Casino Royale - Cash in Your Chips and Leave

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2006)

The most promise. The least delivered.
With an outstanding cast, great locations and best Bond book of them all, Casino Royal had me in anticipation of the best Bond in years. It started strong, with a great title squence and real action, far better than the Brosnan computer game action squences. The card game has suspense and thrills. For a while I thought I was there. But one technical flaw after another (every car in the movie has standard multiple airbags, but not one deploys as each car is involved in a collision, Virgin Airways does not operate a hub in Miami as the movie suggests), continuity mistakes (M does not report to the Prime Minister, her home is not a secret to 00 agents, would an airport continue to allow flights to take off and depart evacuating the airport during a gun battle?)and finally, the convoluted end game, left me disappointed.
The talents of Giancarlo Giannini (Mathis) and Jeffrey Wright (Felix Leiter) are wasted. Leiter simply disappears from the movie just as his role becomes pivitol. Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre) was brilliant and is another one in the win box for European Bond villains. Judi Dench (M) gives another outstanding performance. I lept for joy when the Aston Martin DBS fired up for a car race, but was left asking for my money back at the racetrack.
Daniel Craig is a good James Bond. But he does not make us laugh the way Connery and Moore did. And while he looks far more attractive in a bathing suit than Bond has looked in years, he cannot hold a candle to Connery on the beach in Dr. No.
Casino Royale has its moments. But in a high stakes game, you could only check so many times. In the end, throw in your cards, cash in your chips and count your losses.