Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale (2006) is awesome.

I went to a Sunday night (10:30 PM) screening of Casino Royale and the theatre was packed. Why? This is the best James Bond film to date. It’s rare that I’ll watch a film and want to immediately watch it again. Great acting, action, and a fantastic script make this one a winner for me.

Forget about the smarmy goofiness of Roger Moore, the unbelievable villains or the gadgets in a lot of the other Bond films. Casino Royale is much more realistic and gritty. I love the direction that the producers are taking to breathe new life into the Bond franchise.

Daniel Craig is great as 007. Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter is icing on the cake. Eva Green has a juicy role as Bond’s love interest — beautiful, mysterious, gorgeous, beautiful, gorgeous and beautiful.

One of the best comparisons to Casino Royale might be Batman Begins (2005). Casino Royale nails the Bond character in the same way that David Goyer’s script and Chris Nolan’s direction nailed Batman Begins. Without being boring, the Bond character is created and explained throughout the film in a very entertaining fashion.

The references to Money Penny, martinis and an Astin Martin are nice touches that will satisfy fans of the other films. No Q, no disappearing cars, and the absence of corny one-liners was a nice change.

I can’t wait to see Casino Royale again.

Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.

Posted in Movie Reviews at 1:39 AM