Casino Royale - DVD

Bond is back, but is it any good?

Reviewer: Dan Hall
Review Date: 21 March 2007
Price as reviewed: £20
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Our score

9/10

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Reader score

3/10

Reader review

User: mrswing (profile)
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Date Posted: 4 June 2007
Review: Back to basics and beyond, Casino Royale restarts the Bond saga and remorselessly dumps everything which made it special: the glamour, the quips, the spectacle, the larger-than-life atmosphere (though admittedly the most recent films went way over the top in this regard), and the wit.

Daniel Craig is a good actor but turns Bond into a joyless, witless thug. He's also visibly tense and ill at ease in the role. Eva Green is utterly miscast as love of Bond's life Vesper Lynn, and the plot is so minimal that it's almost not worth bothering with. This film starts with a bang (parkour chase - spectacular though ultimately pointless), and then becomes progressively smaller in scope until it ends with an utterly run-of-the-mill shootout against anonymous villains. Judi Dench should have been dropped along with the other 'old-time' Bond accoutrements.

Gadgets and sci-fi elements have disappeared almost completely, which makes the occasional gadgetry (cell phone, a defibrillator in the Aston Martin) all the sillier. In fact, the more you think about the events in the film, the less sense they make - and with the desperately serious tone, that's a bad thing.

A Bond rethink was in order - but this is the wrong way to go.
Pros: The parkour chase, the soundtrack, things can only get better from here on in.
Cons: dull plot, strips all the fun away from the Bond experience, unappealing Bond-girl,
Score: 3/10
Rating: 10 people have rated this review helpful