Casino Triumph

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant and can I just add a final Brilliant.
As you know, I am a huge Bond fan and have been awaiting this movie for over a year. You may remember that I addressed the furore over Daniel Craig being cast in the role earlier. I thought he was a good choice, but nothing prepared me for just how damned good, Casino Royale is. It has replaced On Her Majesty's Secret Service as my favourite Bond film, and it is easily the best movie of the year, full stop.

Casino Royale is based on Ian Fleming's original novel, but with a post 9/11 terrorism theme, blended in like a well shaken Vodka Martini. After Bond stops a terrorist attack on a superplane, he is reluctantly sent by M to Casino Royale in Montenegro. His mission to stop terrorist fundraiser Le Chiffre from raising more funds on the poker table. What follows is an incredibly tense thriller with Bond having to win the game, otherwise the British government will be directly funding terrorism. Never has a game of poker been so tense...

What makes this very interesting, is that the Bond film-makers have wound the clock back, and this adventure is Bond's 1st, like the original book. Although set in the present day, 007 has only just made his first two kills, to gain his 00 status and is seen as reckless by M. Bond is only put on the mission because his card playing skills are the best in M15. Gone are the gadgets, Q and Moneypenny. This film is about James Bond, the man, the spy and how he begins his career.

Daniel Craig is nothing short of sensational in the role, he brings a vulnerability to the role, when he falls for the treasury girl, Vesper Lynd sent to keep an eye on him by M. None of the previous actors could have portrayed this as well. However, its the violent intensity that Craig brings to the killing/action side of the role that is startling, you actually believe he is the hired killer of Fleming's world. The opening black and white sequence when Bond kills his first victim in a nasty looking public toilet is out of place in a 12A certificate movie but quite superb. There is also a terrific punch up on a staircase which made the audience gasp due to its violence and technical skill. Craig also handles the one-liners with ease, although there are not as many.

Mads Mikkelson who is an impressive Danish Actor (check out the Pusher Trilogy) oozes evil as Le Chiffre. The scene when he tortures Bond is one of the screen's nastiest torture scenes since Marathon Man. Although graphically violent, it was in the original novel, so well done Director Martin Campbell for including it.

The only criticism I have of the film, is it's certificate. I love a violent action film as much as anybody, but this is wrongly certified for financial reasons. Eon now insist on a bond film being a 12A for maximum audience revenue. A man having his testicles flogged with a piece of rope until he is near death, is not suitable for young children, is it? It is a clear certificate 15, like Licence To Kill.

The girls are all stunning, Caterina Murino as Solange has to be one of the worlds most beautiful women.

Eva Green is wonderful as Vesper Lynd, the film's main Bond girl. A strong character for once, and she is vital to the plot, Bond actually falls in love with her. There is an amusing spiky-ness, and then a believable tenderness to her scenes with Craig, which bring to mind, the similar relationship in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

The action sequences are all breath-taking, the scene when Bond chases a villian through a building site, free jumping all over Cranes, pipes and debris, will surely go down as one of the best ever filmed. The shoot-out in a crumbling venice building is also jaw-dropping.

I hope Craig stays in the role, for a very long time because he has made the role his own. This is quite something, considering the stick he has had to endure. Craig also had the legacy of other great Bonds to compete with such as Connery and Brosnan, but incredibly his Bond outclasses them in just one film.

A Masterpiece, then. Not something you could expect to say over something so populist as a Bond film.