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Craig challenges Connery as best ever Bond
By
Nick Curtis
6 Nov 2006
Those polls that regularly dub Sean Connery the best James Bond ever may look a little different next time round. In the thrilling, franchise- reviving Casino Royale, Daniel Craig lays serious claim to the role.
Blond and blue-eyed, with a rock-hard sixpack and an attitude to match, he is the first Bond since Connery to exude an air of menace. He's also funnier than Roger Moore, and more of a credibly ruthless womaniser than Pierce Brosnan. And he's the first Bond who bleeds, literally and metaphorically.
Director Martin Campbell lets us know early on that the whole Bond business has been stripped back to basics, shaken and stirred and given a twist. In a black-and-white prologue we see the agent winning his licence to kill with a messy murder in a bathroom and a cold-hearted execution.
There's not a girl to be seen in the beautifully animated credits, the first chase is on foot through a Madagascan building site, and the first cars Craig's 007 drives are a bulldozer and a hired Ford, before the famous Aston Martin DB5 is stirred wittily-into the mix.
Campbell even addresses fans' fears about Craig's suitability for the role, by having Judi Dench's M wonder if she's promoted him too soon. There are sly, clever nods to Bond lore and several of the earlier films. These references are not so intrusive they would distract a newcomer - if indeed, there are any - but they gladden the heart of a fan.
The plot is a straightforward but clever updating of Ian Fleming's original novel. After Bond foils a plot to blow up a plane, thereby wrecking airline share prices, the "banker to the world's terrorists" Le Chiffre finds himself out of pocket. Threatened by some very angry warlords, he tries to make up his cash shortfall in a high-stakes card game in Montenegro.
Bond, initially acting on his own initiative having embarrassed the government, must make sure that doesn't happen. Oh, and he's accompanied to the casino by Treasury girl Vesper Lynd, played by the fine and very beautiful French actress Eva Green.
Their verbal sparring and eventual union make this the most erotic Bond film in years, and give Craig room to show off his acting chops as well as his bared muscles. The latter are on display in a torture scene taken straight from the book and conducted with such sadistic relish by Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre, it will have men in cinemas across the country crossing their legs.
The locations are glamorous, but not absurdly so, the violence brutally real and the only real gadget is an in-car defibrillator. This may be yet another sly allusion by Campbell and his trio of writers - spearheaded by Crash's Paul Haggis - to the way they have restarted the whole Bond franchise by pumping in new blood.
Criticisms? Well, it's a bit long, and Eva Green, though stunning, also looks alarmingly thin. Le Chiffre's habit of weeping blood seems to be a theatrical attribute left over from an earlier script-draft. I wonder, too, whether today's terrorists still do business with suitcases full of money, like the one tossed around in the finale that takes place in a collapsing house in Venice. But these are very minor quibbles.
Casino Royale is brilliantly exciting, and a triumph for Craig. I watched most of it with a huge grin plastered across my face. Bond is back.
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Reader views (10)
After watching Layer Cake I told my friends Craig would be fantastic as Bond. Everyone disagreed. I was ecstatic when he was chosen for the role last year. It was negative reaction all round. The first trailer came out - a few people came over to the bright side. The second trailer brought more including my friends to seeing he could be good. Now I am sure most will agree he's up there with Connery.
They said he was humorless - I say watch the film.
I think it would be a good idea to have him go on missions set inbetween the movies we know. starting with one just after 'From Russia With Love'.
Thanks Daniel Craig
You Rock!
- Ryan, London, 20/11/2006 02:57
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Can I say, it's really weird seeing your own name on the big screen!
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Everyone who said Craig was a bad choice, hang your head in shame! He's edgy, vurnerable, emotional. His one liners are delivered perfectly and are genuinely funny. Really looking forward to how this Bond develops.
And how about those awesome opening titles?!
- Daniel Craig (Really), Edinburgh, 19/11/2006 21:10
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Those looking for the camp humour favoured by Roger Moore may be a little disappointed, but don’t take this as meaning the film is completely humourless.
Gone are the cheesy sexual innuendos, being replaced with witty comebacks and clever puns (For example, after Bond barely escapes with his life during a break in Tenez Les Cartes, he returns to the table to a shocked look from the films antagonist Le Chiffre, with a smile he quips “I'm sorry, that last hand... nearly killed me.”)
The action set pieces are perfect, gone is overused CGI - everything you see here is real, from a free running parkour terrorist (Sebastien Foucan who plays bomb maker Mallaka) to a car chase that set a new world record in car flips.
The casting for the film is inspired, with perfect performances all round - though special note has to go to Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who makes Le Chiffre the best Bond villain for a long while (and no, he is not planning to take over the world), it is easy to forget that this is only Mikkelsen’s second English language film.
The direction (From a returning Martin Cambell - GoldenEye) is handled stylishly, with remembrance and style of the Bond films of the 60s as well as a film-noir Pre-Title Sequence, shot in black and white.
Look out for the 1964 Aston Marin DB5, find out how Bond’s Martini’s are really made (watch out, they’re strong) and pick out the winks to the Bond’s of old.
James Bond is back.
- James Rendle, London, UK, 16/11/2006 19:44
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007 is back and better than ever.
When Daniel Craig, 39, was cast as the British icon James Bond in October last year people acted as if Craig was a national enemy - hate campaigns, websites and press rumours all seemed to point to a terrible casting mistake, had EON productions finally flipped?
Thankfully the answer is no, the casting of Craig, who starred in Layer Cake and Steven Spielberg's Munich, was an inspired choice and a great way to turn around a rusty, yet still successful, franchise. After 2002’s disappointing Die Another Day, which relied heavily on GCI and over the top gadgets as well as an aging Pierce Brosnan, many Bond fans wondered where the series would go next - would they carry on in the same vein or would they do something drastic?
This has been answered with the release of the 21st Bond film “Casino Royale”, based on Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel of the same name, which introduces the British secret service agent to the world. In keeping with Fleming’s novel, which showed Bond early in his career, the producers have used the opportunity to completely overhaul the series and show Bond’s first mission as a 00 agent, though set firmly in 2006.
Daniel Craig is great as Bond, showing a masculinity and strength that Brosnan often lacked, the coolness of Sean Connery and realism of Timothy Dalton.
- James Rendle, London, UK, 16/11/2006 19:43
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Thats what I call cinema, thats art! Daniel Craig is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC and the stunts are breathtaking, no more gadgets, no more "I love myself" Brosnan, let's just get on with it, and he does, neither shaken nor stirred, we love him... and his bottom! Well done everyone.
- Claire, London, UK, 16/11/2006 09:10
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Daniel Craig has usurped the Bond throne from Connery. Although the latter is the 'original Bond', Craig has given realism and humanness that Connery lacked. (Plus by doing his own stunt work, Craig managed to bring respectibility back to Bond)
Eva Green is by far the best Bond girl, acting-wise. A bit skinny, but I guess she looked the same back in The Dreamers. This actress will go far.
Good acting, good stunts, good story.
Kudos to Martin Campbell and his team.
- Syahazzly Izham Hamzah, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 15/11/2006 18:10
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I knew from the beginning that he was going to be the BEST. He's a great actor and sooo sexy!
- Maria-Luisa, Switzerland, 15/11/2006 13:08
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Good Bond or bad I just hope the film is better than the last few. I mean how many times do we need to be saved from YET ANOTHER maniac with a satelite! I swear if there is a satelite with a big laser threatening to rain doom and misery upon the world in this film I'll build one myself and aim it at Pinewood!
- Tom B, South Ken, 15/11/2006 11:21
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Daniel has the right attitude and certainly looks for the original bonds. I think this change is for the better as the last one, that metrosexual man-bag of a bond Brosnan was a wet as they come.
A return to form from this Bond wil reignite interest in the franchise from men and women alike. A very good move by the casting director!
- Marmite, Chiswick, 15/11/2006 11:16
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I think Daniel is the most sexy Bond ever! He has the kind of look that doesn't yell "pretty boy" but there is undeniable character in it. He beats the socks off any of his predecessors!
As for his Body!
I hope he continues in this role for amlong time to come. Yummy!
- Pippa P, W4, 15/11/2006 11:07
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