Made a believer out of me

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2006)

After seeing Daniel Craig in other films I figured he has enough talent to pull a very credible and cool Bond, but I didn't expect this type of film. So far, most of the Bond films focused on the superficial: outlandish plots and gadgets, and objectifying women (some border lining the misogynous), at the film's expense of having any character depth, or a meaningful story. OK, that isn't necessarily a problem, since none of the Bond the films ever claimed to be more than what they were, so if you didn't like the genre you knew to avoid it. Anyway, the 2006 "Casino Royale" seems to have turned around the fate of a character and a franchise that were on their way to becoming irrelevant due to increasingly anachronistic characters and outlandish story lines, and too many clichés. It's not just a reboot of the series, it's a total transfusion that completely revives the Bond concept of the series. It's smart, gritty, with a sharper and more profound main character than any other Bond film I've seen. In my opinion, this film, although not perfect, is the best Bond film made to date. It has what most Bond films seemed to lack: class, depth and a touch of subtlety, thanks to a less shallow screenplay, good direction, and Daniel Craig's skills to depict a very believable character, not just with talent, but a smoking physique too, and whoa! finally, a Bond actor fit enough to do a lot of his stunts, some of which are quite spectacular. For once we see a Bond film where the main male character is, among other things, the eye candy, and the main female character, although beautiful, charms us with class instead of mindlessly sexed up skin. In my opinion, Daniel Craig is the next Bond, maybe the best one yet, and his presence and involvement raised the level of the film. I hope we get to see him as 007 in many more films of this caliber.
This film did something no Bond film ever did so far: earned my respect for the character and the franchise. It's very entertaining, yet intelligent enough to make us feel it values the viewers' intellect and not just their pockets.