Casino Royale Collector's Edition – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

With five directors and quite possibly the most star-studded cast ever assembled in the history of movies, Casino Royale is an absolute trainwreck, and also one of the most fun movies I’ve ever seen.

The basic idea behind the movie is that the evil organization SMERSH has kidnapped most of the world’s spies in a period of little over two weeks. In desperation, the heads of England, Russia, France, and the United State’s spy organizations attempt to bring the original James Bond out of retirement.

You see the James Bond that we’ve all come to know and love is actually an agent given that name and Double-O rank to preserve the mystique of MI6. The real James Bond retired after the death of his one and only love, Mata Hari. Played by David Niven—who incidentally was offered the real James Bond role before Sean Connery, but turned it down—is the practical antithesis of the modern Bond: he despises his successor’s reliance on gadgets and the way that he exploits women. Niven’s Bond is actually very Victorian in demeanor, which creates a fun parody/commentary on the traditional view of the character.

However, Niven has no desire to go back into the service, but has no choice when MI6—or somebody else, I really couldn’t tell—mortars his estate. Reluctantly, he travels back to London, but first has to make a stop in Scotland in order to deliver M’s remains to his widow, played by Deborah Kerr. When M died, though, is a mystery considering he was alive in the previous scene, and it’s moments like that which make this film so often confusing.

For the first thirty or forty minutes I kept feeling like I was missing something, like I had spaced out during an important scene, but after a while I realized that this movie worked more like a series of vignettes with nothing really to connect them, and once I grew comfortable with that I was able to sit back and simply roll along with the movie.

This randomness is what really makes this a fun movie. Once you accept that this movie doesn’t make any sense then you’re free to really enjoy it. What’s also great is that this is such a 60s movie. Everything from the awesome Burt Bacharach soundtrack to the ridiculous outfits sets this firmly in the 1960s, and because of this it has a great innocent energy about it. Casino Royale belongs with other great frothy 60s sex comedies like What’s New, Pussycat? and The Pink Panther.

The interesting thing about this movie, though, is that it really isn’t a Bond parody. Beyond the fact that it uses the name James Bond, it really doesn’t do anything with the series. There are plenty of places where it seems like it’s going to parody the franchise, such as one of the characters being named Holly Goodthighs and Niven’s prudish attitude towards sex, but they’re just introduced then dropped. This would be a bigger complaint except I was having too much fun watching to really care.

Nothing about this movie should have worked, but almost despite itself it does. It’s fun and silly and confusing, but also loaded with incredible talent. Woody Allen and Peter Sellers alone make this worth watching, but when you add to that David Niven, Ursula Andress, Orson Wells, and Deborah Kerr just to name a few, you’ve really got something special.

The movie was shown in 2.35:1 Widescreen and heard in English 5.1 Dobly Surround. Other tracks include English, Spanish, and French in Mono. This is a great transfer of an older movie; there were no problems in either the visual or the audio.

Commentary with James Bond Historians Steven Jay Rubin and John Cork–Actually an interesting commentary. Rubin and Cork give loads of great facts about the movie and Bond in general.

The Making of Casino Royale (cumulative running time: 43:29)–This is can be played all at once or by individual chapters and is fascinating to watch. The craziness that went on behind the scenes of this movie eclipse what occurred on screen, and after you hear about the sheer number of writers, directors, and actors fired and all of the random changes made by Producer Charles Feldman you’ll be amazed that this movie was actually made.

Theatrical Trailer (2:21)

Photo Gallery

So what if there’s no real plot to speak of? Casino Royale has beautiful women, great stars, and a wonderful tongue-in-cheek attitude that leaves you feeling good. This is one of those movies you can pop in when you’re feeling sick or just down and make yourself feel better. Highly recommended.

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MGM/Twentieth Century Fox presents Casino Royale Collector’s Editon. Directed by John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, and Joe McGrath. Starring Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi, and Woody Allen. Written by Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, and Michael Sayers. Running time: 131 minutes. Rated NR. Released on DVD: October 21, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.