Bond is back

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2007)

After the CGI led, bloated Die Another Day, the Bond Producers realised that they needed to give the series a fairly big kick up the backside. Luckily by now they had the rights to the book that started it all off, Casino Royale. The movie sticks pretty closely to the book while updating it for the twenty first century. The centrepiece is still the tense card game, which even if you know nothing about the game (or like me are just rubbish at it), still keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Daniel Craig got a fair amount of crap when he was cast as Bond but not only proves his detractors wrongs, he blows them out of the water and gives them a broken nose in the process. He is arguably one of the best Bond's since Brosnan's debut and Sean Connery, matching charm and raw power perfectly. Bond's girl is also another breath of fresh air. Eva Green's (The Dreamers, Kingdom of Heaven) Vesper Lynd is the first Bond girl in a long time to actually have a proper relationship with him and she is more than a match for him in charm and wit.
No Bond is complete without its diabolical villains and for this we go back to the book with arms dealer Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) who unlike Blofeld or Dr No, actually has real world plans by funding terrorists. He's also probably he first villain to actually give Bond a real scare in a very brutal torture sequence taken straight from the book.
Martin Campbell previous directed Brosnan's debut, Goldeneye, which at the time was promised as the return of Bond. Hopefully the huge process made with Casino Royale won't go to waste over the next films.