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2006 – PG-13 – 144 min.
Director: Martin Cambell
Primary Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Stars *** 1/2 (of 5)
Popcorn **** (of 5)
Film Type(s): Action, Suspense, Spying, Gambling, Terrorism
Synopsis: Based partially on Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book, Casino Royale is Bond’s origin story brought to film. In the book, a Russian agent named Le Chiffre (French for “Numbers”) loses a large sum of money from his government and decides to use a high stakes table game to win the money back, only the British government has sent in Spy Bond to win at the tables, thus causing the Russians to take care of the agent for him. This film changes that somewhat. Instead of Russia, Le Chiffre (Mikkelsen) is a financier for many of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups and a Madagascar terrorist’s (Sebastian Foucan) money. Bond’s first assignment as “007” is investigation into a bombing that puts him on Le Chiffre’s trail, going from Africa to the Bahamas, the Czech Republic, Venice, Miami, and Montenagro. Head of MI-6, M (Dench, the only holdover from previous Bond films), sends British Treasury agent Vesper (Green), to help Bond when he learns of the high stakes poker game at Montenagro’s Casino Royale. With lives at stake, can Bond win? Among the Writers on this film were Oscar Winner Paul Haggis. Not to be confused with the 1967 Bond spoof of the same title with multiple actors as James Bond (like Woody Allen’s Jimmy Bond). The 1954 Television play adaptation of this story featured Peter Lorre in the role of Le Chiffre and an American James Bond.
Review: Anyone that comes into this film looking for a campy James Bond will be in for a surprise. When Ian Fleming’s James Bond was first brought to the silver screen, the films were direct adaptations of Fleming’s books. For the first Bond film, however, his second Bond book, Dr. No, was done instead of the first, Casino Royale. The rest, as they say, is history. Through the years James Bond has transformed to a Gizmo-Gadget guy (Roger Moore), smug lover / spy (Timothy Dalton), and Super Spy (Pierce Brosnan). In fact, until 1996’s Goldeneye and the exception of 1983’s Octopussy, all of the Bond films took their titles from Fleming’s books (Though often not the plots). So when Brosnan decided to hang up his “00”s, MGM wanted to revamp the faltering series and were intrigued with Director Cambell’s proposal: Let the audience see Bond’s origin. Though hesitant, MGM gave the go-ahead when Batman origin tale Batman Begins became a hit. To make things all the more interesting, Cambell made the then controversial choice of casting Daniel Craig as Bond, making him the first Blond Bond. Craig dispels all of these fears right off the bat. His Bond harkens back to the Sean Connery Bond films, which were not only direct adaptations of Fleming’s novels, but worked more as Suspense Mytery Thrillers than Gimmicky Action films. All of the chases in this film do hold to the ‘suspension of disbelief’, but do hold to a certain level of reality where it is not totally implausible to happen and the eye candy is just as much for the women as it is the men. In the black and white opening sequence, we see Bond attain his “00” status with two professional assassinations where Craig conveys more action with a smoldering stare than the realistic reactions to punches and kicks. (You just don’t hit a guy there.) You also get to see his relish at wearing a fitted Tux for the first time, his sense of humor about sex, and the tragedy that tells us how Bond came to be “Bond. James Bond.” All of the actors are excellent with Dench returning as boss lady M, Green as the femme fatale, Wright having fun (for a change) as Bond’s CIA compatriot, Felix Leiter, and Mikkelsen as the evil Le Chiffre. In fact, one of the things that makes this film particularly endearing is Mikkelsen’s flawed villain whose motivations aren’t entirely sinister. Another is how shadow organization SPECTRE from the Connery Bond films is implied (This reviewer believes the no-name man in the denouement, in fact, Dr. Evil inspiration Blofeld.). The only drawback for this reviewer is how sometimes, albeit briefly, the violence is TOO real for a PG-13 film.
 
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