Casino Royale
- Official Site
- Metacritic Rating: 80
- My Rating: 9.5/10
I think it’s fair to say, if you’ll excuse the Sun-style alliteration, that Bond is Back with a Bang. Casino Royale is certainly the best 007 film since GoldenEye 11 years ago, and possibly since well before that.
If you’re expecting the usual gadget-filled, high-gloss blockbuster, though, you may find yourself disappointed. This is rather a different film to the Pierce Brosnan ones, concentrating far more on the character of Bond himself. That’s not to say there aren’t sensational stunts or big explosions – there certainly are, from the parcours chase around a Madagascan building site at the beginning to a runaway petrol fuel at Miami airport, not forgetting a sinking Venetian mansion and a tragic waste of a (apparently 3, in fact) gorgeous Aston Martin DBS.
Now that MGM is owned by Sony, it was obvious that their technology would get some visibility in the film. Even so, I think it went a tad far… practically every Sony Ericcson mobile currently available was featured fairly prominently, and MI6 only uses Vaio computers. But the product placement didn’t stop with Sony – in the chase around the airport, every shot has a Virgin jumbo sitting there, and Richard Branson himself pops up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance. Both Rolex and Omega get namechecked (though 007 himself now only wears the latter). And, rather disturbingly, he drives a Mondeo. Ugh. And his DB 5. And the aforementioned DB S. And a Jag. Ford got themselves a good deal.
But that’s Hollywood, now, and you get used to it. The film itself, is, as I said, full of the usual Bond action with a twist: this is Bond’s first mission as a double-0 agent (try to ignore the logic – the original Casino Royale tried to explain it, failed miserably) so his self-doubt (briefly) and M’s lack of confidence in him play a fairly large role. Judi Dench, incidentally, reprises her role as M, the only actor from the last few films to return.
Martin Campbell, who reinvented the franchise 11 years ago for Pierce Brosnan, has done a sterling job once again with Casino Royale. That the script was tinkered with by Oscar-winner Paul Haggis (of Crash fame) can’t have hurt. But it’s the combination of a strangely believable Bond, some excellent explosive set pieces, and a cracking story that really makes Casino Royale one of the best Bond films for quite some years. When, at the very end of the film, Daniel Craig utters, for the first time, “Bond, James Bond”, the young Egyptians in the cinema burst out clapping. Must be a cultural thing. But it was certainly deserved.