YMMV / Casino Royale (2006)

• And You Thought It Would Fail:
  • When Daniel Craig was cast as 007, he got a lot of flak from the press. He was blond, whereas the other actors who had played Bond all had dark hair. He was 5'10", whereas the other Bonds were all over 6 feet tall. He wore a life jacket on a speedboat ride to the announcement.^note  The fact that he was legally required to do this did not matter to his detractors in the slightest. A "Daniel Craig Is Not Bond" movement started up. Then Casino Royale came out, was critically acclaimed and ended up more profitable than any of the Pierce Brosnan movies. Hardly anyone even remembers the furore anymore, and many fans consider Craig to be the best Bond since Sean Connery.
  • The idea of a James Bond origin film was first proposed in 1986, with a film that would have shown Bond's first mission and how he became 007. Albert R. Broccoli dismissed the idea, believing that no-one would be interested in seeing Bond as a rookie.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Le Chiffre is killed before the start of the climax, when in the middle of an interrogation, Mr. White breaks into the room and executes him.
• Award Snub: "You Know My Name" failed to receive a nomination for the Best Song Academy Award. This omission seems even more baffling if one realizes how easily the Academy could have made room for it.^note The year they passed up "You Know My Name", they instead granted Dreamgirls a whopping three nominations. They didn't even pick any of those Dreamgirls songs as the winner, instead giving the statue to "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth.
• Awesome Music:
  • "You Know My Name".
  • The James Bond theme, as usual. In an interesting choice, the familiar theme music isn't played very much in the movie... until the very last scene, when James shoots Mr. White in the leg as revenge for Vesper. So the cue to the Bond theme is not only satisfying after such a long wait, but emphasizes Bond's badass attitude. It also firmly cemented both this particular 007 and, by extension, Daniel Craig, into the role and pointed out an in-story Growing the Beard, with Bond finally being ready for the rigours of his job.
• Best Known for the Fanservice:
  • One of the film's most memorable moments is Daniel Craig rising out of the water in his swimming shorts.
  • Closely followed by Eva Green walking into the poker game in a dress that distracts everyone.
  • And for those who like Foe Yay Shipping and BDSM, there's the infamous scene of Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre inflicting CBT with a knotted rope on Daniel Craig as Bond.
• Complete Monster: Le Chiffre ("The Number") is well known in the underworld as a banker for terrorist organizations. Financing countless militias and murderers, even those that utilize Child Soldiers, Le Chiffre manipulates the stock market to increase his money by staging terrorist attacks on companies he can bet against. Attempting to bomb a Skyfleet protocol with numerous innocents about, Le Chiffre has the wife of an associate tortured to death for information afterward when he realizes the money he has lost. Staging a poker tournament to recover his winnings, Le Chiffre apprehends Bond and tortures him with a carpet beater to the groin, gloating at how simple the applications of unbearable agony can be.
• Ending Fatigue: The ending is considerably lengthened from the equivalent segment in the novel. That being said, the last portion of the novel is essentially an extended internal monologue from Bond on the nature of love and relationships while he and Vesper are on holiday, whereas the film manages to fit in one last action sequence to make things more climactic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Mr. White, full stop. In this film and Quantum, the character has more Crowning Moments of Awesome in his limited screen time than the two villains of both films combined.
  • Also, Mathis qualifies with the role as aide and confidante to Craig's Bond in this film.
  • Mollaka, the African bomb maker from early on in the film. Despite having no lines and being a low-level mercenary, he's extremely memorable for giving a hell of a chase scene, and putting up a decent fight against Bond.
• Evil Is Cool: Mollaka, the bomb maker at the beginning of the film, qualifies for his memorable parkour chase that's revered as one of the best parts of the film.
• First Instalment Wins: Casino Royale is often regarded as this for Craig's tenure. However, Skyfall brought some serious challenge to this claim since 2012. Fans attached to the classic Bond tropes generally consider Skyfall as Craig's best Bond film, while others prefer Casino Royale for momentarily averting/subverting the tropes to great effect and boasting a more character-driven plot. ^note Craig is probably the Bond actor for whom there is the biggest debate as to which is his best film; there is a general consensus that Goldfinger is Connery's best, The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore's best, The Living Daylights is Dalton's best and GoldenEye is Brosnan's best, while Lazenby's best isn't subject to any debate whatsoever for obvious reasons.
• Franchise Original Sin: The divisiveness of Quantum of Solace can be tracked to just following the stripped-down Darker and Edgier approach set by Casino Royale. The difference is that Casino Royale was strong on Spectacle and retained enough elements from the series, such as the humour and a quirky yet intimidating villain, to engage the audience and feel like a Bond film. Quantum was lacking on that, hindering the spectacle with Jitter Cam while doubling down on being gritty and "realistic" in contrast to at least keeping what made the series stand out.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Mathis' line "Being dead does not mean one cannot be helpful." becomes this when in Quantum of Solace, Bond takes the deceased Mathis' money to continue his quest.
  • Also, the fact that Mathis plants the bodies of Obanno and his bodyguard in a Le Chiffre accomplice's trunk to get the guy out of the picture, because it's the way in which Mathis gets killed in Quantum of Solace.
  • When M laments on promoting Bond too early, he responds that she won't even have time to regret this decision, since "Double-Os have a very short life expectancy". Cue No Time to Die, which concludes with Bond actually dying.
  • After No Time to Die, Felix Leiter introducing himself to Bond as "a brother from Langley" is sure to bring to mind Bond's Pre-Mortem One-Liner when avenging Felix's death in that film.
    Bond: I had a brother. His name was Felix Leiter.
• He Really Can Act: It's no secret that when Daniel Craig was announced to be the next Bond, there was a HUGE backlash, but when the film was released, he was unanimously acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, with some thinking he should have gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.^note  That said, he did become the first actor to receive a BAFTA nomination for playing Bond.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Bond's line to M, "Well, I understand 00s have a very short life expectancy... so your mistake will be short-lived" has gotten funnier thanks to Daniel Craig's 2017 announcement that he'd star in a fifth Bond film due in 2021, 15 years since this film, thereby dethroning Roger Moore as the longest-serving Bond actor by number of years in the role.^note Moore is still the longest-serving Bond actor by number of films done, with 7 films to Craig's 5.
  • Felix's remark that the British can keep the winnings because 'does it look we [the Americans] need the money?' As of 2019, the US national debt is upwards of 22 trillion dollars...
  • The 2014 Western The Salvation has its main protagonist played by Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green as another important character, who at the end becomes the companion of Mikkelsen's character.
  • The existence of Mathilde in No Time to Die has led to a lot of people jokingly asking how Bond could possibly father a child after Le Chiffre's infamous Groin Attack torture in this film.
  • Speaking of Mathilde, it is mentioned several times—and is poignantly, the last words exchanged between Madeleine and Bond—that she has her father's blue eyes. This was supposedly a deliberate jab at those who derided Craig's blue eyes (along with everything else about him) when he was cast as Bond.
• Informed Wrongness: We are supposed to believe that Bond's initially being knocked out of the tournament was due to him being arrogant and stupid. Except it was a perfectly reasonable call to make. Bond had a Full House, Kings full of Aces. Literally the only two card combinations that could have beaten him were pocket aces and pocket jacks to give Le Chiffre an Aces full house, or quad Jacks. With the way the board progressed (and depending on how Le Chiffre had bet), the vast majority of poker players would think that he had a J (maybe K-J), or possibly had 10-Q to give him a straight on the flop. When the next J came out, the straight is still looking good, and if he had K-J, that gave him a full house. The king coming out on the river would NOT good for him, because if he had the straight or the J, he now has a weak hand, if he had K-J, and Bond had the other K, they are splitting the pot - hence why he would be bluffing. The probability of Le Chiffre having quads was absolutely microscopic, and yet everybody (including Bond), acted like it was a stupid and reckless call to make. It was a GREAT call to make (and Bond probably knew it since he's supposed to be the best poker player in MI6), and it was saved only by Le Chiffre having The Magic Poker Equation version of Plot Armor (granted, Vesper being a double agent probably justifies this).
• Jerkass Woobie: Valenka is a fairly cold-blooded figure but it's possible to feel just a little bad for her after Obanno threatens to cut off her arm and her boyfriend barely reacts to it.
• Love to Hate: Le Chiffre may be an especially vile character, but Mads Mikkelsen does such a great job playing him, it's hard not to enjoy the performance.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • It's a common means of having fun amongst the viewers to poke fun at how real-life Poker pros would have reacted if they took part in the Poker game that Bond and Le Chiffre were playing in. Particularly the last hand:
    Hellmuth: Bond called a raise with 5,7. Idiot from Northern Europe!
  • This exchange:
    Bond: Get me a vodka martini.
    Bartender: Shaken or stirred?
    Bond: Do I look like I give a damn?
  • Photoshopping the Poker scene so that Bond and Le Chiffre are playing anything from Connect Four◊ to Beyblade◊.
• Moral Event Horizon: If Le Chiffre didn't cross the line by arranging for a terrorist attack against the new Skyfleet prototype (which would've killed dozens if not hundreds of people if it weren't for Bond's intervention), he definitely crosses it when he brutally and graphically tortures Bond to get the password so he can claim the money.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The very ending scene solidifying Craig's transition into the role has Bond looking down at an injured Mr. White (whom he just shot in the leg) telling him his name, "The name's Bond, James Bond", immediately followed by the classic James Bond film theme as it cuts to the end credits. An all-too perfect ending to a reintroduction of the character.
• Older Than They Think: The idea of Bond being a humourless government-paid assassin who doesn't use gadgets and fights realistic terrorists instead of flamboyant super-criminals. Seen for the first time, this can come off as a deconstruction of the Bond mythos, but it's actually how the character was originally portrayed in Fleming's novels. Casino Royale is probably one of the most accurate adaptations of the original novels to hit the big screen. It's also pretty much how the screen Bond was originally portrayed, in Dr. No and From Russia with Love, the first two movies of the series. In fact, the series as a whole is more cyclical on this count than anything else; it goes from grittily realistic spy thriller to progressively more over the top gadgets and villains and plots, then reboots to return back to gritty realism again. (The extremely over-the-top Moonraker being followed by the (literally) more down-to-Earth For Your Eyes Only, for instance.)
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Mendel, the affable Swiss banker played by Ludger Pistor.
  • Mollaka, the freerunner during the parkour chase played by Sébastien Foucan (one of the inventors of parkour in Real Life).
  • The eyepatch-wearing henchman from the fight in Venice (who those who've read the novel will recognize as Adolph Gettler).
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Oh look, James Bond is playing cards with Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Adds a new layer of subtext to some of Le Chiffre's threats later in the film.
    Le Chiffre: I'll feed you that which you seem not to value...
  • Adolph Gettler, the eyepatch-wearing henchman from the fight in Venice, is played by Richard Sammel, who would later become best known for his roles as Sgt. Rachtmann in Inglourious Basterds and his regular role as Thomas Eichhorst on The Strain.
• Tainted by the Preview: The second Daniel Craig, a blond, was cast to a play a character that (per Fleming's description) had black hair, all hell broke loose. A website entitled "Daniel Craig Is Not Bond" even managed to get foreign press for all the fan ranting. Also, Moneypenny and Q weren't in the movie. Then the first trailer hit. Then the movie came out. Hardly anyone even remembers the furore anymore. Hell, Roger Moore had brown hair, anyway...
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Although most viewers embraced Craig as 007 after this movie's release, there is a still a vocal minority who wish that Pierce Brosnan hadn't been let go of the franchise because Craig's interpretation simply doesn't match with what their ideal cinematic James Bond should be. These fans often refer to the latter as "James Bourne" to differentiate him from Brosnan's (and previous actors like Connery) version.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Valenka having no significant reaction or development as a result of Le Chiffre being prepared to sacrifice her can feel disappointing.
  • Also, Vesper's suicide feels like a waste when it could have been far more interesting to see how she tries to redeem herself, not to mention it would have been easy for the writers to have Bond save her.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • As this was the film that rebooted the James Bond franchise, bringing it out of the realm of cartoonish supervillains and making it a more political and character-driven thriller - the second film Quantum of Solace was perceived by many to be impossible to follow on from it. Not helping matters was Quantum happening during a writers' strike. Skyfall, however, managed to avert this, being the only other Bond film of Craig's era brought up as a contender to Casino Royale for the title of Craig's best Bond film.
  • Vesper proved to be a massive hit with critics, and turned Eva Green into a star. She's so beloved that none of the subsequent Bond Girls in the Daniel Craig era of the franchise have been able to live up to her. In fact, a major criticism of Quantum was how much her presence was missed, and even through the last two films of his era, Spectre and No Time to Die, a common criticism to how Madeleine Swann was build up in them as the Second Love of Craig's Bond was that she didn't have the same charisma and chemistry with Bond as Vesper had.
• Win Back the Crowd: After Pierce Brosnan's later few films started to grate on Bond fans due to their ever-increasing silliness, Casino Royale went a long way to showing that the series was viable again, critically.
• The Woobie:
  • Solange, who's stuck in an unhappy marriage and ends up tortured and killed as collateral damage.
  • Vesper, given all the chaos and shooting she gets thrown into, as well as how she's being blackmailed and has divided loyalties. The fact that she essentially commits suicide adds to it.
• Woolseyism: The film's Hungarian dub alters the conclusion of Bond's first conversation with Vesper, adding subtle foreshadowing to the later ball torture scene.
  Vesper: How was the cock? ^note Original line: How was the lamb?
  Bond: Castrated. Not a good omen. ^note Original line: Skewered. One sympathizes.

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