Casino Royale (2006)

REVIEW
The 007 franchise has gone through several transmutations over the years: slick mod; hackneyed pop; cartoon pablum; ironic self-reflexive action-adventure; just plain bad. This Casino Royale goes back to its harsher, meaner literary source, with the requisite technological updates and a contemporary dismal world view.

Daniel Craig ratchets up his Layer Cake outlaw persona to a near-psychotic level. His Bond, James Bond, exhibits a cunning, bestial intelligence and a crystalline focus unencumbered by any hindrance of morality or guilt. His assignment is Le Chiffre (aka "The Number"), who runs an equal-opportunity money laundering operation for the world’s terrorists and dictators, and appears to be manipulating international markets for fun and profit. But he’s sustained heavy losses recently and has set up a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale with the intention of recouping his losses. Bond, the newest Double-0 in the M-16 organization, will be financed for the game, assigned to ensure Le Chiffre’s defeat and the dissolution of his entire organization. M (a vibrant Judi Dench) sees Bond as reckless and entrusts his stake to another agent, the beautiful Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), to hold the purse strings. Then the games begin.

Director Martin Campbell, who helmed Pierce Brosnan’s quite successful debut as the enigmatic agent, propels the story with relentless celerity and unadulterated, hardcore brutality: Casino Royale sets new standards for the genre. The supporting cast is superb, the locales are used to maximum effect, and the atmosphere sustains an electric crackle. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but a state-of-the-art delight for aficionados.