Back to basics

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2008)

Let's make sure we understand that Daniel Craig is not Sean Connery before I write that Craig's James Bond in CASINO ROYALE is very much in the mold of the James Bond of old, before things started getting out of hand in the Roger Moore era. The plot is simple enough, the number of characters stripped down (no Q or or Miss Moneypenny or stuffy prime minister, just Bond and M), the action sequences tight and brutal. Craig makes a believable-enough blond Bond on his first mission, as he uncovers a plot among a mysterious cartel to amass a fortune based on some nefarious doings including blowing up a jumbo jet and winning a high-stakes poker tournament. The actor playing LeChiffre is sinister enough, and the actresses playing the Bond girls (there are really only two) are strictly eye candy. The focus is heavily on Craig, who seems physically fit enough (or perhaps it is his stunt double) as he races around the world to expose and defeat this cartel. And the truth is, he does remind me of Connery's Bond, with a touch of Tim Dalton thrown in. No clownish Bond he, like Moore or Brosnan. The always entertaining Jeffrey Wright plays Felix Leiter, Bond's American counterpart.