Excellent from start to finish

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2006)

Firstly i think it is fair to say you should never go into a James Bond film thinking it is going to be some MI6 documentary following a spy on different assignments around the world. Thats just silly and it annoys me when people just scoff at a film saying "that's so unrealistic". If you want realism stay at home and watch lions mating on the discovery channel. The cinema is somewhere you go to get away from reality and kick back and enjoy yourself.
Having said that Casino Royale is no Die Another Day with invisible cars that you may accidentally trip over. I think even that made the directors start to think that maybe they went a bit far. As i'm sat here i'm trying to rack my brains for some overly far fetched incident. Even the Free Running scene is probably within physical human possibilities.
Casino Royale is my favourite Bond film. And although i feel slightly uncultured in saying that i think that many people are going to begin thinking that the new films are better than the Golden Oldies if they stick with the same filming formula as they used in this one. Chris Cornells intro music "You Know My Name" is brilliant and i can't believe he wasn't used earlier from Tomorrow Never Dies onwards. He brings the film into a more contemporary time in a different and i think better way than Madonna did. I think Madonna was too much of a drastic change from Garbage's "The Wolrd is not Enough".
You really can see a subtle progress in James's character throughout the film which i think is difficult to describe in words but it's there. He makes mistakes at the beginning and seems a bit uncertain about his capabilities and wants to prove himself and becomes more confident throughout, making decisions and performing them well. Daniel Craig is a genius as Bond, thats the only way to describe it. Before, Bond actors have had to carry on from older actors and are always compared with the previous but you can't do that with Craig because he has made the part his own mainly helped by the change in 'Formula' which i referred to earlier As for the Relationship between Bond and Vesper; there is so much sexual tension in there scenes together that they could be having hot rough passionate sex when stood across the room from each other. It was good to see a Bond girl who isn't accustomed to the violence of James' world. Vesper brings some real life humanity to the situation. A brilliant performance from Eva Green. If there was anything i had to criticise about the film it would be that i thought that there was a bit too much lovey doveyness in there dialogue half way through the film, especially at the point about his smile and little finger. (you'll understand when you see the film) Cheesy
The Car. WOW. And i don't mean the random Ford which stick out like a sore thumb in the earlier scenes. Not an Aston Martin fan myself. More of a TVR fan. But this beauty can not be ignored. When i was in the Cinema and the car was shown for the first time, there was a quiet moan as every Male in the audience creamed themselves a little. And when he turns the engine on Ahhhh. A lot bulkier and more distinct from other Atston Martin DB 7,8,9's it's gorgeous. Although he doesn't drive it long before Bond does best what he does with sports cars and destroys it.
Brilliant. Cant wait to watch it again.