REVIEW #174 Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale is the first of five Daniel Craig Bond films. Having just been promoted to 007, James Bond is tasked with stopping international mob banker Le Chiffer by beating him at an ultra high stakes poker game. 

It was nice to revisit the first Daniel Craig Bond film, it’s been years since I have, but unfortunately I enjoyed it far less upon this rewatch. The film kicks off brilliantly with a cliche spy introduction to the new James Bond and it soon follows up with an impressive action chase across a construction site, which was extremely entertaining. However the rest of the first act and the entirety of the second was just unnecessary filler that, if I’m honest, bored me. Nothing of significance really occurs except a couple of mediocre action scenes that delays the antagonists plans. Now the third act is where the film really hits it’s stride, the moment Eva Green arrives portraying Vesper, the accountant assigned to assist Bond, the audience finally has an interesting relationship it can route for. I loved the back and forth between the two characters and although we all knew they would eventually end up together, the build up was still fun to watch. The poker game was brilliant and the events that followed soon after helped pick up the pace to provide a strong ending for the film. I don’t think the cinematography necessarily stands out above other James Bond films but it did create a classic spy genre vibe with a strong use of shadows, silhouettes and free flowing action sequences, which I appreciated. The musical score was good but very overused in my opinion, not every scene needed it. Overall it was a solid start for Daniel Craig with strong performances across the board but it certainly went down in my ratings upon this rewatch. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan