And Bond, being who he is, continues pursuing that ci-mentioned villain, a banker to terrorists with patent-leather hair, the personality of an iceberg, and an unfortunate tendency to shed tears of blood that have nothing to do with sentiment of any kind. Times being what they are, she sends Bond off on a vacation instead to think about the mess he’s made.

Unfortunately, this particular goal, while achieved, turns into a public relations nightmare for the British government, causing M (Judi Dench who plays starchy but with a soft spot for her bad boy) to long for the Cold War when an agent who botched a job did the decent thing and defected. From the first scene, showing how he earned the 00 designation and the license to kill, to the first chase scene done on foot as an extended acrobatic exercise over buildings, and hanging precariously from cranes very, very high in the air, as he doggedly pursues a bad guy, this Bond is focused, efficient, never stymied for long in pursuit of his goal, and mesmerizing while he’s doing it. Gone are the cartoonish plots and most of the whiz-bang gizmos, though he does get to keep the Aston-Martin. Where other contemporary action films raise the stakes with special effects that are all flash and no dazzle, this installment, like its star, Daniel Craig, carries the action with its smarts and its sinewy agility.īased on the 1953 Ian Fleming book that started the series, the film carries the taut zeitgeist of those times, as in paranoia, while being set very much in the present.

And so it is with this new take on the cinematic Bond. The simple things, he opines, are the most effective. At one point in CASINO ROYALE, the 21st official entry in the Bond franchise, the villain of the piece (Mads Mikkelsen) sets to work torturing 007 with little more than a rattan chair and a length of rope.

Casino royale rating