Bond Fans and Bond Critics Rejoice. Your Prayers and Bitchings Have Been Answered.

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2007)

Everything you've heard is true. It's the best Bond film in years. They re-invent it. Daniel Craig has the right stuff. It's fun, funny, fresh, exciting, tense, gritty and just a bloody great film.
Daniel Craig: My God, James Bond has proved that looks really don't matter. Craig's face, kindly, is rugged; truthfully, is sorta squashed. His ears stick out and more than one person has remarked to me that he looks more like a Bond villain than Bond. Plus he's blonde in real life! But Craig has what it takes. His Bond is masculine, gritty, icy, charming, cool, funny, sexist, sensitive and soulful. What comes through is Craig's strengths as an actor. Whether being tortured, dying or falling for the girl, Craig makes you believe. All those people at Craignotbond are probably a laughing-stock to their friends and family now!
This Bond film addresses all of the problems and awkwardness with the previous Bond films. It seems that Martin Campbell (Goldeneye) and others have really taken a hard look at the franchise. Case in point: People wanted the light-hearted sexy fun of the past Bond girl without making her a cliché air-headed victim that needs saving. Consequently, we got a little bit of everything like Denise Richard's nuclear physicist (smart!) in shorts (sexy!) with the name Christmas Jones (playful! / traditional!). It didn't ring true. However the only way to go is with quality. Eva Green is fantastic as Bond's equal - Vesper Lynd. She matches him in every way while retaining a vulnerability that is as human as well as feminine. I think I'm in love. Also, it is worth noting Mads Mikkelsen as villain Le Chiffre, who is a genuine bad ass.
What this film does is boldly address the Bond conventions and comes up with the right answers through sheer inventiveness and sly playfulness. They know that by now we are in on the joke and the usual stuff is handled delightfully - ordering the drink, the car, the suit, bedding beautiful women. But it doesn't awkwardly mock or rubbish the conventions while still trying to enjoy them. Instead, it respects them and views them as delights rather than constricting problems that have to be dealt with. It's this sense of fun and opportunity that pervades Casino Royale. Things just flow together so well, I honestly wouldn't mind this film winning some sort of screen writing award.
Unlike 99% of the action films out there, the action and fights in this are brutally realistic rather than the rolling around slap and tickle we've come to expect. It really raises the bar. It's grasping, desperate, brutal and shocking as lives are put on the line. I think it was Pierce Brosnan, who said that if you're not getting bruised doing Bond you're not doing it right. He's right, but the fight choreographer, Daniel Craig, and stunt-people have really stepped it up for this film.
This film is really a 9.5 stars because of a slightly wandering final 30 minutes or so, but I have to choose between 9 and 10 so - 10. The first majority of the film is an absolute pressure cooker, especially the long poker scenes (it was a brave gamble to play them out for so long).
Overall, this really is an A for effort. Those whose motto in life is 'there are no short-cuts to quality' will feel gratified by this film. Instead of fumbling around and hoping for the best, everyone involved in this film has put in so much thought, energy, and devotion, I just feel like hugging them.
Men want to be him. Women want to be with him. Ladies and Gentlemen, Bond, James Bond, is back.