Ebert on Casino Royale

When I did the google search for "Ebert Casino Royale" I mistakenly clicked the review he gave of the 1967 film, which showed me just how long he had been in the game and that his opinion was definatly one that came from experience. In his review of the 2007 remake of the film starring Daniel Craig in his first Bond movie, he opens his piece claiming that "Casino Royale has the answers to all my complaints abotu the 45-year-old James Bond Series, and some I hadn't even thought of." He goes on to share how this movie is fresh and new from the beginning and could be any viewer's first Bond film. In ths paragraph he introduced the history behind Ian Flemming's series of novels, beginning with Casino Royale, and production histories of the story.

In his second paragraph he makes effort to praise Daniel Craig in comparison to previous Bonds, and the words he uses to demonsrtate this, such as "leaner, more taciturn, less sex-obsessed, able to be hurt in body and soul, not giving a damn if his martini is shaken or stirred" are only useable in relativity to the previous actors who have played in Bond's shoes. He opens a new section describing the formulaic and predictable plots, then contrasts that to the structure of Casino Royale, even going on to say it is a movie that keeps on giving. Ebert outlines every difference between this film and its predictable predecessors.

In his next paragraph, Ebert says how he never cared about the characters in films before, but in this one ended up with real emotional investments. He then claims a review should not be a list, and just before ending describes not the scenes themself, rather, what he enjoyed or wa troubled by. He answers a followers question, "Why don't critics admit they're tired of it?" reasoning critics are tired of writing how tired they are of it.

The review ends with another quick outlone of the plot, a quick history of the director, Campbell's involvement in the Bond franchise (He directed Goldeneye as well), and how Daniel Craig helped him break every one of his own molds. Ebert gave Casino Royale (2007) four stars.