James Bond gets a hefty whack in the testes in Casino Royale, both literally and figuratively. The 21st installment of the world's longest-running movie series strips away the gadgetry to focus on action and character, introducing a younger, tougher James Bond (Daniel Craig) struggling to complete his first major mission. The target is terrorist banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), whom our hero must defeat in a high stakes poker game at the swanky Casino Royale in Montenegro.
First things first: Daniel Craig is not a good Bond. He's a great Bond. Specifically, he is 007 as conceived by Ian Fleming - a professional killing machine, a charming, cold-hearted patriot with a taste for luxury. Craig is the first actor to really nail 007's defining characteristic: he's an absolute swine. Following his example, Martin Campbell's film hits the ground running with a breathless chase through a building site, a sequence so impressive that the rest of the action struggles to trump it. Bond takes a tremendous battering throughout the movie. He's beaten senseless, thrown off ledges, poisoned and tortured. Even his withered heart takes a whupping when he falls for slinky treasury agent Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). It's all thrilling stuff, closer in tone to The Bourne Identity than the camp quippery of old-school Bond.
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