Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #665 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-17
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 138 minutes

Amazon.co.uk

The most successful invigoration of a cinematic franchise since Batman Begins, Casino Royale offers a new Bond identity. Based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced Agent 007 into a Cold War world, Casino Royale is the most brutal and viscerally exciting James Bond film since Sean Connery left Her Majesty's Secret Service. Meet the new Bond; not the same as the old Bond. Daniel Craig gives a galvanising performance as the freshly minted double-0 agent. Suave, yes, but also a "blunt instrument," reckless and possessed with an ego that compromises his judgment during his first mission to root out the mastermind behind an operation that funds international terrorists. In classic Bond film tradition, his global itinerary takes him to far-flung locales, including Uganda, Madagascar, the Bahamas (that's more like it) and Montenegro, where he is pitted against his nemesis in a poker game, with hundreds of millions in the pot. The stakes get even higher when Bond lets down his armour by falling in love with Vesper (Eva Green), the ravishing banker's representative fronting him the money.

For longtime fans of the franchise, Casino Royale offers some retro kicks. Bond wins his iconic Aston Martin at the gaming table, and when a bartender asks if he wants his martini "shaken or stirred," he disdainfully replies, "Do I look like I give a damn?". There's no Moneypenny or "Q," but Dame Judi Dench is back as the exasperated M who, one senses, admires Bond's "bloody cheek." A Bond film is only as good as its villain, and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, who weeps blood, is a sinister dandy. From its punishing violence and virtuoso action sequences to its romance, Casino Royale is a Bond film that, in the words of one character, 'makes you feel it', particularly during an excruciating torture sequence. Double-0s, Bond observes early on, "have a short life expectancy". But with Craig, there is new life in the old franchise yet, as well as genuine anticipation for the next one when, at last, the signature James Bond theme kicks in following the best last line ever in any Bond film. To quote Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, "now I know what I've been faking all these years". --Donald Liebenson

Synopsis
After a great deal of discussion--on the part of fans and producers alike--over Daniel Craig's (The Mother, Munich, Layer Cake) suitability for the role of James Bond, he more than proves himself in this explosive revamping of the franchise. Under the direction of Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro) and with Paul Haggis (Crash) helping with the re-writes, this addition to the Bond canon manages to hold true to the essence of the stories--the villainous villains, the fabulous sets, the beautiful women, the fast-paced action--while updating the formula with subtlety and humanity. Trading in the Cold War era for a new, post-9-11 landscape, the tale unfolds in locations that span the globe, including the Bahamas, Venice, and the Czech Republic. It opens in Madagascar, where Bond pursues a guerilla bomb-maker in one of the most breathtaking chase scenes ever--and it all takes place on foot. Botching that assignment, Bond goes to Montenegro to square off against terrorist baddie Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson), an international loan shark who gambles with the money of his equally dangerous clients. Beautiful British Treasury representative Vesper Lynd (Eva Green, The Dreamers) supplies Bond's own funds, appearing on his arm in Montenegro, while M (Dame Judi Dench, Pride and Prejudice) keeps a close watch on the action from headquarters. The extravagant poker game forms the centre of the action, with Jeffrey Wright (Syriana, The Manchurian Candidate) putting in an intense appearance at the table; interrupting the game are assassination attempts, poisoning, and other dramatic events that keep the adrenaline pumping. The flirtation that unfolds between Bond and Vesper Lynd is only in keeping with the spy's M.O. as a ladies' man. What differs here, however, is what sets this Bond apart from the rest: the romance is taken seriously, and it exposes vulnerability in Bond that he's never shown before. This, however, only makes him the tougher, as Craig's Bond is darker, less campy, more brooding and mysterious, than his past incarnations ever were.

Customer Reviews

A truly malevolent Bond
The start is true to the Bond of old, explosive and frenetic but the hint of darkness becomes apparent when Bond shoots an unarmed man to save his own skin. The chivalrous Bond of old would never commit such a heinous act. He breaks into M's apartment and hacks into her computer, surely this can't be Bond somethings wrong. But alas this is Bond it's as if the dark side that so many Bond characters have struggled with has finally burst out and is intent on wreaking havoc. This Bond appears to be determined to walk on the dark side. Does it work ? I think it does but there's an apparent evolution and it's dark, menacing and relentless. And I loved it !!

Sean who?
As one of the only 12 people who was genuinely delighted at Daniel Craig's casting a year ago, I must admit I was more than a little worried about Casino Royale. Not the kind of paranoia that those newcomers who'd never experience the changing of the guard the series goes through every decade or the staggeringly venomous hate-mongering of the more fanatical Brosnan fans who felt compelled to start libellous hate-sites, though. After all those months of arguing that he was the perfect choice for the role (especially after some of the more moronic suggestions), was I setting myself up for a fall if he turned in a disappointing performance? Similarly there was the film itself. While the producers were making all the right noises about going back to basics, they'd done exactly the same with Licence To Kill and chickened out to deliver a sub-Roger Moore effort with Wayne Newton as a comedy relief villain, inept ninjas, pointless gadgets, laughable violence and monster truck stunts. Too often in the past the franchise had been over-reliant on the goodwill generated by the earlier films, rehashing earlier vehicles to decreasing returns secure in the knowledge that the audience would turn up anyway. Take away the Bond brand, and too many post-OHMSS entries simply wouldn't have stood up to scrutiny in the marketplace on their own merits: Bond had become a tradition, a ritual like going home for the holidays that you knew was never going to be as good as it was when you were a kid but which you still went through out of a mixture of hope and obligation.

I needn't have worried. Not only is it the best Bond film in 37 years, it's as if the Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan years never happened. After Brosnan's surprisingly lazy and slightly seedy turn in DAD, Craig delivers the most physical Bond since Lazenby, but this time matched by the acting chops to make the most of the best script the series has had in decades - at once plot and character led - as the rookie blunt instrument bulldozes his way through his mission until emotional awakening and betrayal starts to finesse him into the Bond we knew from the Connery days. Brosnan never could have delivered this kind of performance, either physically or emotionally, and, truth be told, neither could Connery in his prime: Craig is the first one to convince you that he's not a movie star or an actor but that he really IS James Bond.

The updating of the plot from the Cold War era to a post 9/11 world works surprisingly well, with the first act managing to provide a convincing motive for the high stakes poker game centrepiece while also providing a couple of superb action scenes that don't become too absurd and serve the plot in a series where in the past the plot was too often an excuse for the action. The much-criticised change from baccarat to poker is a smart one too. Where Baccarat is purely a game of luck (as Fleming himself found out when he went bust in three hands trying out the novel's premise on a Nazi spy), poker actually involves both strategy and psychology, making for more satisfying drama and tension.

There is, sadly, one concession to gadgetry that veers into the absurd - c'mon, who keeps a defibrillator in their glove compartment? - and is an unwelcome reminder of the days when old Roge would get out of a scrape with his buzz saw wristwatch or his projectile dart cufflinks thanks to lazy writing, but elsewhere it settles for using existing technology (most of it manufactured by Sony for some reason that escapes me) rather than veering into total fantasy. And it's good to see a Bond who needs hospitalisation after the villain goes Quasimodo on his nuts with a bell rope. The film's final sequence promises one helluva follow-up, and one can only hope the producers don't lose their nerve and throw it all away the way they did with Diamonds Are Forever. The real James Bond is indeed back.

While the 2-disc DVD is a disappointment by the standards of the previous EON entries, there isreportedly a more elaborate special edition planned in the future, so if you just want the film itself at a good price while you're waiting for that, this single-disc release fits the spot.

Bond ReBourne
Casino Royale marks the debut of the sixth actor to play James Bond on the big screen. Daniel Craig takes over the helm of the suave protagonist from Pierce Brosnan to dynamic effect in this exciting, action packed film.

In taking the films right back to the beginning of Ian Flemming's novels the producers made the statement that they wanted to freshen up a formula that had seemingly become stale. Gone are the ridiculous gadgets (that always seem to come in handy) and the diabolical super villains of previous outings. In its place is a slightly more believable storyline that doesn't involve the entire Earth being blown to smithereens and a Bond who is portrayed as a wholly more complex character with deep psychological reasons for his desires to womanise and with cracks in his invulnerability. It is no doubt the series needed this reinvention however in doing so I feel as though Bond has lost its unique identity within the world of cinema. With other franchises such as the Mission Impossibles and the Bourne films around, where now does Bond fit in. Few of the old Bond films can be considered as classics in their own right but this is irrelevant because they all stuck to a formula well loved by many. Despite the fact that this is probably a much better film than alot of the previous ones many devout fans of the series might be slightly disappointed that the simple formulaic Bond of old may be gone for good.