Casino Royale

maria4.0

naked james bond and hannibal lecter, chillin' in a basement, balls getting slapped, five feet apart cause they're not gay

fran hoepfner4.5

this dude is always having a bad time on vacation

Josh Lewis5.0

A man who has been systematically broken down into a blunt, uncaring murder tool learns to feel again just in time for his testicles to be smashed and heart broken. That pain ultimately absorbed as just another part of the long, distrustful, human-sharpening process of state-sanctioned killing. I can see why some of the more faithful Bond oldheads maybe don't care for the psychologically somber moral revisionism of it, but Craig's vision of the casually cool exterior of Bond as a suit of swagged-out, egotistical armor just barely covering up a genuine animalistic brutality and emotional woundedness/instability about the ugly job of killing to me is perfect. As is Mads Mikkelsen's perpetual flop sweat diva take on Le Chiffre. Genius, no other versions of performing either would've sold the iconic, homoerotic cock-and-ball torture finale, which is still one the crazier things to be included in a mainstream pop movie (even one this considered and mature) that I probably saw at a too-young age.And even if you disagree with that approach to the character, it's hard to argue that overall this isn't still the ultimate mic-drop in terms of purely crafting a modernized franchise origin movie/blockbuster (is there even an equal?) with some of the leanest, most brutal action you'll see in a movie that cost this much money. The bleak black-and-white foreign art film aesthetic double-murder opening into Chris Cornell wailing YOU KNOW MY NAME = I am in heaven, immediately followed by the parkour foot chase which is among the most muscular opening setpieces of this era with incredible stunt work, and a well-choreographed focus on the distinction between the athletic form of the bomb maker and Bond's quick-witted brute-force quality. The clean momentum of Campbell's filmmaking perfectly merging with the way Bond's improvised, second-nature killer instinct decision-making kicks in whenever it's needed; whether an impromptu silent knife fight in a public setting, or a henchmen needs to be hunted down and blown up on an airport tarmac (the push-in on the smirk!), or the harrowing mid-film, card-game-interrupting hotel staircase strangulation and later poison attempt which are filmed with unbearably tense subjectivity for how arduous this line of work is.You can always tell in the speed and sharpness of the editing when you've gone from the essential signature atmosphere of this character who feels like he is perpetually briefly stepping away from a gorgeous, relaxing vacation to stop the world from blowing up and entered this locked-in, killing machine perspective. Which is invaluably effective when he's literally on vacation in Venice in the epilogue thinking he's going to move on and never need it again right before painfully, naturally sliding right back into it when he realizes Vesper's betrayal. Speaking of which, "the bitch is dead [now]" is one of the hardest, most troubling last lines to a book ever, crazy they kept it. Side note: Eva Green, my beloved. Craig is incredibly charming and easy on the eyes himself, but please don't talk about her like that Mr. Bond, she just defibrillated you in that dress, and you will never find a woman that has these sexy levels of classic Hitchcock romcom-inside-a-thriller-scenario chemistry ever again.I also can't explain it, but I've watched this movie probably a dozen times in my life and have memorized the exact cadence of Jeffrey Wright's delivery on "I'm bleeding chips..." (great supporting character/performance, glad they found a way to keep him around) and randomly fondly recall it sometimes the same way I do the more iconic stuff like the timing on "Yes, considerably..." and "I've got a little itch, down there. Would you mind?", or that beat where Craig bulldozes that drywall with his head and chest, or that harshly lit close-up of Green tied up in the middle of the road followed by one of the greatest extreme swerves/car flips in cinema history. Anyway, not just the best Bond movie but perhaps the best movie ever.