‘Casino Royale’

Starring: Daniel Craig

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Three out of five stars

Mission accomplished. ‘Casino Royale’ is a successful reinvention of the James Bond franchise. This offers a modern update of the over-the-top Bond with which we are familiar- all the remote controlled cars, eccentric villains and girls named Pussy Galore are gone. We now have drowning, strangulation, body bags and, in a new standard for the franchise, scrotum torture scenes.

The movie begins with Bond on an assignment required for him to achieve double-O status. This sequence is shot in gorgeous black and white and is an excellent nod to the cheesy spy movies that inspired the character. After that, Bond gets behind the wheel of an Aston Martin and never slows down through to the extremely satisfying conclusion. Everything that defines the franchise is here in its purest form. There is explosive action, sizzling dames, tons of machismo and plenty of espionage. Oh, did I forget that scrotum torture?

Nothing in this film stands out like this testicular torture scene. It goes down like this: Bond is in the enemy’s clutches and they do what most Bond enemies do; they take him to a dungeon, tie his stark naked body to a chair and assault his balls. It’s Bond done ‘Saw’ style and, like the machismo in the film, it’s a little too much.

According to television, radio and film professor Doug Brode, Bond should be a half-and-half blend of macho and suave. The Bond here is way too macho, and the film suffers from it. The smooth scenes with love interest Vesperd Lynd, the lovely Eva Green, fall flat because Bond-the-eliminator is not as convincing as Bond-the-lover.

Daniel Craig, the actor who plays Bond, is capable of being totally smooth; he did it to perfection in the film ‘Layer Cake.’ Therefore, the responsibility of this mishandling of a crucial aspect of the character lies with the writers. It seems they have been inspired by the nonstop killing of the 007 video games, and not the character defined by Ian Fleming’s novels and the original films.

‘Casino Royale’ is a great movie; it just isn’t a perfect Bond film. It has expert direction, sound, acting and special effects. The Bond girls are hot, the locations are gorgeous, the action is almost perfect and the spy elements are there. The filmmakers have successfully reinvented the character for this century. If the 21st-century Bond has to prove his masculinity by getting his royal jewels whipped, I guess that’s what it takes to fit in. I’ll just think about the good old days of ‘Goldfinger’ and Pussy Galore.

Published on November 17, 2006 at 12:00 pm