Casino Royale is supposed to be a prequel to the other Bond films. We've got a brand new Bond in Daniel Craig. This sort of feels like some of those British mob films of recent times meets Ian Fleming, sort of.

As a prequel there are all kinds of things wrong. If it comes before all of the other Bond films, then Texas Holdem wouldn't be the game de jour. And Bond is still trying to figure out what drink he'll drink. Plus it's hard for Dame Judi Dench to shed a few years. Plus his fancy car has a portable defribralator in the glove compartment. Hardly even British Spy Service equipment back in the day. But necessary for Bond to stay conveniently alive in this one.

More importantly it just doesn't seem quite as fulfilling. It's got some nice action sequences. And there's an attractive Bond girl in Eva Green. But the rest seems inconsequential compared to Top Hat or Ursla Andress.

Craig could be an early Bond. Or he could be someone on MI-5. In fact this film feels an awful lot like MI-5 (The really great British Spy TV show.) But any relationship to the original Casino Royale is a stretch. Of course any relationship between the '67 Casino and Flemmings' work is a bit of a stretch.

A bigger stretch is the entire "second disk" of features. A couple of half hour TV shows. One on Bond Girls and another a making of. These don't deserve the entire second disc treatment.

The movie is good. It's enjoyable as action. But lacks the Sci-Fi comedy aspects of the orginal Bond movies. The Urban Runner chase sequence is interesting. Until we find out that the actual urban runner, famous apparently in his own right, ended up using a student double in some of the sequences.

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Guy Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot