Craig, Daniel Craig...The Best Bond in Years!

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2006)

CASINO ROYALE (2006) ***1/2 Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Isaach De Bankole, Jesper Christensen, Ivana Milicevic, Sebastien Foucan. Brilliant jump-start to the James Bond franchise by re-booting to the beginning in the first of the Ian Fleming stories with a new Bond (Craig, perhaps the best actor as 007) gaining his license to kill on his first assignment to stop an international banker (baddie Mikkelsen) from bankrolling a high-stakes poker game to continue lending support to global terrorism, with hottie financial analyst Green (perhaps the best Bond babe to date to boot!) in tow. Handled with great aplomb by director Martin Campbell (no slouch to the series with his intro of Pierce Brosnan in "GoldenEye") who skillfully keeps the action riveting (the opening foot chase is a real hoot), the editing snappy (kudos to Stuart Baird) and the storyline from sagging (the screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Paul Haggis bogs things down in the extraneous card game) with enough humor, death-defying gags and mostly for having faith in Craig, who brings a Steve McQueen, craggy handsomeness and under his well-chiseled physique a surprising lethal weapon: a heart. Can't wait for the next!