Pretty much totally fuck awesome
Casino Royale (
Campbell, 2006) -
9.5/10Wow. Just fucking wow. In a span of a mere 2.5 hours, I have witnessed many things. The complete resurrection of the James Bond franchise, the most exciting film I've seen this year, and most importantly, the best James Bond film in 40 years. With a single viewing, Casino Royale instantly breaks into the Top 3 Bond film stratosphere. It quite simply blows away all of the old films which I love dearly. It's like losing my religion, and loving every second of it. If that is bad, then I don't want to know what good is. Hail to the king! James Bond is back, and this time he is more ruthless, deadly, intriguing, flawed, cocky, deep, and more interesting than he ever has been.
The Bond series was on life support after the last film, but Casino Royale is 1000 cc's of adrenaline straight to the heart of the franchise. Gone are the elements that had descended the series into irrelevancy: self-parody, over-reliance on action and CG, cookie cutter characters, ludicrous plots, and a requirement for a suspension of belief the size of Mt. Everest. They went back to the drawing table, or in this case, the source, and churned out the most relevent, touching, suspenseful, grounded, and genuinely emotional Bond film ever. As good as Batman Begins was as an origin story, Casino Royale trumps it in every facet. This is the best prequel ever made.
The action scenes in the film have to be seen to be believed. They wisely got away from over-the-top camp, and focused on mind-blowing practical stunts. The parkour scene in Madagascar, and the airport chase are two of the most thrilling action sequences I've seen in years. I also loved how the only weapons in this movie were guns and fists. Lots and lots of fists. Bond finally is a believable brawler, and Craig plays him with more of a serial-killer menace than has ever been seen. This is the first time I actually found Bond to be someone I would be frightened of. The violence was unflinching but never gratuitous, and the introductory bathroom fight showcased the new-age Bond perfectly. Nothing pretty, but brutally efficient. Also, though not exactly "action", the casino scenes were excellent, and really built palpable tension.
The writing is the best that has been seen in a Bond film in eons. It's downright shocking that the creative team behind this one is largely the same as were behind the previous 4 films. It seems with Craig as the new Bond, the creative staff has been re-invigorated. This is the first Bond movie with some genuinely real character development, and the first film to really build Bond. We get to see where his coldness stems from, why he announces his true name despite being a spy, and most importantly, what events transpired to mold him into the man he will become. Gone are traditional characters like Q and Moneypenny, who, while fun, are simply added bloat to the films. Gone are the cheesey one-liners and the formulaic structure. When there is humor, it is simply that, funny lines without the camp value. Hell, they even take the liberty of turning several of the famous lines on their head, and we aren't even given the famous Bond phrase until the final shot. Absolutely brilliant job by the writers. This is a really lean and tight screenplay, and I am thankful for that. Another stroke of brilliance was to not let the James Bond theme play until the final scenes. They teased with several notes here and there, but it never kicked into gear until Bond was, well, Bond.
The cast was uniformly excellent. Eva Green as Vesper Lynd is the best Bond girl, ever. She has more development and is better acted than any of the previous girls. Eva is also unbelievably radiant, and seems to have an almost unearthly beauty to her. Mads Mikkelson was great as Le Chiffre, the first believable villain in years. He wasn't after world domination, destruction, or some other ridiculous plot. He simply wanted money to fund terrorist operations. Plain, simple, and believable. Judi Dench turns in her best outing as M, and is given more to do in this one. The rest of the cast is rounded out very nicely. It seems that I have forgotten someone... who could he be?
"Bond. James Bond". Holy mother of Christ, Daniel Craig is James Bond. He quite simply turns in the best performance of any of the Bond actors, in any of the Bond films, ever. He is the first to play the role with total seriousness, and carries and intensity and charisma that I have rarely scene in film. He is instantly believable as Bond. The opening scenes display a physicality and athleticism never seen before. He follows that up by showing the ability to play a ruthless, cold-hearted bastard. Finally, he shows some real acting chops in the dramatic scenes of the movie. To me, every motion, every breath, every action, and every phrase said by Craig was truely the essence of Ian Fleming's James Bond. Scenes that stood out for me were the Madagascar scene, the shower scene, the poker scenes, the torture scenes, the end scenes (which cement him into the Bond we all know), and of course, the pitch-perfect delivery of the classic line in the film's final shot. Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Connery. And if he keeps it up for a few films, he will surpass the legend. Yes, that's what I said, and I fully mean it. That's the highest compliment I can give Craig's performance. Absolutely electric performance from the best Bond in 40 years.
Casino Royale is quite simply the most exciting film I have seen this year, the most fulfilling rebirth of a franchise ever, and possibly the best of the Bond movies. The bitch is dead. Long live the king!
