Now THAT'S James Bond!

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2006)

Casino Royale is like a minty-fresh mouthwash, eradicating the vile taste of that CG puke-fest known as Die Another Day. I literally felt CLEANSED after seeing it. I'd gotten so used to the same old same old that I had ceased to think something like this could happen. Mike and Barb - with an assist from Purvis/Wade, Haggis, Campbell and DC - have given Jimbo a long-overdue spring cleaning - made him more real, more relevant, and ultimately more INTERESTING.
I really liked Brosnan's Bond  at the time. I think it was the hair. With GoldenEye, the Bond 'do' definitely reached its peak. Pierce was good in the part, too - convincing as a heavily Rodge-influenced (but slightly darker, more athletic) 007, spouting unfunny Bruce Fierstein-penned quips about frequent-flier mileage. Certainly, he seemed equally adept at coming to grips with a Kalashnikov, a Smirnoff or a Scorupco, but it is now clear (given fresh perspective) that by the end of his tenure both Pierce and the EON crew had LOST their grip on the character of JAMES BOND, as conceived by Ian Fleming.
DC has OPENED MY EYES. Sure, he has taken the Bond 'do' to a disappointing low (the flaxen hue doesn't bother me so much  it's just a bit scruffy), but the character has been roused from his torpor, woken from his coma, resurrected from the dead - a bit like his literal 'resurrection' in a scene from this movie. Given the new toned-down realism, the handy in-car defibrillator seems a tad convenient (and therefore unrealistic), but at least he's able to FIND HIS CAR this time. Imagine if a drugged, cardiac-arresting Brosnan-Bond had staggered out of Gustav Graves' ice palace, looking for the one thing that could save his life...
'Now, where the bloody hell did I PARK that thing? DAMN YOU, Q-BRANCH! LIGHT-EMITTING POLYMER MY TWITCHING, BLOODSHOT EYE!'
DC's Jimbo has a real 'no bulls--t' vibe to him, which is one of the major differences between him and Pierce. He isn't worried about rumpling his absurdly well-tailored clothes. If you prick him (or punch, shoot or stab him) he bleeds, and wears the marks for longer than one scene. His knuckles are scabby. His face is scratched. If Pierce's Bond was a prize poodle, DC's is a fighting pit bull in comparison.
But it's not only DC's acting skill and grasp of the character that make this movie great. It helps that they've got Fleming back as a foundation - which, considering how unlike any of the recent movies this is, only goes to show how far from Fleming's creation the films had strayed.
I do not lament the loss of Dr. Evil-style lairs or idiotic gadgets or one-note henchmen or stupid Bond-girl names...
...or TERRIBLE clunking puns! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a good pun. A well-considered and subtle play on words really gets me going. But after forty years' worth of increasingly insipid wordplay, it's refreshing that the writers this time resisted the urge to try and squeeze the unlikeliest of lines from the least conducive of situations. Sure, it's disorienting at first, so accustomed are we to the dodgy one-liner as a fundamental law of the Bondiverse. Upon my first viewing I sensed awkward gaps after murders and close calls, the only sounds being the chirping of crickets and the expectant intake of breath from an audience bracing itself for something lame. But it never came. Wonderful.
Eva Green is a fantastic actor, and the script actually allows her to give a performance worthy of her talent. Let's face it, even the more accomplished Bond-girl actresses have come off looking a little superficial in the past (eg. Dame Diana, Carole Bouquet, Halle B). But Vesper is given a depth almost equal to that of Bond - and their relationship is more compelling for it. And it doesn't hurt that Eva is one of the most aesthetically-pleasing life forms ever to exist in this or any parallel universe.
Mads brings depth and humanity to the blood-weeping, asthmatic Le Chiffre. Yes, Bond Villains can be realistic AND have cheesy gimmicks.
Jeffrey Wright is excellent - but criminally underused - as Felix. I hope he's here to stay awhile (which would be another trend-breaker).
Caterina Murino: Yum.
Judi Dench: Scary - but it's her best M performance yet.
David Arnold's score is far less ostentatious than his previous efforts. His restraint with the Theme is very clever and far more sensible than I thought he could be.
You Know My Name: best theme song since Live 'n' Let Die.
Chris Cornell: cooler than Wings.
The action scenes are all superb - you can almost smell the blood and sweat. Sebastien Foucan is a superhuman freak.
The title sequence is fantastic. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's the best yet, despite the absence of naked female silhouettes. But who needs naked female silhouettes when you've got Eva wearing...
...THAT DRESS. I damn-near wept blood MYSELF when I saw her in that thing!
Discipline, 007...
What more can I say? I LOVE this flick. Is it my favourite? It's too soon to tell - but it makes Pierce's movies look like Rodge's movies, and Rodge's movies look like - like - Peter Sellers' Casino Royale!
Bond has begun, and I can't wait to see where he goes next.