Casino Royale 
Widescreen 2 -Disc Special Edition
(Sony Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2006)
review by Head Cheeze

When I was a little kid, I was a hardcore James Bond fan. I lived for the gadgets and the crazy stunts; the submarine cars and space shuttle shoot-outs; women with names like Pussy Galore and henchmen with decapitating bowler caps. Sadly, these same hokey elements that once engaged us would be the very things that would drive me away from the franchise as my tastes migrated toward more realistic action heroes like Tom Ryan, Jason Bourne, and any film in which Clive Owen is given a gun.

Which brings me back to Bond.

You see, at one time, Clive Owen was considered the heir apparent after Pierce Brosnan’s run was through, but, apparently, no one ever bothered to ask him about it. They did ask another broody Brit, though, and, while not nearly as popular as Owen was at the time, Layer Cake headliner, Daniel Craig had a certain something (besides the blonde hair) that the Bond producers felt they could rebuild the franchise around.

And rebuild it they would.

Casino Royale is a total reboot of the Bond mythos, opening with a noirish black and white segment that introduces us to the craggly-faced James – more thug-for-hire than sauve agent. He’s there to kill a man, and that’s it. There’s no sense that what he’s doing is going to save the world or whether or not the man he’s there even deserves to die; there’s just a man and a job. We learn that it is with this assignment that Bond receives his double-0 credentials. In any other Bond film, this would have been met with a riotous pun, a roll in the sack, a Cuban cigar, and then, perhaps, a jetpack ride to the moon. In Casino Royale, we see James frantically scrubbing the blood of the man he’d just beaten to death off of his hands, barely able to meet his own eyes in the mirror above the grimy restroom sink.

In just these first few minutes, Daniel Craig completely wins me over. I also fear that I am developing a man-crush, and pull my wife closer to me to compensate.

The rest of the film stays somewhat true to the Bond formula in that we follow 007 around the world to exotic places while he tracks down bad guys – in this case, Le Chiffre (Pusher’s Mads Mikkelsen), an investment banker for terrorist groups with a knack for poker. When Le Chiffre loses an African warlord’s money in an investment scheme foiled by Bond, the banker throws together a one-hundred million dollar poker tournament in hopes of getting back his client’s money. Bond, no slouch at the game himself, takes part in the tournament with the goal of taking down Le Chiffre and giving him no option other than to turn state’s evidence against his many clients in exchange for protection from her majesty.

What I really love about this whole plot is that, while it’s still slightly fantastic, it’s not above the realm of possibility. I mean, Le Chiffre isn’t planning on melting Earth with a laser mounted on the moon, or sinking Florida with an army of giant robots; this is just a greedy guy who makes his living making wealthy evil organizations wealthier. If you don’t believe people like that exist, then you haven’t watched Jim Cramer. And, as for Bond, there’s nary an inexplicable gadget to be found. As a matter of fact, the only negative that Casino Royale shares in common with previous Bond films is that it seems like it runs about twenty minutes longer than it needs to, and I blame that on the subplot/relationship between Bond and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). While it’s obviously yet another humanizing element in this Bond makeover, I just sort of felt that it dragged the final act to a halt, sullying what was an otherwise spectacular film.

The DVD from Sony is a two-disc set, but the 144 minute feature takes up a whole disc unto itself, so for extra goodies you’ll need to spool up disc two, which offers up a trio of featurettes, and a music video for Chris Cornell’s catchy theme song.

It’s truly something to see an aging franchise come roaring back with such raw energy. By dumping all of the elements that had long ago drowned it in a sea of self-parody, the James Bond franchise has resurfaced with newfound relevance. It’s sad to say, but tough times call for even tougher action heroes, and it’s nice to know that 007 is still up to the job.