Movie Review of Casino Royal: He's Yot Your Father's James Bond!

Movie Review: Casino Royal - Sony Pictures

Release Date: November 17, 2006

Director: Martin Campbell

Producer: Barbara Broccoli, Callum McDougall, Anthony Waye

Screenwriter: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis

Stars: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini
“You’ll know his name.” After nearly two and a half hours of running in circles on poorly defined missions, chasing countless bad guys while tallying one heck of a body count, the only thing you really do walk away from this movie knowing for sure is his name. Bond. James Bond. At least I think it was Bond and not Bourne right? Ouch. Sorry.
Flip a coin and on one side you’ll have the critics that hate this new Bond, and on the other side you’ll have the critics who think Daniel Craig owns this new prequel 007 Bond role.

Craig depicts a Bond, far from your father's Bond. He’s vulnerable, mistake prone, arrogant to a fault, and often forced to race against his own life because he has been outwitted by his enemies. Bond loses the battle, loses the woman and loses the card game? What Bond loses? He even loses “M’s” respect as she so eloquently calls him nothing but a “tool”. This Bond isn't suave like his predecessors, Moore or Brosnan and above all else, he doesn’t have an ounce of the wit to come even close to matching Sir Sean Connery.

So, what does Craig bring to the poker table? One heck of a hot body in a pair of swim trunks emerging from water? Check. A nicely sculpted and chiseled “take no bull” poker face? Check. Clever quips and sarcastic egocentric come backs? Check. Dreamy eyes that all the ladies will fall in love with, even the married ladies? Check. You see where I’m going here. He has the potential to be the Bond we want him to be, but the story, at least this story, really fails to take him to that level. When we have to rely on characters to explain the rational behind his motives and decisions or when we have to rely on characters to explain the plot to us, that’s not a character flaw, rather its just simply bad writing.