Casino Royale

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2006)

The James Bond 007 series has been a worldwide success, with five stars already bringing the famous spy to life, but this was a gamble, to reboot the series, seeing how it all started for the leading hero, and it worked, based on the first Ian Fleming novel from writer Paul Haggis (Crash) and director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro). The film opens with James Bond (BAFTA nominated Daniel Craig) earning his licence to kill and being promoted to double-0 status, designated 007, to do this two kills are needed. Bond then travels to Madagascar and is in a parkour (free running) bomb-maker Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan), against orders Bond kills him, but searching through his mobile phone he traces Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian), an associate of banker and terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). As Bond follows the clues, he wins a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 car in a game of poker against Dimitrios, seduces his wife Solange (Caterina Murino) and foils Le Chiffe's plan to destroy the prototype Skyfleet airliner at Miami International Airport, also killing henchman Carlos (Claudio Santamaria). M (Dame Judi Dench), head of MI6, informs Bond that Le Chiffe has set up a high stakes poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro, as the best card player in the agency Bond is being put in the game, Le Chiffe is a great card player also, if he wins terrorism will have been funded. Bond is joined by beautiful British Treasury agent Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), who is protecting government interests, and assisting him posing as his lover to distract the other poker players, and local MI6 contact René Mathis (Hannibal's Giancarlo Giannini) has put pressure on Le Chiffe by having two of his associates arrested. In the tournament Bond tries to read Le Chiffe and catch him bluffing, he loses his initial stake on a misplayed hand, Vesper refuses to give him $5,000,000 to continue playing, Bond frustrated plans to assassinate Le Chiffe, but fellow player and undercover CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) stops him, he gives Bond the stake in exchange for custody of Le Chiffe. Back in the game Bond re-establishes himself, but Le Chiffe attempts to kill him, his girlfriend Valenka (Ivana Milicevic) poisons Bond's drink, he goes into cardiac arrest, but Vesper helps save him at the point of death. In the final phase of the game are four players, Fukutu (Tom So), Infante (Ade), Le Chiffe and Bond, all players go all in, but Bond wins the tournament with a high hand straight flush, all winnings are deposited in a Swiss bank account. Le Chiffe's henchmen capture Vesper and use her as bait to catch Bond, Le Chiffe tortures Bond with him strapped naked to a bottomless chair and smacking his (unseen) testicles with a long rope, but Bond does not give in, Le Chiffe is interrupted and killed for being untrustworthy by his liaison Mr. White (Jesper Christensen). Bond recovers in hospital on Lake Como, Mathis, who was in fact working for Le Chiffe, is arrested, and Bond admits to Vesper that he is in love with her, and posts his resignation to M. Travelling to Venice however, Bond finds out the winnings were never deposited into the Treasury's account, Vesper has stolen it, he pursues her into a building under renovation, a firefight ensues with Bond and the men she was giving the money to, with the inflatable supports holding the building above water punctured. The men are killed and Bond tries to rescue Vesper trapped in an iron-frame lift underwater, but she locks the gate and allows herself to drown, Bond is unable to revive her once on the surface, Mr. White watching nearby walks away with the money. In the end Bond rejoins MI6, he finds out Vesper had a French-Algerian boyfriend, Yusef Kabira, being held by the organisation behind Le Chiffe and Mr. White, they blackmailed her to cooperate, and she was delivering the money to save James's life, the final scene sees Bond tracing Mr. White, capturing him, and introducing himself with his iconic catchphrase, "The name's Bond. James Bond". Also starring Tobias Menzies as Villiers, Sébastien Foucan as Mollaka, Isaach De Bankolé as Steven Obanno, Tsai Chin as Madame Wu, Veruschka von Lehndorff as Gräfin von Wallenstein, Malcolm Sinclair as Dryden, Richard Branson Man at Airport Security and Gunther von Hagens. Craig was a controversial choice, a blonde Bond, but he proved the doubters wrong with a fantastic performance, giving us a Bond with depth, Green is great as his alluring love interest, and Mikkelsen is splendidly sinister as the villain with haemolacria - a damaged eye vessel which causes him to weep blood. The opening black and white sequence seeing Bond become a double-0 is brutal and cool, the film drops Moneypenny, Q and gadgetry and camp humour for a serious and well-written story, filled with fantastic action, stunts, gun and fist fights and chases, the film achieved a Guinness World Record for the crashing Aston Martin DBS rotating seven times, the song "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell is catchy as well, overall a brilliant spy adventure. It won the BAFTA for Best Sound, and was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for David Arnold, Best Special Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design and Best Adapted Screenplay. James Bond was number 3 on 100 Years, 100 Heroes & Villains, he was number 21 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and he was number 21 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Very good!