move over, Sean Connery

I've been a fan of Sean Connery since 'way back, beginning with his best James Bond film, From Russia with Love. That movie is my "gold standard" for Bond films and Connery has always been, in my humble opinion, the best Bond actor. Until tonight.

Tonight we saw Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as Bond. Our group of six veteran movie fans agreed that this is probably the best Bond film ever and that Craig is (take your choice but you've gotta see the movie first) every bit as good as Connery, or even better. Our six-person jury didn't take a vote on that question.

Craig doesn't look as smooth and urbane as Connery does in a dinner jacket but he is tougher than all of the other Bond actors. They ran him through some extraordinarily difficult and implausible (aren't they all) stunt scenes, but he looks like he could have done it all without stunt doubles, even when he walked through a wall after jumping from the top of one construction crane to another and onto a rooftop. Craig kept reminding me of somebody and I finally realized who: He is Steve McQueen reincarnated with slight touches of Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman when he could play a bad guy with a straight face, and the cyborg from The Terminator. Only tougher. I mean, he could take Chuck Norris.

The movie runs nearly two and a half hours but doesn't drag for one minute, even near the end. It is pure Bond. Chase scenes? Check. High stakes poker? Check. The beautiful woman? Check. One is played by Eva Green, although she's the first I can remember not willing to hop right into bed on first meeting Bond. That role is played by a beautiful Mediterranean actress, Murino, wife of one of the bad guys. We are missing only the underwater Scuba diving scenes, boat chase scenes, sky diving scenes, and skiing scenes. Hmmm, OK, it isn't the composite of all Bond movies but they promise he will be back.

Can hardly wait!