Casino Royale (1967)
I honestly have no idea where to begin with this one.
So this was one of 2 James Bond movies that weren’t made by EON Productions, mainly because of some legal shenanigans. I’d seen the other one, Never Say Never Again, and while it’s easily the worst of Sean Connerys Bond, it still treated itself like a Bond movie. Saying that Casino Royale doesn’t feel like a Bond movie is an understatement. Saying that it doesn’t feel like a movie is an understatement.
Casino Royale isnt a James Bond movie. Its 2 separate Austin Powers movies, but only if the script was shuffled around, stapled together, and produced by Monty Python an entire 2 years before they were founded. There is no plot, or rather there seem to be an anthology of completely meaningless plots, loosely connected by a thin string of a half-commentary on the bad guys being sexless perverts and the good guys being not sexless, but still perverts. Things just happen, and while the first half or so could reasonably pass as a Bond movie, albeit an unorthodox one, anything that happens after that will be any first time viewers guess.
This is generally considered the absolute bottom of the barrel of James Bond-related movies, commonly cited as being even worse than Die Another Day, Spectre, A View to a Kill, the movies that are generally considered by the fanbase to be the “worst” James Bond movies, and by the metric of “Is this a good James Bond movie” then yes, I agree. This is easily the worst “James Bond” movie.
But I felt alive watching it.
The last 20 minutes alone are the hardest that I have laughed from watching a movie in my entire life. Its the kind of laughter that you’re fighting just so you can have enough time between each exhale to beg your friend to pause the movie so you can catch your breath. Maybe some of that is just because I went in expecting a somewhat competent James Bond movie and got something completely different, but who knows?
Everyone compares this movie to the Daniel Craig variant, and I can absolutely see why. The plot is actually possible to follow. Its characters, music, special effects, even the humor actually follow a set tone. It completely revitalized the franchise after the critical and financial disaster that was Die Another Day. That being said, I despise Casino Royale 2006. Its action scenes were dull, everyone involved took the movie far too seriously, and the movie cut all of its tension halfway through it only to try to regain it with 10 minutes left. It’s quite easily one of my least favorite James Bond movies, if not my absolute least favorite.
Casino Royale 2006 bored me to death. The only time Casino Royale 1967 killed me is when I drowned in my own tears of laughter. 2006 may be a better “Bond” movie, but I will sooner rewatch 1967, as it is a far more entertaining and memorable piece of Bond, and even cinematic, history.
I cannot do this movie justice through words alone. It is the ultimate spy movie spoof. If youve seen at least one normal Bond movie, I implore you to watch this. Worst case scenario, you now have some better frame of reference when talking about the franchise. Realistically, this is a 1/10, if even that. But this was such an enjoyable movie that I’m gonna give it a 10/10.