Year of Release: 2006
Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Jesper Christensen, Claudio Santamaria, Isaach De Bankole, Malcolm Sinclair, Richard Sammel
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis and Review:
Following the previous James Bond adventure, which featured Pierce Brosnan, alongside Halle Berry under the direction of Lee Tamahori, the producing and creative team behind the franchise, found another leading actor, and went back to director Martin Campbell. Campbell, who also directed "Goldeneye" in 1995, the first 007 under the tutelage of Pierce Brosnan, was coming off "The Legend of Zorro", the sequel to his highly successful "The Mask of Zorro", both featuring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones. "Casino Royale" goes back to Ian Fleming's novel with the same title, and introduces James Bond/007 as a recent agent who has been given license to kill. He is on the trail of a man by the name of Le Chiffre, a banker to world's terrorists. When Bond thwarts a terrorist attack, he puts Le Chiffre in a dire situation with his clients. He has to resort to a high stakes poker game in Montenegro, one that Bond is allowed to participate, under the watchful eye of a British Treasury agent, a woman by the name of Vesper Lynd. As the game unfolds, and the stakes go higher, the relationship between Bond and Lynd grows closer, though not all is as it seems.
"Casino Royale" is the third adaptation of the novel by Ian Fleming, with the previously most well known one being the comedy led by David Niven, with the film itself being directed by a serious of filmmakers, including John Huston and Ken Hughes. Martin Campbell strips back much of the artificial stance from Lee Tamahori's "Die Another Day", which was borderline a kitsch adventure much alike the Roger Moore films of the series. Instead we have a film that is definitely more akin to the Bourne Identity film series, with a central character that feels more realistic (as much as that is possible with Bond), while still emphasizing elaborate action set pieces. As entertaining as some of the set pieces are, it's still a film anchored in a well known formula, with an array of characters that are fairly shallow, including Bond himself, but also the supporting cast, including Vesper, M, Felix, and the main villain, Le Chiffre, who sadly never has that much to do. Where this film does manage to detour from the known formula, is towards its third act, but even then it never gives much insight into the characters themselves, being far more circumstantial and setting up the narrative for a next episode. It's a fairly entertaining film, with a solid supporting cast, including Judi Dench, Eva Green, Jeffrey Wright, Mads Mikkelsen, with Daniel Craig opting for a central performance that is somewhat rigid. The cinematography from Phil Meheux is solid, as is the score from the always great David Arnold. While not the most memorable film of the series, it's nonetheless an entertaining chapter in the franchise.
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