Casino Royale: A

Pretend for a moment you've never heard of a spy that goes by the name Bond, James Bond. Done yet? Good. With a clear head you can sit down at this 144-minute epic and marvel at the wit and charm that went into its making and then you can wonder why they haven't yet made a franchise out of it. If you, like me, don't possess the ability to forget the past then you'll be thrilled that Martin Campbell has at least managed to revitalize it.

When Pierce Brosnan vacated his Bond role 4 years ago people went wild: what would happen to the series? who would replace Brosnan? The answer to both questions is Daniel Craig, a British actor with a healthy dose of talent. To go along with the new leading man came a brand new set of rules that actually dug into the past (as all good origin stories do): they would base the latest movie on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel: Casino Royale. Once they had a plot, Bond traps a terrorist financier in a casino during a two-day poker match, they needed a script and luckily they got one that is smart, smart, smart.

It's smart enough to make the villian weep tears but rarely have him cry. It's smart enough to have a bond girl, Vesper Lynde (Eva Green), that is all Craig's counterpoint and more. It's smart enough to not convolute a near perfectly minimalist plot. And it's smart enough to show us a side of Bond that in all rationale should have been visible for 3 decades.

Now that they have a script they need a director and who better than Martin Campbell, the last man to direct a good Bond flick (GoldenEye, if you're wondering)? He is smart enough to have the openings scene shot in rich black-and-white. He's smart enough to add-on a romantic and heartbreaking third act, even if it's slightly muddled. And He's smart enough to use the series' trademark jaw-dropping stunts in small doses, so as not to make us overly desensitized.
With a bracing cast and crew this may well be the best Bond movie ever and possibly one of the best action flicks of the decade. Surely with those kinds of credentials you know you have to see this movie.