12. Casino Royale (A-)
First viewing since it came out in theatres. I'd forgotten a lot of the details in the intervening years, obviously. It's interesting to revisit the first Craig Bond film (I still haven't seen the second one, which came out at a period when I'd slacked off in filmgoing; should get around to remedying that). It makes an interesting contrast with
Skyfall, highlighting both the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. The Bond films exist in a constant cycle of going to excess and then stripping it back down to the bone (or closer to it). This film went further than the others in a lot of ways, which was a very fresh take at the time. Craig's a great Bond, and he's got more humour in the part than I had remembered. At the same time, the direction that was being suggested here had stripped out a lot of the more distinctive parts of the movies, things that
Skyfall reintroduced successfully without losing the best parts of the Craig approach.
Cinema: 3
Home Video: 8 (+1)
Computer: 1