007: Casino Royal (2006)

Bond is back after a four year waiting period with his first mission ever. Was it worth the wait or is his first time the worst time?

M: 'Sometimes we pay so much attention to our enemies, we forget to watch our friends as well.'


So Bond is back, with his first 00 case. The opening scenes is the mission leading to his promotion. He stops a double agent working for the British government who has gone corrupt and also shows James Bonds first ever kill as an agent. The story unfolds showing that the main villain ( Le Chiffre played by the extremely talented Peter Lorre) they are after is a mathematical genius who loves to gamble and play poker. He is also the man who takes the money of freedom fighters and acts as their own personal bank.

The first scene really appeals to me as I love the use of black and white to show a memory or the past, and the whole opening scene is done in black and white. It is a little strange at first, what with this being a Bond film, but it works well enough when the scene is over and it all goes back to colour.

I found this film very different to many other Bond films, simply because there is a lot less gun fire. A good amount of the film is at the big poker game, or so I thought. It wasn't until after the match that I realised there is more to the film than a few fight scenes and a long poker game, and that is the films strongest suit. It has a good set of twists which are entwined and work so well when put together. The story line is rather basic, but this is one of the cases where keeping it simple and not trying to put in a lot of story all the way though has worked. Instead it is kept simple and the story really develops about half way into the film.

The locations used though out the film always look stunning, even if it is obvious some are special effects, such as the view from a private boat. It looks stunning, but it doesn't quite seem real, which is a shame. They go to a lot of different locations for this film including London, Miami, The Bahamas and they even used Pinewood Studios (UK) for one of the ending scenes to name but a few.

I really enjoyed seeing another Bond film, even if it is 7 years after its release. The experience was enhanced by several things, in my opinion. One was the cast, fitting in well with an amazing well written script, and another was the range of accents used for the film. Vesper (Eva Green) had an very nice accent, especially in her introduction scene where she is acting snobbish and a little up tight, and her voice clearly demonstrates this.

Now on to the most important part of any and all Bond film. The opening song and music video. There are many great examples of Bond Theme songs (Goldfinger, Skyfall, Tomorrow Never Dies) and some have great visuals (The World Is Not Enough, The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye). This however, lacks both. The song sounds like a drunk uncle attempting karaoke in a bar and although the opening titles are well animated, it just isn't as good as so many others. It repeated the four card suits to show different things, but they don't do anything impressive like with previous Bond films. It all seemed a bit childish and amateurish.

This is definitely one of the best Bond films in a long time, and I look forward to the next few years of Bond films. Daniel Craig plays Bond much better the Pierce Brosnan ever did. His cool, calm tone just adds more feel to the character. The other actors and actresses played their roles wonderfully. It is just a shame that the special effects weren't always so believable and that both the opening song and accompanying music video were so disappointing.

As a stand alone film, with no others in the series to compare it to, it does a really good job, and that is true even when compared to most of the other bond films, but then other aspects let it down, such as the opening titles/song and the special effect. The effects wouldn't be a problem if they looked better compared to films from the mid 2000's, but they sometimes are lacking too much to let it just swing by, especially when it is a beautiful view which looks false.

Rating; 7.8/10