Casino Royale
A new James Bond is always something to get excited about but with Daniel Craig in the part I was much less excited than normal. I’d seen Craig in Tomb Raider, Road to Perdition and his starring role in Layer Cake and was extremely under whelmed. For me he had the same problem as another actor whose name was bandied about for the part - Clive Owen, said problem being a severe lack of personality. Both men seemed to have had charisma bypass surgery. This had the making of another On Her Majesty’s secret Service i.e. a perfectly good Bond film ruined by the man playing 007.
I wasn’t completely without hope though. Martin Campbell was the man calling the shots behind the camera and he’d got Mr Brosnan off to a great start with Goldeneye. At the very least the film promised some good action scenes…
It’s clear right from the start that this isn’t a Bond film, at least not the kind of Bond film we’ve grown used to over the last 40 odd years. Filmed in black and white, the pre credits sequence shows how Bond got his 00 rating. He’s a cold emotionless killer and he’s not afraid to get his hands bloody to get the job done. We’ve seen James kill before but never like this.
