Yes, Daniel Craig makes a superb Bond: Leaner, more taciturn, less sex-obsessed, able to be hurt in body and soul, not giving a damn if his martini is shaken or stirred. That doesn't make him the 'best' Bond, because I've long since given up playing that pointless ranking game; Sean Connery was first to plant the flag, and that's that. But Daniel Craig is bloody damned great as Bond, in a movie that creates a new reality for the character.

Year after year, attending the new Bond was like observing a ritual. There was the opening stunt sequence that served little purpose, except to lead into the titles; the title song; Miss Moneypenny; M with an assignment of great urgency to the Crown; Q with some new gadgets; an archvillain; a series of babes, some treacherous, some doomed, all frequently in stages of undress; the villain's master-plan; Bond's certain death, and a lot of chases. It could be terrific, it could be routine, but you always knew about where you were in the formula.

With 'Casino Royale,' we get to the obligatory concluding lovey-dovey on the tropical sands, and then the movie pulls a screeching U-turn and starts up again with the most sensational scene I have ever seen set in Venice, or most other places. It's a movie that keeps on giving.

This time, no Moneypenny, no Q and Judi Dench is unleashed as M, given a larger role, and allowed to seem hard-eyed and disapproving to the reckless Bond. This time, no dream of world domination, but just a bleeding-eyed rat who channels money to terrorists. This time a poker game that is interrupted by the weirdest trip to the parking lot I've ever seen. This time, no laser beam inching up on Bond's netherlands, but a nasty knotted rope actually whacking his hopes of heirs.

Nov 26, 2020 The best James Bond movie, Casino Royale, introduced the world to Daniel Craig’s version of 007. But for Goldeneye director Martin Campbell, it presented a fascinating challenge: construct a. Nov 12, 2020 For example, one scene in 'Casino Royale' caught Daniel Craig completely off guard. That said, it made for an epic moment akin to Halle Berry's entrance in 'Die Another Day.' What a way to start off Craig's first film as Bond! As fans on Reddit discussed, the scene where 007 emerges from the ocean water in his swimming trunks was a total mess. ‘Casino Royale’ Turns 10, Part 2: The Parkour Scene Is The Film’s Mic-Drop Moment. Restrained opening credit sequence of Casino Royale set the tone for the entire film in Part 1. Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale chases the bad guy onto a crane Credit: Photo: SONY PICTURES. The acrobatics featured in the opening scenes of the 2006 film, with Bond chasing the bad. Focus Of The Week: Casino Royale Foot Chase Inside the classic action sequence. Introducing a new 007 in Casino Royale demanded a new kind of action sequence. The solution came with an amazing foot chase through a perilous construction site in Madagascar with Bond pursuing bomb-maker Mollaka up and down scaffolding, including a jaw-dropping jump from the top of a crane.

And this time, no Monte Carlo, but Montenegro, a fictional casino resort, where Bond checks into the 'Hotel Splendid,' which is in fact, yes, the very same Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary where Queen Latifah had her culinary vacation in 'Last Holiday.' That gives me another opportunity to display my expertise on the Czech Republic by informing you that 'Pupp' is pronounced 'poop,' so no wonder it's the Splendid.

I never thought I would see a Bond movie where I cared, actually cared, about the people. But I care about Bond, and about Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), even though I know that (here it comes) a Martini Vesper is shaken, not stirred. Vesper Lynd, however, is definitely stirring, as she was in Bertolucci's wonderful 'The Dreamers.' Sometimes shaken, too. Vesper and James have a shower scene that answers, at last, why nobody in a Bond movie ever seems to have any real emotions.

Casino Royale
Directed by: Martin Campbell
Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, based on the novel
by Ian Fleming
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench
At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs
Running time: 144 minutes
Rated: PG-13 (intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content and nudity)

The new James Bond is quick and muscular, and there is nothing remotely camp about him. He doesn't wink; in fact, I'm not sure he even blinks. Where other men might athletically sail through a narrow window opening during a chase scene, he prefers to plow through the wall. He's a strapping brute -- young, untested, rough around the edges -- and he is magnificent. Let the purists squawk: In Daniel Craig, the Bond franchise has finally found a 007 whose cruel charisma rivals that of Sean Connery.

Based on the first of Ian Fleming's novels, 'Casino Royale' is an origin story, and it wants very much to be this year's 'Batman Begins' -- a movie that resets the clock to zero and tells the tale with new and becoming leanness. We're present at the start of things: Bond gets his first Aston Martin here, is fitted for his first tuxedo, briefly considers whether one's martini should be shaken or stirred. (His response is priceless and in keeping with the movie's no-nonsense tone).

Other ritual aspects of the 007 mythos are missing -- there's no Q with his lethal widgets, no Miss Moneypenny, no cat-stroking villain contemplating the vaporization of South America by satellite. Frankly, 'Casino Royale' is better off without them. If you miss the old cliches, consider whether, after 21 Bond films and countless parodies, your response is simply Pavlovian.

After a brief, gritty black-and-white opening in which the young spy earns his two kills and ascends to double-0 status, 'Casino Royale' sets Bond on the trail of a mysterious bombing network. (The film is set in the modern day, and while it's topical, it's smart enough to steer clear of politics.) A gasp-inducing action sequence sends the hero after a bomber through the streets and among the construction cranes of the capital city of Madagascar, ending in an international incident that proves how much this young man still has to learn.

'You need to take your ego out of the equation,' scolds M (Judi Dench), the head of the MI6 British spy agency, to the man she calls a 'blunt instrument,' and this film is the story of how James Bond gains gravitas -- how he becomes, in essence, the man we know from the Fleming novels and early films like 'Dr. No' and 'From Russia with Love.'

Fight Scene Casino Royale

So while there are 'Bond girls,' and Craig's 007 is appreciative of their bodaciousness, there's too much on his plate to ogle and conquer.