Casino Royale – 4 ½ / 5 stars
The name’s Bond. James Bond.
Leading up to the new James Bond film, No Time To Die, I am going to be watching and rewatching all of the previous Daniel Craig Bond films. First off, Casino Royale. Starting off his career as 007, James Bond sets off on a mission working up the ladder of rich terrorist-funder, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). Funded by Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) and the Treasury, he travels to Montenegro to play in a $150 million high stakes poker game.
Casino Royale was released November 17, 2006 and was directed by Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, The Mark of Zorro). I thought this movie was awesome. It had all the components of a great spy movie – Great action, parkour, fancy suits, cool cars, high stakes poker, backstabbing and a cool, evolving story. I haven’t seen the older Bond films, but I thought Craig did a great job portraying the character by being smooth, charismatic, and staying calm under pressure. It was also cool seeing Bond discover his classic “look”- a sleek tuxedo – and “drink” – a martini shaken not stirred. It was also cool seeing the old school Aston Martin from the older Bond films, as well as the newer model for the new Bond.
Overall, I’d rate this movie 4 ½ / 5 stars because I still really enjoyed it. The movie holds up well, and I know the events in this movie play a role in some of the later ones, so it’ll be interesting watching them all in order to see how they all fit together. I’d definitely recommend giving this a watch, or a re watch, to get ready for No Time To Die, which was set to release April 10 but was delayed until November 25 due to the Coronavirus in China. Unfortunate but I still know it’ll be great.