Casino Royale (2006) Columbia/Action-Adventure RT: 144 minutes Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content, nudity) Director: Martin Campbell Screenplay: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis Music: David Arnold Cinematography: Phil Meheux Release date: November 17, 2006 (US) Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Isaach De Bankole, Jesper Christensen, Ivana Milicevic, Tobias Menzies, Claudio Santamaria, Jeffrey Wright, Judi Dench. Free running stunts by Sebastien Foucan. Opening Song: “You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell Box Office: $167.4M (US)/$594.2M (World)
Rating: *** ½
James Bond 007 has officially been brought into the 21st century with Casino Royale, a rebooting of the popular film series that began in 1962. Daniel Craig (Munich) is the new 007, both in the series and the British Secret Service. Welcome to the party, pal.
In the pre-credits sequence, Bond earns his 00 status by killing a traitorous MI6 section chief and his associate. Bond’s first assignment is to follow the movements of an international bomb maker in Madagascar, but it turns into a wild free running chase through the streets and a building under construction. It ends at the embassy where Bond kills the man despite orders to bring him back alive. Naturally, it creates an international incident which his boss M (Dench, Shakespeare in Love) catches hell for from her superiors.
Something good does come out of the fiasco. Bond learns the dead bomb maker is connected to a man named Alex Dimitrios (Abkarian, The Serpent) who’s been hired to facilitate a terrorist attack at a Miami airport on behalf of Le Chiffre (Mikkelsen, After the Wedding), a private banker whose client list consists of international criminals and terrorist groups. Naturally, Bond foils the plan which puts Le Chiffre in hot water with Obanno (Bankole, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai), an African war lord who trusted him with $100 million of his own money. If Le Chiffre doesn’t get it back, he’s dead.
In order to recoup his losses, the banker sets up a high-stakes, winner-takes-all poker tournament with a $10 million buy-in at Casino Royale in Montenegro. Bond is entered into the tournament in the hopes that Le Chiffre will try to protect himself by providing sensitive information to MI6 if should he lose the game to 007. The buy-in money is provided by Vesper Lynd (Green, The Dreamers), a Treasury agent who we all know will eventually succumb to Bond’s charms. What neither of them expects is that they’ll fall in love with each other.
Directed by Martin Campbell (GoldenEye), Casino Royale is a great action movie and a great James Bond movie. Craig isn’t the 007 we all grew up with. He’s darker, rougher, grittier James Bond who M aptly describes as a “blunt instrument”. He’s a cold sort who doesn’t make quips after dispatching bad guys. He’s good at his job, but he has a lot to learn, especially about leaving his ego out of the equation and never letting it get personal. He also hasn’t decided what he likes to drink although he has a fondness for a self-created shaken concoction consisting of vodka, ice and a thinly sliced lemon peel. In his first time out, Craig does a great job, redefining the popular character while still retaining familiar traits like the womanizing and natural inclination towards action.
One of the things I love about the modern Bond movies is how they depict M as more than just a boss issuing assignments from behind a desk. As much as I loved original M player Bernard Lee, he was never much more than the chap in charge. Dench takes it to a whole new level with the fierceness she brings to the role. Her M is one tough broad, an iron lady if you will. She acts as mentor to the new Bond, coldly reminding him of what his job entails. She reprimands him for not playing by the rules while admitting he gets results. It’s a relationship that will be developed over the next few entries.
The action scenes in Casino Royale are impressive. They’re bigger, wilder and more elaborate than anything we’ve seen in the past. The sequence where Bond and the bomb maker do battle while climbing around a building under construction is breathtaking. The airport sequence is both exciting and intense. Although there’s something to be said for the relative simplicity of the early Bond movies, I get why the makers felt the need to up the ante. In a world where Ethan Hunt and Jason Bourne consistently wow audiences, it’s necessary to keep a relic like James Bond in the running. He’s a 007 for the 21st century.
Although I felt the poker game slowed things down a bit, it’s still filled with tension as Bond and his nemesis try to outfox each other. At one point, Le Chiffre tries to poison 007, but he’s not about a let a little thing like impending death stop him from saving the world. In the role, Mikkelsen does a decent job even though he’s weak compared to other Bond baddies. He is scary looking though with how he weeps blood from his left eye (it’s called haemolacria if you want to know).
Green, on the other hand, is a great Bond Girl. She’s tough and resourceful, but is she being completely honest with Bond? She’s a mysterious sort, that one. Good or bad, she’s easy on the eyes, but don’t take that to mean she’s just eye candy. Green really is a good actress.
As you can tell, Casino Royale is James Bond redefined for 21st century audiences with all the technological advancements and post-9/11 paranoia in place of Cold War fears. I didn’t think it would work, but it does. Granted, I will be partial to old school James Bond with its hollowed-out volcanoes, megalomaniacs bent on world domination and silly gadgets invented by Q who’s not present for this inaugural outing. Still, I had a blast watching Casino Royale, a more serious adaptation than the 1967 spoof. It runs a little longer than it needs to, but Craig keeps the momentum going under the expert direction of Campbell. It’s a great start to a new phase in the 007 story.
