Casino Royale
MGM
Rated: PG-13
144 Minutes
2006
In 1953 British novelist Ian Fleming created an iconic character that would survive more than five decades, twelve full length books, nine short stories, and at the time of this writing, 22 films. Fleming's debonair super-spy, James Bond, has been portrayed on the silver screen by the legendary Sean Connery six times, Australian actor George Lazenby once, Roger Moore seven times, Timothy Dalton twice, and Pierce Brosnan four times - each actor bringing a different spin to the role.
Many thought the Bond franchise couldn't survive after the end of the Cold War. Bond stories typically relied on the tension between America and Russia, and without that fear to prey on, it seemed Bond would be relegated to the past.
Like the title character himself, however, the Bond franchise managed to escape doom (and obscurity) after a six-year hiatus with 1995's GoldenEye. The film brought Bond into the 90s and was in most ways a reinvention. Brosnan's charming good looks and sarcastic one-liners captured the essence of the character, but the newly cast Dame Judi Dench as the head of MI6, M, made it clear that she had disdain for him and his methods, referring to him as a "mysogynst dinosaur" and "a relic of the Cold War." This simple line helped usher in a new era of Bond films that broke away from the tried-and-true Soviet villainy, and gave way to a more modern age.
Unfortunately, as good as GoldenEye was, each successive Bond movie's overreliance on gadgetry and over-the-top stunts that were unbelievable even for a Bond film began to make the character feel more like a comic book superhero; a caricature of the fast-talking ladies man who could switch between wooing a beautiful woman to killing enemy spies in the blink of an eye.
After a four year drought, the Bond franchise was reinvented once again with 2006's Casino Royale. Based on the first Bond novel Fleming wrote and starring Daniel Craig in the lead role, the film resonated with critics and audiences, in spite of the initial concerns over Craig's casting. Jam-packed with action, romance, and an intricate screenplay, Casino Royale is the best vision of Bond's world yet.