Casino Royale
May 2007 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The most stripped-down Bond movie in decades, Casino Royale has a defensible claim to being the best. The plot is complex but not confusing -- a high-stakes poker game is designed in order to bankrupt a terrorist financier. The action is astounding, particularly the foot chase early in the film and the sinking of a house in Venice. The actors are all credible in their roles, bringing back to life what is essentially "James Bond: Year One." Daniel Craig doesn’t continue the Bond tradition; he reinvents it from square one, when Bond was a younger man. The critics are agreed on this one. The movie itself is exceptional. So, how's the DVD?

Casino Royale comes on two discs, with all the special features on the second. That means there is plenty of room for the image quality to look really terrific. The colors are vivid, whether it's the crystal waters of a Bahamian beach or the rusty walls of a secluded dungeon. There is no grain to speak of, and the image quality is crisp enough that even when the dust begins to fly, you can tell it was in front of the camera and not on the film.

The sound is positioned and balanced well, bringing an appropriate intensity to the movie. Dialogue is clear, which is important during the tense card-playing scenes, while the action scenes envelop you in a wonderful cacophony. Never too quiet or too loud, this is a master mix.

The extras are decent, but still disappointing. There just seems to be so much more they could have included. This really bothers me: the trend of studios to put out sub-par discs quickly in order to capitalize on the lingering marketing push from the theatrical release, and then to double-dip with a better release later. It is disrespectful of us, the audience and buyers.

Casino Royale has only four bonus features, including the music video for the film's theme song. "Becoming Bond" looks at the preparation Daniel Craig went through before filming began and the wildly negative fan reaction when he was announced as the star. The movie itself proved all those nay-sayers wrong; we don't need a special feature dedicated to reinforcing it. They really could have gone in-depth in what it took to reboot Bond, discarding four decades of history in service of the best possible story.

Though it sounds like a piece about real-world spies, "James Bond: For Real" is actually about the film's amazing stunt work. It’s a really fun feature, showcasing all the film's largest stunts, from the amazing chase at the beginning to the building destruction near the end. It is great fun watching the stunt people try -- and fail -- to crash a car intentionally. But despite the emphasis on how "real" things were, it's never really clear how much of the stunt work is actually Craig’s and how much is his double’s.

"Bond Girls Are Forever" is a repackaged 2002 TV special that originally aired on AMC. They've gone back to add some footage of Eva Green and Caterina Murino, but its best contribution is how it traces society’s treatment of women through the years. There are a few "Bond girls" missing from the production, but this one is still easy on the eye.

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