A quick review: Casino Royale

[Image: casino royale]Since I am unhealthily addicted to Bond movies, I’ve known for months that I would be going to a midnight showing of Casino Royale somewhere. It turned out I went with my friend Mason last night to see it at Universal City.

This movie has a lot riding on it. Die Another Day (the previous Bond film) was patently awful - I saw it once when it came out, and I haven’t watched it since. The series has to bounce back for a lot of people with this film. In addition, it’s a new Bond actor.

Daniel Craig is in my mind a great success as Bond. His grittier character fits well with the Bond of Flemming’s books, and he is undeniably the most brutal and physical of all the movie Bonds. And it works; his hair doesn’t bother me, and it shouldn’t. Craig knows how to carry himself on screen, and the brilliance of Bond is the little liberties with reality that can be taken. I’m excited to see his next Bond film.
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Casino Royale* itself is a very entertaining film. It begins with a stylistically unconventional but satisfying intro sequence that sets up the feel for the rest of the film. There are a number of intense action sequences - focused far more on foot chases than car chases.

The film adopts a peculiar interpretation of the Bond universe; it is a period piece in everything but period. It follows the beginning of Bond’s career—he gains his 00 status and completes his first mission—without leaving the modern world. Once you wrap your head around the fact that you can, if you want, add a little more disbelief to the Bond temporal enigma, it works just fine.

One very interesting choice throughout the film was the distinct lack of gadget branding. There was no Q (or even R), and it’s halfway into the film before you see an Aston Martin, or that the make of Bond’s cell phone is Sony Ericsson. Passing reference only to the watch. I’m surprised because Bond merchandising has to be pretty damn lucrative.

Two things that, after seeing the film, still completely turn me off: that the movie centers around a high-stakes game of Texas Hold-em, appropriately adapted for dramatic hands and footnotes for the non-card-playing viewer. They should be playing Baccarat, end of story.

The second thing is that they spend a very large portion of the movie developing Bond’s…romantic character. I can’t say much more without dropping a spoiler, but suffice it to say that it works, but only if it’s never repeated. This is a one-shot deal in a Bond movie, and the end result is to take a damn good Bond film and make it not really…a Bond film.

That being said, there are a number of really great payoff moments in Casino Royale, and the 144 minute ride feels a lot shorter than it is. It’s a really good, action packed, smooth looking film. But it’s not Bond yet. The last film to really feel like a Bond film was The World is Not Enough.

But this movie is definitely worth seeing.

ps. Although it’s branded Sony Ericsson, who wants to bet Vesper Lynd’s phone is basically an iPhone?

pps. I agree with Roeper:

After the prologue and a mediocre opening-credits theme song from rocker Chris Cornell, we pick up the action in Africa, with Bond giving chase to a terrorist bomber in an extended sequence on a construction site that features more death-defying leaps and bounds than a Jet Li film. It’s an impressively shot crowd pleaser — but it’s also far too long and complicated, which could be said of the film as a whole. (This is only the first of TWO elaborate action sequences involving construction sites.)

At 144 minutes, “Casino Royale” would have benefitted from a 25-minute trim — and maybe a handy “Know Your Villains” brochure to keep us up to speed on all the plot machinations and the various ultra-evil bad guys who pop in and out. (It’s never a good sign when you’re more than two hours into a movie and you’re still not entirely certain which guy is supposed to be the main villain.)

…The problems arise because this edition is too lengthy and too complicated, but it still isn’t really about anything other than introducing Craig as the next Bond — a stripped-down, gimmick-free government assassin who makes a lot of mistakes this time around, but won’t be so careless with his gun or with his heart the next time we see him.

Can’t wait.