For those of you who have ever enjoyed a bond film at any time in your life, stop reading this and see the movie. It's the best bond film I've ever seen and the one with the most critical acclaim; beating out Borat and The Departed to become the highest reviewed movie of the year. If you're never really gotten into the Bond series, and the over the top stunts, then you can skip this one too. It's good, but still full of crazy stunts, action sequences, and most the quintessential bond films characteristics, but this time without the cliches, a darker overtone, and a more bad ass main character. I grew up with Bond. I remember watching the Sean Connery Bond films as a little boy and being childishly drawn to the fantasy of the super agent. As I grew older, the bond franchise lost more and more of it's appeal until it represented exactly what I wanted to get away from in films. Pure fantasy movies with scenes so unbelievable and cliché ridden they fail to warrant any emotional response. I don't even remember if I saw the last bond film before Casino Royale, that's how memorable the films had become to me.

Casino Royale is different. Gone is the "shaken not stirred" the over elaborate un-guarded death sequences along with the no good guys get killed invincibility that plagued previous incarnations. This bond is direct, with more testosterone and attitude. Ian Flemming the author of the original novels that featured James Bond, wrote Casino Royale first. This movie is the beginning of 007, a prequel to all the other bond films and gives some (although way to brief) detail into the creation of James Bond. In this updated version a Texas Holdem poker game with a 10 million dollar buy in takes center stage as the plot unfolds. I really enjoyed this part and it was fun watching the poker game unfold, although they had to make the final hand end in a ridiculous way. I hate seeing multiple full houses, royal and straight flushes in poker game finalies. Come on that's not how poker works. Can someone who's actually played poker please write the card hands for the script. Ever watch the world championship? Three of a kind is a great hand. With so much hype of it being the rejuvenated bond franchise, I did leave a bit disappointed, so if you go and watch it, try not to buy the hype it's great, but it's still a bond film. So back to my original recommendation if you've ever enjoyed a bond film in your life then see this one, if not, there is nothing here you have to see. Notice I don't talk much about the plot in this post, that's 1, in a James Bond film the plot is secondary to the action, the fun is in watching the chase between the good guy and the bad guy, not in the intricacies of the super villains plot. Too many reviews summarize and paraphrase what happens in the film. You'll enjoy the movie more if you don't know and if you've already seen it, why state everything over again. The plot is full of holes and the ending is extremely forced, but it's a bond film so I tried my best to suspend disbelief and enjoy the cool cars, hot women, gritty fight scenes, and stylized villains. Luckily this movie made that easy to do and I was able to enjoy Casino Royale like I did watching Bond films as a kid. Resources: Casino Royale Rotten Tomatoes, Casino Royale (2006) IMDB, Casino Royale (2006) Wikipedia, James Bond Wikipedia, Sony Pictures - Casino Royale