Review of Casino Royale (2006) by Barrys. — 02 Jan 2007

As a youngster, I loved the Bond films and particularly ones starring Connery. In the years since, I had been growing tired of the cartoonish Bond, the man who could never lose at anything and who, when all else failed, would simply use a gadget to extricate himself from his dilemma.

In fact, from the moment each gadget was issued to him, one could envision just when that life-saving device would come in handy. Everything about Bond had become stale and predictable. Casino Royale is not perfect.

The villains roles and their relationships to each other could be better defined and the movie drags in small bits. But the overall product is the first Bond film worth seeing in years. Craig does a great job as the pre-quel Bond.

Here's hoping Craig returns and builds on what he has started. With more experience and a growing reputation Bond is poised to act more cleverly and even be outfitted with some state of the art gadgetry, some of which he may not use despite having it.

If you like a more realistic Bond and a story that was not simply re-written and repackaged, then you will like the new Bond. I look forward to what is in store for 007 now that he has someplace to go other than cartoon land.