Casino Royale (2006)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Martin Campbell

Writers (WGA):

Neal Purvis (screenplay) &
Robert Wade (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

17 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Everyone has a past. Every legend has a beginning. On November 17th, discover how James...became Bond.

Plot:

In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

Plot Keywords:

Poker | Terrorist | Montenegro | James Bond | MI6

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 15 wins & 25 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. July 4

8:00 PM

USA

Cast

Daniel Craig	...	James Bond
Eva Green	...	Vesper Lynd
Mads Mikkelsen	...	Le Chiffre
Judi Dench	...	M
Jeffrey Wright	...	Felix Leiter
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Mathis
Caterina Murino	...	Solange
Simon Abkarian	...	Alex Dimitrios
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Steven Obanno (as Isaach De Bankole)
Jesper Christensen	...	Mr. White
Ivana Milicevic	...	Valenka
Tobias Menzies	...	Villiers
Claudio Santamaria	...	Carlos
Sebastien Foucan	...	Mollaka (as Sébastien Foucan)
Malcolm Sinclair	...	Dryden

Also Known As:

Bond 21 (UK) (working title)
Bond Begins (USA) (fake working title)
Bond XXI (UK) (working title)
James Bond 007 - Casino Royale (Germany)
James Bond 21 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content and nudity.

Runtime:

144 min

Country:

USA | UK | Germany | Czech Republic

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-15 | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Belgium:KT | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Spain:18 | Hong Kong:IIA | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Malaysia:U | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Brazil:14 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #42012) (cut version) | Portugal:M/12 | UK:12 (video rating) (cut) | UK:12A (cinema rating) (cut) | South Korea:15 | Denmark:11 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | South Africa:13V | France:U (with warning) | India:UA | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

"The Canals", Venice, Veneto, Italy

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This is only the second time that an M character's home has been shown in an official EON Productions James Bond film. The first was in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). The unofficial James Bond film, the comedy spoof Casino Royale (1967) also showed M's home.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Originally it is believed that in the final poker hand with all 4 players all in there's a mistake, because the total amount Bond wins is 120 million. Player 1 goes all inn with 6, Player 2 goes all inn with 5, leaving approximately 109 million. Bond goes all inn with 40.5 million which means he can only win 40.5 million from Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre would still have 120 (- 6 - 5 - 40.5 - 40.5) - 92 = 28 million left. It is claimed that the game would not be over. However, review of the actual scenes and Mathis' statement that there is 115 million in the final pot actually reveals that Bond was likely a chip leader and that someone (Felix Leiter, who staked Bond's re-buy) did not buy back in, and that the full potential of $120m would not be seen on the table. It starts with $24m in the pot (a quote from Mathis), to which Fukutu adds $6m and Ade adds $5m. The pot is now $35m. Le Chiffre adds $12m, raising the pot to $47m. A count of Bond's chips shows that he has 26 $1m blue chips, 7 20-chip stacks of $100,000 chips, and 1 $500,000 chip, making his total $40,500,000. When he goes all-in, that raises the pot to $87.5m. That means Le Chiffre needs to add $28.5m to match Bond's raise. He has 20 $1m blue chips, 13 $500,000 chips, 4 $100,000 chips in his hand, one $100,000 chip on his cards, and 5 $100,000 chips sitting away from his neater stacks, giving him $27.5m. When Le Chiffre goes all-in with $27.5m, that brings the pot to $115m, which Mathis points out.

Quotes:

[first lines]
James Bond: M really doesn't mind you earning a little money on the side, Dryden. She'd just prefer it if it wasn't selling secrets.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Becoming Bond (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

You Know My Name

A Royale without cheese.

CR is a major step-up from the flamboyant Die Another Day. Obnoxious 50-something runt Pierce Brosnan has been replaced by a young Daniel Craig, there is no Q, no campy gadgets, no silly naked women silhouettes in the opening credits, no world-dominating super-colossus villains, no Miss Funnyfanny (or whatever) and no silly one-liners after killing bad guys. Basically everything that can date Bond film very quickly is gone. I never expected international espionage to look the way it has in past few Bond outings and I'm glad someone had the balls to go back to the hard-edged nature of the series, last seen in Licence to Kill.

The longest Bond movie so far, at 145 minutes, but it breezes by even though it reigns in on the normally excessive action scenes and depicts spying a more 'mundane' and 'realistic' manner (or at least as true as the series has been so far). But the one-thing that bugs me about action movies, particularly the Bond franchise, is that they are, most of the time, childish male fantasies with an indestructible hero who has fun shooting up the place and beds beautiful women. I would like something new for a change but CR does have Bond get hurt and go through more pain than he has previously.

Daniel Craig has been given a lot of hassle over his casting as Bond (like Clive Owen, Jude 'Mr Pretension' Law or 10-year-old girl masquerading as a grown man Orlando Bloom WOULDN'T have been a big mistake?) but not only does he have his youth as an advantage (he's the first 30-something to be cast in the role since Lazenby), he's also pretty damn trim, has the intensity Brosnan lacked and is surprisingly loose in a role that usually requires actors to be stiff and unemotional. It's also good to a fresh face in the role and who cares if he is blonde? Or the shortest actor to play him so far?

I would have preferred that composer David Arnold went too. They didn't seem to be holding back on the amount of regular production team members who got axed. Even Vic Armstrong didn't return. I've never liked Arnold's work on the movies and I hate to think of it as something that's now exclusively HIS baby. But the theme song was cool, despite the criticism and it was cool to have the Bond theme at the end instead of some tacky song.

I just wish the product placements would go too. Nice try attempting to 'subtly' plug Blu-Ray Sony. But it ain't gonna work on me.

Now that the franchise has a different outlook, I hope some of Ian Fleming's more downbeat, not-exactly-blockbuster-material Bond stories can make it to the screen.