Casino Royale (2006)

After receiving his double O status, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is sent to play in a high stakes poker game against a notorious banker (Mads Mikkelsen) for terrorist organizations. The banker has used funds given to him by the terrorist organizations and lost millions in a stock market gamble gone wrong. The stakes are high and it could cost Bond his life. Based on the novel by Ian Fleming, CASINO ROYALE was previously done for TV in 1954 with Barry Nelson as James Bond and later as a spy satire in 1967 with Peter Sellers and Woody Allen. This was Craig's first outing as Bond and the film is tougher, grittier and darker than most of the Bonds that followed Sean Connery's exit. The puns, double entendres and winks are all gone. Craig's Bond is ruthless, careless and cold blooded. The narrative tends to be over complicated but the film contains some of the best action sequences in any Bond film from the amazing chase on foot in an African village to the pursuit through a Miami airport to the spectacular destruction of a Venetian palace. Craig may well be the first Bond worthy to walk in Connery's shoes. Directed by Martin Campbell. With Judi Dench, Eva Green, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright and Tsai Chin (who was a Bond girl in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE).