I ended up seeing the late show of Casino Royale on Friday night, while doing my best to beat back the oncoming cold that knocked me out all weekend and leaves me home today from work (though still somehow working).
I have to say I haven’t been to a movie in a while, and this one was definately worth it. Bond is dark, cold, manly, bloody, and gets his hands dirty. This movie is nothing like the previous crap (and while I enjoyed them at the time, I feel that compared to this movie the last few were just that, crap). Daniel Craig is a far more “realistic” Bond than Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton. Both these actors did have their charms, but the plots that were put before them ended up leaving the character as more of a cartoon character or even a caricature of the character. Combine this with super unrealistic invisible cars or plots involving something to do with ice, and you end up with a sub-par movie. This was even admitted to by the producers of said movies I think.
Anyway, think of Casino Royale to the last few Bond movies (lets not get crazy and compare the last few Bond movies to the original few movies with Sean Connery and Roger Moore) as Batman Begins was to the last few Batman movies (something involving Robin and a car chase through a city with huge statues or something?).
Just go see it.