"I'm sorry, that last hand... nearly killed me"

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2006)

Casino Royale.
Was a bit hesistant about going to see a Bond film at the Cinema. If I was 12 years old again, I'd probably have snapped your hand off. That said, I'm glad I did. And while Casino Royale is seriously bathing in the limelight and hype right now, it is pretty damn good -- even if I have some reservations.
To the point -- Daniel Craig is a good Bond, probably the best since Connery. Nothing beats Connery tho. The thing that immediately bugged me about Craig, is he doesn't have a northern accent. We're not asking for a thick accent here, but if we're re-inventing Bond let's get him away from sounding like a politician. On the plus side, he looks the part, his character is crazy instead of suarve.
Casino Royale does share similarities to previous Bonds, and so it should. It also reflects todays big crime - terrorism and its sponsers. Rather than your typical Bond tho, where we have a larger than life evil villain, Casino is split over several bad characters, who non of which, are particularly ridiculous or "pet" lap cats. Shame.
For what it is, Casino is super-looking, intelligent, harder & more daring. It is a brilliant action thriller. It has probably the best on foot chase scene ever, great fights, nice women and probably my fave scene -- Bond being poisoned. What bugs me about all of this is (apart from him getting loved up), none of this "new era" Bond would have surfaced if it wasn't for the Bourne franchise (Bourne Identity & Supremacy). For me, Bourne is definitely the new leader,this is the reason why we're watching Daniel Craig pummel his enemies in the way he does. Is that a goodthing or bad thing..I'm not sure? I just think this new James-Bond-worship is yet to be earned.
-Paulo