Blond ... James Blond: "Casino Royale"

Let's get one thing out of the way: I'm a James Bond fan. Big one. Seen all of the Bond movies, all more than once, some more than a dozen times. If my dog hadn't had a fun name when I got her, "Moneypenny" would have been considered. I college, the Mac disk I used to store all of my papers and whatnot was titled "Oddjob."

Yes, I'm a geek. This surprises you how?

Anyway, you can guess that I was rather excited about "Casino Royale," the latest and revamped Bond entry. Rather than get caught up in this "Dear God, he's blond!" crap, I reserved judgment first until the trailers (which looked great) and then until I saw the movie for myself (today). The ruling? Positive, very much so.

Our story has a young Bond (Daniel Craig) recently promoted to Double-Oh status, which, as we all know, is license to kill. (Or "licence," if you're a limey.) While looking into a bomb maker who works with terrorists, our hero stumbles across the nefarious dealings of one Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), financier of terrorists. Even better, he makes it so the villain calls a bigtime poker game in which our favorite superspy will have a chair. Meanwhile, shepherding the money for Bond's stake is a comely British treasury agent (Eva Green), whom I've seen naked.

(OK, since it was courtesy of her full frontal action in "The Dreamers," I guess I wasn't the only one. Still ... )

While the story asks a bit more than the simple world domination normally sought by Bond villains, the overall reimagining/reinventing/whatever you want to call it works quite well. Instead of having another fortysomething step into the role -- see Moore-Dalton-Brosnan -- we go back to the beginning, when Bond was raw and rough. Very rough, in fact. Not only is he less than smooth when it comes to the violence, but he definitely hasn't learned how to love-'em-and-leave-'em. It's kind of cool, actually, to not have to hear a bunch of hammy innuendoes while womens clothes fall to the floor. Sacrilege, I know.

Craig does a nice job of being a hardass in need of polish, both when it comes to spy work and women. He definitely seemed up for the physical part of the role -- running, jumping and bouncing all over the place. A long chase sequence in Madagascar is amazing, and frankly makes every action scene after that a little lackluster (but not bad, mind you). I also didn't mind the dearth of gadgets in "Royale." Again, with the sacrilege.

Yes, this movie is a bit of a paradox. On one had, it's stripped down. Few gadgets, no Q, no Moneypenny. On the other, it's more complex. We get a better look at Bond's mindset, as well as his heart. Ah, yes ... the fetching Ms. Green. As easy on the eyes as she was in "The Dreamers" -- being naked a lot will do that -- she's stunning here. In addition, the chemistry between her and Craig -- yeah, I know he's 12 years older -- is good, and while it may be asking a bit to buy the two of them falling in love, it's not asking too much.

No question the movie has some flaws. It could have been at least 15-20 minutes shorter; I would have cut some of the poker action, although that was broken up nicely by a couple of fight/death scenes. And again, the love story wasn't a 100 percent believable. But overall, Craig does a fine job in a role that's fleshed out more than normal for a Bond movie. Throw in some solid action scenes, and it was a successful debut for the latest incarnation of 007.

Now, about this blue-eyed blond business ...

All I'll say is this: I remember Entertainment Weekly several years ago running one of those regular "How to revive the James Bond franchise" stories. Of course they had some of the usual suspects as "the next Bond," i.e. Clive Owen (whom I like just fine). But they also talked about blowing up the franchise altogether and doing something radical, like making Bond black, or a woman.

Instead, we have this trip back to the beginning -- not quite a reinvention but also not a cookie-cutter installment. And since it works, can we not argue about the guy's hair and eye color? Seriously, it's not like Dr. Kovac or Mr. Nip/Tuck would have knocked us on our butts as 007, anyway.