Random Thoughts of Mine...

Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to '00' status. Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Madagascar where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world's terrorist organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. 'M' places Bond under the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6's local field agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.

I went to see the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale, after work yesterday (Saturday). I had not been to the movies in some months, plus I felt like getting away for a couple of hours. I've been a fan of the James Bond movies since I was a kid. When I had first heard that Pierce Brosnan was out and Daniel Craig was in, as Agent 007, I was surprised by this. A blonde Bond? Who had ever heard of this before? This of course made many Bond fans mad. There were sites online, such as CraigNotBond.com that were made by some fans that were furious about this. That particular site has been recently shut down.

This is the first movie with Daniel Craig playing 007. I think he has already signed on to do another 2 or 3 more Bond films. This movie is a prequel, it's based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel by the same name. That book was based in the Cold War but this movie is based in the year 2006. This movie brings back a more grittier, more cold-blooded Bond than we have seen in recent movies. That's the way he was originally written by Ian Fleming. That's how Sean Connery orginally played him and how Timothy Dalton played him too. Pierce Brosnan had said that he wanted to play Bond more like that, but was not given the chance to do so. Ironically Daniel Craig got the chance to do so in his first movie as Agent 007. You can read some critic's reviews of the movie here and here.

This is the longest Bond movie, running 144 minutes. On Her Majesty's Secret Service comes in second at 140 minutes. Casino Royale also stars Dame Judi Dench as M, Eva Green as Vesper Lynn, Caterina Murino as Solange, and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre. The movie may be almost 2 1/2 hours long but it is a good movie if you're a James Bond fan. The movie dispenses with some of the familiar elements that we have come to see in almost every Bond movie, such as Q and Miss Moneypenny, and the usual sexually charged double entendres. Daniel Craig does very well playing a grittier Bond. I was pleasantly surprised. This is definetly one of the best 007 movies that I have ever seen. It is very well acted by all and it doesn't rely on big special effects as we have seen in some recent Bond movies. This movie is very "low-tech" in comparison with some of the other movies in the series. Bond doesn't use any special gadgets on his enemies. He chases them on foot in some of the action scenes. The first chase scene takes place on a construction site and is one of the best action sequences that I've seen in a while. His nemesis in that scene is very agile, but so is Bond. This is also the most human that we have seen Bond in a while. He is poisoned, tortured and is bloodied more than once in the movie. It is refreshing to see him not relying so much on super gadgets and not having the movie rely on big special effects. Check out Casino Royale and I doubt that you will be disappointed.

Here are 2 clips from the same action sequence in Casino Royale:

Casino Royale - Construction Site


Casino Royale - Crane Fight




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