Casino Royale (2006)

**Casino Royale** is a 2006 spy film, the first Bond film to star Daniel Craig and the twenty-first installment in the *James Bond* series. It is a reboot of the series, and was the first Eon-produced *Bond* film to be co-distributed by Columbia Pictures.

## Plot

After earning 00 status and a license to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007, who must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro.

## Why You Should Know His Name

1. It brought back the *James Bond* franchise after 4 years, and rebooted the timeline, similar to what *Batman Begins* did and other films that killed their franchises temporally, causing them to be rebooted themselves.
2. Compared to the 1954 and 1967 movies of the same name, it's even more faithful to the book by Ian Fleming.
3. Awesome acting, from actors such as Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright and Judi Dench.
	* Speaking of the acting, it not only improves from the whole Pierce Brosnan Bond era, but it has much better acting than the 1967 version.
4. Great and memorable characters, such as Vesper Lynd and Le Chiffre, as well as James Bond himself.
5. James Bond and Vesper Lynd have plenty of decent chemistry throughout the movie.
6. Nice cinematography.
7. The plot makes more sense than the 1967 parody of the same name as this movie.
8. Fantastic action sequences, such as the parkour chase and the airport fight scene.
9. The title sequence is amazing.
10. The score and soundtrack by David Arnold is really good, and is an improvement over his score from the previous Bond movie, *Die Another Day*.
	* Speaking of the music, *You Know My Name* by Chris Cornell is one of the best Bond songs and really fits the movie well, with great lyrics that make a lot of sense, unlike Madonna's autotune-filled *Die Another Day* theme song.
		+ For example: *Arm yourself because no one else will save you!* and *Life is gone with just a spin of the wheel!*
	* The remixed iconic James Bond theme in the end credits is really nice to listen to.
11. The poker game is interesting and engaging, as it was shown in the book.
12. The black and white opening sequence is well-done, and really shows that James Bond before he was a double agent.
	* Same with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Columbia Pictures logos at the beginning of the movie.
	* And also the gunbarrel merging into the title sequence was a cool idea, because it's going to show you what happens next, turning everything into color for the rest of the movie.
13. Really cool locations that fit well with the movie.
14. The tone is much, much, more consistent than the previous *James Bond* films, and it's not too campy or silly.
15. The torture scene is well-done, and is very scary and brutal, and is kind of like horror movies, such as *Saw*.
	* Heck, it even makes sense since *Saw III* came out in the same year as *Casino Royale* and both movies have torture scenes in them.
16. Vesper Lynd's death later on in the movie is really sad and emotional.
17. Very good pacing.
18. The ending is so good, especially when Bond himself says the iconic line that we all know and love: *The name's Bond. James Bond*, not only concluding the movie, but also setting up *Quantum of Solace*.
19. Martin Campbell's direction is even better than his direction for *GoldenEye*.
20. Some memorable dialogue such as:
	* **Christ, I miss the Cold War!**
	* **Now the whole world's gonna﻿ know that you've died scratching my balls!**
21. Along with other reboot movies like *Star Trek* and *Batman Begins*, this movie proved that reboots and remakes could actually be good if done correctly.

## Bad Qualities

1. The torture scene, although very brutal and well-done as mentioned above, can be a bit disturbing and scary for some viewers and for a PG-13 movie, as the scene itself would make the film a R-rated movie if the scene was more gruesome.
	* However, when the movie was released in a few countries, the torture scene has been edited for some viewers.
2. There's not a lot of action scenes, despite being a 144-minute movie, and it can get a bit boring throughout.
	* Speaking of that, the pacing can slow down a little bit throughout.
		+ However, this movie has a good balance between the action scenes and the poker game.

## Reception

*Casino Royale* received positive reviews from critics and auidences, with reviewers highlighting Craig's reinvention of the character and the film's departure from the tropes of previous Bond films, and is considered to be a huge step-up from *Die Another Day*, as well as being one of the best films of 2006 and one of the best Bond films in general. On IMDb, it has a rating of 8/10 and on Letterboxd it has a 3.9/10.

## Videos

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## External Links

* Template:IMDb
* Template:Rotten Tomatoes