Bring it on!

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 2006)

Bond is back after a four-year absence ("Die Another Day"). "Casino Royale" was the first James Bond book published in 1953; it was the only one turned into a spoof in the movie of 1967; now it reappears as the film in the 44 year old franchise. But boldly, bravely and ultimately brilliantly producers Barbara Broccoli & Michael G Wilson have totally reinvented the brand while returning to Martin Campbell ("GoldenEye") as director.
The core of the reworking is a script by Paul Haggis ("Crash") and others which takes us right back to the beginning before Bond even had his double 'O' licence. There seems to be a current fashion for visiting the origins of heroes who have had previous outings - witness "Batman Begins" and "Superman Returns" (both excellent movies). In this guise, we have a very different, more credible, more post 9/11 Bond: one so serious that he makes very few jokes indeed, one so capable that he uses his muscles more than machines, one so real that he bruises and bleeds, one so arrogant he makes mistakes, and one so vulnerable that he falls in love.
The triumph of the re-branding though is the choice of 38 year old, blond and blue-eyed Daniel Craig ("Layer Cake") as the sixth Bond. Much criticised when his selection was announced, his fresh and assured performance is a total rebuttal of his detractors. This is a very physical Bond and, in total contrast to all the other 007 movies, we see much more of his body than those of the women he meets. The total nakedness and appalling brutality of the torture sequence in the book is faithfully transposed to the screen, so that we literally and metaphorically see Bond as we have never seen him before.
As the Treasury money-keeper Vesper Lynd, Eva Green ("Kingdom Of Heaven") has such a cut-class English accent that you would not know she is the sixth French Bond girl. The word play and psychological sparring between James and Vesper gives real edge to the evolving relationship. The Danish Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre may be a less imposing and outlandish villain than is usually the case in Bond movies, but that only underlines the greater sense of realism here.
Indeed the film stays close to the plotting and the spirit of the book, although the chemin-de-fer game in France is transposed to one of poker in Montenegro. The movie even makes use of the final line of the novel when Bond states "The bitch is dead".
In short, this is the best Bond film since "Dr No" and "From Russia With Love". Indeed there are allusions to both these works: Daniel Craig reprises the "DN" scene where Ursula Andress emerges from the water, while the final location of Venice is the same as that for "FRWL". If I have reservations about "Casino Royale", it is the use of the old-fashioned opening credits sequence and a terrible opening song and indifferent incidental music (the John Barry theme at the end is too late by far) plus some confusion in the plot, but these are minor quibbles. Craig has been contracted to do two more Bond movies and I say "Bring it on!"