Kickstarts a new era of Bond movies in gritty, spectacular fashion

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2006)

Let's get the bad out of the way first. The theme song for "Casino Royale" is one of the most unmemorable ever. It's just a bunch of noise and evokes nothing of Bond's dangerous, sexy and mysterious world.
The rest of the new Bond film is pretty damn spectacular. This is a reinvention of Bond that begins before he possessed his "00" status. The first post-credit action sequence is one of the giddiest foot chase sequences I have seen. It features Bond on the heels of Sebastien Foucan, one of the world's leading practitioners of Parkour (free running). For the first time that I can recall, I experienced mild vertigo while watching it and found myself wincing at the bone-crunching displays of athleticism. There is another superbly staged sequence on an airport runway that plunged me right into the action and took me back to when I was a kid watching "Diamonds Are Forever" at the cinema with my dad for the first time.
Daniel Craig's Bond is cocky, arrogant, flawed and brutal. He erases memories of the mamby-pamby Bonds such as Dalton, Moore and Brosnan, and redefines our perception of the superspy. We learn about his beginnings (he was an orphan) and we get to see him in several vulnerable positions. He's likable without trying too hard to be.
Judy Dench, as always, is fantastic as "M", and it was great to see her initially being one-upped by Bond, then slowly growing to respect his less-than-conventional modus operandi.
The Bond Girls are volcanic, with Eva Green making real impact as Bond's casino sidekick.
I was not bothered by the running time. I so enjoyed Craig as Bond that I didn't want it to end. Most impressive is the amped-up intensity of the action and the streamlining of Bond's technical world. Sure he still has access to some amazing technological support, but he's not an Inspector Gadget with fine English breeding given to occasional bouts of shirtlessness.
Director Martin Campbell and his huge crew deserve applause for kickstarting a new era of gritty James Bond movies. A toast!