Casino Royale

Casino Royale

Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright

Directed by: Martin Campbell
Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, Ian Fleming (novel)

Rating: PG-13
Length: 2 hour 24 min
Genre: Spy Thriller
Release Date: November 17, 2006

Daniel Craig is the new James Bond. They are going back to the beginning and showing how he became a 007 agent, but in current times.

I grew up on Roger Moore as James Bond. Even though I thought the movies were cool, and I loved the theme songs to For Your Eyes Only and A View to a Kill (cheesy 80s!), I never understood why any of the women in the movies found Roger Moore attractive. It could be because as I got older, he was becoming ancient on screen, but even looking back to when he started James Bond, I don’t get it. When Timothy Dalton became Bond, I was even more confused since he was boring and stupid. I thought Pierce Bronson was a good choice, but he’s still too bland for me.

Recently, I have been watching all the old James Bond movies and saw that Sean Connery used to actually be attractive. Amazing! I still rolled my eyes at the women swooning over him. He seemed a little too full of himself and forced himself on most of the women. Scandalous!

Now, watching Daniel Craig, a man who isn’t conventionally handsome but damn sexy, I can completely buy any of the women in the movie falling for him. While I was rooting for Clive Owen or Ewan McGregor to get the next Bond role, I’m very happy with the current choice, especially when he is in his little swim trunks or naked during a torture scene. Yum! Oh sorry, should you not be saying “Yum!” during a torture scene? Well, they shouldn’t have had him naked then.

Beyond him being sexy, I thoroughly enjoyed it as an action movie. The bad guy wasn’t laughable like they have been in the recent Bond flicks. I did miss the gadgets, but the action scenes were thrilling and amazing to watch. The long foot-chase scene near the beginning of the movie featured a base-jumping bad guy that was extremely impressive.

My only complaint about the movie was it seemed to end in two places, yet continued on for a bit longer. After the bad guy was caught, I was wondering why we were still watching the movie, so it made me suspect something was up. Then when I was sure it was over, there was still a bit more of Bond getting his revenge.

Bond fell in love in this movie, which is different from almost all other Bond movies, but his heart was broken. It was a nice set up to show why he just goes through one woman after another, which I am guessing he’ll start up again after this one. Well, I guess he’ll start it for the first time since this movie seems to be starting the entire franchise over from scratch. I don’t mind it, since it desperately needed it. I didn’t fall asleep during this one like I did in the last two or three Bond movies.

Grade: A-

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