[Paul_Scott]

Hmmm.
This film , ultimately , really did surprise me. I knew the franchise was getting a kick in the pants, but I wasn't expecting that the end product would be that radically different. Make no mistake, this is not your fathers 21st You Only Live Twice remake. This isn't even License To Kill (one of the few in the series I actually love).
Almost everything about this one turns the franchise on its head, and I just don't think thats a bad thing. By finally breaking away from the need to remake the more iconic entries in the series, and dispensing with trying to find another substitute for Sean Connery, this series finally gets its soul back and comes across as worthy of being mentioned in the same breath with those 40 year old trendsetters.
Hard to think of a way of reviewing this without bringing up spoilers (I never read the book).
I'll just say that I greatly enjoyed it- I'm honestly exicted to see where this stuff is going now- and Eva Green's Vesper is my absolute all time favorite Bond girl. I can't think of any other that comes close. the chemistry between the two is excellant, and the relationship between them is ultimately more satisfying and bombastic than any of the action sequences, which are actually well done. The comparisions to Bourne are not without merit- and fans of the series that were worried, may not be placated by this one after all. The focus is definitely on the human side of the equation, and I think thats a refreshing change (for this series). I also finally like Dame Dench in the role of M. With Craig, the character works and I would look forward to seeing the relationship develop over subsequent films.
Also props to the score. the iconic theme only shows up once that I'm aware of, but the rest of the score is a welcome return to more old school, and less electronica.

A solid B+ for now ( but I expect this one to get even better upon future viewings)

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Casino Royale". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

[Patrick Sun]

I saw it, but didn't much like Daniel Craig in the role as James Bond. There are scenes in the film where his stoic blue eyes do make him look like one of the heads on Easter Island. He was so robotic and just off-putting in the first main act of the film. I don't find him all that charming or debonair (even if it's "Bond Begins", Bond should have this intangible from the get-go). He's just hard to look at with those cold steel blue eyes, just odd looking to me if you're going to prop him up as the next James Bond for a new generation. I missed the sense of irony that Brosnan's eyebrows would communicate in dire situations. Sure, we get more muscles with Craig, but we also get more running, lost of running, way too much running...

The 2nd act was too long and uninteresting when it comes to the actual poker play at the Casino Royale. I didn't really buy the love affair between Bond and Vesper, it felt not as intimate as it should have been. I blame it on the directing and somewhat on the screenplay. Eva Green's intro on the train was a hampered by her accent in the verbal sparring between Vesper and Bond, as her dialogue was tougher to understand than it should have been.

The 3rd act is too rushed in spots, and rather pedestrian in 2nd unit action sequences. It wrapped up too quickly given the bloated 2nd act. The plot just wasn't all that interesting to me.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

[Bill Street]

I think Casino Royale ranks up there with the best Bonds as far as relative believability, time spent on character development, and showing possibly for the first time since OHMSS, that the kind of violence that Bond is involved in has consequences. The scene in the shower with Vesper says a lot about how real people would react to being involved in murder.

Along the same theme, I loved that this Bond gets hurt and shows pain. It's such a relief from all the over the top Bond action sequences in the past where the villain's giant lair is blown up and out walks Bond without even his hair mussed up. One thing that has been missing from the movies as opposed to the books is the sense that Bond is not invulnerable, he's a survivor. Most Bond books I've read have him doing great dangerous things and accomplishing his tasks, but usually he is severely banged up and in some cases barely survives. This is much more believable.

Daniel Craig is an interesting choice for Bond. Those that were worried that he would become too PC will be glad to see that Craig plays a real "pipe swinging Bond". I love the grit and determination and the real sense of danger that he exudes.

I wonder though, if he really makes me think of James Bond. While I think he does a great job and enjoy his take on the character, it's sometimes still hard to think of him James Bond. I guess its the 40 years of dark headed leading men that has a lot to do with it, but while I enjoyed all of it, there were parts that just didn't feel like a James Bond movie.

I thought the direction was great, and the screenplay, obviously aided by Paul Haggis was one of the best Bond screenplays in a long time. The film did run about 20 minutes too long, though, and some of the latter part's Bond and Vesper relationship just didn't quite jibe.

My ultimate opinion is that this film is first rate and I appreciate its uniqueness and hope that this dissimilarity to past Bond films doesn't punish it at the box office.

[Chris Atkins]

CASINO ROYALE:

9/10

No time to write a long review, but I did enjoy the film a great deal. Craig was very good as Bond and he certainly is one of the best actors to portray him. I doubt he'll ever be considered the best Bond, however, due to the fact that he just doesn't have as much charisma as some of the other guys.

Campbell did better with this material than with GoldenEye, but I still don't really find a lot of inspiration in his direction. He does a serviceable job here, nothing special.

Liked the music quite a bit, and thought it evolved very nicely over the course of the film.

LOVED the opening of the film and the lead-in to the credits.

Criticisms:

1. "Monkey man" in the chase in Madagascar. Just a bit ridiculous some of the feats he was pulling off...way too over the top even for a Bond film (especially with no background that the character had those kind of special abilities).

2. The decision to substitute Texas Hold Em for Baccarat (which was the game played in the book) ended up taking away from the film, for me. And they certainly didn't play up the fact that they were playing Texas Hold Em, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why they made the change. Baccarat would have worked in this film and would have fit better with the elegance of the Casino Royale itself.

That's it for criticisms, and the second one is a nit. I definitely recommend this film, and it is definitely a worthy entry in the series.

[Mike.P]

This is the Bond I've been waiting for.

Better then the Departed (yes, different I know, but nonetheless I feel the need to say it).

9/10.

Daniel Craig, you win. And Eva Green, I loved you before, and now you've stolen (and broken) my heart.

This isn't a good bond film, this is a good film film. I realize it will never garner any sort of award consideration, but that is of no fault of its own.

[Yumbo]

Dialogue was a bit try hard.
Music was good.
Craig and Judi were good. Eva was ok.

Cinema was BAD.
Sony product placement all over. Blu Ray players!

Best recent Bond - Brosnan looks like a prissy sissy in comparison.

[MattFini]

Saw it tonight. Absolutely fantastic film....through and through.

As a lifelong Bond fan, I was worried sick about this one from its inception. From the casting of Craig (who seemed wrong to me) to the loose variations on all of the Bond traditions. I felt like the filmmakers were going to shake things up to a point where the things that make 007 films 007 films would be unrecognizable.

Thankfully I was wrong.

From the stylishly quick and vicious pre-credits sequence to the brilliant ending, I COULD NOT have been any happier with this one. Not only is Casino Royale one of the very best 007 films in the entire canon, but in my eyes this is the best film of the year.

The script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade is phenomenally tight. The plot has been expanded considerably from Ian Fleming's novel, but it hits all the necessary notes. In my opinion, this is far more important in weighing this adaptation's successes against its literary counterpart. So several things have been omitted from the film: the terrorist bombing that nearly kills Bond, the paranoid 007 who subtly traps his hotel room before leaving it, etc. It still gives us the right notes that take the James Bond character on the necessary arc to get him to where he needs to be at the end of the film. I liked the expansions to the story and while I was slightly disappointed that the film didn't end in the same setting that the novel did, the climax was rousing and suspenseful. To the point: it worked just as well even if different.

Martin Campbell helms his second James Bond film and does a tremendous job at it. There is no question that this is the best Bond film since GoldenEye-it may even be superior (though I'd like to see it again before I start saying how it stacks up against my favorites). The action is GRITTY and VIOLENT. Gone are all of the CGI effects that littered the last few films, the action here is effective, exciting and refreshingly old school.

Even with a length of almost 2 hours and 30 minutes, Campbell keeps Casino Royale moving along at a furious pace. The action comes at satisfying intervals and produces dollops of suspense. Honestly, this is the first time since From Russia With Love that a James Bond film has been suspenseful. I was thrilled to have that element back...it's been missed for a long while.

Daniel Craig fills the shoes of Bond flawlessly...as the film started I had NO trouble accepting him as the character. Casino Royale allows for our hero to have an emotional arc and Craig brings him to life effortlessly. This Bond is a real man who feels regret, sorrow, anger, pity...in short, he's effortlessly human.

As Le Chiffre, Mads Mikkelsen is one of 007's greatest enemies in a long while. He's not the archetypal Bond villain, true, but he oozes venom with little more than a nasty gaze. The scenes where he and Craig face off at a poker table are among the best in the film because of their abilities to say so much without speaking.

The rest of the cast does an amiable job. I'm not the biggest fan of Eva Green but her performance is good. I personally would've liked to have seen someone attractive play the part but I digress...

It was great seeing Giancarlo Gianinni back on the screen as well...more of him is always a good thing.

If there was one thing I didn't like (and it's minor), it was the implication that 'M' is more than an official title given to the head of MI6 and that it was actually part of the Judi Dench character's name. It was the only thing that truly disrupts the continuity of the other films but I'm willing to overlook such a minor quibble.

Casino Royale is a homerun in my eyes. It was everything I hoped it would be and much more. A wonderful experience at the movies that delivers thrills, action, suspense, drama....all in a film with a good script and great performances. In short: a great film!

You don't have to be a Bond fan to love this one!

Highly recommended.

[Jordan_E]

First off, an absolutely terrible opening credits song.
Didn't like the credit sequence at all, looked like something from a cheap video game.
But then I started to like the movie. Sure, Craig will never make me forget Connery (and those who say he's better...wow), and I read some of the 'surprises' a mile away, but at least there was no Halle Berry in sight.
The running sequence was disappointing, was done better in District B13. Texas Holdem seemed to cheapen the whole casino section; I expect something a little more exotic, not something I see on TV every week.
Nice to see 'M' a little more.
The Sony product placement was totally out of control!
And I really hope that

Spoiler:

SPECTRE

makes an appearance in the next Bond. Nice to see a little open-endness to that particular point.
3 stars outta 5.

[ChrisMatson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattFini

Saw it tonight. Absolutely fantastic film....through and through.
...
Highly recommended.

I agree. I had to practically drag my wife to the theater see it with me, but she loved it too!

The Sony product placement was a bit much, but I guess fans of the film may be forced to buy Blu-ray.

[Dave Ringkor]

My wife dragged ME to the theater to see it. Well she didn't actually drag me, but she suggested we go, and I of course was okay with that. :-)

We both loved the film. My wife, because evidently Craig is "yummy," but I loved everything else about, including the theme song, which is currently stuck in my head. (We just came back from the theater not too long ago.)

My first thought after the opening foot chase scene with all the three-storey jumping was oh no, here we go again with the physics-defying action. But after that sequence the movie was completely realistic. I almost got the sense that they stuck the outrageous action sequence at the beginning of the movie to serve as a bit of continuity with previous films, and then segue into the "new" James Bond, portrayed as written, without the camp and the invisible cars and cartoonish villains and sharks with lasers on their heads and girls with names like Goodhead and Pussy -- in fact, I appreciated the joke about Vesper's alias being "Broadchest."

My question now is where do they go from here? This was a movie based on the first (?) James Bond novel, updated for today's technological and political climate, but retaining Bond's youth and inexperience. As far as I know, Ian Flemming's work has been exhausted and there aren't any other novels or short stories on which to base future films. So will the next film's plot be completely new as the more recent Bond films' plots had been, and will Bond go back to being the best agent MI6 has?