Casino Royale
                                                                                                                  
Director: Martin Campbell
Year: 2006
Rating: 8.5
I think it could be reasonably argued that Casino Royale is the best Bond film of them all. It is a wonderful re-start to a series that had become bloated on its self-importance and this took it back to the basics and the origin story. Now that doesn't mean that I think Daniel Craig is the best Bond; that honor of course goes to Sean Connery. How people can think otherwise bewilders me and makes me worry about their taste in everything. Though admittedly, it is like so many things - the first Bond you saw is often your favorite. But Roger Moore? Seriously? I loved him as the Saint but he was unfortunately saddled with cartoony plots and characters that at the time I recall enjoying, but watching those films now is torture. The Connery films hold up very well because they never got silly and the women were spectacular. Excluding George Lazenby who was only in the one film, I can't even recall whether it was Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton in what films. Forgettable and industrial products. Casino Royale saved the Bond franchise.


 

Which is fitting because Casino Royale by Ian Fleming began it all. Not just Bond but the entire fictional spy genre that ripped through the 1950's and 60's like a tornado. It was the first Bond book, written in 1953 and though it only sold a few hundred thousand copies it had an enormous influence on other writers and the public. The English loved it because once again England was relevant after losing much of their Empire one piece at a time. In the world of fictional espionage England could still hit above its weight. Of course, there had been other spy novels before Fleming - John Buchan and his series of Richard Hannay books (the 39 Steps being the most famous but they are all good), Geoffrey Household and his classic Rogue Male written in 1939 about an Englishman attempting to assassinate Hitler and perhaps the best writer of them all was Eric Ambler who never developed a specific character series of spy novels but instead wrote individual stories often of innocents getting caught up in espionage from the Fascists through the Communists. All of them English btw - I don't know of any American writers in the spy genre pre-Fleming.

 

Casino Royale is a good read - sleek at 200 pages compared to most of today's spy novels. Bond has two kills to his credit and has been recently given the 007 distinction. Unlike the film, the book begins after those two huge and wonderful action set-pieces in the film - when Bond comes to challenge Le Chiffre in a game of chance and skill Baccarat - which still confuses the hell out of me. From that point on the film follows the book in at least the same neighborhood. In the book reflecting the time period, Le Chiffre is a Soviet agent in France who has unwisely invested the money given to him to cause unrest on bordellos - that went bankrupt. Now if he doesn't make up his losses at the table SMERSH will kill him. The movie is actually better than the book I suppose - though at 2 hours and 20 minutes it could have lost a little off the top - but the three action set pieces are amazing, Craig never cracks a smile or a quip and it is always wonderful to hear "Bond, James Bond". Though this may be the best Bond film, my favorite will always be Goldfinger followed by From Russia with Love.