pierce Brosnan but she’s the best M we’ve ever seen so I’m all for her return.
This is a James Bond film for folks who like more serious spy drama— even the luxurious locales have a somewhat more sinister aspect to them. The movie’s opening scene, done in black and white, is probably the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a literal adaption of Fleming’s novels.
Craig is great, the best Bond since Connery and I wonder if even Connery in his prime could stand up to Craig’s intensely fit James Bond.
Bond Theme: You Know My Name by Chris Cornell is brassy and hard and fits nicely.
Bond Villain: Creepy.
Bond Girls: Eva Green is Vesper Lynd, who is perhaps the most important female character in the entire Fleming canon.
GRADE: A - Bond is back—Craig gives Connery a run for his money and he’ll return in QUANTUM OF SOLACE.