Casino Royale : Best Bond Ever
November 18th, 2006 . by polyGeekNote: this is a spoiler free review.
When I first heard news, about a year ago, of the new Bond film I thought, “Yeah, whatever.” There hadn’t been a good Bond film in what . . . 2, 3 decades? There had been a few decent ones but nothing that really stood out. So I wasn’t exactly marking my calendar for the release date.
About a week or so ago I checked RottenTomatoes.com to see what sort of reviews it was getting. And guess what? It was rated over 90% But, there had only been a handful of reviews. So, again, I didn’t get my hopes up, but it took some effort. Then again, a few days ago I checked and it was at 96% with over a hundred reviews counted. Are you kidding me? If you had told me, hell, if you had told anyone, that a Bond film would ever get over 90% at RottenTomatoes you would have been laughed at. That’s more unbelievable than the stupefying stunts that Bond pulls off in the movies.
Yet here I sit, having just watched the best Bond film I’ve ever seen.
Everyone knows that Bond is going to do the unbelievable at least a hand full of times in a movie. The trouble is many of the actors - all of them since Connery - didn’t sell it. Bond would come back from the brink of death leaving the audience on the brink of disbelief. I often felt that it was cute but I wasn’t buying it.
Daniel Craig sells it and the script gives him something to sell. In one of the first chase scenes we see a man make an amazing jump through a small opening in a wall of drywall. Craig bashes right through it. This Bond isn’t cute. He isn’t suave. And he doesn’t use neat gadgets to save himself. But he is believable.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s fair to judge this Bond film with the great Bond films that are over 20 years old. I think it’s better to compare it to what many think is the successor to Bond, Bourne. In that light I’d say that Casino is almost as good as the original, Bourne Identity. And it’s better than Bourne Supremacy.
I’m not a real Bond fan, however three of my past four husbands have been which, I guess by default makes me a fan, sort of…I had no expectation, only that I was going to be bored beyond words. As a matter of fact, just hours before the movie I was trying to rig-up my own ’secret agent device’ that would allow me to read a book in a darkened theater. Failed at that so I resigned myself to several hours of daydreaming about sting rays, bigfoot, global warming, anything but actually watching the flick. Seldom have I been so wrong… So how can I put this….I LOVED THIS MOVIE… Daniel Craig has reinvented JB…made him more like a regular guy with an interesting job. Sort of like the 1970’s private investigator, James Rockford, of the “Rockford File”…And boy oh boy did this movie put a new spin on torture….very painful but funny….
I realize I’m late to the game here, but I have to agree that this IS the best James Bond since the Connery days. Craig’s Bond, besides embodying the character as originally conceived by Ian Fleming, portrays a ‘human’ Bond, one that is still finding his footing as a Double-O, doesn’t always make the dangerous leap perfectly, and staggers when he takes a punch. I liked Brosnan, Dalton came across as nothing but a cold killing machine, but thank the powers that be that we no longer have to endure the cartoony schtick of the Roger Moore era. I’m looking forward to great things from this rebooting of the Bond franchise.
@Steve, well said. I think that echo’s the sentiments of many Bond fans.
wow i am seriously overhyped now, i hope it lives up to my inflated expectations
Go and watch Children of Men if you haven’t already, its awesome!
I really enjoyed this Bond film - there is a mano-a-mano fighting style I have not seen in a Bond film before. this Bond is very physical, very fast, and not above a touch of sadism. he is more the “blunt weapon”, as M puts it, than a the polished playboy we are used to. I am happy to reset the Bond franchise with this actor.
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