Casino Royale
March 17, 2007
Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 144 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Ok, who are you and what have you done with James Bond?!?
That’s the question I wanted to ask during the opening minutes of Casino Royale, the umpteenth James Bond adventure to make it to the big screen. But by the closing credits, I really didn’t care what happened to the old James Bond.
Director Martin Campbell decided to shake things up for his second Bond picture (he directed 1995’s Goldeneye) and he paid no honor to the sacred cows of Bond-dom. Casino Royale goes back to the very beginning of Bond and the opening scene (which is NOT a mega-action spectacle) shows our man James earning his “00″ status.
From there out, things get gritty, sweaty, and downright nasty. Gone are the cute one-liners. Gone are the one-night stands w/ beautiful women (though there is at least one close call). Gone is Q and his wonderful gadgets. And gone are some of the most beloved Bond cliche’s. One of the more notable changes is that Bond, at least his early days, had no preference for how to mix his martini.
But in place of these missing institutions of Bond are some things that we’ve only been able to wonder about for years and now they are finally revealed to us. For instance, now we know how he got that fabulous 1964 Astin Martin to drive. And we also get to meet that one woman that we only got hints to in the other Bond movies.
The action is great, but the grandiose special effects are gone. In their place are some very frenetic scenes performed mostly by stunt men instead of computers. And let me just say that they are DAMNED ballsy stunt men, too. No disclaimer is needed to prevent you from wanting to try those stunts at home!
There are a couple of nits to pick, but thankfully they are only just nits. Firstly, the movie is a bit too long. At 2 hours, 24 minutes, I could have benefitted from about 15 minutes of trim work. Secondly, the actual villain and his story are a touch weak. But then again, you wouldn’t expect M to throw her newest “00″ agent into world-shattering situations, either. You’d expect her to start a new “00″ off with a couple of somewhat important missions but certainly nothing TOO huge so, as disappointing as that was, it shouldn’t be too unexpected.
Overall, however, it gets a very solid 4 stars from me. If you like Bond, go see this new incarnation. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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[...] an interesting move, this movie follows directly on to the story of Casino Royale with Bond looking for the truth about Vesper, the one night stand he had that didn’t end up [...]
[...] an interesting move, this movie follows directly on to the story of Casino Royale with Bond looking for the truth about Vesper, the one night stand he had that didn’t end up so [...]