Casino Royale

The much-ballyhooed British actor Daniel Craig steps into the James Bond role, just as rigor mortis was beginning to set in on the franchise. Craig's Bond is more human than any in recent memory, more deep and visceral. He brings a layered vulnerability to the role, making Bond more of an edgy, burned-out psychopath than a suave globetrotter. The results are encouraging.

The filmmakers finally realized that outlandish villains with crazy world-domination plans are passe. When the Austin Powers films--as dull a satirical weapon as you're going to get-- do such a thorough job skewering the secret agent film genre, you know it's time for a change.

The film is much more humanistic and grounded than others, and it's nice to see actual acrobatics and hand combat take the place of campy laser-shooting wristwatches. In fact, gadget guy Q is nowhere to be seen (the actor died several years ago), and Bond must rely on his physical bravado instead of his Spy Hunter car to save the day. When Bond is poisoned, the threat to his life is palpable, instead of the minor inconvenience it often seems in other Bond films.

Though the new Bond (both actor and role) is a welcome change, Casino Royale is still a mixed bag. The villain, a blood-crying terrorist financier, is creepy but not especially memorable, and the plot limps along at times. While the film has a great, gravity-defying chase full of dangerous and improbable jumps, there's not enough action overall, and the audience is reduced to watching Bond play high-stakes poker. Frankly, a poker game is not a compelling and terribly exciting set piece, no matter how many mano-a-mano cold stare exchanges between Bond and Villain director Martin Campbell throws at us. With insincere apologies to any remaining Texas Hold-Em fad clingers-on, poker is boring--at least more than a few minutes of it. There's a reason that action heroes like Mad Max and Indiana Jones don't spend much screen time playing cards.

Overall, Casino Royale is a flawed but welcome re-envisioning of one of the greatest and most successful screen characters in history. They brought Bond down a few notches, but needed to take him back up one more; perhaps in the next film.