Casino Royale

The latest in the Bond line-up, Casino Royale is yet another of the prequels that are set in today's world. While I'm generally not a fan of rewriting a character to make him seem brand new - see for example the attempt to set up Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan in the film of Tom Clancy's novel Sum of All Fears - this attempt succeeds masterfully in allowing Daniel Craig to re-engineer Bond as much closer to that Fleming character seen so fleetingly in Sean Connery's original performance as Bond in Dr. No.

This film certainly shouldn't be confused with the 1967 comedy starring David Niven. Daniel Crag crafts a nasty yet vulnerable Bond - almost a sheep in wolf's clothing, perhaps more like a ram.

The plot: Fresh out on the streets, Bond is out to make a name for himself. Apparently it takes 2 kills to get the much revered '00' - and we see Bond rack his 2 up in the first few minutes. The rest of the film substantially increased the body count - if they had one, he'd be on the '000' rank by the second reel.

He is assigned a fairly straightforward job to arrest some sort of courier, but after a junior assistant screws up the surveillance, Bond turns the suqsequent chase into a full-blown international incident. Scalded by M, he sets about making up for his mistake.

Needless to say there are beautiful women and locations and the famous cars. Light on the gadget front, this Bond gets about on his killer blue eyes and bravado. He even shows a remarkable vulnerability when he falls in love with Treasury official Vesper Lynd and they decide to run away together.

The betrayal in the last act is palpable and we patently see the change in Bond at the climax. In the space of a couple of hours we see him transformed from an ambitious, driven young man, to lovelorn warrior, to the cold-blooded assassin that Her Majesty's Secret Service relies upon.

The rating: 9 out of 10. This is a welcome return to the early Bond genre, of the type that we saw in Dr No, before it became a franchise. We'll see whether Craig can do what even Connery couldn't - stay cold and amoral, yet fight for Queen and country.

The Casablanca comparison: In the relationship between Bond and Vesper is, over the course of Caisno Royale, akin to the flash back scenes betwen Rick and Ilsa - the meeting, falling in love under the shadow of death, then the betrayal. Alas, James doesn't get to see Vesper off on a plane to Lisbon; their fates are more somber. Rick takes a different path, his encounter with Ilsa reawakening his sense of justice. In a way, Bond also takes from his relationship with Lynd a sense of justice and duty - but no more will he find beautiful friendships, only a solitary, ongoing mission.

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