James Bond takes on international criminals. Explosions! Sexy babes! Daniel Craig in a tux!

This is (finally) the movie version of the first James Bond book. The other version, with a cast of many stars, including David Niven, Woody Allen, and Peter Sellers, was actually a James Bond parody with the title of the first book, which was pretty confusing, especially since when they began to actually make the series into movies starring the young (and Serious Honey) Sean Connery, they skipped this one and went straight on to Dr. No.

I do like the Bond oeuvre, and have always thought Connery was the best of the Bonds, although in terms of good story my favorite of both the books and movies is On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which starred George Lazenby and Diana Rigg.

But, being a purist, I refused to have anything to do with Kingsley Amis' continuation of the James Bond series after Fleming's death; that particular wrinkle in the publishing world absolutely APPALLS me. Maybe finishing a manuscript that was partly done when the author kicked off, but to blatently write brand new stories about someone else's characters when they're dead and have no recourse? Gauche and shocking. (And don't get me started on Christopher Tolkien, okay?)

Anyway. So I haven't seen the extremely stiff and wooden Pierce Brosnan or the ex-cutie Timothy Dalton as Bond, those movies were made from post-Fleming books, although I am told by my friend and Bond aficionado GATADD that Goldeneye is excellent.

And I was visiting said friend recently and it was time for a movie. He suggested Casino Royale. I had heard good things about it, liked Daniel Craig in Layer Cake and was willing to give it a try.

Folks, this movie is WONDERFUL. Very old-Bond like, but up-to-date with all the electronics. Good tech, intelligently used. Good style, not as lavish or over-the-top as the later Bonds got, but very good looking and not distractiing from the story. Enough females to be Bondlike as well, and allow for witty repartee, but again, good story.

And Daniel Craig, whatever the outcry when he was picked, is an excellent Bond. Tough enough to be believeable in the action scenes, but he cleans up real nice, as we say in my family. Absolutely believeable in Monaco or running through construction zones in Indonesia trying to catch the bad guys. Judy Dench is a good foil to him as M, as well.

And truthfully, I read the book so long ago that all I remember is the torture scene at the end, and was wondering all the way through how on earth they were going to manage that...it's a major plot point, but is pretty explicit (it really shocked this naive 18 year old otter, so many years ago...). And they did leave it in, and handled it excellently.

A big thumbs up from this otter, this was excellent explodo!