★★★½ Casino Royale

[Twinkletoes: 4.0, Gino: 3.0]

Twinkletoes says: 'Please note that this review is for the recent Bond film with Daniel Craig and not the Woody Allen one from the 1960's. I've always liked the idea of James Bond far more than the actual end products. The plots were too ridiculous. The villains even more so. And there was never any sense of danger. We all knew James Bond was going to save the world and be witty, dashing and look impeccable while doing it. This reboot of the franchise goes a long way towards fixing most of those problems for me. Gone is much of the silliness and detached cool. In its place is a somewhat plausible story and a seriousness never before seen in these films. Daniel Craig brings a tough guy menace to the role of Bond and I think after just this one film that I can declare him the best Bond yet. If you've hated every other Bond film I doubt this film will change your mind. But if like me you've always had the inkling that Bond could be so much more than I think you may really enjoy this.'

Gino says: 'I am not a big James Bond fan. I agree with Twinkletoes that the realism/character development here is welcome, and I liked Craig and Eva Green. But I think maybe they went too far with the realism at the expense of suspense [spoilers follow], because 2/3 of the plot revolved around having to win a poker game to keep money out of the hands of terrorists. And unless you really like poker, that can be pretty boring. So, I liked the general direction they are taking this (I think enough to see the sequel), but not the script, really.'