Casino Royale-- No spoilers

Let me get a couple of things out of the way

• The stupid comment I kept hearing all week... are you watching the next Blond flick?


• A general disclosure of my Daniel Craig fangirl status. I've seen them all from The Power of One to Munich. The man has talent. According to some, he is not the best looking guy around, I particularly like to see him running around(there's something about that , I don't know...) and looks damned gorgeous soaking wet.

Now, how can I convince you that my review of this movie will be neutral? We all go back to Bond.

I am an undercover James Bond fan, the Bond craze comes through both my parents. Mom is obsessed with Connery and dad is more of a Moore fan. The time came when I had to choose a Bond of my own and since at that moment License to Kill was the rage, I took a look at Dalton and said hell no!, stuck with Connery and kept it low profile. I've seen them all too, from Dr. No to Die Another Day, from pure, calculated skill to err...Invisible cars.

Growing up I watched two types of Bond movies. With dad it was all about location, supporting cast and the perils of too much production value (translate as where are they sending Bond now, who are the girls and how fantastic the whole thing with the car is going to get-roll eyes, just a bit). With mom it was about character development (translate as there is a story behind this guy, whatever it is that makes the Bond girls crazy). Dear mother, they brought it this time, and dad, Bond is all over the place, the girls are there and the car is what is meant to be, an Aston Martin.

Casino Royale is a "beginnings" movie what makes it wonderful is that it came to us Bond fans when the franchise was at it lowest. We all saw Connery serving a well structure Bond, suave, precise, calculating... we were sold into the idea of the super agent as a complete package and then, eventually, we got so used to the character that we put up with all. We knew all about 007, so the films became more and more about his accessories.

This one goes back to basics. For most of the movie Bond is not Bond, but James, an MI6 agent who has recently been granted 00 status. His life expectancy is short, and he knows it. Sometimes he is reckless, cocky and half of the time he is pretending to know what he is doing while keeping an "I made up the rules to this game attitude." Most of the subtle humor in this movie is derived from inside jokes directed to Bond fans. The humor is never ridiculous, but circumstantial. When the man puts on the dinner jacket for the first time there is a slight discomfort about it and you can perceive that he is thinking Gosh, I don't want to wear this again. We all know how the story goes... no spoilers but keep an eye out for Bond's first Aston Martin and his take on Martinis... it is gold.

M. is finally given some love. Dench's relationship to Craig's James is more of that of a mentor who sees possibilities than the quasi-rigid "I'm the female boss of you" that she had with Brosnan's. She is both annoyed by and secretly proud of her boy.

The bad guys have no big gadgets geared towards world destruction, no ray guns, no overdeveloped plot. It is simple, terrorists must be funded, money must be made and Bond has to stop them from from acquiring it. Money is made assessing risk at the stock market, perhaps making the right investments and then manipulating a crash, or by playing the coldest poker game ever (total suspense of disbelief, I could hear people around me whispering about who they thought was bluffing).

The girls are there and James' got it but he is not sure how to work it just yet. The stages to that level of emotional detachment that so bothered my mom are being built before our eyes.

All die hard Bond fans will know exactly when this movie makes the wrong turn in Albuquerque, I heard someone say "what the hell?" but don't worry it all builds up to the most intense two final minutes of Bond film since Connery delivered that first "Bond, James Bond."

PS. Is Craig a good Bond? Beyond good. Go watch.

Quote from the movie

"I'm sorry.... that last hand.... nearly killed me." CASINO ROYALE
There's also one about balls that is really cool, but I'll leave that to those who go and see it