The key figure in Jack's life is his father (Nicholas Ball), who was indeed a gambler, a Jack-the-lad who womanized, drank, gambled and ran roughshod over his son's early years. Jack's secret is that his hard, calculating facade has been hammered together as a shield over the little boy inside.

Jack's father, now in South Africa, lines up a job for him at the roulette tables of a London casino. Jack never gambles, but he does deal and is a skilled card manipulator (we imagine his dad teaching the boy to shuffle). The movie knows its way around casinos, and particularly observes how the dealers, with their strange hours and surreal jobs, tend to date one another instead of outsiders ('incest,' the screenplay calls it). He observes dispassionately as punters line up to try their luck, and the movie notices what complete indifference the dealers have for their clients: Whether they win or lose, the work shift is exactly as long.

Roger Ebert Casino, golden inca slots, exile casino jp, casino 500 clovis. Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert At one time or another, Casino Royale undoubtedly had a shooting schedule, a script and a plot. If any one of the three ever turns up, it might be the making of a good movie.

Casino Royale Roger Ebert Review

Jack has a girlfriend named Marion (Gina McKee), who is a store detective. 'I want to marry a writer, not a [bleeping] croupier,' she tells him. During the course of the story, he also has liaisons with a dealer named Bella (Kate Hardie) who works on his shift. And he meets the glamorous Jani De Villiers (Alex Kingston), a casino client from South Africa, wild, reckless, in debt, a sexual predator who wants to hook him on a scheme to cheat the casino. Jack is just detached enough from his job, just enough of a mechanic intrigued by the intricacies of the plot to be interested.

The movie was directed by Mike Hodges, whose 'Get Carter' (1971) is one of the best of the hard-boiled British crime movies. It was written by Paul Mayersberg ('The Man Who Fell to Earth,' 'Eureka'), who must have done his research, since the casino scenes feel real: This isn't an unconvincing movie casino (even though it was built on a set in Germany), but a convincing portrayal of one of those smaller London operations where the plush and the gilt and the tuxedos on the gorillas at the door don't quite cover the tarnish.

Yes, Daniel Craig makes a superb Bond: Leaner, more taciturn, less sex-obsessed, able to be hurt in body and soul, not giving a damn if his martini is shaken or stirred. That doesn't make him the 'best' Bond, because I've long since given up playing that pointless ranking game; Sean Connery was first to plant the flag, and that's that. But Daniel Craig is bloody damned great as Bond, in a movie that creates a new reality for the character.

Roger Ebert Film Reviews

Year after year, attending the new Bond was like observing a ritual. There was the opening stunt sequence that served little purpose, except to lead into the titles; the title song; Miss Moneypenny; M with an assignment of great urgency to the Crown; Q with some new gadgets; an archvillain; a series of babes, some treacherous, some doomed, all frequently in stages of undress; the villain's master-plan; Bond's certain death, and a lot of chases. It could be terrific, it could be routine, but you always knew about where you were in the formula.

Casino Ebert Review

With 'Casino Royale,' we get to the obligatory concluding lovey-dovey on the tropical sands, and then the movie pulls a screeching U-turn and starts up again with the most sensational scene I have ever seen set in Venice, or most other places. It's a movie that keeps on giving.

Roger Ebert Casino Royale

This time, no Moneypenny, no Q and Judi Dench is unleashed as M, given a larger role, and allowed to seem hard-eyed and disapproving to the reckless Bond. This time, no dream of world domination, but just a bleeding-eyed rat who channels money to terrorists. This time a poker game that is interrupted by the weirdest trip to the parking lot I've ever seen. This time, no laser beam inching up on Bond's netherlands, but a nasty knotted rope actually whacking his hopes of heirs.

And this time, no Monte Carlo, but Montenegro, a fictional casino resort, where Bond checks into the 'Hotel Splendid,' which is in fact, yes, the very same Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary where Queen Latifah had her culinary vacation in 'Last Holiday.' That gives me another opportunity to display my expertise on the Czech Republic by informing you that 'Pupp' is pronounced 'poop,' so no wonder it's the Splendid.

I never thought I would see a Bond movie where I cared, actually cared, about the people. But I care about Bond, and about Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), even though I know that (here it comes) a Martini Vesper is shaken, not stirred. Vesper Lynd, however, is definitely stirring, as she was in Bertolucci's wonderful 'The Dreamers.' Sometimes shaken, too. Vesper and James have a shower scene that answers, at last, why nobody in a Bond movie ever seems to have any real emotions.