My Rating: 4/5
Good action movie. Like all action movies, “Casino Royale” has lots of highly improbable to downright impossible scenes. However, unlike most action movies, the film has enough of many other things, like relatively complex characters, to keep the action from becoming overbearingly repetitious and mind-numbingly dumb. The movie also has LOTS of subtle plot twists. For me, “Casino Royale” was worth watching twice.
All the actors played their roles very well. Eva Green is a fantastic actress who plays Bond’s love interest. Daniel Craig, the guy who plays James Bond, is an excellent actor. Even though his face looks too rough for the suave James Bond, his acting is so good that he still makes a convincing James Bond. The real problem with Daniel Craig is that his face is rough to the point that it looks worn out. He looks like he could be in his late thirties to early forties. This is a problem because he is matched up with the youthfully beautiful Eva Green and “Casino Royale” is about James Bond’s very beginning as 007.
Overall, Sean Connery is still the best Bond and Daniel Craig is right behind him. All the other actors were cheap imitations or unfit attempts. I though Timothy Dalton played a most unique James Bond. He debuted a down-to-earth James Bond. However, James Bond, the super spy he is, should never be down-to-earth.
The movie, “Casino Royale,” is based on the original book, with the same title as the movie, that debuted Bond, James Bond — otherwise known as Agent 007. The story starts off with Bond quickly proving himself worthy of attaining double-0 status, which is a best-of-the-best agent for British intelligence. Bond’s first mission is to conduct reconnaissance of terrorism and capture a terrorist for questioning. His employer, MI6, is trying to discover the source of terrorism. Before Bond realizes it, he is off to many adventures.
In my opinion, the original James Bond story was based on the author’s real life encounters with real life men and women throughout his career as a journalist for the mainstream media and as a writer for the entertainment industry. This would explain the story’s fixation with an easy, high life: luxurious lifestyles, luxuriously stylish clothing, fexotic cars, hi-technology, five-star hotels, fine dining, scenic spots around the world, lots of social drama, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of easy money. The story is also obsessed with rich, powerful, and arrogant men and glamorous, yet trashy women. All of this are hallmarks of the mainstream media and entertainment industry. The author uses James Bond story as a superficial cover to guiltlessly share his high life with the public and for his profit so he can continue living his real high life.
The James Bond movie changes with Hollywood fads. The movie is politically correct, so Hollywood’s liberal magic made sure none of the terrorists in this modern movie are extremist Muslims or have any apparent connections to radical Islam. The terrorists are either African or European. Liberal Hollywood also changes a major character who is suppose to represent America, Felix Leiter. Originally, he works for the CIA. He is white with blonde hair and very powerful (he is backed by the USA), but his unrefined nature is his greatness weakness. In James Bond’s spy world, it is all about being suave to control people. In “Casino Royale,” Felix Leiter keeps all of his traits, except now he is black. Why not Hispanic? How about Asian?
In this film, the movie uses the few East Asian characters it has solely as background props. Maybe later Bond movies will reveal them to be stereotypical Triad gangsters and Chinese agents plotting to exploit the world. Furthermore, James Bond movies progressively improve the female characters, such that they have been gradually changing from being completely stupid whores whose only “power” is seducing men into being mysteriously complex whores whose only “power” is seducing men. Well, that is liberal Hollywood for you.
The biggest flaw of this movie is Sony Pictures is trying to squeeze every penny it can from “Casino Royale” with Sony product placements from the beginning of this film to its end.
(WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW — the whole movie is revealed below)
By the time the movie has begun, Bond is already immersed in his highly precarious world — he just has not fully realized it. His boss, “M”, is trying to teach Bond who to trust (only yourself) and who NOT to trust (everyone else), to stop killing so many people, and to stop taking so many big risks. By the end of the movie, Bond only learns the first lesson — the hard way.
For all his faults, Bond is still amongst the best spies out there. He has been well trained (and well dressed) by Britain’s best. He is sophisticated, very smart, and very athletic. He knows it, hence his supremely confident self, although Bond appears arrogant to new acquaintances. Bond is a true professional spy. He perfectly executes whatever his goals are without remorse for the many people he kills or is killed in his adventures. He only carries a silenced Beretta since he operates it with surgical precision. Arguable, Bond’s best feature is his people skills. He reads people like a good book. He also has the social skills to fully take advantage of his secret knowledge. However, “M” would say that what makes 007, 007, is his relentless pursuit of justice.
Bond may appear to be a womanizer in all his adventures. His suave nature seems to be only used for treating women not as human beings, but as disposable amenities. The truth is that the vast majority of the women he meets are of the dangerous type. Bond is a full-time spy who deals with powerful villains lurking throughout the world. Many of these women are secret agents trying to seduce and entrap Bond. What every female operative does not know (except for one) is that Bond will turn the tables on them. Many of the other women Bond meets are attention whores who get a high (plus lavish amenities) through using their beauty to lure powerful and rich men. Many of these men are secret villains. All of these villains are arrogant maniacs bent on spreading to the world their unappreciated greatness. Fortunately for Bond, they all share one great weakness — ultimately, they are obsessively self-serving. This flaw is the first of two reasons for Le Chiffre’s downfall — he reveals that he is willing to sacrifice his superiors in return for his safety. (Hmm, these characters sure sound like the women and men you will find in the mainstream media and entertainment industry).
For “Casino Royale,” the main villain is a corrupt French banker, Le Chiffre. He manages the money of many evil and powerful organizations. His speciality seems to be funding African freedom fighters. Depending on your perspective, freedom fighters are either guerillas fighting for their communities independence or they are terrorists or agents of warlords and drug lords.
Unbeknownst to his clients, Le Chiffre is not investing the money in low-risk portfolios, but to hedge his highly risky investments. As you probably know, highly risky investments tend to have very returns, if they return anything at all. Le Chiffre is using terrorism to attack major economic centers and events. Through terrorism, Le Chiffre is able to disrupt businesses, “predict” the stock market’s collapses, and make lots of money. Le Chiffre might be the true puppet master behind the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (haha, liberalism proves its stupidity once more; Hollywood just cannot get over the fact that radical Islam is very dangerous).
Bond stops two terrorist attacks by Le Chiffre’s men. Their target was Skyfleet, a super jumbo jet. In the real world, Skyfleet’s name is Airbus. It seems Airbus did not pay Sony Pictures enough money for full advertisement rights.
Due to Bond’s bravery, Le Chiffre loses over one-hundred million dollars on his risky investments. To stop his clients from torturing him to death, Le Chiffre organizes a special poker tournament for stratospheric highrollers. Le Chiffre is a master poker player. He can perform probability calculations in his head to see his hand’s odds of winning. It is up to James Bond to win the poker game and offer protection to Le Chiffre in return for his knowledge about terrorism. Britain’s treasury department sends over Vesper Lynd to assist James Bond and his expensive adventure. The CIA secretly sends Felix Leiter to reinforce MI6. Naturally, James Bond wins the poker tournament (the money will go to Britain). As James had explained to Vesper Lynd, poker is less about running probabilities, but more about reading your opposition.
Meanwhile, Bond completely falls in love Vesper Lynd. Bond has never met a woman like this agent. She is beautiful, yet smart. She is charismatic, but also a truly good person. Most importantly, she is seemingly completely honest with James Bond — something that is very rare in all the people he has met.
In the beginning, Vesper Lynd is curious about James Bond, but is cautious of his apparent arrogance, merciless execution of his goals, and womanizing reputation. She then learns that James Bond is really a true professional who does whatever it takes to save the world from hidden evil doers — even if it means suffering through a torturous death for his loved ones and for himself. Vesper Lynd learns to deeply respect James Bond.
Unfortunately for Bond, “M” believed this woman has been threatened by evil doers to work as double agent for them. They had captured her lover, a French Algerian, and threatened to kill him unless she acts as their double agent. Nothing more is revealed about this incident and about the French Algerian. The next James Bond film is rumored to reveal whatever truly happened to Vesper Lynd and who the French Algerian really is.
“M” also believed Vesper Lynd made a secret deal to greatly help her evil bosses (i.e., transfer the poker winnings from Britain to them) by seducing James Bond to get his password for transferring the money. “M” believes there is more to the story; Vesper Lynd also agreed to this task in order to free James Bond from a torturous death. This is the second of two reason for Le Chiffre’s downfall — his superiors no longer needed him to get the money. See, the villains are so obsessively self-serving that they eventually turn on each other.
In my opinion, Vesper Lynd is fundamentally a good person, who was manipulated by powerfully evil organizations. Her French-Algerian boyfriend is probably a villain who manipulated her, and he made up the story that he was capture by evil doers to force Vesper Lynd to backstab British intelligence, and Vesper Lynd somehow figures out this backstabbing, which explains why she eventually falls in love with James Bond and forgets about her questionable French-Algerian love. The truth is that she backstabbed British intelligence, because the villains threatened her. She is good, but she buckles under enormous pressure (the movie constantly reveals this). She is, after all, only human, not a super hero like James Bond.
She was probably the one who helped Le Chiffre by telling him that James Bond had discovered Le Chiffre’s poker tell, and then refused to give James Bond more money for the poker game. Le Chiffre tells James Bond that Mathis is the one who helped Le Chiffre, but Le Chiffre only did this to protect Vesper Lynd’s true identity and to confuse the good guys. As an accountant for the British government, she would also have access to the poker winning if James Bond wins the poker game. The evil doers used her to hedge their success by using her as a spy against James Bond and to steal the winnings if James Bond wins the poker game.
“M” does not figure out Vesper Lynd’s double-agent status and inform James Bond until it is too late. James Bond does not realize this plot because he was blinded by love and by Vesper Lynd’s impressive social skills. She is the only character in the movie that successfully lies to James Bond.
However, while she seduces James Bond to gain a password, he comes clean and reveals to her that he truly loves her. She eventually truly falls in love with James Bond and has doubts about her treachery. At a beach, she agrees to retire with him from their dangerous government jobs and live a normal, committed life. Maybe the seashell that James found in her purse represented this momentous moment in her life. She is so much in love with James Bond that she stops wearing her Algerian love knot, and she vaguely explains this to James Bond by saying she has forgotten about her past.
Soon enough, she is reminded by her sinister employer that she cannot escape her evil bosses and retire with James Bond. Nonetheless, she secretly meets with her diabolical masters to desperately work out a solution to buy her freedom by transferring the money to her evil bosses, but not without hedging the world against evildoers through helping James Bond by leaving behind her cell phone and a short text message about one of her sinister superiors, Mr. White. James Bond quickly discovers this treachery and rushes out to deliver justice. He kills many of her superiors and reaches Vesper Lynd. She commits suicide to avoid being used up by her evil bosses or being arrested by the British for backstabbing them and out of guilt for backstabbing James Bond. Mr. White escapes with the money. This is when “M” belatedly informs Bond of Vesper Lynd’s true background. Unfortunately for her evil bosses, her death has much deeper, unforeseen results.
First, her death finally taught James Bond a very important lesson that Britain’s best failed to teach him: to trust no one (except himself) and to doubt everyone. Second, her death taught James Bond why he should never fall in love with any women — all the lovely women he meets are either dangerous and/or his precarious job will put her in danger. Third, she leaves behind one evil boss’s identity for James Bond to deeply propel him into the world’s most powerful criminal underworld. Fourth, her death reminds James Bond to relentlessly fight against evil forces stalking the world — to save good people like Vesper Lynd from evil doers’ manipulation and corruption. All in all, her death transforms and inspires James Bond into becoming the best secret agent the free world has to offer against the world’s most dangerous, hidden masterminds.
The movie’s last, brief scene shows James Bond capturing Mr. White and introducing himself for the first in the entire film as “Bond, James Bond.” Also for the movie’s first time, James Bond’s theme song plays as the movie closes out. The super hero we have known as James Bond finally arrived.