The twenty-first James Bond film
sees Bond rebooted and on his first mission – to stop Le Chiffre, a banker to
the world’s terrorist organizations who has lost their money and needs to win a
high-stakes poker tournament to stay in their good graces. If Bond can keep him
from winning, he will turn to MI6 for protection in exchange for information.
Returning to the franchise after
bringing it back from the dead in 1995 with GoldenEye, Martin Campbell directs, with a
script from Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis. It is not uncommon
for the series to bring back directors (Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, and John Glen all directed three or more
Bond films), but he is the first repeat since 1995. While Campbell’s directing
career has been mostly relegated to making mediocre action/adventure films, he
has done his best work on the Bond series. Both GoldenEye and Casino Royale rejuvenated
the franchise. Bond, for all intents and purposes, was dead after License to Kill, but Campbell’s
GoldenEye put him back on top. With Casino Royale, he completely revamped the
style of Bond (more realistic and gritty) while still keeping it cool and fun
(again coming off a terrible, bloated and tired Bond film in Die Another Day). The film is
the best in the series since Thunderball.
Campbell worked with composers David Arnold (who has scored
three Bond films) and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell (providing the film’s
theme),
cinematographer Phil Meheux
(who also shot GoldenEye for Campbell), and production designer Peter Lamont (who designer nine
Bond films, this being his last).
Daniel Craig stars, making his
first (of five) appearances as James Bond. Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen co-star, as Bond’s
love interest and the main villain respectively. Judi Dench (who reprised her
role as M, which is sort of strange, but whatever), Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, and Caterina Murino feature in
support, with small performances from Simon Abkarian, Jesper Christensen, Ivana Milicevic, and Tobias Menzies.
The film is great because it
focuses more on the character of James Bond than all the crazy action set
pieces, though they are very good too. His relationship with Vesper (Eva Green)
is developed in such a way that the audience gets to see Bond in a much more vulnerable
place than usual (much like On
Her Majesty’s Secret Service – which maybe could have been the best Bond
film if Sean Connery would
have starred in it). Quantum of
Solace, while not a great stand-alone film, is actually a fantastic part
two to Casino Royale, as it focuses on Bond’s pain and anger following the
events that close this film. I recommend watching them together. Casino Royale
is a must-see for fans of James Bond.
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