Casino Royale - old dog director teaches ageing franchise some new tricks

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2009)

Bond is promoted for mere agent and grunt to the status of Intelligence Officer at the beginning of this film as he complete's the two kills to earn the double "0" status. From here he is sent in search of a bomb-maker to attempt to discover who his backers are. After a disastrous start where Bond makes just about every mistake possible he finally makes amends and after resolving these earlier mistakes winds up in a high-powered winner takes all poker game with Terrorist banker Le Chiffre, who needs to recoup losses and win the potential 15o million euro's pot against some of the best players of the world.
So Bond returns (Or rather begins!) and if you believe the two sets of divulging reports on this site it was either the best bond ever, or the worst Bond ever, which may lead people to wonder how this could be? I had to admit when I first saw it, I was of mixed opinion to how I felt about it.
On the one hand the set pieces where dealt with admirably by the always capable Martin Campbell. The opening action piece through the building site and the entire Casino sequence were excellent, and the look of the film was stunning, and exactly what you'd expect from a Bond; Both of his main vehicles (I am not including a Ford Hire car) where just what was wanted and although the Villain was no Goldfinger, he was much more of a threat than Jonathan Pryce or Robert Carlisle's dismal villains in both "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The World is not enough". Which then brings us to the main source of either delight or derision, which is Craig's performance.
For me, Daniel Craig proves all the detractors and smug journo's who wrote disparaging comments before, completely wrong. The more you watch this performance and his depiction of an agent, not supremely knowledgeable and smug like earlier depictions, but a newly promoted young man with a point to prove. This is effectively the young man in a hurry, trying to prove that his promotion was a worthwhile piece of judgement and not an error on the part of a boss at risk from enemies without and within. Because of that, this Bond is intense and exposed, all of his frailties are open, and all of his skills are raw, which makes for a far more exciting film than the bond's of so many films who is always so reliably infallible.
One of the other big problems for many is of course the product placement. Personally, I don't give a stuff what phone Bond uses, or the computer he types on, if they want to sponsor the film-makers with ridiculous amounts of money for these things just to be seen in the move then let them. The sponsor I found purposely funny was the Amiga watch and the comments around it within the film. When his watch was being discussed in the film it was done in the context of the expensive things that he wears not because he wants to, but because he has to, as part of him being arrogant and showy, rendering any kind of product placement useless.
Overall this Bond is one that has grown on me hugely over time and I think in the same way that "On her Majesty's Secret Service" is regarded as one of the finest Bond films of the series, "Casino Royale" has now firmly established itself for the current crop of Bond fans and unlike it's predecessor "Die Another Day" it has aged wonderfully well.
A bond worth always worth another shot.