July 9 - Casino Royale (2006)

Today’s movie is an espionage thriller with a scene that happens on July 9. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

CASINO ROYALE

After Bond kills a traitorous station chief who had been selling classified info, he gets his 00 status. Le Chiffre, a banker for international terrorists, goes to Uganda and gets millions from Obanno, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. Bond goes to  Madagascar where after a chase he kills a bomb maker named Mollaka, in an embassy, which causes an international uproar. Bond visits M who says she’s thinking of revoking his status and to lay low for a while. Bond goes to Nassau where by surreptitiously accessing the Ocean Club’s security tapes, he is able to identify a person who called Mollaka. Bond beats the man, named Dimitrios at cards and seduces Dimitrios’s wife. On July 9, 2006 [42:56 to 53:38] Bond follows Dimitrios to Miami. Bond kills Dimitrios after Dimitrios has passed a package to Carlos. Carlos goes to the airport and plants a bomb on a tanker truck that he drives towards the prototype Skyfleet airliner. After a vicious fight Bond saves the plane and kills Carlos. The non-destruction of the plane causes a $100 million loss to Le Chiffre, who had sold the stock short, but the stock does not go down, due to the non-destruction of the prototype. Le Chiffre had been gambling with his clients’ money. Le Chiffre sets up a high stakes card game in Montenegro.  M enters Bond so he can beat Le Chiffre and force him to turn to MI6 for protection in return for turning state’s evidence. Bond meets Verper Lynd, a British treasury agent who has control of the $10 million entry fee. Bond loses the $10 million and Lynd refuses to stake him any more cash. Agents of the Lord’s Resistance Army attack Le Chiffre, but Bond kills them. Bond sets out to kill Le Chiffre, but Felix Leiter of the CIA offers to stake Bond if they can get custody of Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre’s girlfriend poisons Bond but Lynd helps save Bond. In one hand Bond wins the tournament and Le Chiffre is wiped out. Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and uses her as bait to get Bond. Le Chiffre tortures Bond in an attempt to get the access code for Bond’s winnings, which were deposited into a Swiss bank account. Mr. White kills Le Chiffre. Bond resigns from MI6 and goes to Venice with Lynd. Bond learns that the funds were never returned to the treasury and that Lynd is stealing them. He pursues her to a building under renovation where she allows herself to drown, as the building collapses Mr. White leaves with the money. Bond learns that Mr. White’s organization had kidnapped Lynd’s boyfriend and had forced her to steal the money. Bond finds a message from Lynd with Mr. White’s phone number, which Bond uses to track him down, introducing himself with the classic line, “The name’s Bond, James Bond”.  

                       

This is the surprisingly good first of the Bond “reboot” movies.  This Bond has a harder edge than some of his incarnations. This film doesn’t disappoint action-wise, but keeps the gadgetry to a minimum.

                 

Cell phone at 47:44 shows date and time

Producer - Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli

                      

Director - Martin Campbell

Screenplay - Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis

Runtime – 2 hours 24 minutes

Released – November 14, 2006

Starring –  

Daniel Craig as James Bond

Eva Green as Vesper Lynd

Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre

Judi Dench as M

Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter

Giancarlo Giannini as René Mathis

Simon Abkarian as Alex Dimitrios

Caterina Murino as Solange Dimitrios

Ivana Miličević as Valenka

Isaac de Bankolé as Steven Obanno

Jesper Christensen as Mr. White

Sébastien Foucan as Mollaka

Tobias Menzies as Villiers.

Ludger Pistor as Mendel

Claudio Santamaria as Carlos.

Richard Sammel as Gettler

Clemens Schick as Kratt

Joseph Millson as Carter

Ben Cooke as Williams

Darwin Shawh as Fisher

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.