Movie Review - Casino Royale (2006)

Not all of the biggest comebacks in history have to come from sports teams or nations at war. Just ask the producers of the James Bond franchise, because for them, Casino Royale was probably their own Battle of San Jacinto (assuming they were the Texas Army, of course).

After GoldenEye was released, the series took a turn for the more fantastic, with the gadgets, plot devices, and action sequences starting to just really go over the top. The movies Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day were guilty of this crime, with Die Another Day just being the zenith of absolute outlandishness (it was the first film to feature CGI effects...and an invisible car...and an ice palace). With many fans in an uproar about Bond becoming nothing more than a gadget operator with a killer libido, the producers decided it was time to change things up a bit and bring Bond back to his roots with Casino Royale, which is very loosely based off of Ian Fleming's book of the same name (the very first Bond novel ever written, incidentally).

So, Pierce Brosnan was canned (or quit, it doesn't really matter) in favor of another Bond, which took some time, but the producers eventually settled on the controversially-blonde Daniel Craig (who now has several blogs devoted to him, with the center of one seeming to be about his role as James Bond). Just about all doubts regarding this fair-haired newcomer (this is seriously why people hated Daniel Craig...no joke) were thrown out the window upon this movie's release, because it was so undeniably awesome.

Casino Royale functioned so well in every area. As an action movie, it was the best yet, featuring a free-running chase scene through a construction zone. The cinematography was incredibly intense; no game of Texas Hold-'Em has ever been made as intense as this movie makes it--even if you don't know a thing about the game. This is the best portrayal of the Bond character yet, with him recently getting his license to kill, which brings him back to his roots and how Fleming envisioned him. He's still a charming womanizer, but he doesn't rely on many gadgets at all. The story itself is intriguing and deep without getting confusing, boring, or angsty, and the ending will be sure to surprise you.

Of all the Bond movies, I'd like to say this may be my favorite, but that's something you'll have to see for yourself. If you were to only see one Bond movie, this would be it.