Finally - a James Bond film that meets the expectations of someone, myself in this case, who literally grew up reading Ian Fleming's James Bond books - the first of which was 1953's "Casino Royale."  As a pre-pubescent grade-schooler, I snuck the Bond books into my room for after-hours reading by flashlight, so as to avoid discovery by my parents of not only the reading material, but also the fact that I often read into the wee hours of the night.

When the first Bond film, "Dr. No," was released in 1962 I was still in grade school, but was able to see it during it's initial run.  It was an exhilarating experience, kind of a ride, but I came away feeling that the film was not up to the book - a theme that has been repeated with very few exceptions ("The Godfather" being the most obvious) throughout my life.  Each successive Bond film repeated this theme, although there was improvement of sorts with "From Russia with Love" and "Goldfinger" in terms of pure entertainment and production value.  Unfortunately, after "Goldfinger," the series began a long slide into a cliche of gimmicks and daring stunts.  The various film Bonds after the first three Connery films became comedic versions of the complexcharacter created by Fleming.  

The new "Casino Royale" (no relation to the disastrous 1967 farce of the same title) introduces us to a James Bond that fans of the books will recognize.  Like the Bond of the 1953 book, "Casino Royale," the present day James Bond, as portrayed by Daniel Craig, is a blond-haired, blue-eyed sociopath who has no compunction about eliminating the enemies of Her Majesty's government.  Picking Craig to play Bond was simply a master stroke!

This film has great action scenes, as we've come to expect from a Bond film, but gone are the hokey gadgets and silly props.  What we're left with is a highly suspenseful movie with a believable story and a complex, somewhat admirable character for whom we have little sympathy - although there are moments when we can almost literally feel his pain!  In other words, "Casino Royale" is a film experience that is truly entertaining, while actually somewhat provocative - quite a departure from the film series we've grown up with.  In addition, the DVD has excellent visual cinematic quality, while the audio effects and mix is similarly excellent.

At last - a Bond film for adults!  Highly Recommended!  

This DVD has outstanding color and shadow detail with very low noise. In addition, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is used quite well, with quite good clarity and detail.