Casino Royale (2006)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Martin Campbell

Writers (WGA):

Neal Purvis (screenplay) &
Robert Wade (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

17 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Everyone has a past. Every legend has a beginning. On November 17th, discover how James...became Bond.

Plot:

In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

Plot Keywords:

Poker | Terrorist | Montenegro | James Bond | MI6

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 15 wins & 25 nominations

Cast

Daniel Craig	...	James Bond
Eva Green	...	Vesper Lynd
Mads Mikkelsen	...	Le Chiffre
Judi Dench	...	M
Jeffrey Wright	...	Felix Leiter
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Mathis
Caterina Murino	...	Solange
Simon Abkarian	...	Alex Dimitrios
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Steven Obanno (as Isaach De Bankole)
Jesper Christensen	...	Mr. White
Ivana Milicevic	...	Valenka
Tobias Menzies	...	Villiers
Claudio Santamaria	...	Carlos
Sebastien Foucan	...	Mollaka (as Sébastien Foucan)
Malcolm Sinclair	...	Dryden

Also Known As:

Bond 21 (UK) (working title)
Bond Begins (USA) (fake working title)
Bond XXI (UK) (working title)
James Bond 007 - Casino Royale (Germany)
James Bond 21 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content and nudity.

Runtime:

144 min

Country:

USA | UK | Germany | Czech Republic

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-15 | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Belgium:KT | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Spain:18 | Hong Kong:IIA | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Malaysia:U | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Brazil:14 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #42012) (cut version) | Portugal:M/12 | UK:12 (video rating) (cut) | UK:12A (cinema rating) (cut) | South Korea:15 | Denmark:11 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | South Africa:13V | France:U (with warning) | India:UA | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

"The Canals", Venice, Veneto, Italy

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Most of the cars seen in the movie are made by Ford Motor Company. In the scene where Bond acts as a valet the cars in the parking lot are Land Rovers, Volvos, Jaguars and other Ford Motor Company's cars.

Goofs:

Continuity: Sunlight direction - and also the position of the sun - frequently changes when Bond fights Mollaka on the crane. For example, when Mollaka jumps down the higher crane, the sun is behind him, and when lands is shines from front. There is also a remarkable change, when Bond jumps down.

Quotes:

[first lines]
James Bond: M really doesn't mind you earning a little money on the side, Dryden. She'd just prefer it if it wasn't selling secrets.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Have I Got News for You: (#33.4)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Linstead Market

A Royale without cheese.

CR is a major step-up from the flamboyant Die Another Day. Obnoxious 50-something runt Pierce Brosnan has been replaced by a young Daniel Craig, there is no Q, no campy gadgets, no silly naked women silhouettes in the opening credits, no world-dominating super-colossus villains, no Miss Funnyfanny (or whatever) and no silly one-liners after killing bad guys. Basically everything that can date Bond film very quickly is gone. I never expected international espionage to look the way it has in past few Bond outings and I'm glad someone had the balls to go back to the hard-edged nature of the series, last seen in Licence to Kill.

The longest Bond movie so far, at 145 minutes, but it breezes by even though it reigns in on the normally excessive action scenes and depicts spying a more 'mundane' and 'realistic' manner (or at least as true as the series has been so far). But the one-thing that bugs me about action movies, particularly the Bond franchise, is that they are, most of the time, childish male fantasies with an indestructible hero who has fun shooting up the place and beds beautiful women. I would like something new for a change but CR does have Bond get hurt and go through more pain than he has previously.

Daniel Craig has been given a lot of hassle over his casting as Bond (like Clive Owen, Jude 'Mr Pretension' Law or 10-year-old girl masquerading as a grown man Orlando Bloom WOULDN'T have been a big mistake?) but not only does he have his youth as an advantage (he's the first 30-something to be cast in the role since Lazenby), he's also pretty damn trim, has the intensity Brosnan lacked and is surprisingly loose in a role that usually requires actors to be stiff and unemotional. It's also good to a fresh face in the role and who cares if he is blonde? Or the shortest actor to play him so far?

I would have preferred that composer David Arnold went too. They didn't seem to be holding back on the amount of regular production team members who got axed. Even Vic Armstrong didn't return. I've never liked Arnold's work on the movies and I hate to think of it as something that's now exclusively HIS baby. But the theme song was cool, despite the criticism and it was cool to have the Bond theme at the end instead of some tacky song.

I just wish the product placements would go too. Nice try attempting to 'subtly' plug Blu-Ray Sony. But it ain't gonna work on me.

Now that the franchise has a different outlook, I hope some of Ian Fleming's more downbeat, not-exactly-blockbuster-material Bond stories can make it to the screen.