"Casino Royale" DVD Review

Daniel Craig proves a blonde Bond is just as good (if not better) than the darker haired versions in the dramatic thriller, Casino Royale. Easily one of the best Bond films in decades, Casino Royale is hugely entertaining and offers a little bit of something for everyone (including non-Bond fans like myself).

Daniel Craig smoothly fits into character, taking over for Pierce Brosnan as the world's most famous spy. Craig's Bond is still at the stage of his career where he needs to prove himself worthy of the coveted 00 status, with Casino Royale set in contemporary times yet tracing the early days of Bond.

Although she has serious doubts about his ability to handle the job, M (Judi Dench) promotes Bond to 007 and sends him out on his first mission in that capacity. Bond's assignment is to track a terrorist loan shark by the name of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). His mission takes him to Montenegro where he takes on Le Chiffre in a high stakes poker game with the help of British Treasury Agent Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).

The Bonus Features

In the 'Becoming Bond' featurette, Daniel Craig talks about everything he went through in order to play Bond, including the speculation in the press and among Bond-lovers on the Internet that he might not be up to playing Bond, James Bond. The featurettes on the Bond Girls are also interesting with the interview with Ursula Andress (the quintessential Bond Girl) particularly entertaining. It's also interesting to see how the Bond Girls have been represented onscreen over the years including how over the last decade they have progressed into, as Halle Berry says, "well-equipped adversaries" for Bond.