My Favorite Movies - Bondathon: Casino Royale

Congratulations to the team of Lee Tamahori, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, and Michael Madsen, you killed the Bond franchise.

“You can’t blame them for this…the movies had been going down for the past decade or so.”

NO. THERE’S A REASON THERE WAS NO FILM FOR FOUR YEARS. Granted, this wasn’t the longest period between two Bond films, but it’s still f%$&ing horrible. Critics panned the hell out of Die Another Day, and with good reason. I don’t think anyone didn’t disagree that it was a terrible Bond film…actually, just a terrible film all around. It was a disgrace for the 40^th anniversary, and the big wigs and the Broccolis were displeased. Then there was the problem with Brosnan.

Now, I can’t really blame Die Another Day on Brosnan in any way, shape, or form. He was just handed a script and read off of it. Yet, somehow, the Broccolis did sort of blame him for it. The story goes that he was asked back for a fifth film in 2003, to which he of course said yes, but then it all fell through as the remnants of Die Another Day’s fallout really started to settle. There were talks of many directions to take the Bond franchise. There was even an idea pitched by Quentin Tarantino to have Brosnan in a noir 1950’s rendition of Casino Royale, but even that fell through. It got to the point that the franchise could only go on with a fresh palate cleansing, and Brosnan had to be jettisoned (a decision which left him cold-hearted about the franchise in general).

So, now what? No actor, no director, and barely any cast. It was the early 1990s once again, and Brosnan was sitting in Dalton’s hot seat. The Broccolis and MGM started sitting down and processing what they had to do. They wanted to go younger, fresher, and more action packed than ever before. Many names popped into the fray: Ewan McGregor of Star Wars fame, Hugh Jackman of X-Men fame, Clive Owen (a man I would have loved seeing in the role myself, but that’s a story for another time). Former Bonds gave their two cents on who should have a go (Brosnan suggested Colin Salmon who played Robinson in Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is not Enough, and Die Another Day). But by 2005, they finally had a decision made: Daniel Craig.

Daniel Craig? Who is Daniel Craig? He’s blonde! Blue eyes! Those were the remarks of many Bond fans that were trying to come up with a valid reason why Craig was a very poor decision. I, myself, being 10 at the time, didn’t know what to make of it. I just remember seeing Craig on a boat on the river Thames in London. I later learned more of a reason why, and it was down to a movie called Layer Cake. In Layer Cake, Craig played a nameless agent, a gun-for-hire, who went around being very Bond-like. This movie and another small part in the critically-acclaimed Munich ended up landing him the biggest role of his life.

So, new Bond, and Goldeneye director Martin Campbell was back. What were we to expect? No one knew…but they sure weren’t expecting what they got, that’s for sure. “What do you mean?” Well, let’s talk about it. It’s time to talk about my second favorite film in the Bond series: 2006’s Casino Royale.

From the first scene of this film, it’s obvious that this movie is very different from the established order of how Bond goes. We get a cold, black and white scene, as a man arrives at his office in Prague. It’s a very quiet scene, with the man walking down the hall and entering his office to spin around and find Bond sitting there, waiting for him. This scene is so powerful and so cleverly shot, but I think the best part is the dialogue as Bond stares at the man, known as Dryden, and says with a cold tone:

“M doesn’t mind if you earn a little money on the side Dryden, she’d just prefer if it wasn’t selling secrets.”

Yes, Bond is here to kill the man, the second of his two kills required to become a 00 agent. So, the scene goes on and Dryden asks Bond about his first kill, which turned out to be Dryden’s contact, whom he killed in a cricket match bathroom stall (scenes of which are beautifully edited into the office scene). Dryden pauses for a second and attempts to shoot Bond, but fails due to the fact that Bond removed the magazine before Dryden arrived:

“I know where you keep your gun. I suppose that’s something.”
“True.”

They go on talking about the contact’s death before Dryden stops and asks Bond, “The second is-(easier than the first)“ before Bond shoots him and answers the question: “Yes, considerably.” The final scene of the cold open happens as Bond picks up a gun in the bathroom stall, the contact yells and uses his last strength to lurch as Bond, and Bond quickly spins around, giving us our first gunbarrel of the Craig era, meshing into the credits sequence which is set to an absolutely beautiful song known as, “You Know My Name,” sung by Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell.

I remember back watching this movie for the first time in 2007 and knowing immediately that this was something different. It was shocking, it was bold, and it was dark. I liked it already. Anyway, the movie begins, not with Bond, but with a focus on a small town in Uganda, where a banker for hire with a deranged tear duct named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) rolls up and takes a war lord’s massive transaction of millions. It’s very obvious from this scene alone that Le Chiffre is our main villain of the movie, and it does a very good job of setting him up, as the war lord asks him if he believes and god, and he just replies, “No, I believe in the reasonable rate of return.” He walks back out to his trucks with the briefcases and receives a call from his stockbroker. LeChiffre tells him to put another few million on the loss of Skyfleet stock. The broker warns him about betting against the market, but Le Chiffre persists…a tidbit that is very crucial as the film goes on.

We then cut to Bond and another MI6 agent named Carter searching for a bomb maker within Madagascar. Carter points him out as a man with burn scars on his face (played by the father of freerunning Sebastian Foucan), but the man spies Carter holding his earpiece as he talks to Bond. A foot chase ensues, with the man using various parkour skills to run across various sites among the way to the embassy in Afghanistan and Bond trudging along afterwards. This sequence right here is filled with wonderful little scenes, such as Bond driving a digger into a construction site after the man, using it to clear obstructions out of the way and to give him a way to get to higher ground, the man tossing his empty gun to Bond only for Bond to catch it and toss it right back, and then a scene as they’re running through the construction site of the man jumping through a small space in a wall and Bond just crashing right through it. It’s all fantastic stuff and it kinda just reminds me why I love Martin Campbell as a Bond director…Anyway, Bond chases the man into the embassy, storms inside, and takes him hostage as various soldiers attack them. Bond uses the man as a human shield until they get outside, when they are surrounded by soldiers. Bond lets the man go, but shoots him, and then shoots a nearby gas tank, causing a diversion for him to escape. Outside the embassy, Bond checks through the man’s backpack, finding his cellphone and his last received text, a text which only reads, “ELLIPSIS.”

After a short scene where Le Chiffre receives the news of Bond killing the bomber, we then see M (still played by the wonderful Judi Dench) walking through the halls of the house of parliament being her usual cheery self, berating Bond for his actions in Madagascar (“Christ, I miss the Cold War.”), meanwhile Bond is in her apartment using a laptop to scan the contents of the man’s phone, and tracing him back to a meeting with a man in the Ocean Club of the Bahamas. M comes in and of course starts slandering Bond for his actions, calling him a blunt instrument in the process. She ends it all with saying that he needs to go stick his head in the sand and think about his actions, and as he’s leaving, re-asures him to never break into her house again. I do have to say that I love Judi Dench’s M in the Daniel Craig films. It’s almost a different character than the one she portrayed in the Brosnan films, one with more character and more…overall action than the old one. Anyway, Bond takes these words as a chance to go to the Bahamas to meet the man that the bomber was associated with. He arrives at the Ocean Club and uses security cameras to identify him as Alex Dimitrios, as notified by his excellent choice of vehicles: an Aston Martin DB5. Later that night, Bond and Dimitrios sit down for a short game of poker, and Dimitrios, who has been losing money all night, bets his car on the game. Bond ultimately wins, getting Dimitrios’ DB5 and wife for the night.

His night with Solange Dimitrios (Caterina Murino) is cut short when she tells him that Dimitrios is on the last plane to Miami for the night. Bond heads after him and tracks him to the Body World exhibit in Miami, where Dimitrios places a valet key for his bag on a table inside. Bond confronts Dimitrios, where Dimitrios has a knife at the ready, pointed at Bond. The two tussle over who the knife ends up going into for a while before Bond gets the upper hand, killing Dimitrios and taking his phone. He goes to find the valet and the bag have both been taken, so Bond uses Dimitrios’s phone to find the last text (another ELLIPSIS) to call the sender, who turns out to be an unknown terrorist (Claudio Santamaria). Bond gets into a taxi and follows him to the Miami airport, follows him inside and until the terrorist changes into a security uniform.

Through MI6, Bond figures out that the terrorist is targeting a new airplane called the Skyfleet S570, which would be unveiling at the airport today. With that prototype destroyed, Le Chiffre would be getting his money back, plus more, as the Skyfleet stock would be plummeting due to the explosion. The terrorist commandeers a police car and drives out to a gas tanker truck, where he plants the explosive charge and proceeds to drive the truck out to the unveiling. Bond manages to jump on the truck before he gets too far. This is another in a long list of great action scenes in this movie. Powerful and beautifully shot, building suspense that never goes away even after almost 10 years of watching this movie over and over again. Bond and the man fight on the truck while being pursued by police, crashing through various obstructions and suffering minor explosions, until Bond notices the explosive charge hanging off of the truck. The man attempts to escape the truck, but Bond grabs him, hooking the explosive onto him and letting him go. Bond manages to get the truck to stop, the police arrest him, thinking he was the one behind this, but then the man explodes from his own charge, and the airplane survives. Meanwhile, Le Chiffre has lost millions of dollars due to his stock loss, and has only one option left.

Bond returns to the Bahamas to find Solange dead and MI6 investigating the scene. M talks to Bond about the deal last night at the airport, explaining who Le Chiffre is and that he was supposed to win a great deal of money, but due to the foiled plan he now has to resort to a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro in order to win back his client’s money. M sends Bond in because she knows he is the best poker player in the service, and because Le Chiffre needs to lose, so MI6 can offer sanctuary from his clients in return for all the inside info he knows. Bond is sent out, and on the train ride, he meets his partner for the mission, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a representative of the treasury. It’s obvious that she’s going to be the Bond girl of the film, but where previous Bond girls kinda seemed forced with the chemistry, Bond and Vesper hit it off immediately. The snarky wit goes back and forth between the two so beautifully and lovely and it’s obvious that something is going to spark between them.

Bond arrives in Montenegro and checks into his hotel with Vesper and he receives a parcel from MI6. Inside, he finds keys to his new car: an Aston Martin DBS. He takes Vesper out to meet his contact in Montenegro: Mathis (Giancarlo Gianinni) before getting ready for the poker game (through a very clever and fun little bit with Vesper in the hotel room). I also love this scene where Bond looks in the mirror after putting his tuxedo on and he kinda straightens himself out and investigates how he looks. I don’t know how anyone can deny Craig as Bond after that scene, because that tux looks damn good on him.

The poker game begins, and once again, it’s superb film work. The intensity and just the overall look as we see Bond and Le Chiffre stare each other down from opposite ends of the table is all suspenseful and beautiful. Bond eventually calls the barman over to order his drink, and instead of ordering the plain old martini (shaken, not stirred), he orders a very precise cocktail that’s taken straight out of the book. It’s a recipe so enticing that everyone in the room wants to try it (even I want to try it), but Le Chiffre gets angry, asking if everyone’s done. After a while, the game is paused for an hour, and Bond takes this opportunity to bug Le Chiffre. Bond and Vesper make their way to the hotel, meanwhile, the war lord from the beginning gets into Le Chiffre’s room and threatens both him and his girlfriend for the loss of his money. Bond grabs his pistol and attacks the war lords after they leave the room, growing into a fight in the stairwell that Vesper actually assists Bond in. At the end of it, Bond runs back to his room, has a momentary lapse of judgment (I like that), changes his shirt, and returns to the game. When Le Chiffre asks him if the game is causing him to perspire, Bond delivers the coldest line:

“A little…but I won’t consider myself in trouble until I start weeping blood.”

The poker games finish for the night and Bond returns to his room to find Vesper crying within the shower. He sits down with her and proceeds to comfort her due to the actions she had to help with earlier that night.

The next day, things get interesting. Bond believes Le Chiffre has a tell for when he is bluffing at the table, but it turns out to be the opposite. Bond ends up losing his way out of the game, and being fed up with waiting, takes a knife that he intends to use in killing Le Chiffre. He’s stopped along the way by Felix Leiter (Jeffery Wright), who formally introduces himself, sparking the relationship between the two that fell over the many years leading up to when we last saw him in Licence to Kill. Leiter offers Bond his place in the game to buy himself back in, as long as Bond gives Le Chiffre to Leiter and the Americans. Bond agrees and returns to the table with his new place within the game. But, it only gets worse, as Le Chiffre’s girlfriend poisons Bond’s next martini. Bond leaves the table as cardiac arrest starts to go into his system. He attempts to throw it up to no avail, so his last resort is going to his car outside and using the defibrillator inside the glove box. MI6 talks him through the process over his earpiece, and he follows them, however he forgets one of the plugs and the defibrillator fails, causing Bond to pass out. He’s saved at the last minute by Vesper, who rushes out to plug it all in and pump Bond back to life.

Bond returns to the table and finally wins the game with a straight flush. He takes Vesper out on a congratulatory dinner, where she asks him how it’s so simple for him to turn on and off so easily when he does his job. They talk for a while until Mathis calls for her to leave. The truth is that Le Chiffre has kidnapped her. Bond notices and bolts out to his car to give chase. Now, I love any standard Bond chase, but I particularly love how this movie handles the chase here, because…there is no chase. Yep, the movie sets it up and makes you think there’s going to be one, but no. What actually happens is Le Chiffre ties up Vesper and lays her in the road. Bond swerves to miss her and ends up flipping his car (a staggering six times, which is a world record). Le Chiffre’s men drag Bond out of the car, Le Chiffre reveals that Mathis is actually his friend, and Bond is taken to a warehouse, where the two are tortured for information (how Bond is tortured is quite graphic for any man to watch, I will say that). They are saved when a man from the organization of Quantum comes in and kills Le Chiffre, saying they no longer trusted him.

Bond wakes up at a caretaking facility with Mathis and Vesper, and thus begins the more slow parts of the film. Mathis is taken away by MI6 agents for betraying Bond, Vesper and Bond get to know each other more, and fall more in love with each other to the point where Bond is ready to quit and spend the rest of his life with her. The two travel to Venice to celebrate the idea. Vesper heads out to the bank to deposit Bond’s winnings from the poker game for them to use as they travel around the world, while Bond sticks around. He suddenly gets a call from M, who says the treasury hasn’t yet received any notification that Bond has deposited his winnings to the treasury yet. Shocked, Bond calls up the representative of the bank where the money was being held, and the representative tells him it’s being withdrawn as they speak. Much to his shock, Vesper betrayed him.

Bond goes out to find her, and tracks her down to a meeting with a few men. A man in a hat and half sunglasses spots him, so he grabs Vesper and takes her hostage. Bond chases them into a nearby house, and the firefight begins. Bond takes down each one of the henchmen one at a time while Vesper is locked in an elevator. While the fighting is going on, a few stray bullets hit the floating bags at the bottom of the house, and it starts sinking into the canals below. Bond picks off the men one by one, trying to get rid of them so he can save the steadily sinking Vesper in the elevator. As he kills the last man, he looks over to notice the elevator falling into the water. He jumps and goes to rescue Vesper, but Vesper decides to sacrifice herself due to the guilt and grief of betraying Bond. He desperately tries to save her at the last minute, but is unable to, as Vesper sinks to the bottom of the elevator and dies.

Bond goes back up with her body and attempts to resuscitate her, but all attempts fail. He leaves the scene to call M, who really only has one thing to ask him, if he trusts anyone. She explains that Vesper had a boyfriend that was captured, tortured, and killed by the organization behind Le Chiffre, and that Vesper ended up bargaining the money for Bond to be kept alive after rescuing them from Le Chiffre. M offers more time for Bond to grieve, but Bond refuses, delivering one of the most chilling lines straight out of the Casino Royale book:

“Why should I need more time? The job’s done…and the bitch is dead.”

Bond then looks down at Vesper’s phone as it receives a text message. The message reveals the name and location of a Mr. White. Bond takes this as a clue to go see who he is. The last scene of the film involves the Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) driving up to his mansion. He gets out and surveys the countryside when he receives a call from Bond. As he asks just who it is, he receives a gunshot to the leg, and as he crawls up to his doorstep, he looks up to see Bond. Bond finally formally introduces himself in that ever-amazing way:

“The name’s Bond…James Bond.”

So, you know, it takes a special kind of movie to make us forget about the train wreck that was Die Another Day. Is Casino Royale that movie? In short: yes.

The movie is so gorgeously shot, for one. Where Die Another Day was full of choppy speed edits, Casino Royale has smooth transitions, long takes to set up setting, and such bright and vibrant colors (rather odd considering this is a much darker Bond). Martin Campbell is a genius when it comes to this series. I really think I’d choose him over the likes of Guy Hamlin or John Glen, and definitely over that half-wit hackjob Lee Tamahori.

Just like Campbell’s other Bond film, my beloved Goldeneye, this one has yet another fantastic cast. Eva Green plays such a cool Vesper Lynd, but still is able to play a fragile character through the thick of it. Mads Mikkelsen is dark and cold, a perfect Le Chiffre, and a perfect match for Bond. I can’t even bring out a single bad actor from the entire cast, main cast or secondary cast.

But the real star of the film is Daniel Craig, obviously, and I have to say: If you ever doubted Craig as Bond, you are an idiot. There’s no other way to put it, and I’m sorry if it offends you (actually I’m not), but Craig is a perfect Bond. He’s cool, he’s charming, and he’s a splitting image of Fleming’s character. He is amazing as Bond, I can’t stress that enough, and I’m glad to say he only gets better.

You might have already guessed my rating for the film already, and if you guessed 5 out of 5 stars, you were correct. I said this in my The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill reviews: we don’t get these kinds of Bond movies often, and when we do, they’re something to cherish. Craig is today’s Dalton, and it’s an amazing and welcome comparison.

Thank you to the team ofDaniel Craig, Martin Campbell, Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen.

You brought this franchise back from the dead, and it’ll live on for a long, long time.