Casino Royale (2006) Review

You've gotta love Jason Bourne. Without Jason Bourne, or 'The Little JB', 'The Big JB' may never have got his edge back. Doug Liman's Bourne was ruthless, focused, deadly, machinelike. He was transfixing. Liman's movie was gritty and handheld. He used a kind of realism in the minutia of Bourne's behaviour, in his martial arts, settings, everyday objects and situations to add weight, drama and excitement to the out of this world spy action transpiring before your eyes. Bond used an Aston Martin, Bourne kept it real with a mini. If the little JB hadn't paved the way, the big JB may still be wisecracking his way through weightless theme park style set pieces, while slowly descending into irrelevancy and declining box-office returns. But that's not how the history books will read.

They will read that Bond shot back to the top of his game with deadly force. Daniel Craig's Bond is cruel, uncompromising, hard, occasionally unfeeling, relentless, ripped and somehow convincing. When undergoing torture, Daniel Craig's Bond screams in pain, leaking sweat, spit and tears you can barely believe you're watching a mainstream franchise. Try imagining Roger Moore in this scene and you'll understand why Casino Royale is a gargantuan step.

So the big question is, why did the franchise bigwigs decide to take through a transformation of paradigm shift-like proportions? Let's back up a bit.

The opening scene documents the moment Bond became a 'double-0' agent by killing MI6 section chief Dryden in Prague. It's shot in cold black and white in an office block with the snow falling outside. It screams cold war, without saying as much. The scene is action free, but includes flashbacks to Bond's first professional kill. The flashbacks are jarring, loud, messy, starkly at odds with the quiet office setting that will become the backdrop of his second kill. When Bond finally, coldly pulls the trigger his victim is in mid-sentence. 'Don't worry, the second is...', Bond's gun fires, the movie cuts very briefly to a shot of the victim's wife and child. The man is dead. Bond is certain that this bent agent deserves to die. The cutaway to the victim's family suggests a far more complicated world view than Bond's is available to the viewer. 'Yes, considerably,' Bond calmly adds. At this stage of the game at least, this is a movie that wants the viewer to have more humanity than Bond.

From this point on the excitement and tension is racheted up further and further. The script never feels lazy and unconsidered as in previous cartoon-like outings. 'How was your lamb?' Vespa purrs. 'Skewered,' Bond retorts. 'One sympathises.'

Casino Royale also seems keen to backtrack and right some of the franchise's wrongs. Chris Cornell who was previously axed from a Bond movie soundtrack is recruited here to record a theme song for the movie's fantastic credit sequence. When prompted for his trademark Martini line by a barman asking him how he'd like his drink served, Craig's tetchy Bond responds, 'do I look like I care?' Bond's near-invincibility of previous outings is dialed down here. He bruises and bleeds, he is captured tortured and even briefly dies. Violence in this movie has fallout, both emotionally and physically. These are big steps to take with a high concept franchise movie.

The movie is not without its problems. A slightly formulaic and predictable 'fight on a lorry as it trundles through an airport' sequence goes on a little too long and lacks some imagination. Also, Husky accountant Vespa, played well by Eva Green, is a part like Helen of Troy in that by turning Bond from cold, womanising murderer into cuddly house-husband and ex-MI6 employee she is required to display the kind of beauty and charisma that will convince the audience she is capable of turning this oil tanker around. She smoulders well and pulls off withering looks and snarky put downs well enough to convince us that she could give Bond a run for his money. What she doesn't do very well is attract that audience. She's strong, she saves Bond once after he's poisoned and again by sacrificing herself for him at the end of the movie. This is great for women in cinema, but it doesn't fully convince us that she is capable of winning Bond's new, thuggish heart.

In short Casino Royale is a brave and giant leap forward for the Bond franchise. It doesn't view like a hack earning a new swimming pool. It's intelligent and exciting. It has a great cast, a fantastic script and incredible visuals. It's the best Bond, man and movie, by a long distance. The question is, can the franchise stand by the courage of Casino Royale's convictions? The etch-a-sketch has been thoroughly shaken and it's time to start again from scratch free from the old-Bond timeline. What does Bond franchise v2.0 have in store for us? Casino Royale is more than just a fantastic action movie. It's an exciting sign that perhaps the fear and panic that leads studios to stick rigidly to franchise formula for fear of upsetting the investors may be easing off a little. It's an addition to a growing collection of hard-hitting and gutsy mainstream Hollywood movies. More importantly, taken as a unified whole, it's a very good piece of cinema.

And they even included Fleming's famous closing line from the book: "The b*tch is dead."