Double-oh-those-abs seven
By HARI AZIZAN
Casino Royale
Rating(out of 5): NR
(Sony Pictures Releasing International)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Dame Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright and Giancarlo Giannini
Hailed as the “reboot” of the year, Hollywood’s longest running franchise gets a facelift in its 21st outing to revive its appeal for the YouTube generation.
And what a booty it turns out to be — thespian Daniel Craig as the new espionage extraordinaire James Bond sweeps away the pre-production nay-sayers with a stylish testosterone-filled performance.
Too blonde, too short, too everyman? Craig dispels all the disparagement thrown at him to prove what an inspired casting he was. (Personally, I didn’t understand what the fuss was all about after watching his brilliant turns in the otherwise lacklustre Sylvia and Layer Cake. After all, if Matt Damon can be an action film star….)
Oozing sex appeal, Craig brings a serious actor’s range to a caricature character that has grown too big for its vintage sports car; all without losing his sense of humour or fun.
Craig is arguably the best Bond since Sean Connery. And by far the sexiest with his piercing blue eyes and permanent scowl, and err ... have I mentioned his abs?
Running in the footsteps of other fading fantasy franchises that struck gold with their stories of origin (namely the Star Wars and Batman series), Casino Royale goes back to where it all begins, in this case, the point before James Bond earned the double-o in his codename and his licence to kill. And way before the debonair agent found his mojo as the ultimate ladies man in the 1960s.
This prequel of sorts is based on the first book in Ian Fleming’s Bond series which was previously contractually out of bounds.
Unlike the earlier Bond films though, Casino Royale reputedly stays true to the spy thriller tome with a more realistic feel.
Setting the pace, the gritty black and white opening scene introduces a younger and more muscular Bond; reckless and ruthless but impassioned, and definitely raw at the edges.
And after another insipid signature theme song, we're back on the familiar Bond terrain, albeit with a fresh twist.
Novelty is injected into the action sequences with an uber-modern chase scene using the Parisian urban extreme sport known as parkour — in which the participants run and jump across roofs and stairwells — as Bond faces off with his terrorist lead on the high beams of a construction project.
With parkour star Sebastien Foucan making his debut as the baddie, it is set to win approvals from the tres-cool young set.
To fit the main villain into the post 9/11 landscape, Fleming’s cold war evil Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) is also updated, here into a banker who launders money for terrorists. Only the old-fashioned poker game showdown is retained.
The already revolutionised M (a superb Dame Judi Dench) meanwhile returns to provide prickly fans some comfort, although Q, with his gadgets and invisible cars, is nowhere to be seen.
But before any self-respecting Bond fan cries out “traitor”, rest assured that other Bond moments slapped on would keep even Fleming, if he was alive, happy.
One is the Bond beauty who appears in no time — one hot figure rises from the sea and struts out in a wet swimwear, obviously in a nudge-wink tribute to the first James Bond girl, Ursula Andress in Dr No. Only that this bootilicious figure is not some A-List model/actress/beauty queen but Craig himself, who appears topless every chance he gets (not that we are complaining).
If that does not ring the early Casanova alarm bells, French sultry beauty Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, an accountant sent by the British treasury to stake Bond at the poker tables, appears as the skeleton in the spy’s love closet.
Green provides the psycho-analysis background to Bond’s infamous rakish ways with women. But who would have guessed that it was an accountant who ruined Bond for other women!
It’s little wry ironies like these, along with some surprisingly tender moments, that give this otherwise bloated action icon some depth.
And as the plot trots across the globe from Eastern Europe to the Bahamas and back, Casino Royale uncovers further what made 007 the man he is.
Vulnerable to passion and emotion, the secret-agent learnt the hard way to be the icon that he is (yet another film George Lucas could have learnt from).
Intriguingly, his development is as fascinating as the classic persona that we know and love so well, something that Craig pulls off with panache.
Of course, it also helps that the film is supported by a first-rate cast including Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter, Giancarlo Giannini as MI6 contact Mathis, and, most especially Dench as M.
It’s not easy to freshen up a franchise that has been imitated in hundreds of movies but kudos to the production team and actors. Casino Royale has breathed more than new life into this quite-past-the sell-by-date product.
More importantly, unlike many of the prequels that have failed, Casino Royale has managed to provide gravitas to a dying icon without sullying the whole franchise.
And, did I mention his abs?
