Casino Royale the new James Bond film; is it any good and what is Daniel

Craig like in his first performance as 007?

We'll hear the views of BBC film reviewer Mark Kermode and as I've seen it

myself you'll also hear what I think.

I was eagerly anticipating Casino Royale. I'm not a huge James Bond fan but

the prospect of a new actor playing Bond and rumours of a more realistic plot

made it an easy choice for cinema-going last weekend.

The problems with some of the previous Bond movies are that they became

rather fantastic and unbelievable. Fantasy stories of world domination and

ridiculous gadgets like invisible cars were a far cry from Ian Flemings original

spy novels of the 1950s and 60s. It was time for Bond to come back down to

earth and this is what Casino Royale does.

Casino Royale is the 21st Bond film but you have to forget all of the others.

The plot of this film takes place when James Bond is only starting out on his

career as 007.

His mission in the film is to win a game of cards which for financial reasons

will force his opponent in the game, a terrorist banker, to work for the secret

service and give them information about his terrorist clients. 

Weekender © BBC Learning English

Page 2 of 3

bbclearningenglish.com

James bond is famously 'licensed to kill' which means he has official

permission from the government to kill and in this film we see his first kills.

There are chases and fights, he gets hurt and tortured and even falls in love.

And in this film more than the others you do see Bond getting really hurt. His

face is cut and bruised after his fights and he even ends up having to use a

wheel chair in one scene after he has been tortured in a way that brings tear to

the eye of every man watching.

This is what BBC film reviewer Mark Kermode thinks is one of the best things

about this Bond film.

Mark Kermode

Actually for me the main achievement of this new Bond film is exactly that, you do feel it,

you do feel the pain, you do feel the batterings, you do feel the violence and in one lengthy

sequence you do feel the torture. There is, as most people probably know by now a sequence

in it in which a naked James Bond is tortured for information which he being James Bond is

not going to give up. It's not played for camp laughs, it's played fairly straight, it's tough.

It is a movie in which people get battered about, they fall off cranes, they do all the James

Bond stuff but they actually get injured and centrally, Daniel Craig gets injured. I can't

remember a more battered looking Bond. I mean I think that Daniel Craig is great ….

Callum: Mark thinks Daniel Craig is great and feels that unusually for a Bond movie we

do feel the physical violence and its effects on James Bond's body.

The film isn't perfect though. It does have really blatant product placement.

Product placement, this is the term that describes when companies pay to have

their products in a film. So in this film everyone uses the same make of mobile

phone, Bond frequently uses a particular model of laptop computer and in all

cases the branding is clearly visible. In one scene Bond even says the kind of 

Weekender © BBC Learning English

Page 3 of 3

bbclearningenglish.com

watch he wears. Produce placement is part of many films these days, but I can't

remember seeing one is which it is so obvious.

This wasn't the only problem with the film though. Here's Mark Kermode again,

what criticism does he have of the film?

Mark Kermode

Well, I would say, my criticisms of the film are this, it is undoubtedly 20 minutes too long.

Towards the end, in the latter section it did really start to sag for me, and also I have to say I

was slightly less than interested by the love interest.

Callum: So Mark felt the film could have been shorter and for him the love story didn't

really work. He said towards the end the film started to sag, to sag, to slow

down too much.

Casino Royale has many of the features of traditional bond films, beautiful

women, fast cars, chases and fights but it uses those features in a tougher way.

Bond is a real person, he can be hurt physically and emotionally.

It's not a great spy film, spies could never really work in the way James Bond

does, but it is a great Bond film with a fine performance from Daniel Craig.

He's tough and mean but also vulnerable, he can be hurt.

So if you like Bond at all, then I can certainly recommend this film. You won’t

be disappointed.

That's all from this edition of Entertainment.