Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale, Bond # 21, is a hard reboot of the franchise and features Daniel Craig as a Bond early in his career, earning his double-O status in the pre-credit sequence. The plot focuses on international money laundering for war lords and the like, and gives us our first hints of the existence of Spector since the Sean Connery era. We also learn, I think for the first time, that Bond is an orphan. The films high stakes Texas hold'em card playing sequences are surprisingly gripping. Mads Mikkelsen is one of the more believable Bond villains as Le Chiffre, Eva Green is a nicely matched love interest for Craig. An unusual amount of exotic locations this time, Prague, Uganda, Madagascar, The Bahamas, Miami, Montenegro, Venice, and I think Switzerland. This film really breaths new life into the franchise like no film since The Living Daylights and takes its self mostly seriously. W. Bush era cell phones sure seem quaint now. Jeffrey Wright makes his first appearance as Felix Leiter. ***1/2