245. Casino Royale

• Year of release: 2006
• Director: Martin Campbell
• Genre: Action
• IMDB Page

007 is cool. C007.

Lame jokes aside, this movie has got it all: action, babes, one-liners and poker. It's James Bond in a casino, but does the movie play its cards right?

The story is good enough to watch the movie. Bond tracks down, or wants to, the man who funds terrorists. To get to this man, Mr. Le Chiffre, he has to enter a poker tournament in Montenegro. Sure enough he wins it and afterwards he gets kidnapped and tortured by Le Chiffre. He gets saved and then there is some plot twisting and bending to keep you entertained.

One of the things bothering me about this movie is the final poker scene. As each player shows his hand he gets the advantage over the already shown hands. Sure enough Mr. Bond is last to show his hand, right after Mr. Le Chiffre showed the other players how you win at poker, and Mr. Bond obviously has yet another better hand. It feels all too artificial and coincidental to happen in real life, but good hands are dealt at 100/hour in the James Bond universe.

[insert (not-so-)funny remark]

The love scenes were also a bit unnecessary. And I'm not talking about Bond's usual smooth talking, but the actual love interest in Ms. Lynd. The part after Bond completed his mission and spends his days recovering and sailing around the world are very much irritating and annoying. Sure, we get the point. Bond and Lynd are in love. But I feel that by overemphasizing this relationship, the plot twist that follows it became all that more obvious and predictable. And we all know you don't play trump cards when others expect it.

But enough about the bad parts. This is an action movie so let's talk action.

The movie opens with a spectacular chase scene on foot. Bond chases a guy and the chased guy knows... wait for it... parcours. If you're unknown with this sport: it's basically overcoming obstacles on foot. There are some pretty awesome movies on youtube. Anyway, the dude knows what he's doing and clears some pretty dangerous obstacles.

In general the action scenes are executed nicely. It's a Bond movie after all, they've got the budget to pull this off.

I remember there being a lot of commotion of Daniel Craig being the new James Bond, because of his hair color. Exaggerated reactions. Daniel Craig did a good job and I don't think Bond's hair color matters at all.

Perhaps one final minor "bad thing". Eva Green, the Bond Girl in this movie, isn't that spectacular. But you know, tastes differ I guess.

Despite the annoying parts:

Buy It

249. Blood Diamond

• Year of Release: 2006
• Director: Edward Zwick
• Genre: Action, Drama
• IMDB Page

My first action movie on the list. I wouldn't call it an action movie though, sure there are some action scenes in it, but it's more of a drama than an action movie. Nevertheless, it's a rather good movie. Why? Let's find out.

The plot isn't very complicated, I'll explain it very briefly. The village of fisherman Solomon Vandy gets attacked by a group of rebels, the RUF. His family can escape, but he's taken as a prisoner and is forced to work for the rebels in the diamond mines. In that mine he finds a diamond as big as a bird's egg. As he buries it the rebel leader catches him in the act, but right as Solomon was forced to hand the diamond over the rebel camp gets attacked. Solomon buries the diamond and escapes, getting arrested in the process. In jail the rebel leader confronts Solomon about the diamond. In that same jail diamond smuggler Danny Archer, played by DiCaprio, witnesses this and takes an interest in the big diamond. Archer gets Solomon out of jail and promises to help Solomon find his family if he hands over the diamond. Meanwhile Solomon's son has been "recruited" in the RUF and gets the standard brainwashing treatment. On their way to the diamond, Solomon and Archer meet up with reporter Maddy Bowen, who's on Archer's tail for a good story. Eventually Solomon finds his son, Archer his diamond and Maddy her story. However, Archer doesn't survive the trip back to the airplane and decides to give the diamond to Solomon.

I'm going to start by mentioning Leonardo's acting. He really shines in this movie and carries it with his performance. His character was very believable and the accent he adapted sounded genuine. Djimon Hounsou is also delivering his best in this movie. There are some very touching scenes in this movie that revolve around and are carried by him.

The interactions between the characters are well done. Especially the father-son moments between Solomon and his son. The only thing I found a bit redundant and silly was Archer and Maddy. This love interest was forced and in my opinion not necessary to have been included.

Or how to make a rather good movie less enjoyable.

One of the things I don't like is that the movie is too long. It keeps a good, steady pace up until one point and then it sort of drags itself past the two hour mark to deliver a rather typical American ending. If the movie had been shorter, I would have enjoyed it more. Simple as that.

The morality in this movie is very noticeable and it carries a strong message. However, I don't think it's delivered very well. It carries somewhat the message as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" has (squint your eyes a bit), but somehow lacks the presentation "The Day the Earth Stood Still" had. The message in this movie was much more forced upon its viewers and there isn't much debate left to be had. I don't think anyone could argue that blood diamonds are a good thing after watching this movie.

If they would have left out the points I mentioned and made it shorter, I think this movie would have deserved a higher place, but I feel "The Day the Earth Stood Still" deserves to be above this title.

Rent It