Casino Royale (2006)
In this 21st installment of James Bond, newcomer Daniel Craig (Bond No. 6) replaces Pierce Brosnan (Bond No. 5) as Her Majesty's secret agent 007.
This latest James Bond movie was being hyped as a prequel to the other Bond movies and would show how Bond got his double-0 status, i.e., the license to kill. However, it just jumps right to it with really no explanation (that's bad). I would have liked to have seen some brief double-0 training or something. Immediately following this is an excellent 15 minute chase and escape scene (this is good). This is followed by an hour of some non-traditional Bond scenes (this is bad), and crescendos into a high stakes Texas Hold'em poker game (this is good).
If this movie was anything other than a Bond movie, I might have rated it higher. Standing by itself, it was a good movie for today's Hollywood releases. However, this movie wasn't standing by itself. It was standing on 54 years of Bond novels, movies, and tradition. As such, when one goes to a Bond movie, one can expect a clear and defined villian, a plan to commit world destruction or domination, a few bizarre henchmen, a woeful henchwomen, and all of the secret agent gizmos and gadgets. Disappointingly, all of those are absent from this movie.
Title: Casino Royale
Released: 2006
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rated: (intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content, nudity)
Director: Martin Campbell
Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson
Cast: Daniel Craig, Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green
Our Review: 2½ Movie Reels (5 being best)
The Blurb Meister™ says: "Felt shaken and came away a bit stirred."
