Casino Royale
Year: 2006
Rating: PG-13
Length: 144 minutes / 2.40 hours
For almost 40 years, the adaptation of the first book in Ian Flemming’s James Bond franchise was a parody of the action movie the Bond films had become. Even with only four movies in the Bond franchise released at the time, Casino Royale (1967) made fun of all the goofy gadgets, girls, and guns that were staples of Flemming’s works. Fortunately, when it was time to reboot the character with Daniel Craig, Casino Royale (2006) received the remake it truly deserved.
Cut down to its base elements and filmed in a more modern style, Casino Royale is a much grittier take on the Bond franchise that lets the action set-pieces and skillful spy-craft take center stage. Sure, there are still Bond girls here, but this time there’s a deeper connection with characters like Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd (which you can take much more seriously than characters named “Pussy Galore”). It then comes as no surprise that Daniel Craig’s version of James Bond feels like a real person with weaknesses and not just some caricature of a successful British spy.
While there is a lot to commend this film when compared to the goofier films in the long-running franchise, it’s not an entirely perfect movie. The overarching plot is thin and the Bond villain (masterfully played by Mads Mikkelsen) is really nothing more than a banker with a menacing scar. And while some people might complain about the re-casting of Bond, M (Judi Dench), and Felix (Jeffrey Wright), I think these actors perfectly capture the essence of their characters. After all, bringing Bond up to modern standards requires some reassessment when it comes to the long-standing tropes that led the first Casino Royale to be made in the first place.
A strong James Bond reboot for the modern era, I give Casino Royale 4.0 stars out of 5.
This film appears in the following posts:
Cinema Connections #307. Card Games
Cinema Connections #308. One-Eyed Villains
