Cinema: challenging times

Despite a great performance by Daniel Craig and its exciting action scenes, Casino Royale fails to deliver anything different from previous Bond movies. Starter for Ten, meanwhile, is cheesy but likeable, says Declan Burke

A new Bond heralds a new dawn in Casino Royale (15A), as Daniel Craig dons the mantle and the makers pledge a grittier take on the world's most famous secret agent. The result is a mixed bag: Craig represents the most authentic 007 to date (and that includes Sean Connery) but there's little to distinguish the story – even if it is based on an early Ian Fleming novel – from other recent Bond outings.

Beginning with a black-and-white prologue that shows how Bond made the two kills he needed to qualify him for the 007 designation, the story segues into an impressive action set-piece during which Bond destroys an embassy in Madagascar while pursuing a bombmaker. From there the movie jumps to the Caribbean, Miami and then on to Montenegro, where Bond finally comes face-to-face with the villain of the piece, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson), an international banker with no scruples about doing business with terrorist organisations and rogue states. Desperate to make good his recent losses, Le Chiffre has organised a high-stakes poker game. Funded by the British Treasury to the tune of £15m, Bond's mission is to break Le Chiffre's bank and pull the plug on his nefarious dealings.

The opening scenes will be applauded by Fleming fans: Craig's Bond is a ruthless, psychopathic thug who has earned his position by virtue of his ability to kill dispassionately. Unfortunately the strain of grafting this throwback onto a successful franchise soon shows and the introduction of Treasury official Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) pitches 007 into mawkishly sentimental mood. The makers (Martin Campbell directs) have obviously been paying attention to recent Bond pastiches, with the result that the action sequences are expertly executed, conveying a realistic rough-and-tumble, and the knowing humour ("Shaken or stirred, sir?" "Do I look like I give a shit?") is deftly handled. Overall though, the story suffers from its simplistic take on global politics, some wooden performances (Green, in particular, is badly miscast) and its overriding desire not to alienate loyal customers weaned on the unnecessarily slick performances of Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore.

Starter for Ten (15A) is a coming-of-age tale disguised as a romantic comedy, in which quiz addict and working class lad Brian Jackson (James McAvoy) goes up to Bristol University and applies for a place on its University Challenge team. He falls heavily for his teammate, the upperclass blonde bombshell Alice (Alice Harbinson) – but is student activist Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) the soulmate Brian has been looking for all along?

A cheerful romp through the usual coming-of-age tropes, Starter for Ten is an amiable and undemanding movie, with a 1980s soundtrack to set 30-somethings' toes a-tapping.

The story is predictable, the morals are trite and the performances are far from convincing, with the period detail questionable – although it's set in 1985, some of the music, especially that heard on the radio, comes from much later in the decade. For all that, McAvoy makes for a likeable lead and it's hard to resist his infectious boyish enthusiasm. Popcorn fodder at its brightest and breeziest.

Casino Royale ***

Starter for Ten ***