Welcome to the world of fighting international espionage with England's famous MI6 and their newest "double 0" agent, one Mr. Bond, James Bond that is. After mangling his first 007 assignment, MI6 decides to take advantage of his expert poker skills and enter him into a high-stakes game to try to win away the hundred million dollars that otherwise would end up in hands of the evil Le Chiffre, financier to global terrorists. This is the story of the new movie "Casino Royale" and here is my opinion of it (and I apologize in advance that it won't be a short one).

First, I have to say that this is one excellent reboot of the Bond franchise. The action scenes are compelling and without all those extraordinary and unbelievable gadgets, that Bond is so famous for (which some might see as a bad thing, but not having John Cleese doing his horrendous Q parody was a huge relief to me). Here Bond has to use his wits and his own physical abilities to do what needs doing. Some of the stunts in the chases were so beautifully done, they bordered on being inhuman, but stopped short of looking CGI fake. What's more, it seems that Daniel Craig has both the smarts and the physical strength to pull these off. Mind you, not without getting some bumps, bruises and bashes. Which is another thing that most people have noted this Craig's Bond is far more human than his predecessors were. When you cut him, he does in fact bleed. In addition, what is a Bond movie without a good car chase and/or a good car wreck? Well, CR has some of that, too just so we car-chase/wreck-lovers won't feel neglected. In CR, when Bond wrecks a car, he really WRECKS it utterly!

As for the story, this original Ian Fleming first novel received updating to the 21st century with almost no feelings that we need to stretch our imaginations too far to believe it. We get references to 9/11 and playing the stock market to launder and increase the funds meant for the "freedom fighters" to use to buy all those fun weapons so they can wreck havoc on governments, armies and innocent citizens alike. There is even some nostalgia for the Cold War included ah, for that simpler time when it could all be boiled down to western democracy versus eastern communism.

The script they made from this story includes no small amount of humour as well. The humour here seems to be in three main categories. The first is sexual innuendo, for which Bond is so famous. No small amount of chuckles comes from Bond trying to suggest

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