Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #718 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-19
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, Collector's Edition, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Dubbed in: Hungarian, Spanish, Czech
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 138 minutes

Amazon.com

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) 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 a 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

..The Best Bond Film Yet.
..At last, we get Bond as he always should have been. No stupid lasers, invisible cars, flying landboats, or improbable gadgets that defy the laws of physics. No idiotic, one dimensional clichéd bad guys with impossible plans to rule the world. No smartass wisecracks from an invincible ubermensch. Just plain old espionage.

After many false starts, and many ridiculous, preposterous sequels, "Casino Royale" is very possibly the best Bond film of all time. Everything that was wrong, stupid, patronising and obviously corporate about the last few has been thankfully, and gloriously discarded : John Cleese? Impervious Killers Who Feel No Pain? Audiences openly laughing at the dreadful CGI and the preposterous diamond-faced baddies? All, finally, thrown away into the rubbish where they belong.

Instead, what we have in "Casino Royale" is an intelligent, brilliant thriller. Here Bond is just a man. He feels, he bleeds, he makes mistakes, he gets tired. His actually feels, and acts like a real human being, instead of some kind of bizarre Action Man cipher.

Craig's Bond is the best Bond there has been. By getting an actor in, instead of a good-looking set of limited cheekbones, Bond becomes something other than a killing, quipping sex machine. It's a shame that "24", and "The Bourne Identity" have had to come first to show Bond how pathetic tripe like "Die Another Day" had become, but this essential reimagining destroys the established knowledge and instead casts Bond in a taut, plausible thriller.

It also takes us back to the beginning of Bond. In "Dr.No", Sean Connery just arrived fully formed and moulded, like a plastic soldier. Here, we see the new Bond being born. We understand why he is so repressed, why he hides his feelings, why he doesn't trust. He's just like the rest of us, betrayed in a relationship and thus, wary of all mankind.

You can see it in Craig, the moments where he grapples with emotions inside his head. You can see the moments where he reverts to autopilot, a man trained to kill. And the moments after, as he rationalises his actions. He starts off unlikable but human, and over the course of the film, he changes : he becomes cold, detached, efficient. And you can see that this is the real world Bond now lives in, not some implausible hyperstylised videogame reality.

And the violence? The violence feels real. No jokey sound effects. No slow motion punches. Punches connect. They feel real. Bodies need to be hidden. Bond even gets arrested. The action setpieces are rooted in the world we inhabit - not a place of gigantic supertankers, space shuttles and nuclear submarines, but of construction sites, airports, town plazas and offices.

But "Casino Royale" is far from perfect. It's at least 10 minutes too long, the pacing is as erratic as a stopped clock, the tone is uneven. It feels a couple of scenes too long, and there are moments where it feels as if the producers are subscribing to the fetish for ever longer running times, and an extra, final act that goes further than the narrative needs. It still feels, in places, as if it needs a nip and tuck in some scenes, especially near the end of the picture.

"Casino Royale" is the best Bond film yet - an enjoyable, intelligent and realistic modern thriller that would stand up as a superior movie even if it didn't have the Bond name plastered on it. After thirty five years of near-constant, insulting silliness, finally there has been the Bond film that Bond fans have been waiting for.

Oh dear
The packaging says 'best bond for decades'. Oh.
Problem is I have seen them all, have them all, and this is...well.
Graphics based on computer games rather than real life, so aimed at new generation I guess, but is there really any need to carry over the limitations of games graphics into a film when real actors are available?
Dialogue - oh dear.
Pace - tedious.
Plot - well, I guess there was one.
Music - probably.
Action - repetitive.
Poker - oh, so sophisiticated. Yawn.

Bond has turned into a hooligan
Miscasted Bond folks.. If Cubby Broccoli were alive he probably would not approve.. The movie doesn't work for me, and the attempt at realism is not all that realistic anyway.. Why reinvent a well established suave and debonair character like James Bond and turn him into a hooligan? it isn't even larger than life anymore, almost boring for the most part.. Sad really but then again things change and you can choose to accept it or not. 21 bond films was really enough for me but I had my hopes up for another until I heard that they were casting Craig who really doesn't fit the mold.