Daniel Craig gets the royal 007 treatment...

Rating: 7/10 (21 March 2007)

Taking James Bond back to the basics--literally, back to square one--might have seemed a daunting task, as the 007 franchise had been waning in recent years (for a myriad of reasons) and the idea of a "prequel", if you will, may have been rather risky. Fortunately, this fined-tuned Bond is what a lot of fans have been clamoring for, and new addition Daniel Craig brings James into the 21st century with thuggish aplomb. Curt, compact and arrogant, he's a secret agent who isn't above making big mistakes, his own ego often times his worst enemy. James attempts to infiltrate a terrorist organization, and within the first ten minutes the film has globe-trotted so far across the map that you may be wondering who all these villains are and what their place in the story actually is (the movie opens curiously in black-and-white, with a confrontation and also with a flashback!). Judi Dench's "M" really lets James have it for 'needlessly' killing a bomber whom they hoped to interrogate, but she has a change of heart (indeed, quite a number of them) after Bond becomes involved in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro with terrorist-operative Le Chiffre, a real poker-face (and asthmatic!) with a bloody tear duct. "Casino Royale" is jam-packed with excitement, it looks terrific and has many moments of action, romance, macho violence, and even beauty. The one thing it does lack is humor, but we may get more of that next round. *** from ****