The best Bond movie ever

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2006)

Casino Royale is the best Bond movie I've seen. Granted, I've yet to see a few fan favorites (including From Russia with Love and Thunderball, which are on Spike tonight), but this beats Goldfinger and probably even my favorite, Dr. No.
The direction and script, the two most important issues to me, are fantastic. Martin Campbell kicks his own GoldenEye's ass by a mile. The tone is dark and moody, the way the novel was written. There are no qualms of production quality or direction here. The poker scenes, fight scenes, and development scenes are flawless.
The script is almost perfect. It stays true to the novel, albeit modernized. For example, terrorists are now the enemies, not Russians, and the game at hand is poker, not baccarat. The only problem with the script is that there are some unnecessary scenes, which make it drag out in the middle, and part of the unnecessary problems include a pretty worthless Bond girl. It should also be noted that it's a whopping 150 minutes, which is time consuming. It does keep you entertained through and through, but the first half hour to hour are really inessential to the story.
The action scenes, which is why most people like 007, are fantastic. They are few of them, proportionally, however. The first action scene is Bond chasing an African bomb maker, and includes some far-fetched stunts. However, these stunts are believable by Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan standards. There is also a car chase on an air-strip, and a two-on-Bond stairwell duel. The last action scene, in Venice, is both heart-breaking and action-packed. But all these scenes are great.
Not only is Casino Royale a fantastic Bond movie, it's an equally cool poker movie. In case you've been living under a rock and haven't seen any marketing for this movie, you know the story. Bond has to outplay La Chiffre, a French poker expert who supplies bad guys money he wins from Poker games. If he loses- which no one expects he ever will- the people he owes money will kill him, which will disrupt the cash flow of all terrorists organizations.
When I heard they were adapting Casino Royale, I expected an enormous movie with the most luxurious casinos and exotic players. I expect cool poker scenes and high stakes. I got what I expected, which is rare for this era of disappointing films. La Chiffre is the master of poker, he even does cool tricks. Bond defeats him with style in which is possibly the most edge-of-your-seat poker game ever.
The cast is great. There are good actors, yes, but Bond isn't just about good acting. It is also about good-looking women and cool characters. Both the bond girls are hot (really hot) and the bad guy is bad. Le Chiffre is bad to the bone. Though he is not as stylized as previous villains (his power isn't too cool, he's a math expert), he is truly evil. He tortures Bond, and almost castrates him. You know he's evil when he cries blood. Daniel Craig is better than Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and George Lazenby easily, and is probably on par with Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. He's down-to-earth, but cool at the same time. He's very human, but makes you feel inferior at the same time.
Go see this movie. It's got great directors, screenwriters, and actors. This is the best Bond yet. And it's in the top 250! Overall, I give this film an A+.