Casino Royale (2006)

Movie Info

Movie Info

Run Time
2 hours and 24 minutes
Rating
R

VP Content Ratings

Violence
5/10
Language
1/10
Sex & Nudity
5/10
Rated R. Our ratings: V-5; L-1; S/N-5. Running time: 2 hours 24 min.

 I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
Ecclesiastes 1:14-15

Casino Royale

I saw this latest of the James Bond series on the same afternoon as Eragon, making it two fantasies in one day. Although there are no dragons or magicians in the Bond series, I’ve always considered them as male fantasies, filled with the easy sex, exotic gadgets and locales, and violence and high-speed chases that thrill the hearts of the male sex. Haven’t all of us males, especially during our adolescent years, imagined that we would save the world from some terribly evil villain? There is also, of course, the wry humor, thrown in like one of the olives in 007’s martinis.

The producers have found a new James Bond (Daniel Craig) who at last measures up to Sean Connery. He is perhaps even more blasé about killing, but we do see a touch of humanity beneath the suavity, and later, Craig effectively conveys a deep feeling of loss.

Set against exotic locales like the Caribbaean, Montenegro and Venice, the film is more than pleasing to the eye. The clift-hangers keep coming, one after another, almost before viewers can catch their breath. The plot involves a criminal named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) who is entrusted by an African rebel chief to invest a vast sum of money for him. Le Chiffre bets the money on an airplane manufacturer going bankrupt. To insure this outcome he hires an expert to blow up the company’s prototype of what is billed as “the world’s largest airliner,” thus causing the company’s stock to plummet. Bond, of course, foils the plot, and soon is confronting Le Chiffre at the casino Royale in a high stakes poker game that will further bankrupt the villain.

Because the Agency (headed by Judi Dench’s M) has to put up the millions of pounds that Bond needs to enter the high-stakes game, accountant Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) is sent to keep tabs on Bond and the money. After a hostile beginning, their relationship turns steamy, and—well, go and see the explosive climax for yourself. Not much in the amoral Bond world to inspire church folk, just the age-old good versus evil struggle, with good allowed to use any Casino Royale Rated R. Our ratings: V-5; L-1; S/N-5.

Running time: 2 hours 24 min.

I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Ecclesiastes 1:14-15

I saw this latest of the James Bond series on the same afternoon as Eragon, making it two fantasies in one day. Although there are no dragons or magicians in the Bond series, I’ve always considered them as male fantasies, filled with the easy sex, exotic gadgets and locales, and violence and high-speed chases that thrill the hearts of the male sex. Haven’t all of us males, especially during our adolescent years, imagined that we would save the world from some terribly evil villain? There is also, of course, the wry humor, thrown in like one of the olives in 007’s martinis.

The producers have found a new James Bond (Daniel Craig) who at last measures up to Sean Connery. He is perhaps even more blasé about killing, but we do see a touch of humanity beneath the suavity, and later, Craig effectively conveys a deep feeling of loss.

Set against exotic locales like the Caribbaean, Montenegro and Venice, the film is more than pleasing to the eye. The clift-hangers keep coming, one after another, almost before viewers can catch their breath. The plot involves a criminal named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) who is entrusted by an African rebel chief to invest a vast sum of money for him. Le Chiffre bets the money on an airplane manufacturer going bankrupt. To insure this outcome he hires an expert to blow up the company’s prototype of what is billed as “the world’s largest airliner,” thus causing the company’s stock to plummet. Bond, of course, foils the plot, and soon is confronting Le Chiffre at the casino Royale in a high stakes poker game that will further bankrupt the villain.

Because the Agency (headed by Judi Dench’s M) has to put up the millions of pounds that Bond needs to enter the high-stakes game, accountant Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) is sent to keep tabs on Bond and the money. After a hostile beginning, their relationship turns steamy, and—well, go and see the explosive climax for yourself. Not much in the amoral Bond world to inspire church folk, just the age-old good versus evil struggle, with good allowed to use any and all means in the fight.

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