Sean who?

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2006)

Unlike many of the previous posters here, I've never been a huge Bond fan. The early Connery ones were okay as period pieces, but Roger Moore was too lightweight to play the role convincingly and Pierce Brosnan just plain too skinny. I did like Timothy Dalton because he seemed intelligent enough to pull things off, but overall I've only tolerated them for their opening stunts, chases and ridiculous gadgets. Despite having friends who are deep into Bond-age (something the movie-makers play with in this one), I've only seen half the movies, and for half of those I had to talk myself into watching them. That's why I didn't see "Casino Royale" till Christmas Day; I kept thinking I SHOULD go because everyone was saying it's great, but I just couldn't get myself up for it. I was finally talked into it by a buddy who's a Bondaholic and who wanted the excuse to see it for the third time. So I figured -- What they hey; I got nothing else going on.
Well...I was wrong to wait. This was one fan-friggin'-tastic movie! Not just a "James Bond" film, but a great action thriller that not only reinvents the whole notion of Bond as a blond but makes him seem realistic and human enough to empathize with. In a Bond film, you expect the action sequences to be brilliant -- and the chase in Uganda fit the bill, perfectly -- but they should also be SUSPENSEFUL, something the other movies had lost sight of. You have to really feel that Bond might just not make it...and there were a couple of moments where I wasn't sure he'd get to where he needed to be in time. It was magnificent.
The fact is, there's non-stop suspense in this film. And romance. And beauty. And CHARACTER! Bond's no longer just a machine with a Walther PPK, he's a man who hurts and bleeds and can easily die and knows it. And tries not to care...but can't quite achieve that last bit of remove from reality. And Daniel Craig -- with his ice-blue eyes and working- class-English looks and carefully pumped-up body -- fills the role to such a wonderful extent, you're left wondering who could have better filled the shoes of Ian Flemming's spy. I mean seriously, as we were leaving the theater, my buddy said he was almost as good as Sean Connery, and my first thought was, "Sean who?"
I cannot emphasize enough -- this is not just a Bond movie; this is a great story told by people at the top of their form that, for the first time, gives me an idea of what the allure of the whole 007 mythology is all about and helps me accept it. And want to see it, again. And that, alone, is worth making this a TEN.