Electrifying comeback for the man in the tux.

Rating: 9/10 (28 April 2009)

After the disappointing Die Another Day, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson needed a change, and in the midst of all the newly found gritty realism in the spy movie genre, it couldn't have come at a better time. Surviving the press and internet critiques of a film not yet even finished shooting, both producers, director and their put upon lead star were spurred on to bring out the very best product they possibly could. The result is Casino Royale, a stylish, glossy, sophisticated and at times brutal Bond movie.
When reviewing a Bond movie, three things have to be taken into account. 1) It was not made to win awards, 2) It is highly likely that if you saw the last one, this one will bear more than a passing resemblance to it, and 3) If you're a die hard Bond fan, you're probably going to love or like it no matter what. It's something to do with the swell of the music, the shaking and not stirring of a vodka martini and that bloke introducing himself again. After each film began coming out cloning it's predecessor and, more recently, a spill over into 'xXx' territory (with more cheesy one liners than you can fit in the boot of an Aston Martin) it was understandable that Bond fans would start to become restless.
So when it was announced that Bond was going back to the beginning, taking a leaf from Batman Begins, naturally the Bond fans rioted, because you just can't please some people. Next, they find out that the new Bond of the noughties was going to be a short fellow with a shock of blonde hair. How outrageous. The performance, however, speaks for itself.
Going back to the source material, Bond is now what he should be; a cold, calculating, womanising bastard with a taste for anything over 40% proof and a thirst for the kill. Craig's performance is damn near perfect, giving Bourne a run for his money in the hard-arse department. Suddenly, post Brosnan, Bond is now apart of the "who would win in a fight?" game once again.
Almost every risk taken with this film works wonderfully. We first meet Bond in black and white before securing his licence to kill, in fact, while securing his licence to kill. The unconventional gunbarrel sequence that follows integrates the familiar staple into the story. Next we follow Bond on his first mission, making sloppy mistakes, annoying his boss 'M' (the always amazing Judi Dench), gambling and hooking up with married women, all the while leaving a trail of dead bodies behind him. His mission takes him to Montenegro, where Le Chiffre, a banker with terrorist affiliations, is trying to win back the money he lost in a bad stocks call by setting up a poker game at the Casino Royale. Bond is slipped in to play Le Chiffre and win the money himself, with the buy in provided by the treasury represented by the beautiful Vesper Lynd played by the alluring Eva Green.
The film very closely follows the book in it's plot beats, changing necessary details to fill in time, action set pieces and to update to 2006. Now Bond is human, he has emotion, he feels remorse, he makes mistakes, and it helps to have a main character whom you not only secretly aspire to be, but whom you can actually invest in. There's very little wrong with this film, except perhaps a slightly uninspiring climactic set piece which is more or less for the sake of it and a few snippets of corny dialogue. The poker game that dominates the mid section is nail bitingly intense, whether you play the game or not, and the dialogue benefits from a polish by Crash scribe Paul Haggis.
The music is by far David Arnold's best James Bond score, with certain measures sounding like they were taken straight from John Barry. The main theme itself, You Know My Name, resonates throughout the entire film, standing in for the Bond theme which doesn't make an appearance in it's full glory until the end. The fact that it's not jarring to be without the Bond theme in a Bond film is a testament to Arnold's achievement.
The best thing about this movie is that it's follow ups should all be in the same vein, giving an air of "I want to see what he'll do next" rather than "oh, and this where he uses the gadget we saw at the beginning..." I hope all the naysayers are feeling, to put it in the words of Rowan Atkinson, like a right bunch of nitwits.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Casino Royale emerges from it's pre-release tabloid bashing as probably the best Bond film since Connery's hairpiece started going grey. Craig is certainly one of the closest to the Fleming vision and does cool and vulnerable at the same time, while the movie itself manages to become a Bond film that can actually have some surprises in store for it's audience.