"I understand Double-0s have a very short life expectancy."

The Movie:
Much fuss has been made about the latest James Bond action extravaganza Casino Royale "rebooting" the franchise. Daniel Craig steps in as the sixth star to officially play the role, and brings a decidedly grittier, rough and tumble interpretation to the character, in stark contrast to the suave pomposity of the Pierce Brosnan years. The movie takes a back-to-basics approach, stripping away a lot of the silly gadgets, diabolical madmen, and far-fetched world domination plots that have long been the hallmarks of the Bond formula. It's really quite an effective rejuvenation for a series that last tortured viewers with the abhorrent Die Another Day. And yet, to put things into perspective, any long-time fan will recognize that the Bond movies have always progressed in cycles, with each new actor causing their own reboot to bring the styles and tastes of their respective eras to this ever-evolving character. The flamboyant Roger Moore was every bit the right James Bond for the 1970s and early '80s as Sean Connery was for the '60s. Brosnan was a perfect fit for the new metrosexual Bond of the late 1990s, and now we have Daniel Craig putting his own spin on the role. For every generation, their own James Bond.

This certainly isn't the first time the series has course-corrected itself, either. The wretched excess of Moonraker (widely recognized as the very worst James Bond film, yet ironically also the most financially successful of its day) was followed immediately by the streamlined For Your Eyes Only, one of Roger Moore's better pictures. After the idiotic A View to a Kill, Moore retired and Timothy Dalton made the first attempt at a darker, edgier Bond in his two movies. By the '90s, Bond had been upstaged at his own game by imitators such as James Cameron's True Lies that managed to do everything a James Bond movie was supposed to do but bigger and better. In the wake of True Lies, EON Productions, the official gatekeepers of the Bond legacy, set forth to reinvent the series as mega-budget rollercoaster thrill ride with Goldeneye. It was a big hit and ushered forth three more films in a similar vein, each attempting to outdo the last with bigger stakes, bigger set pieces, and more expensive visual effects, until finally climaxing with the ridiculous spectacle of Die Another Day, the worst Bond movie since Moonraker. In recent years, Bond has once more found himself upstaged by an imitator, this time the Jason Bourne pictures starring Matt Damon as a smart, capable, and dangerous secret agent with a no-nonsense attitude. Learning their lesson, EON decided to reset the cycle again by recasting Bond in a similar light, giving us Daniel Craig as a particularly ruthless "blunt instrument", more assassin than spy, and lacking much of the debonair sophistication we associate with the character. When asked if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, this new Bond responds, "Do I look like a man who gives a damn?"

For a movie series so far 21 entries strong, James Bond has always had a shaky sense of continuity. Only on rare occasions would a new movie reference prior events, supporting actors are routinely reused in different roles, and of course Bond himself remains ever changing and ever young. But even so there was always the assumption, with a wink and a nudge perhaps, that each of these movies was in fact a direct sequel to the last and that we were watching the same James Bond in Die Another Day that had lived through the adventures of Dr. No, as screwy as that timeline may seem. Casino Royale is the first Bond picture to officially break that continuity, set in the present day yet offering us a young James Bond on his first mission as a licensed Double-0 agent. The excuse for this is that Casino Royale was actually the first of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels, but the one whose rights had resided outside of EON's grasp until recently. Previously adapted to film in 1967 as a psychedelic comedy spoof starring David Niven (as Bond) and Woody Allen (as his nephew Jimmy Bond), the title was always the black sheep of the Bond legacy but, with its rights finally falling to EON's control, now came the opportunity to adapt it properly. Much to-do was raised in the publicity surrounding the picture of its supposedly "faithfulness" to the Fleming source, but to be honest it's no more faithful to Fleming than any of the previous Bond movies have been, which is to say hardly at all. The Bond of Fleming's Casino Royale was a gentleman spy, not the bruiser that Craig portrays him as, and certainly not a man who would ever deign to play Texas Hold 'Em poker. The novel was set almost entirely in its title location, and served practically as an instruction manual for how to play baccarat, with just a smidge of espionage thrown in for color. To my recollection, the novel had no car crashes, explosions, chase scenes, or imploding buildings. But you can't really make a $150 million James Bond movie today without those things, so thus we have a hybrid that follows the sketch of Fleming's plot with the details filled in by the trappings a modern audience expects from a Bond film.

But it works. Brash, impulsive, and hot-headed, Bond hasn't yet become the spy we expect him to be. He makes rookie mistakes and even lets a woman break into his hardened shell. In other words, he's a human being, not just a superhero, and though supremely skilled is a man with failings that he must learn from. It's a look at the character with more complexity and depth than we've ever seen before, and Craig is the right actor to pull it off. Ruggedly but unconventionally handsome, he's no pretty boy but certainly has the necessary charisma and sex appeal (just ask my wife, who spent the movie drooling over his rock hard abs). He looks great in a tux and can truly act. That we can buy into this new personification of James Bond is entirely Craig's doing. He's matched by Mads Mikkelsen as the most low-key of all Bond villains. No evil genius with a plan to destroy the world, instead his Le Chiffre is merely an amoral banker who finances terrorists. When Bond foils his plot to destroy a prototype jetliner and bankrupt the company that built it (from which he can profit through stock manipulation), Le Chiffre must try to make back his losses by high stakes gambling at an exclusive European casino. Thus Bond's mission becomes to out-gamble the bad guy, hardly the type of explosive showdown we're used to.

Indeed, the movie is more drama than action this time out. There are several big action set-pieces, each inventively staged but fortunately none involving death ray laser cannons from outer space or para-surfing off tidal waves. The final action sequence inside a collapsing building treads too far into familiar over-the-top Bond territory, but we forgive it because so much else of the movie works so well. Most surprising are the long stretches of actual plot and character development, with the big suspense-filled climax set at a card game. Yet somehow the movie remains compelling, even though it's too long by about half an hour and that poker match would have benefited from some trimming. The film's biggest failings are its lousy theme song by Chris Cornell (who?), its cheesy Flash-animated opening title montage, and the truly obnoxious amount of Sony product placement littering almost every scene -- Bond watches Sony DVD-Roms on his Sony Blu-ray player while using his Sony Vaio laptop, making a call on his Sony cell phone, and taking photos with a Sony digital camera. I only wish I were kidding. The product placement in this movie is out of control. Every single consumer product is a Sony with its logo prominently positioned to face camera, every single car is a Ford, and there's an extended visit to the creepy Body Worlds touring museum exhibit that serves little purpose to the story.

Nonetheless, Casino Royale still manages to brush away most of the cobwebs of stale formula that had bogged down the franchise in recent years. It's not a perfect movie, but it's a damn good one, and proof that James Bond remains a vital cinematic icon in continual reinvention. Let's hope that the series can keep up the momentum for at least a couple more good movies before tripping over itself again with another Moonraker or Die Another Day, requiring the next reboot.

The International Cut Blu-ray Disc:
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment distributes Casino Royale on the DVD and Blu-ray formats worldwide in a few slightly alternate editions depending on the ratings and censorship requirements of each territory. In the United States, some of the fight scenes were trimmed to secure a PG-13 rating. In the UK, the fights are longer but the scene of Le Chiffre torturing Bond was censored by the BBFC. The longest, most complete cut of the film was released on Blu-ray in Australia.

Comparing the Australian and American discs, the changes amount to a total of 22 seconds of material across two scenes. In Chapter 1, Bond's bathroom brawl features more graphic strangulation and drowning in the international version, for an addition of 3 seconds. In Chapter 10, the stairwell fight has several minor alterations including Bond smashing the assailant's head through a window, a couple of extra body blows, and one shot of a dead body. The editing in this scene has also been tightened in the American cut, so other tiny changes are mostly invisible without frame-by-frame analysis. The length of the scene has been extended by 19 seconds on the Australian disc, but it really doesn't feel that much different.

In direct comparison, the international cut is preferable, but overall I didn't feel that the trims in the American cut were significant. Most viewers would probably not notice them at all. Given the choice, I would personally prefer the import, but owners of the American Blu-ray disc may not necessarily feel the need to replace their copies.

The Australian release is coded for Region A playback and will function in an American Blu-ray player. It comes packaged in a keepcase the same height and width as American Blu-rays, but with a spine thickness more like a standard DVD. The disc automatically opens with a lengthy Blu-ray promo that can fortunately be skipped but is a nuisance.

Blu-ray discs are only playable in a compatible Blu-ray player. They will not function in a standard DVD player or in an HD DVD player. Please note that the star rating scales for video and audio are relative to other High Definition disc content, not to traditional DVD.

Video:
The Casino Royale Blu-ray is encoded in High Definition 1080p format using MPEG4 AVC compression on a dual-layer 50 gb disc. The movie is presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 with letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the 16:9 frame. Other than the additional few seconds of footage, the video transfer on the Australian disc appears identical to American copies.

This is obviously a very important title for Sony, one with the potential to generate a lot of interest (and sales) for the Blu-ray format. It's clear that they've made a concerted effort to not screw it up, which is a lot more than can be said about some of their earlier Blu-rays (that's right, Fifth Element, I'm looking at you). They've finally eschewed their usual MPEG2 compression in favor of the more advanced MPEG4 AVC codec, and have generally done their best to make the film into the most sparkly video eye candy that it can be. The results are sure to impress even the pickiest of critics, myself included.

The movie opens with a deliberately grainy black & white teaser sequence, then segues immediately to the poppingly vibrant and colorful opening titles. The rest of the film is as slick and glossy as you'd expect from a production of this budget. The picture is satisfyingly sharp and detailed, with inky black levels and plenty of shadow detail, all of which lends the image a nice sense of depth. Colors run a little hot and oversaturated (including orange flesh tones) during scenes in the Bahamas, but the movie looked that way in theaters as well so this was surely intentional. Colors in the rest of the picture look more natural. Unlike most Sony discs, the transfer has no distracting edge enhancement artifacts of consequence.

My only concern is that I fear the studio has applied too much digital noise reduction to tame film grain. The theatrical print I saw was quite grainy throughout the movie, but the Blu-ray is virtually spotless from start to finish, aside from the teaser scene. It looks at times a little too squeaky clean and digital. Within certain scenes, shots will alternate back and forth from extremely sharp and three-dimensional to softer and flat. Fortunately, at no time does the picture become smeary, as would be a worst case scenario with excessive DNR. The Venice sequence at the end has a harder-edged, digital-looking appearance than the rest of the movie that I personally didn't care for, but it's hard to say if this is the result of the digital compression or some other factor. Most of this is a matter of personal taste. I'm sure most viewers will be very pleased with the Casino Royale High-Def transfer.

The Casino Royale Blu-ray disc is not flagged with an Image Constraint Token and will play in full High Definition quality over a Blu-ray player's analog Component Video outputs.

The photo images used in this article were taken from the DVD edition for illustrative purposes only, and are not intended to demonstrate Blu-ray picture quality.

Audio:
The movie's soundtrack is provided in uncompressed PCM 5.1 format or in standard Dolby Digital 5.1. This is a $150 million action movie and comes with the attendant slam-bang audio mix. The PCM track in particular features loud, cracking gunshots and plenty of rocking bass. Bullets zip across the soundstage from front to rear. It's a pretty typical action mix, however, without a lot of finesse. The blaring score tends to drown out subtle audio cues, and even the opening theme's lyrics are buried and obscure. Surround activity is usually reserved for specific directional effects that are meant to call attention to themselves, not for the type of immersive ambience you'll hear in the most creative soundtracks. Nor are there any particularly distinctive sound effects or audio elements. Musical fidelity is adequate but hardly notable. Casino Royale is all about the bang and the boom. It's fine for what it is, and I have no doubt the PCM track does it full justice. I guess I just hoped for something a little more interesting.

Subs & Dubs:
Optional subtitles - English, English captions for the hearing impaired, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, or Swedish.
Alternate language tracks - N/A.

The supplemental content on the disc offers only optional subtitling in English or Dutch.

Note that the Australian disc offers different subtitle and language dub options than the American edition.

Extras:
All of the bonus features on this Blu-ray title are recycled from the DVD edition, albeit some are presented in High Definition video on this disc. All of the supplements from the DVD have carried over, and are once again identical to the American Blu-ray.

• Becoming Bond (27 min., HD) - This fairly engrossing featurette covers the casting of Daniel Craig and the cinematic history of the Bond franchise. The piece implies that Craig was always the producers' first choice for the role, which anyone who followed the casting news at the time will find difficult to believe.
• James Bond: For Real (24 min., HD) - A look at the action, stunts, and visual effects. The free running chase, car flip, airport mayhem, and sinking house are all analyzed.
• Bond Girls are Forever (2006) (49 min., SD) - This entertaining TV puff piece about the ladies of the franchise is hosted by former Living Daylights Bond Girl Maryam d'Abo. Interviewees include Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, Luciana Paluzzi, Jill St. John, Jane Seymour, Maud Adams, Lois Chiles, Carey Lowell, Michelle Yeoh, Dame Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Rosamund Pike, Eva Green, and Caterino Murino. All discuss the evolution of the role across the franchise history, and the "blessing and curse" of being forever labelled a Bond Girl.
• Chris Cornell Music Video (4 min., SD) - This is the laziest sort of movie tie-in video, comprised mostly of clips from the film. The song is even less appealing outside the context of the movie's opening credits.

Easter Eggs:
Hidden on the disc is a selection of HD test patterns. You can access these by entering 7669 on your remote control from the disc's main menu. Use the Skip button to page through the patterns.

Final Thoughts:
Casino Royale is a terrific revitalization of the James Bond franchise, and the Blu-ray edition has excellent picture and sound, as well as a couple of interesting supplements. The Australian disc features a slightly extended, more graphic version of the movie that die-hard fans may want to seek out, though general viewers will probably make due with the American release. Either comes highly recommended.

The Casino Royale - Uncut International Version can be purchased on Blu-ray from Australian retailer EzyDVD.

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