Casino Royale

I grew up watching the James Bond movies, seeing nearly all of them by the time I was 12 (with the exception of The Living Daylights, which to this day I still haven't seen). When Bond passed the torch to Pierce Brosnan in the mid-90s, I remember being dubious, because by then, the James Bond franchise had exhausted nearly all of Ian Fleming's original stories, and I began to feel that the franchise should be laid to rest before it became irrelevant and/or an outright joke.

When I first heard that Daniel Craig was being tapped as the next James Bond, I had the same feelings I did when Pierce Brosnan came onto the scene—but this time came the twist that Craig would be starring in Casino Royale, and then they had my full attention. Casino Royale was the very first James Bond book that Ian Fleming wrote, which meant that this movie would be the first James Bond film made from an original Ian Fleming story in about 20 years! That alone was a huge selling point for me. Plus, in the late '60s, a James Bond spoof was made out of Casino Royale, starring Peter Sellers and David Niven, so I wanted to see a genuine version of this story and not a comedic spoof.

Let me tell you, this was a very different Bond than I remember from my childhood! This wasn't the light-hearted spy movie that we've come to expect from Connery, Brosnan, or Roger Moore; instead, Casino Royale was a deadly serious movie, with lots of heavy action and intense fight and chase sequences. Being that Casino Royale was the first James Bond book in the series, there were several elements to the movie that suggested a beginning for Bond on various fronts. Such as Bond being assigned double-0 status, his meeting Felix Leiter, Bond's friend at the CIA—who I don’t think has appeared since License to Kill during Timothy Dalton's brief tour of duty (and who appeared with far more frequency in the Connery Bonds). We see Bond discover his trademark drink for the first time, the martini shaken not stirred with slice of lemon peel, etc. Even the "Bond girl" element was different. Eva Green (always a pleasure to look at—especially after The Dreamers) played her role of Vesper far more seriously than any previous Bond girl, and she doesn't fall into the traps of Bond's old womanizing ways. My guess is that, since this was partially a redefinition of the Bond series (what with it being the first-ever Bond story, and possibly staying more true to the original Bond character), it didn't mean that Bond was the womanizer that Connery made him out to be. Instead, he had genuine moments of sensitivity, like when he found a terrified Vesper shivering underneath the shower after a certain stairwell fight.

The format of the opening credits was noticeably different than before. No dark silhouettes of sexy naked girls dancing to the tunes of a suggestive theme song. Instead we have lots and lots of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs dancing across the screen (okay, sounds fitting to the gambling theme). And the standard opening to every Bond movie—the bubble running across the bottom of the screen to the far right, enlarging to resemble a gun barrel, and Bond casually striding along, then turning suddenly and firing off one shot—was altered! Casino Royale opened up with a black and white sequence, showing Bond making his first two killings as a double-0, and when he makes the second, he spins around . . . and that's when we see the trademark shot of him inside the gun barrel, firing a shot straight at the audience.

It's hard to compare Daniel Craig to his Bond predecessors. Sean Connery's days have become legendary in the Bond canon, and he irrevocably established Bond as the quintessential womanizing bad boy. Roger Moore was more light-hearted as Bond, but I still enjoyed him. Craig played Bond far more seriously and far more edgy than any of the previous leading men. Part of me wonders if Craig was actually more true to Fleming's original Bond character, a more cold-hearted yet burned-out spy—but that's purely supposition on my part, because I've never read any of the books, so I can't speak with authority to what kind of character Fleming envisioned Bond as. But having said that, I was quite taken with Craig's interpretation of the character . . . simply because we see Bond, for the first time in a long time, as genuinely human—a man who's vulnerable, capable of being hurt both physically and emotionally, a man who has things in life to lose, and seeing him start to lose those things and how it affects him as a man makes you see Bond in quite a new light.

Despite this being a reawakening, if you will, of the Bond franchise, there were nevertheless quite a lot of references to the previous movie installments of the last 40-odd years. The biggest reference came right away, and it was a major blast from the past with the surprise cameo of the Aston Martin that Connery used way back in Goldfinger. When Eva Green makes her first appearance in the film (at the one-hour mark, I might add; a bit later than customary), her opening lines are, "I am the money." To which Bond replies, "Worth every penny." Money? . . . Penny? Coincidence, or tongue in cheek? Speaking of tongue in cheek, that little tidbit was noticeably absent, too. None of the customary witty remarks like, "Shocking!" from Goldfinger, or "I thought Christmas only comes once a year" from The World Is Not Enough. Judi Dench returned to the scene as M, and I think this was her best turn as M thus far. On the flip side of that, however, Q (or any John Cleese offshoot thereto) didn't make an appearance, nor any of the previously-customary high-tech gadgets (maybe with the exception of the fully-armed glove compartment of Bond's vehicle).

The fight and chase sequences in Casino Royale were quite extraordinary! I don't think I've ever seen a chase (foot chase, rather than car chase) quite as intense as the one that started the film, around the construction site in Madagascar. Or the gigantic chase of the tanker truck towards the experimental plane at Miami Airport. And when was the last time we found a machete fight in a hotel stairwell in a film? I have to say, though, that it helps to have a working knowledge of how Texas Hold 'Em works before seeing Casino Royale, because when Bond and the resident villain were sitting around the table participating in high-stakes Texas Hold 'Em, that was pretty much the focus of the film right there—and I actually found the suspense pretty intense! Far better than any "World Series of Poker" game we'd find on ESPN.

If I had any gripes with Casino Royale, it was the running time. After the torture sequences, it seemed to drag on with Bond and Vesper. Since the movie kept playing and focusing on their romance, I kept thinking of the shocker ending of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. What can I say about the ending to Casino Royale . . . except that it had a sinking feeling to it? 8.5 out of 10. And I must say, I felt very refreshed by this newest installment, since it harkened back to the days of Ian Fleming’s original Bond.