Daniel Craig a success

Rating: 9/10 (7 January 2007)

After Pierce Brosnan (did he quit or get fired?) 'left' the role of James Bond many fans were outraged. The most popular theory was that he was sacked from the job and after Brosnans departure Quentin Tarantino, who wanted to direct, packed up and left too since he wanted Brosnan. When British Actor Daniel Craig stepped in as 007 he was treated extremely badly. A website was set up www.craignotbond.com and fans desperately wanted Brosnan to come back and reprise the role. But the filmmakers ignored their taunts and claims and kept on with their casting. Dutch actor Mads Mikkelsen was cast as the villain Le Chiffre and Judi Dench re-prised her role as 'M'. French actress Eva Green was cast as Vesper Lynd and the character was very hard to cast since many actresses like Thandie Newton, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Sienna Miller and Rose Bynre turned it down. So we move to the 'prequel' of 007. He is freshly promoted to double 00 status and he does do some fairly stupid things (eg the Madagascar Embasy). Banker, villain and mathematics genius Le Chiffre enters in a high stakes poker tournament in Montengro at the Casino Royale to recoup his loses and make a considerable $150m to re-finance his terrorist investors. Bond is entered in the tournament by the Britsh treasury and the agent that gives Bond the money is Vesper Lynd. When Bond overdoes his ego he makes a mistake which puts Le Chiffre in a clear position to win. Vesper won't fund him anymore but CIA agent Felix Leiter will. After the mistake is corrected it is Bond who is the winner. Le Chiffre is infuriated and desperately attempts to get the money with any means necessary... I liked Casino Royale. It may be the best Bond since the 60's and Daniel Craig has made all those critics and fans eat their nasty words. Mads Mikkelsen is very good as the villain- I especially loved the scarred eyeball- and he looks tremendously evil at the poker table. The Italian Beauty Caterina Murino was very sexy indeed but some of the things her character did (walking out on Bond) were very strange. Ivana Milicevic as Valenka (Le Chiffre's assassin) isn't a match for Famke Janssen's Xenia- but she does look good when she is smirking and planting poison in drinks. Judi Dench gives another great performance but she does start to looked bored as 'M'. Eva Green was beautiful to look at but I don't know if her performance was really that great. Some of her scenes looked only half done and the dialog between Bond and Vesper did tend to zip in and out. I can see why Moneypeeny and 'Q' weren't added- since this film is meant to be a dark, nasty side of Bond. Moneypenny and 'Q' are similar comic reliefs. Most of the one-liners have gone too- so the dark side of Bond is well brought out. Overall, this Bond film was exceeding well done and Daniel Craig has done more with the character than some other actors have done in continual reprises.