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| Daniel Craig in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures' Casino Royale 2006 |
Superhero movies have joined and are considered the baby brother of the genre, and westerns have the action audiences enjoy yet are considered to be grandpa's action movie.
The spy movie has left a large impression on many generations because one can imagine how awesome it would be to have all the cool toys, fastest cars, freshest threads, hottest women and craziest danger to endure.
The James Bond franchise hits these notes in virtually every movie that has been made, and 2006's Casino Royale -- featuring Daniel Craig as the new Bond -- did exactly that.
Before landing the job as 007, Craig was best known for his roles in Layer Cake (2004) and Munich (2005), but inheriting Bond made Craig an international superstar.
Casino Royale even introduced Bond fans to Eva Green as this installment's "Bond girl" and her career flourished since then.
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| Eva Green and Craig in MGM and Columbia Pictures' Casino Royale |
The objective: get into the Texas Hold 'Em poker game ($10 million buy-in and $5 million rebuy) at Montenegro where Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) -- a banker for international terrorists -- plans to win $101.2 million to keep his reputation on the good side of the terrorist market. M (Judi Dench) sends Bond with Vesper Lynd (Green) to prevent Le Chiffre from winning, but it proves to be more dangerous than originally thought.
The movie showed the audience Bond's initial mission to become 007 when he had his first two confirmed kills. Then, the opening sequence had the iconic gun-barrel camera shot that always led to the opening credits that played along with "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell.
Bond gives us the high-energy on-foot chase scene in pursuit of a parkour athlete shortly after that and the tone is set.
Follow that with some insubordination towards M and how things are done at MI:6, and our secret agent has you hooked, and all you want to know is what else he will do to get the job done.
The stunts and action sequences in Casino Royale are arguably the best the franchise had seen up to that point.
Throughout all of the chases and fight scenes, perhaps the most memorable parts of the movie could be at the poker table when Bond tries to read Le Chiffre for a tell and gets it wrong losing the $10 million the British government provided for him to play. When Lynd makes the executive decision to not give Bond the $5 million rebuy, Bond discovers he isn't the only operative at the table.
Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) is a CIA agent with the same mission as Bond and offers to stake Bond because he thinks Bond can beat Le Chiffre. And so after some disciplined poker, Bond becomes a threat to Le Chiffre.
The moment of truth comes with a pot that would very well end in either Bond succeeding or failing his mission.
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| Craig and Mads Mikkelsen in MGM and Columbia Pictures' Casino Royale |
The contrast compared to almost any other Bond movie is that 007 actually falls for the girl (Lynd), and we learn how he became so indifferent towards females in the future.
In the end, Bond always gets his man.
So if you're an avid Bond fan or just plain curious about its greatness, one of the must-see chapters of the film franchise is Casino Royale. And why not celebrate it on its 10th anniversary (Nov. 17, 2006) with a gin martini?
Just make sure it's shaken, not stirred.
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| Craig in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures' Casino Royale |
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