Ian Fleming's licensed-to-kill superspy James Bond is back in both his first and his latest adventure in Casino Royale, the reboot of the venerable film franchise that shows no sign of mellowing with age.
It seems as if each time a new Bond film comes out, the nay-sayers reiterate how Bond has become an anachronism and that his adventures have become old hat. Daniel Craig's debut as 007 will be the main reason that people go to see the movie, I'm sure. I'm happy to report that Craig fills out the tuxedo quite nicely, thank you, dare I say even delivering the best Bond since Sean Connery? At least, I think he's closer to Fleming's original character than Pierce Brosnan and certainly Roger Moore... rougher than either but smoother than Timothy Dalton.
The plot of the film is relatively straight-forward and uncharacteristically low-key. After earning his 00-status and his licence to kill (after fulfilling the 2-kill prerequisite which we've all seen in the trailer, James Bond is assigned his first mission, which takes him to Madagascar to capture a bomb-making terrorist, played by real-life "freerunner" Sebastien Foucan. Simply put, freerunning is the art of running as fast as you can, avoiding all obstacles in your path as gracefully as possible, and Foucan is the inventor of the sport. His talents are put to incredible use in the film's first big action sequence (there are only three). I've never seen anyone move quite like Foucan before, and the sequence is both thrilling and mesmerizing.
Bond sort of blunders the mission and earns the disdain of M, played once again by Dame Judi Dench. Trying to set things right, James teams up with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), one of Her Majesty's Treasury agents and eventually gets involved in a game of high-stakes poker in Montenegro with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson), a global money-launderer to various terrorist organizations who just so happens to be gambling with his clients' money. James' hopes to beat Le Chiffre at his own game in order to leave the villain no safe purchase in the world except with MI6's interrogators.
If you are familiar with the story, then you will know there are some twists along the way, but nothing you won't see coming down Fleet Street.
For the most part, the film succeeds in its mission. As I said, Craig makes a great Bond, the locales are gorgeous and places we will never see otherwise, the stunts are physical (Craig may be the most bloodied and bruised Bond yet), and the story is interesting.
The film falls apart in its final act, which suffers from "LOTR Multiple Ending Syndrome" and just about grinds to a halt before the 3rd and final action piece. At 144 minutes, it's about 20 minutes longer than it needs to be, and could have used some judicious editing to keep the momentum going.
Long-time fans may be upset to see Texas Hold 'Em being played instead of Baccarat, or by the absence of Q and his gadgets and Miss Moneypenny, or by the jumbled timeline of Bond's first mission with the M who replaced a previous M, but it is nice to see Bond back in his Aston Martin again (sorry BMW), and there are some nice moments related to previous Bond traditions, i.e. his response to "Shaken or stirred?" is perfect.
Oh, and it's a Columbia Picture, so get ready for the Sony product placements that we've all come to know and despise. The film is loaded with them, although I was honestly surprised that the PS3 wasn't a major plot point. There may be hope for Sony yet.
It's been quite a while since we had an update on the trials and tribulations of 
The 3-disc Deluxe, Extended Edition of 
As Nina has already mentioned, 
Talk about your massive media blitzes...
