SYNOPSIS
Truly restarting the Bond franchise, “Casino Royale” takes us to the beginning of the story. James Bond (Daniel Craig) is MI6’s newest agent to achieve 00-status and is therefore granted the infamous “license to kill.” However, his first official mission as 007 ends in embarrassment after he gains international attention by killing an unarmed man on the grounds of a foreign embassy in Madagascar. M (Judi Dench) is furious, and Bond flees to the Bahamas to pursue a lead he gleaned from his victim’s cell phone.
A hunch -- and the man’s wife -- lead Bond to the villainous Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), an entrepreneur who makes millions by investing laundered terrorist money in the stock market. After Bonds foils an attack in Miami designed to manipulate the market for big gains, Le Chiffre owes hundreds of millions to his terrorist investors. In order to win the money back, the bad guy plans a high-stakes poker game with a buy-in at $10 million dollars. The surprisingly logical plan gets a wrench thrown in it when MI6 signs Bond up to play the game and sends along Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), an attractive female representative of the government’s money. Bond must beat Le Chiffre in order to keep the money out of terrorist pockets, but as the stakes get higher so does the tension between 007 the hard-to-get-but-still-obviously-interested Lynd.
Review by
STEVEN HARRELL
As a self-proclaimed Bond nerd, I was really looking forward to seeing how “Casino Royale” played out. I was surprised by how much director Martin Campbell (“Goldeneye”) veered from the standard ingredients of sexual innuendo, Q’s gadget meeting, the uber-villain with the weird sidekick, etc. It really did feel different from any other Bond film, and that’s exactly what the franchise needed.
Most refreshing was the fact that logic was put back into the equation of the storyline. After Bond shoots up an embassy in Madagascar and kills an unarmed man (gasp!), M gets mad at him! It makes international headlines and MI6 is disgraced. Everyone knows that secret agents, 00-status or not, can’t just waltz into anyplace they want and blow the whole thing up without people noticing. Finally, it seems that the Bond producers have figured this out as well.
Daniel Craig is also fun to watch. The role of James Bond is a hard one to play, especially with the vast amount of expectation and history heaped on the character. He not only lives up to expectation, he rises above it by giving Bond an emotional and human element that hasn’t really been seen since the 60’s. Pierce Brosnan, Craig’s predecessor in the role, was way too cold and heartless in his attitudes towards violence and sex. While Craig is still ruthless in utilizing his license to kill and attractive charms, we are allowed to see Bond as a real person who makes mistakes, feels remorse, and even (double gasp!) has the capacity to fall in love. Although, his version of love still isn’t exactly in the neighborhood of traditional Christian values.
Admittedly though, the story does drag in the middle. The whole “Bond falls in love” notion is a little too much for me. I think it would have been easier to swallow had it not taken so long to play out. Everyone in the audience is sure to know that James Bond doesn’t meet a nice girl and settle down. The impending twist is so painfully expected that everything leading up to it just felt forced. I found myself looking at my watch several times, just waiting for the gunfire and explosions to start back up again. After all, it is still a Bond flick.
The PG-13 rating is for a good deal of violent and sexual content. Bond is seen with several women, all of whom are wearing varying amounts of suggestive clothing. Various backsides are shown. Also, Bond is nude (seen from the side) in a scene of torture that, while not overly graphic, still induces cringes.
