I have just been to see Casino Royale, the newest film in the James Bond franchise staring Daniel Craig and IMHO, it is perhaps the best ever. It is more real, gritty and well, credible than almost all other James Bond movies and for the first time in the series, the film has moved away from mindless mass market plonk and back towards character driven action with a story line that is not insulting to the little grey cells.



I read all of the Ian Fleming Bond books when I was 15 and even then I knew they were pulpy action books for exactly my demographic. Shortly after this I watched each Bond with passion, ignoring the occasional stupidity and getting into the spirit of things. I know I watched the Tim Dalton movie but I don’t remember it and after watching the first Pierce Brosnan flic, I knew the franchise was no longer for me. It had been 100% Americanised, and not in a good way.



On a plane from Brisbane to Los Angeles in Aug 2005 I saw Daniel Craig in Layercake. In this movie a reluctant drug trafficker gets in over his head and used his natural skill and aplomb to kick ass and look great in a suit. I knew that after blowing $200.00 in new clothes I had a new man crush. Move over Jeromy Irons. I saw Graig again as a steely WWI English Sergeant in The Trench. Again, blown away. He had me at “(silently look stern and enigmatic with a side of gravitas).”



This James Bond is cast just in this same mold as the heroes of these other movies. Stern, strong, reasoned and deadly. Exactly what a secret agent should be. Goodbye to the ineffectual, inaccessible snarky puff boys. This Bond can take a punch.

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