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Craig. Daniel Craig.
In case you missed all the hoohah�all the speculation, followed by The Big Announcement, followed by the outrage among fans, followed by threats of boycotts�Craig is the New Bond. The New Blonde Bond.
I know, I know. I thought it was a crazy move, too. But I decided to keep an open mind as I took my seat and got ready to watch the new 007.
Casino Royale is set at the beginning of Bond�s career. In fact, he earns his 007 status during the opening credits. But after the new 007 gets caught on camera shooting an unarmed man, M (Judi Dench) tells him to lay low for a while. Never really being one to follow orders, Bond heads to the Bahamas, where he thwarts a plan involving a new prototype airplane�and he ends up costing a banker named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) over $100 million that isn�t really his to lose. The money belongs to international terrorists who don�t really trust Le Chiffre to begin with�so, to get the money back, he sets up a $10 million buy-in poker game at the Casino Royale, confident that his mathematical genius will help him win.
To stop Le Chiffre, M sends Bond to join in the game with $10 million of the government�s money�along with Treasury employee Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), who�s supposed to keep an eye on him.
Right from the start of Casino Royale, you know this is a Bond unlike any Bond you�ve seen before�and not just because of the hair color. This Bond is a grittier Bond�one who�s not afraid to get his hands dirty, or to get cuts on his pretty face. And the film is much more violent�and bloodier�than you�d expect.
But I�ll cut right to the question at hand: What about Craig? Is he a dynamic actor? Definitely. Does he give a good performance? Sure. Is he Bond? Not really. I tried to see it. I tried really hard. But I couldn�t. In fact, I sometimes forgot that I was watching a Bond film�because Craig just didn�t feel like Bond. I realize that the Broccolis chose Craig to shake things up a bit�to show a younger, more impulsive, more rough-around-the-edges, even more na�ve Bond. But when I see Craig, I see him as more suited to play a tough, muscle-bound Dublin street thug�not a suave, sophisticated, well-groomed secret agent who was born to wear a tuxedo.
That aside, however, Casino Royale is actually a pretty decent Bond film�definitely better than some of the more recent ones, with a much more believable plot. Fortunately, it�s not nearly as ridiculous as Die Another Day. Despite the fact that it�s an unnecessarily long two and a half hours long�and there are some scenes that could have been much shorter�it has plenty of gadgets and explosions and action-packed scenes to keep you entertained. And it still fits much of the typical Bond formula: evil villain, smooth one-liners, and plenty of beautiful girls. Relative unknown Eva Green is even a refreshingly believable Bond girl (as opposed to, say, Denise Richards).
But there are a few subtle differences, too. I was a bit surprised, for instance, that there weren�t any writhing female silhouettes in the opening credits�and this young Bond doesn�t even care if his martinis are shaken or stirred (!). But it�s only fitting, since this new Bond is still working on becoming the Bond we all know and (usually) love.
So as this new Bond matures into the Bond he�s supposed to be, maybe Craig will, too. But he�s got a long way to go.
If you can get beyond the whole Craig-as-Bond thing, though, Casino Royale is worth checking out�even if you�re not a big Bond fan. In fact, it�s probably best if you aren�t.
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