James Bond is back... to basics

Casino Royale (12A) *****

Running time: 147 minutes

JAMES Bond Will Return. Those four words were guaranteed to bring a quiver to the heart of any schoolboy in the 1960s or 1970s. The knowledge that there would be another film as thrilling as From Russia With Love or Goldfinger was a hugely comforting prospect.

James Bond was the ultimate Cold War warrior and there was a time when he was the coolest secret agent on the planet. The words don't carry quite the same resonance in the 21st century. Pierce Brosnan was the best Sean Connery substitute we have ever seen. Recent Bond films have set box-office records and yet there was a sense that the most lucrative franchise in film history had nowhere left to go, especially with Jason Bourne and Ethan Hunt raising the bar for secret agent blockbusters. Obsolescence seemed to be the one foe that James Bond could not vanquish.

Casino Royale is a glorious retort to anyone who thought Bond was yesterday's hero. Martin Campbell put the series back on track when he directed Pierce Brosnan's debut in Goldeneye and he performs exactly the same feat with Casino Royale. Perhaps inspired by the success of Batman Begins in returning to the origins of the character, the back-to- basics approach appears to have reinvigorated every element of the Bond formula.

Casino Royale was the first of the Ian Fleming novels. Adapted for television the following year with Barry Sullivan as a forgettable 007, it remains the one Fleming title to have evaded the clutches of the Bond franchise. The only screen version was an all-star psychedelic romp towards the fag end of the 1960s that now seems more Austin Powers than James Bond.

FLEMING DESCRIBED his Bond as "a blunt instrument wielded by a government department. He is quiet, hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic." That is exactly the Bond we see in Daniel Craig's terrific performance. This isn't the suave, worldly figure with a martini in one hand and a redhead in another. This is the rough diamond that has yet to be buffed up into an international man of mystery. He is still learning his trade; arrogant, impetuous, like a snarling dog that has just been let off the leash.

The casting of Craig initially triggered a storm of disapproval from Bond fans. His performance, however, should quickly silence the critics. Hard as granite, he has the panther-like grace that Connery brought to the role, performing with all the ferocious commitment of a man with something to prove. His Bond is a ruthless bastard, but the kind of ruthless bastard you might just find irresistible.

Craig is an exceptionally fine actor and as a result he effectively portrays the adrenaline-charged tingle of how Bond reacts when placed in danger for the first time and the dawning reality of the physical and mental resolve needed just to get his job done. "Well, I understand Double-0s have a very short life expectancy," he tells Judi Dench's M.

There's a tough flintiness to Casino Royale that seems entirely in keeping with Craig's performance. There are no silly gadgets such as invisible cars and no appearance from Q. Leggy lovelies are kept to a minimum. The villain, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), is no flamboyant megalomaniac with a lavish lair but a man who has grown rich on financing international terrorism. Even the climax is not the traditional race against the clock to defuse a ticking bomb but a tense, high-stakes poker game with some very unexpected consequences.

Screenwriter Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winner behind Crash and Million Dollar Baby, is a welcome addition to the team and may well be the one responsible for dialogue that eschews cheesy one-liners and for characters with a little more depth. Eva Green's spiky Vesper Lynd is the character who benefits most from this approach. A Treasury representative who accompanies Bond to Montenegro for the poker game, she is the one who finds him entirely resistible, expressing her contempt in some great bantering dialogue.

Naturally, dislike eventually melts into romance but there is a good deal more complexity in this relationship than those involving the usual bikini-clad babes or sexy scientists that have become the typical Bond girl. The stuntwork is exemplary, with some heart-thumping chases that are edited with razor-like perfection and can easily kick sand in the face of any of the upstart rivals who have tried to claim Bond's throne.

The opening sequence in a shadowy, black and white Prague plays like a homage to the character's Cold War roots and shows that killing someone is a very messy affair. In every chase, fight sequence and especially in a nasty naked torture sequence (now we know why Bond has no children), Craig is front and centre, looking bloodied and right in the heart of the action. It is a heartfelt performance that leaves you excited like a schoolboy to discover that James Bond will return again next year.

On nationwide release from Thursday