Daniel Craig is the new James Bond in "Casino Royale." Based on the first Bond book written by Ian Fleming, the story, which has never been told on film until now, recounts the making of the world's greatest secret agent. James Bond's first mission leads him to the villianous Le Chiffre. In order to stop him from funding terrorism, Bond must beat Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale.
Let me start off by saying that I really liked this movie. I'm nowhere near a James Bond buff, but I have liked some of them in the past and this one is one of the better recent ones. I thought that Daniel Craig was surprisingly good in the role of James Bond and the action at the start of the movie was the kind that makes you say "WHOA!" out loud. However, there were two problems I had with the movie.
One - it was too long and I think this was mostly because of the actual poker game that was being played. The movie was flying along up until that point and when they started playing cards it was like moving through molasses. Then, after the card game - it went right back to non-stop moving. I think they probably could have paced that a little better. Second (and the really big problem I have with this movie) is that it was supposed to be a prequel. This would mean that this movie took place BEFORE the bazillion James Bond movies that have already been made, right? If that's the case then how did so much of what was going on in this movie rotate around cell phone usage and text messages? Better yet - how did Judi Dench as M look a hell of a lot older than she did in the many previous Bond movies she's been in? I had a really hard time wrapping my head around all the technological things that they used in this movie while trying to remind myself that this took place before all the other movies.
That being ranted about - I would recommend this movie to everyone. It was a really good action movie that you didn't overly have to think in order to enjoy.
