fabulous

Rating: 10/10 (26 November 2006)

(To all the Daniel Craig naysayers and Website creators:
Give it up! Watch "Casino Royale" and weep about how you've wasted almost a year of Internet time bashing an actor with a fabulous body of work starring in a film you'd never seen, and for what reason: that he's blond? Now all of you are looking like the biggest idiots!)
I did also wonder how he would do, but seeing Daniel Craig on screen in "Casino Royale," I am now a firm believer in the choice.
Eva Green is hotter than boiling hot. If I say anything more about her, I will be in trouble with my wife.
None of the most unbelievable laser-beam-from-outer-space villainous schemes. Just a poker game with money on the line (well....100 million bucks, but it's still just a lot of money and not death ray machine over DMZ in Korea....yeah, right). Nothing simpler and classier than that setup as the pivotal event.
This film also dispenses with the Teflon glamour of the previous films and show a raw, grittier side to the life as a secret agent. Bond actually gets all cut up in his face and the multiple scars linger on into the following scenes: ever remember seeing that in any previous Bond films? Also, for once we see a female who's not just there to let Bond ridicule, but is there to push the story forward. He actually falls for her....and Bond's feelings actually plays an important part in the story. Imagine that.
It is a welcomed reboot of a formerly tired, clichéd franchise that ran into an all-time low with "Die Another Day." Yes, there are still holes in the plot, and no, this is not "The Bicycle Thief" or "Wings of Desire," but for its significance in the revitalization of the Bond franchise, I give "Casino Royale" a 10.