[attrition] Review: Movie: Casino Royale

[lyger]

http://attrition.org/movies/casino.html

Casino Royale
2006
Martums

     M: This may be too much for a blunt instrument to understand. Any thug
        can kill. I need you to take your ego out of the equation.
     James: So you want me to be half-monk, half-hitman.
     M: I knew it was too early to promote you.
     James: Well, I understand double-ohs have a very short life
            expectancy. So your mistake will be short-lived.

Ian Fleming would be pleased. From the onset, this film does every bit of 
justice to the Bond franchise. Take the locations for example: Venice, 
Montenegro, Miami, Nassau, Madagascar, Mbale and Prague. All excellent 
locales in their own right, but string them together and you trace the 
path of one of the most 
glue-your-asses-to-your-seats-and-your-eyes-to-the-screen adventures to 
visit box offices in recent years.

Don't let the locations alone justify my grading of this motion picture. 
Look at the performers: Eva Green, who is stunning and capable beyond 
description; Giancarlo Gianini who, for the first time since 2001's 
Hannibal, makes you grin and grimace nearly simultaneously; Judy Dench, 
who is second only to Kevin Spacey in Se7en in her ability to transform 
from icy to warm in less time than it takes you to blink. Then there's the 
new guy, playing our old favorite, in an old story where we see him again 
for the first time, which makes him the new guy. My head hurts. 
Regardless, Daniel Craig is excellent in his performance as Bond. He 
displays virtually every quality flawlessly, which is equally true of 
Green. Green and Craig are an excellent pair, both playing strong and 
confident, then injured and vulnerable, in a combined performance that 
makes you wonder, what the hell are they up to?

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