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Casino RoyaleFew pop cultural phenomena prove that the memory deceives quite like the James Bond series. Indeed, if previous generations were to be believed, the 007 saga was an effortlessly excellent affair peppered with Coward-esque bon mots and performances that recall Laurence Olivier in his pomp.
In reality, Bond on the big screen has been a hit-or-miss affair almost from the beginning. And since the last film, Die Another Day, was the sort of miss that suggests the Brocolli/Wilson producer team would have a hard time hitting a cow's arse with a banjo, it's lately looked as if Bond's as much a relic of yesteryear as the Cold War.
Whether Daniel Craig could restore the series to high estate has interested many and obsessed some ever since the news broke that the role of Bond was being handed to a serious ac-tor. Those who feared that giving the Enduring Love star a licence to kill was the worst decision since hiring George Lazenby to takeover from Sean Connery need fret no longer. For in Craig, the Bond series has not only uncovered the natural successor to Edinburgh's most famous milkman, but it's arguably found a presence closest to the one suggested by Ian Fleming's novels.
Casino Royale is the best Bond movie since Live And Let Die. Turning the clock back to the beginning of Bond's career in international espionage, we start off seeing how he secured his '00' status. Then from the grainy black-and-white of a Prague winter it's off to the searing heat of Madagascar where Craig cuts his teeth on the sort of action sequence that would bring Vic Armstrong out in a cold sweat.
From there, the newly-minted super-spy embarks on a globe-spanning trip that takes in the Bahamas, Miami and Eastern Europe as he tries to unsettle Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a debt-ridden terrorist bankroller who hopes to balance the books by winning a valuable poker tournament. Bond's hopes of bringing the villain to heel depend on his card sharp skills and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a Foreign Affairs accountancy type with a head for numbers and a body for... well, you can guess the rest.
As beautiful as Eva Green is, her character is a cut-above your average Bond girl. In many ways the equal of 007, Lynd is the most interesting woman Bond has encountered since he got hitched to Diana Rigg's Tracy Di Vicenzo. In fact, Casino Royale is what On Her Majesty's Secret Service might have been like had 007 been played by a real actor rather than Lazenby, a bloke whose skills didn't extend much beyond flogging mint chocolate.
In its reach for realism, Bond's crazy gadgets are ditched, along with John Cleese's Q and the ballad of James and Miss Moneypenny. The bad guys are more credible, with the undersea volcano-inhabiting, cat-stroking megalomaniacs replaced by a combination of African despots and faceless European types.
Not that Bond has altered too much. Just as director Martin Campbell reinvigorated the franchise with GoldenEye, here he matches the excess of Bond with the stark reality that has made Jason Bourne Hollywood's spy du jour. But while he's embraced the idea of close-range hand-to-hand combat and a 007 who sheds blood and tears, it's nice that Campbell hasn't said au revoir to all the daft aspects of the sub-genre - James Bond still inhabits a world where, once a revolver is emptied, it is then thrown at the enemy.
Regardless of whether you're a long-standing fan of the series or someone whose first encounter with Bond was the dire Die Another Day, Casino Royale's a film to restore your faith in both Britain's top spy and epic action adventure - to suggest it'd win a fight with the miserable Mission: Impossible III is like saying Tom Cruise is mildly interested in Scientology. And as for Daniel Craig donning the tuxedo, those who spent nights pacing the lounge, worried about whether a blond could play Bond need lose no more sleep. Not that they had much to fear in the first place. After all, Roger Moore had sandy coloured hair when he started out. And as for Sean Connery, the shade of his barnet always depended upon where he bought it from.
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