Craig’s a live wire, closer to the blunt instrument Ian Fleming imagined when he created the character in 1953, but he can’t mess too much with the winning formula begun with 1962’s Dr.
Sad to say, Casino Royale is also weighed down by action-business-as-usual. And he does it with an actor’s skill, an athlete’s grace and a dangerous glint that puts you on notice that Bond, James Bond, is back in business. Not only is Craig, 38, the best Bond since Sean Connery, he’s the first of the Bonds (great Scot Connery, one-shot George Lazenby, charmer Roger Moore, stuff-shirt Timothy Dalton and smoothie Pierce Brosnan) to lose the condescension and take the role seriously.Ĭraig reinvigorates a fagged-out franchise that’s been laying on bigger stunts and sillier gadgets to disguise the fact that it’s run out of ideas.
This rugged, jug-eared Brit, whose irregular features improbably radiate a megawatt star charisma, gets the last laugh on the Internet buzz killers who’ve been ragging on him at for being blond and blue-eyed and too short (five-eleven) for Bond duty. There’s one whopper of a reason why Casino Royale is the hippest, highest-octane Bond film in ages, and his name is Daniel Craig.
