Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
1/4/07
I suppose I should start
by saying that I'm not really in the mainstream when it comes to the film
adventures of Ian Fleming's immortal superspy James Bond. I know
this because as I was charging out of repeated viewings of Pierce Brosnan's
final turn in the role, Die Another Day, shouting from the rooftops
that they'd finally licked this whole Bond thing, fans worldwide (after
spending their money) were declaring that the franchise had jumped the
shark. So, fans of laser-blasting killer satellites and invisible
cars such as myself were told to politely find their way to the back of
the bus while Brosnan was fired and the franchise “reinvented”. Four
years later, we have our sixth James Bond in the person of Daniel Craig
and a gritty, sci-fi-free origin story made from Fleming's very first novel
in the series, Casino Royale.
MI-6 Agent James Bond (Daniel
Craig) has just successfully completed the two assassinations necessary
to attain Double-O status, taking on the familiar title of Agent 007.
But he's a loose cannon, chasing a bomb maker he was supposed to detain
and question onto foreign embassy soil, where he kills him rather than
let him go. The incident creates enough scandal to inspire his superior,
M (Judi Dench once again) to send him on leave, but Bond won't quit following
the case. Following clues in the dead man's cell phone, he winds
up foiling another terrorist attack, one designed to destroy an airline
company's stock price and make a fortune for International Banker to the
Terrorists Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). Now, the criminal mastermind
has lost money he owes to some very nasty people. His only hope to
recoup is a high-stakes poker game, and guess who just happens to be the
best poker player in the British Secret Service? Back in MI-6's good
graces, Bond is anted into the game, where he's to bear Le Chiffre and
leave him with no option other than to come crawling to MI-6 and tell them
everything he knows. Along to monitor the government's multi-million
dollar investment and provide the necessary love interest is Treasury Agent
Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Before it's all over, young James Bond will
learn some blood-soaked lessons about the nature of his new business.
Let me start with what works
about Casino Royale: while Craig is like no one we've seen
in the role before, his brutal, thuggish Bond is actually a pretty exciting
reinvention of the character. Green is one of the best Bond Girls
in quite some time, and Dench's fifth turn in the M role is her best, clicking
onscreen with Craig in a way she and Brosnan never did. There are
a couple of first-rate action sequences early on, particularly a wild show-stopper
with Bond and the bomb maker leaping impossibly from beam to beam at a
construction site. The “Bond Begins” original story format actually
produces some neat insights into 007's methods, including (at last) a decent
explanation of why he always goes around calling himself James Bond when
he's supposed to be undercover. And Chris Cornell's “You Know My
Name” is a perfect theme song.
On the other hand, the movie
peaks much too early in its' 145 minute running time: after the construction
site chase and a cool sequence at Miami International Airport, there isn't
much left in the way of action (a climactic shootout inside a sinking building
in Venice doesn't amount to much). Like most Bond movies, it's at
least a half-hour too long. For every cool origin moment, there's
also a groaner: I think my life was going just fine without finding
out “how he got the Aston-Martin”, particularly since he drives a different
model in every movie anyway. And updating Fleming's Baccarat tournament
to Texas Hold 'Em just doesn't work: listening to Le Chiffre try
to intimidate his opponents by rattling off their odds like some diabolical
Vince van Patten is downright comical.
OK, yes, I'm still a little
bitter about Pierce Brosnan's dismissal. I felt that the last three
movies were among the best in the series, and Casino Royale is not
in their league. On the other hand, it's no A View to a Kill,
either, and the more you like your spycraft dry as a vodka martini, the
more you'll like it. But damn, I miss that invisible car! |
