Casino
Royale: 3-Disc Collector's Edition (2008)
|
Sony
Cast:
Daniel Craig, Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Judy Dench.
Rating:
PG
Run
time: 144 mins.
Genre:
Action
Verdict:
Brilliant
(see rating
system)
|
|
A
wonderful set of new extra features raises this great 2006
James Bond flick into the "definitive release" category.
We
learn so much about the Bond character and the life of author
Ian Fleming from friends and acquaintances in a sries of great
featurettes. The genesis for the Casino Royal novel and ultimately
this movie, for example, dates back to 1941, when Fleming
was a top British naval intelligence officer. During a visit
to Portugal (then neutral), Fleming tried to beat a group
of suspected German agents at cards, but lost. He certainly
put that right in the story he planned to eventually write!
Bond
was the suave, fearless British agent Fleming wished he could
have been after the Second World War - he also shared Bond's
interest in women. No matter that Fleming had to restrict
hisdreams to books and eventually movies. He ensured his name
would live on.
Newcomer
Daniel Craig not only steps easily into the James Bond character
in Casino Royal, he takes it to a whole new level in the best
007 flick in years.
Good
as Pierce Brosnan was, he simply couldn't match the muscular
and mental toughness in Craig's interpretation that helps
make the 21st Bond outing such a such a kick-ass action film.
Craig really looks the part of a British agent who can take
care of himself - and all the other past Bonds with the exception
of Sean Connery in his prime The script is smart and lean,
dumping some of the weak humour of past Bonds.
Set
at the beginning of Bond's career there's a neat opening prologue
in which he's shown achieving his first two "kills"
- the requirement for "00" status. Bond then pursues
an international bomb maker in Madagascar - a very exciting
foot chase and crane fight here revealing Craig's physicality.
Unfortunately, Bond is forced to blow up part of a foreign
embassy during his escape, incurring bad publicity and the
wrath of M (Judy Dench).
The
bomb maker is linked to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a ruthless
international financer of terrorists who uses their money
to stage some attacks of his own on specific companies in
order to make a financial killing on the markets. After Bond
foils his next attack on a brand new jet at Miami airport,
Mikkelsen needs to win a multi-million-dollar international
poker game to recoup his clients' money.
Guess
who's the best poker player in the British Secret Service?
The
non-stop action encompasses the usual exotic locations, from
Madagascar to the Bahamas, Montenegro and Venice. The stunts
are great, the dialogue spare and Bond's romance with British
Treasury agent Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) is hot.
Folks,
144 minutes rips by.
