Craig's Not Playing With a Full Deck (Movie only) (Casino Royale [2006] (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Casino Royale [2006] (DVD)
Date:	04/01/08 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great set pieces

Disadvantages: Ultimately dull

James Bond (Daniel Craig) is out to earn his 00 status. Ruthlessly dispatching a corrupt MI6 operative having already taken care of his contact, Bond goes to Madagascar in pursuit of an international bomb-maker named Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan). Having chased his target across the city, he spectacularly kills his prey, blowing up part of an embassy in the process. Courtesy of Mollaka's mobile phone, he traces Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian),an associate of international villain, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), whose party piece is short selling successful companies and then engineering terrorist attacks to sink their stock values. Subsequently eliminating Dimitrios, Bond foils Le Chiffre's plans to destroy the prototype Skyfleet Airliner, plunging the banker into severe financial problems. Under pressure from his clients, Le Chiffre sets up a high stakes poker tournament which Bond joins in an attempt to derail his opponent and force him to support the British government in exchange for protection from his rather nasty creditors.

"Casino Royale" was released in 2006, directed by Martin Campbell and is the 21st film in the James Bond series. With a new Bond in the form of Daniel Craig, the movie is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming and adapted for the big screen by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis.

The first thing you notice about this latest James Bond adventure is how un-James Bond like it is. Designed to be a "reboot" for the franchise, the concept behind the movie was to establish a whole new timeline and narrative allowing for a new breed of Bond, more susceptible to mistakes and just generally more human. According to the media reviews I read following release, the majority of critics loved it, many claiming that this was the best Bond movie in many a year.

There are some high points in the film. Despite the dire reports during filming that Daniel Craig was a bit of a wuss and had real problems with many of the stunts, the reality proved to be somewhat different with the new lead looking every bit as tough and durable as any of his predecessors. With a notable set piece early on with Craig chasing the bomb-maker through various cranes and building sites, the director takes an early opportunity to take a vertiginous route allowing for adventurous camera angles and spectacular back drops. It's a dizzying sequence and one to get the pulse racing. On the whole, Craig makes a credible Bond with the customary allure for attractive women and an earthier approach to violence not seen before in a Bond movie. The set pieces are big enough to fill the screen with mayhem at times, most notably the fight in the collapsing house in Venice scene, the attempt by our hero to prevent the destruction of the airplane as well as a further fight scene in the hotel stair-well during the poker tournament. It's the aftermath of the latter that endorses the whole new approach to Bond violence as Craig's love interest, Eva Green (Vesper Lynd), sits in the shower tray, hugging herself, distraught at the violence and mentally shocked at what she's just witnessed. To be fair, Green does justice to the leading lady role, giving an air of respectability to the Bond girl format, even getting the notoriously fickle agent to tell her he loves her.

The problem I had with "Casino Royale" was empathy. I found myself craving for the witty one-liners after Bond has dispatched the latest villainous henchman; I found myself desperate for a more appealing storyline than the one that ended in a cul-de-sac only to be climaxed by an afterthought involving the immortal "My name's Bond. James Bond"; I found myself wanting to see someone trying to take over the world even if it meant a nod and a wink to Austin Powers; I found myself desperately missing the new gadgets that Bond would be introduced to and use at the appropriate time. All of these things were part of the Bond brand and by jettisoning them so coldly it felt like I'd ended up with in return, a glossier Bourne Identity. Incidentally, I had watched the Matt Damon vehicle a while ago and given up on the franchise after the first movie, blinded by the complexity of an over elaborate Cold War-esque spy story and bamboozled by all the twists and turns that movies like this feel obliged to take. I hadn't got a problem with the Bond theme taking a more modern stance but it seemed to be at the expense of entertainment and that is why I go to the flicks for the most part. In essence, the new format left me cold. After all, if you trace this particular plot line then, on reflection, most people would realise just how dull it actually is.

Rated 12A and with a whopping 144 minute run time, "Casino Royale" will appeal to older children and adults who have a hankering for explosive, action movies. With the customary musical score from Bond regular, David Arnold, and the music orchestrated by Nicholas Dodd, this latest trip into the twilight world of lethal espionage will be essential viewing for Bond completists but, personally, I didn't rate it at all and hope that the next movie injects more life into proceedings. If I'd wanted a cold, calculated Spy movie, I would have called up an old Harry Palmer flick. I didn't, I wanted the latest James Bond. And got something completely different.

Thanks for reading

Mara

DVD available at Amazon from £3.97

Summary: Overview of movie