Imdb link
Dir: Martin Campbell
Date: 2006
Length: 144min
Ridiculously over-hyped films bring out one of two reactions in me. Either I ignore them completely or go and see them immediately. I actually managed to see the Usual Suspects on TV, without knowing the twist. I had a similar experience with ‘Fight Club’ thinking it was just a crappy Pitt/Norton Vehicle rather than one of the most awesome films of all time.
On the flipside I managed to be one of the first people in the world to see ‘Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones’ at the Liecester Square Odeon at 10.30am, introduced by Anthony Daniels (C3P0) and about 30 Stormtroopers. And of course I was in line on the opening night of ‘Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’. On that occasion I was wearing a pair of hobbit ears and my friends were refusing to take their tickets from me in the foyer as a result. Luckily the situation was diffused by the Orc T-shirt clad leather jacketed employees of the local Games Workshop charging through the queue shouting ‘nobody tosses a Dwarf’ – thereby indicating this was at the very least their 2nd viewing of the film. A display of cinema geekiness comparable only with the behaviour of the Banbury Comic shop owner after the premier of Alien 4 or perhaps when I sat next to a person dressed as a Borg at the special preview night of ‘Star Trek: First Contact’.
I had no such problems with Casino Royale. A simple afternoon visit, after opening weekend, left me pleasantly surprised by this addition to the Bond milieu. I have seen every Bond film at least twice and have read every book. At least I have read the Ian Fleming books, I refuse to read other so-called Bond titles. There is no way in my mind that they could capture the same brand of misogyny, snobbery, sadism and insecurity that Fleming injects into his work. Casino Royale has all of those qualities, and quite deliberately so. During the film alarm bells started to ring, there were no exploding helicopters, no hint of a bomb to be defused at the last minute and definatley not a sniff of a big ninja fight in a volcano. Even the dialogue between Bond and the very sexy leading lady was … intelligent?
In summary I would say this is the ‘Batman Begins’ of the Bonds. Better than the Brosnan era, less epic than ‘The World is Not enough’ but takes itself similarly seriously. The grittiness of the Dalton films is achieved through a properly sculpted script. And the class of the Connery is there in spades (literally). I always thought that Lazenby was a more than adequate Bond, but the controversy involved in Craig as a Bond choice is not dissimilar. In fact the only Bond I have trouble connecting Craig to is Roger Moore, which in purist terms is no bad thing. Casino Royale lacks the out and out cheesiness that the Moore series had -it is in this area that the film desperately tries to be super cool. As the uber buffed Craig pastes the shit out of multiple baddies I can’t help feeling we will look back on this in 10 years time as the epitome of 2006 naffness.
7.5/10
