One of the best

Rating: 9/10 (11 December 2006)

Having just seen the 21st Bond film, I must say I am absolutely flabbergasted. I was sceptical beforehand, as the thing was made by much of the folks responsible for 2002's 2-hour long commercial that was Die Another Day. However, the surviving Broccoli's seemed to have learned their lesson and disposed of the Schwarzeneggeresque, product-placement motivated disaster that was the Brosnan era.
Whereas Brosnan really was no more than a glorified clotheshorse, Daniel Craig brings some much needed gusto to the role, oozing the unflappable coolness that brought him such acclaim in Layer Cake. We are treated to some great one-liners ('Everybody is going to know you died scratching my balls!', Bond laughs defiantly during a gruesome torture scene).
Eva Green is equally excellent, even considering that hers is a fantastically written character (and, of course, that Halle Berry's laughable DAD performance wasn't a hard act to follow). Judy Dench finally gets some good lines and the Token Black Ally is a surprisingly interesting Felix Leiter rather than a one-dimensional MI5 sidekick. Only the Villain, Le Chiffre, is just a little too consciously sinister, almost to the point of caricature and not really a match for the likes of Goldfinger or Scaramanga. This is compensated, though, by some tremendously entertaining fight-and-chase scenes, culminating in quite possibly the most spectacular car crash ever caught on camera. The photography is beautiful and the dialogue highly memorable, all factors in this being one of the best Bonds since Connery times.