Casino Royale

Casino Royale does bond what Batman Begins did for the caped crusader's listing series of shlock; the image and character have been reborn, reforged from something with a bit more grit, danger and darkness. Craig plays the role close to the bone, and here the bone is Connery, as the all time masterful Bond, the scrapper, the dark haired gentleman with just enough scalloped edges to even get the guys to nod. Lets face it Moore was great, he was truly a legend, but he's no Connery, and although he's eternally suave, mannered and a pleasure to watch, he's still no Connery. The last two, Dalton and Brosnan were meak attempts at replacing the mythic figure with serviceable substitutes. It didn't help that the dialogue, master criminals and plot lines of the previos six films (2 Daltons & 4 Brosnans) were so terrible that I think I stopped going to see them after the The Living Daylights. Yes, the 80s and 90s, and the early part of the 00's have been a sad time for what is in essense the longest running film franchise in history. With the last pair of Moore/Connery films (A View to a Kill & Never say Never Again), we saw the near death of the entire project. Thanks to a handy defibrulator in a glove compartment we can see both reborn on the silver screen.

The filkm is a true joy ride, although a little long, and the romance between Eva Green & Craig put on and over done in parts, it doesn't change the fact that you're having a good time. Yeah, you can't help but pump an imaginary fist in the air for this bond. He's not a nice guy, as a matter of fact, he's much colder in many respects than the previous bonds, and you get this feeling that its not comedy that drives some of his "hits", he actually enjoys it. From the openning chase scene that reads like a Spiderman script gone native to the beautiful locations and hotel rooms that the majority of us will never inhabit, Bond is back and you best beware.

What makes this film work aren't the special effects, they simply aren't that "special". In comparrison with the previous films this one might as well be low-B. There are no satellites threatening world peace, no madmen hell bent on global domination that run multi-national corporations. No, this film is far simpler, and more contemporary, it deals wtih terrorism, stock market manipulation (slightly overbaked), and more specifically, the finances of terrorists. So this is the meta plot, this is what you're supposed to be "following". But when you boil it down, you're really dealing with a poker game, hence Casino Royale. The heart and soul of this film is Poker, and mind you this is a departure from previous Bond films that featured the super-spy playing backarat and dice. No, our hero is playing good old Texas Holdem and as any good poker player knows, you're not playing the game, you're playing the man across from you. Whatever flaws this film has, come in the later half of the movie when our gritty bond makes an about face and becomes a softy. This is almost unforgiveable, except that you want to keep watching and find recourse to absolve Craig and the producers for making bond go soft, even for a spell. There's nothing really wrong with this film, at all, you can look, but nothing jumps out that you can't just say yeah, its not perfect, but it works "in" the basics, good plot, good characters + development and more importantly, and thankfully, good dialogue.

So if you're sitting around digesting turkey, and you're hard up for something to do and damn tired of all the holiday programming that is jamming the airways of our televisions, then I suggest you make haste to your nearest theatre and spend 2 1/2 blissful hours with Daniel Craig and his new persona... Really.