Bond Isn't Playing Around in "Casino Royale"
Over the last 40 years, moviegoers have been trained to expect a certain type of formula and style for each new James Bond adventure on the silver screen. Finally, the Bond formula has been changed and roughed up in the series' 21st offering, "Casino Royale."
This new story, based on the novel by series creator, Ian Fleming, is a prequel to the previous 20 films. It is also a sort-of remake of a 1967 parody of the Bond films, starring David Niven. Though the original "Casino Royale" was a comedy, this new film is deadly serious.

With yet another actor taking on the role of Bond, it seems as the series itself has undergone a change in tone. The story is more straightforward without much of the campy humor of the previous installments. The action scenes are far more brutal and tension-filled. And Bond himself is darker and colder than ever before.
"Casino Royale" sets out to match the darker tone of the Fleming novels. If the series is to continue with Bond being portrayed as a ruthless, cold-hearted agent with a license to kill, then Daniel Craig is perfect for the part.
Craig ("Munich") caught a lot of flack online over the previous months when he was announced as the new Bond (a blond Bond? Perish the thought!). But he is tailor-made for the harder-edged 007. He is a remorseless man, quick to kill a quarry as capture him without giving any thought to the consequences. He is also a subtly unsure rookie; he makes mistakes, he gets caught too often and he hasn't even learned to adopt his suave, womanizing, one-liner personality.
In this installment, newly confirmed Agent 007 gets into hot water when pictures of him executing an unarmed prisonera terrorist associatemake headlines. Forced to go "put his head in the sand" by his furious boss "M" (Judi Dench), Bond tracks his quarry's associates in the Bahamas. His search leads him to a professional gambler named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) who has embezzled millions of terrorist dollars to get rich on the stock market only to lose everything.
"M" orders Bond to follow Le Chiffre to Montenegro, where Le Chiffre is entering a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale in order to repay his debt. Bond must win the game to bankrupt Le Chiffre, and then offer him sanctuary in return for squealing on his bosses. Bond is joined by saucy accountant Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), who handles Bond's government-supplied finances. If Bond loses, Lynd says, his

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