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Casino Royale (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [2006] | ![Casino Royale (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ci%2Bo0-6GL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Martin Campbell
Actors: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK
Category: DVD
List Price: £22.99
Buy Used: £3.50
You Save: £19.49 (85%)
New (14) Used (20) Collectible (4) from £3.50
Rating:  297 reviews
Format: Box Set, Collector's Edition, Dubbed, Pal
Languages: English (Original Language), Hungarian (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed), Czech (Dubbed)
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 138 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7
EAN: 5035822350878
ASIN: B000FIGHNQ
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: March 19, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
The most successful invigoration of a cinematic franchise since Batman Begins, Casino Royale offers a new Bond identity. Based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced Agent 007 into a Cold War world, Casino Royale is the most brutal and viscerally exciting James Bond film since Sean Connery left Her Majesty's Secret Service. Meet the new Bond; not the same as the old Bond. Daniel Craig gives a galvanising performance as the freshly minted double-0 agent. Suave, yes, but also a "blunt instrument," reckless and possessed with an ego that compromises his judgment during his first mission to root out the mastermind behind an operation that funds international terrorists. In classic Bond film tradition, his global itinerary takes him to far-flung locales, including Uganda, Madagascar, the Bahamas (that's more like it) and Montenegro, where he is pitted against his nemesis in! a poker game, with hundreds of millions in the pot. The stakes get even higher when Bond lets down his armour by falling in love with Vesper (Eva Green), the ravishing banker's representative fronting him the money. For longtime fans of the franchise, Casino Royale offers some retro kicks. Bond wins his iconic Aston Martin at the gaming table, and when a bartender asks if he wants his martini "shaken or stirred," he disdainfully replies, "Do I look like I give a damn?". There's no Moneypenny or "Q," but Dame Judi Dench is back as the exasperated M who, one senses, admires Bond's "bloody cheek." A Bond film is only as good as its villain, and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, who weeps blood, is a sinister dandy. From its punishing violence and virtuoso action sequences to its romance, Casino Royale is a Bond film that, in the words of one character, 'makes you feel it', particularly during an excruciating torture sequence. Double-0s, Bond observes early on, "have a short life expectancy". But with Craig, there is new life in the old franchise yet, as well as genuine anticipation for the next one when, at last, the signature James Bond theme kicks in following the best last ! line ever in any Bond film. To quote Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, "now I know what I've been faking all these years". --Donald Liebenson
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Best Bond Yet December 20, 2006
Julian Evans (Darkest Shropshire, UK)
107 out of 119 found this review helpful
I grew up with the Bond movies. I was slightly too young to see Dr No when it came out, but by Goldfinger I was an avid fan. For me Sean Connery was the best personification of the literary character. The other actors (all of them) never really did it for me. Sean Connery's Bonds are an extremely tough act to top. By the time I clocked the invisible car in the last of the Pierce Brosnan movies (see, I can't even remember tha name of it!) Bond had become a joke, exactly like the Mike Myers pastiche, something that got put on the DVD player at a chum's house, and certainly not a 'must see' at the cinema.
A few months ago I caught the early trailer for the new movie and thought it looked quite different. I decided to part with my cash (albeit on an 'Orange Wednesday') for one last time and check out Casino Royale when it opened in November.
Having read and re-read all of the books as a youngster I can only say that this Bond, and Daniel Craig in particular, is the closest to the books yet. For me he's better even than Sean Connery. THIS is how a Bond movie should look. It's fast, it's dirty, it's edgy and it simply doesn't need the stupid gadgets and hollowed-out volcanoes. Martin Campbell has created a superb, modern Bond with Daniel Craig. We see the character develop and 'become' Bond. In fact it's not until the very last moments of the movie that the famous signature tune arrives along with those immortal words. "Who are you?" asks Mr White, "The name's Bond, James Bond".
If the next movies are as good as Casino Royale the series will continue for many more years. Daniel Craig is just great. Go and see this movie, it's BRILLIANT.
Craig revitalises Bond. December 13, 2006
James M. (Ireland)
36 out of 47 found this review helpful
Shame on us. When Daniel Craig was announced as the new James Bond, there was outcry among many. People thought he was too wooden, that he lacked the sufficient suaveness to play 007 and, worst of all, that he was too blond.
How wrong we all were. Craig is brilliant as Bond, managing to take everything we love about Bond while adding more to the role. While he may not be a star in the Sean Connery mould, he is a fantastic actor, and to revitalize a series that looked on its last legs he needed to be a good actor. Bond 2006 is a more physical man and Craig provides this by actually looking like he could kill a man with his bare hands. Gone are the lame double entendres and sly innuendos; instead we get a young Bond who makes mistakes and is a womanising, borderline alcoholic secret agent who is effectively an assassin.
Casino Royale plays its trump card early: Craig's physicality. The much talked about Madagascar free-running chase is a thrilling sequence that takes in a chase across a crane and the Nambutu embassy, and by the end Craig is smouldering; he is a hard-hitting, killing machine. The grotty, violent bathroom fight which is shot in black and shows Bond earning his first kill is also refreshingly new, adding a new dimension to the famous spy.
Thankfully, the rest of the film doesn't lag. The set-pieces are excellent, the acting by the supporting cast good, and the storyline, while not particularly excellent, keeps the film ticking along. Eva Green in particular is impressive as Bond's love interest Vesper Lynd. Casino Royale sheds the image of the traditional Bond girl; instead we get a woman who matches Bond throughout the film and eventually steals his heart.
The film those have its faults: the soulless product placement, daft defibrillator scene, the collapsing building at the climax is too noisy a scene which almost smothers the emotional ending, and the idea of an bruised, emotionally fraught Bond with the beginnings of a drink problem might be too much to take for some people. But these are minor faults when you consider the film as a whole.
For a new generation Bond, Craig fits the bill perfectly, taking the spy stuck in the 1960's kicking and screaming into the 21st century. There is no disputing that Craig has revitalized Bond, replacing camp with a prickly sense of humour and adding heart to a franchise that has lost its way. When, at the end, Bond finally utters those immortal five words and the iconic title tune kicks, you'll be completely smitten. Bond is back and -- was it ever in doubt -- James Bond will return.
HE DID IT !!! GOOD FOR DANIEL CRAIG December 20, 2006
Andryan the Romantic (Madrid, Madrid Spain)
32 out of 42 found this review helpful
If you have read the Ian Fleming novels, you will see that only Sean Connery and Daniel Craig (even if he is blonde) fit in the role. Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and George Lazenby, are handsome guys than could deliver cool lines and look great in a tuxedo, but they dont look like cold minded killers, and that is what bond is: A SOLDIER. when Connery and Craig are onscreen you just know they mean business even if they haven't uttered a word. Daniel has the charisma of a Richard Widmark, and sometimes some of Tony Curtis charm brims over when he smiles. Perfect for the role, and about the movie, it is great to see the change in spirit from beginning to end, thrilling and action, action, action. It is a real, more brutal Bond. But aren't we living in brutal times?
WOW - FABULOUS ! December 19, 2006
A. Rose
28 out of 37 found this review helpful
I don't normally `go' for a Bond film but this one is something else. It's partly because it's the first of Fleming's Bond books and therefore puts in place some of the pieces missing from all the subsequent Bond films (for example how he became a 00 & how he acquires the Aston Martin), and partly because it is such an excellent stand alone film. Daniel Craig plays a brilliant Bond - he's not too good looking (like Timothy Dalton & Pierce Brosnan) but he has a very attractive personality. The fights at the beginning of the film are so energetic that it sets the pace for the rest of the film. The book, published in the early 1950's, to film has obviously been updated to include all present day electronic technology and even mentions 9 / 11. If you like an action packed movie with lots of twists and turns then you won't be disappointed with Casino Royale, it's definitely the best Bond film and certainly the best film I've seen for years - also, watch out for the Richard Branson cameo !
What James Bond should be February 13, 2007
R. Kneen
25 out of 30 found this review helpful
This film was incredible. Enough said. It was so good I went to see it again the day after.
So what if certain things were adapted from the book from back in the old days a little bit innaccurately? It makes James Bond a more contemporary and relevant character in modern society when it is adapted like this.
Sure, there is no mention of him being a naval commander or coming from Eton. People today don't look up to perfect Naval Commanders and people from Eton anymore. Times have changed. Modern audiences don't relate to the prehistoric cad Bond anymore, and the movie makers realised this and decided to take James Bond and make him into a modern day hero.
People today love a torturred, frayed and flawed hero that they can relate to. Someone real then, but with enough charisma to make men want to be him, and women want to be with him. Craigs Bond looks brutish and unrefined, but scrubs up well when he wants to and this ability to look so physically polarised is echoed in his actual performance of a new Bond with so many different layers to him. He no longer looks like an ex-catalogue model too, which is a relief, he looks like a man, and his allure is his personality, mystique and charm, not his good looks. He makes mistakes, but he learns from them, and his arrogance that fuels his bravado wears thinner as his relationship develops with the love interest in this movie. He learns about respect, especially when it comes to women, and he is finding his feet. He's a modern man doing extra-ordinary things.
This is where the makers have tapped into the same successful type of character as Rocky Balboa or even Batman. It's about a man who is just a man, in a harsh world that beats him down, and he's doing everything he can to get back up and win. We like to see our heroes suffer and fight through it in such a way, it makes them seem more super human than any idiot in red underpants and a cape.
It has none of the cheese of any of the previous Bonds, and not a stupid invisible car or tacky bit of CGI in sight. Bond is charasmatic and witty, and Daniel Craig is easily up there with Connery, playing a Bond with cocky cheek and wit, but never ever descending into slimeball mode like the older Bonds. For the first time, I actually laughed out loud at one of James Bonds witty comebacks, in fact I laughed at them all. Never a cringeworthy groan like the others.
And thank God Judi Dench was spared from the Bond holocaust, and not only back, but this time she's tougher and cooler than ever. It's like they took everything that worked about the Brosnan relaunch back with Goldeneye, kept it, and finally finished the job of discarding the bits they really should have dumped all that time ago. Makes no surprise the bloke that did Goldeneye also did this film.
This was James Bond. Even the plot oozes Bond. The poker game itself I thought was fantastic. This really is James Bond how he really ought to be. Gritty, charming, likeable, cool, rough, ruthless sometimes vindictive and with everything Bond goes through, says and does, I was loving every single second of it.
The theme music and intro are excellent too. A stunning artistic animation with the excellent Chris Cornell providing the superb song.
It has restorred my faith in the series once again and I cannot wait to see Craig in the next one.
Plus all the set pieces and stunts are stunning and the short-lived car chase still hits with an impact that the overblown, silly car chases of previous Bonds wish they had.
Where Bond used to cruise around in his Aston Martin sipping champagne in the past, this new Bond smashes the bottle, lobs it at a pensioner, runs over an orphan, and ploughs head first into a wall in a glorious twisted mess of twisted metal and shatterred glass.
Awesomeness on a stick.
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