Casino Royale

I saw Casino Royale!!!

This is I think, the 21st Bond movie. I've never been a massive fan of James Bond. I loved GoldenEye, but all the Brosnan ones following that were awful. They were boring and unrealistic. Occasionally, I'll catch one of the early Bonds on TV, they don't look bad, but not nearly good enough to keep me tuned in. I dig Daniel Craig, I liked him in Munich and Layer Cake and Road to Perdition. He's just a cool dude, and a major reason I wanted to see Casino Royale.

This is a prequel of sorts for Bond, detailing how he became a double 0, and his very first mission, which was to win a high stakes poker game with Mads Mikkelsen, a banker to the worlds' terrorist. Mads Mikkelsen looked really familiar, and it turned out he was Tonny in the Pusher trilogy.

I am going to be very disjointed in this review, because that is how I want to be.

There is a great scene in the beginning where Bond is chasing a guy who happens to be a master of Le Parkour, the stuff you see on District B13. I don't think a lot of people in the audience had seen this stuff before, so they were shocked by the moves and jumps the guy was making. It was also a funny contrast between the chased and Bond, whereas the chased would make this amazing jumps and moves, and Bond would just crash through walls.

This movie was an all around great action movies. I think there are three types of action movies. The Very Realistic (ala Michael Mann action movies) The Not So Realistic (Bond movies and a lot of the other mainstream action movies) and the Hyper Unrealistic (Running Scared, Crank). They all have their good and bad. This one is at the forefront of the Not So Realistic. I mean, of course you gotta suspend disbelief at parts, it's just an action movie. But there is still a glimmer of realism there, and the characters are so well fleshed out. The story, which sounds simple, is also great, and the poker game, I wish it had gone on twice as long. Unfortunately, it ends rather abruptly.

My gripes comes in with plot mainly. For one, as the card game plotline comes to an end, there is a very long denouement-like period. However, it is a false ending, because there is still another large action scene to come. This pacing just did not work. The denouement period is where Bond and Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, fall in love and run off to Italy together. It all comes together in the end however, I just think it would have been aided by better pacing.

Also, there were small nitpicks that threw me. Biggest example being, at the beginning of the movie, Bond and another guy are tailing Le Parkour Guy. Le Parkour receives a text that says Ellipsis. Eventually, Bond gets that cell phone and traces it to a guy named Dimitrios that texted him that message. Later, Dimitrios leaves a bag in Miami for a guy that dresses up like an airport security guard. The guy uses the Ellipsis code on a door at the Miami airport, in a plan to blow up a plane. Now, why did Le Parkour receive that text? I would be fine with it if he was the original plane-bomber, but he was COVERED in burns. Is he seriously going to pass for a guard? I don't know if he spoke English either.

Also, Vesper gets a text from a guy working for the good guys at the card game, and says "Mathis (the guy) needs me," and leaves. Suddenly, Bond says "Mathis!", realizing Mathis is double crossing them, and chases after Vesper (too late though, Vesper gets caught). Now, where did this moment of clairvoyance come from? How did he suddenly just know Mathis was setting Vesper up to get kidnapped?

So, Casino Royale was a very good action movie, with only a few problems with plot and pacing. It was also a great Bond movie, and I would definitely watch any Bond movie that had Daniel Craig in the lead role.

The Fountain tonight!!