Not a Family-Friendly Bond

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2006)

CASINO ROYALE is everywhere in the UK at the moment, from Lottery Scratchcards to BBC4 to it's premiere on the front page of up and downmarket newspapers. And every critic appears to be raving about the film. CASINO ROYALE - which is the first Bond film in 4 years - pulls off the trick of appealing both to fans of the films, Ian Fleming purists and non-Bond audiences.
But this isn't so much the return of James Bond but his relaunch and reinvention. Though the director, writers and production team are all veterans of the series, CASINO ROYALE doesn't really remind you of the previous 20 films. The opening pre-credits adventure is abandoned in favour of a brief prologue in Prague showing Bond confronting (and killing) an MI6 traitor, cross-cut with him beating up and killing another anonymous villain in a bathroom. There's no real reason for it all to be shot in black and white, is there?
So, instead of a pre-credits adventure we get a post-credits chase in Madagasscar  Bond pursuing a free-jumping bomb-maker on foot, up cranes and ending with a shoot out in an embassy. It's as dangerous looking as it is thrilling to watch. And, in general, the action sequences are breathtaking edge of the seat stuff. This isn't a family friendly Bond though  it's the only film in which 007 almost dies (he has a cardiac arrest after being poisoned during the poker game) and the torture sequence of a naked Bond being beat on the testicles with a knotted rope rules the movie out getting any Christmas afternoon/Bank Holiday Monday showings on ITV.
Other liberties are taken  no Q or Miss Moneypenny and no Bond theme until the closing credits. This is Bond's first mission. The first half of the movie is the invention of the writers, with Bond moving from Africa to London to the Bahamas and Miami, chasing terrorists. The second half of the movie reverts to Ian Fleming's 1953 novel: paired with treasury agent Vesper Lynd, Bond must ruin the terrorist financier Le Chiffe over the poker table at an Eastern European casino.
Daniel Craig is agile and physical in the role of the novice 00 agent  he gets cut, scarred and bleeds. It's a tribute to his impressive performance that I couldn't imagine Pierce Brosnan in the role. Rather cleverly, he doesn't get to deliver the line "The name's Bond, James Bond" (which was Connery, Lazenby and Dalton's first line in their debut Bond films) until the very end of the film. Cue Monty Norman's classic theme and the hope we don't have to wait another 4 years for Bond 22.