If you happened to have missed any of our fantastic James Bond coverage over the past week, we've put together a groovy little recap for ya. Because we're good like that. And because we know how annoying it can be to have to search for stuff. And because we love our readers. But enough of the ass-kissing, let's move on to the ass-kicking -- as in, Casino Royale exceeded expectations and totally rocked. Turned out Daniel Craig was perfect for the role, and Eva Green won't shut up about the sequel (which she likes to call the "second Bond film." Honey, it's actually the 22nd Bond film ... but who's counting, right?) Feel free to tell us what you thought of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig and this new direction for an aging franchise. I dig it. Do you?


Reviews:

Casino Royale -- James' Take
Casino Royale -- Ryan's Take

Cinematical (Double-O) Seven:

Homage to Wodger
The Very Weirdest Bond Henchmen
I'm Just Not That Into Bond
How to Spoof Bond
Best Bond Theme Songs
The Hottest Bond Girls
The 007 Best Bond Flicks

45 Years of Bondage:

Every Bond Movie Trailer
A History of Bond Films -- Part One
A History of Bond Films -- Part Two
Every James Bond Gun Barrel Sequence
Every Single James Bond Credit Sequence Ever

More Bond:

Monday Morning Poll: James Bond at His Worst
Which Bond is the Best Bond?
Coming Distractions -- Cinematical's Weekly Podcast, with Co-Host Kevin Kelly!
Bond Over the Great Wall: Casino Royale First Ever "Official" Bond Film to Open in China
Junket Report: Casino Royale
RvB's After Images: Aw, Why Did They Have to Remake Casino Royale?
Casino Royale: Notes on Moving The Bond Series Forward

Now that there's been a matter of, you know, 72 hours since the release of Casino Royale, enough time has passed for an assessment of the canon -- out of the James Bond films, which are the best? Well, it's easy to name the best seven -- and in doing so, draw our week of Bond pop-culture coverage here at Cinematical to an end. Bear in mind that this list is only worth noting as a source of minor-scale arguments -- which is exactly why it's fun. And now that my inner Rob Gordon is ready, let's talk about the best Bond films of all time ... In no particular order, except for number one.

7. Casino Royale

Yeah. It's in there. In the top third, most definitely. There's more in my review, but there's not a single part of this film I didn't enjoy -- or, if I wasn't enjoying it, I was at the very least respecting it as part of the plot, as an attempt to set mood or build character, to tackle the backbreaking stoop labor of thriller-style exposition. Craig is a great Bond, and it felt real -- like the sort of thing that may, in fact, happen in something like the real world. Well, not the kick-ass free-running sequence, but still. Oh, and also: There are computers and cell phones in Casino Royale, and only one piece of gadgetry was essential to the film. Everything else? Guns, knives, fists, phones. It's down-to-the-ground stuff, and it's amazing to watch.

Her hands were lifeless in his. "My darling," he said. "Won't you tell me? Do you know, that first morning I was coming back to ask you to marry me. Can't we go back to the beginning again? What is this dreadful nightmare that is killing us?" At first she said nothing, then a tear slowly rolled down her cheek. "You mean you would have married me?" Bond nodded. "Oh my God,' she said. -- Ian Fleming's Casino Royale

There are two serious love stories in the James Bond canon, nine books apart. The first, Casino Royale, is the inaugural Bond story. Thanks in part to an ill-conceived and boring parody film in 1967, Casino went 55 years before a serious effort was mounted to film it. The other, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is story number ten, and pairs Bond with a brash young heiress and scion of a pan-European crime syndicate named Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo. Both stories have down endings, and fans of the film series often feel a sense of robbery with regards to the second, since Albert Broccoli waited until after Connery left to make a faithful adaptation of a superior Bond story. George Lazenby, despite being adored by some contrarian critics, was fairly assessed at the time as a failure. He was reportedly a terror to work with and his interpretation is so different from Connery's that the film almost stands outside the series. And now that Fleming's stories will no longer be used for forthcoming films, there's seemingly no chance for a re-do of On Her Majesty's.

That means the current film version of Casino Royale may have to stand as one of the only serious attempts to transmute Ian Fleming's idea of 'Bond drama' to the big screen. Not that it's a PBS piece or anything. The film is neatly cut in two, with one half faithfully adapting a present-day version of Fleming's novel (only 213 pages) and the other half devoted to big, wordless action set-pieces. You can't really expect anything more tame than that, with so much money at stake, I guess. But the interesting thing to note is that the drama in Casino Royale actually works, despite its sparsity. The origin of Bond's asshole-persona is resurrected as an epic origin tale of romantic treason, with the supremely gorgeous and worldly Vesper Lynd eating the young, naive spy for breakfast. The book ends on an abrupt quote, resurrected word-for-word in the film, that almost suggests (to me, anyway) that Bond may have been set up with Vesper as a final stage of his training. A necessary freezing process.

It's Casino Royale weekend! Sadly, it also means our (00)7 Days of James Bond will be drawing to a close as well. For your enjoyment and consideration, we've consolidated all of the opening gun barrel sequences to the James Bond films here.

I used to think this was a camera shutter when I was younger. It was only later that I finally realized it was a rifled gun barrel. Imagine my chagrin at all those years of wondering, "Why does James Bond not like photographers?"

Some trivia:

• The first three films didn't even have a Bond actor in this sequence. They were all filmed using stuntman Bob Simmons.
• Sean Connery made his debut as Bond the in the gun barrel sequence with Thunderball.
• Lazenby was the only Bond to drop to one knee while firing.
• Bond wore a hat and fired one-handed until 1973's Live And Let Die.
• Since The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond only wears a tuxedo in the opening, although that appears to change in the new film.
  
• 1985's A View To A Kill features a text card just before the sequence stating that the Max Zorin character does not reflect any person or company in real life.
• Die Another Day has Bond's gun firing a bullet that you actually see passing through the assassin's gun barrel. Nice shot, Mr. Bond. This was done to commemorate the 20th Bond film, and to celebrate more than 40 years of Bond.
  
• In the teaser trailer for Casino Royale, Daniel Craig is actually in a tiled restroom when he turns and fires, not the normal white background.
• The sequence was shot through a pinhole camera in an actual rifle barrel until GoldenEye. It has been CG-animated ever since.

Now get out there and check out the new Bond flick -- after first checking for snipers, of course. ...

Tomorrow, when James Bond finally comes back, the critics will give a SPECTRE-quality drubbing for one of my favorite cult films. To paraphrase a famous line of Deborah Kerr's, one of the stars of the film in question, when they speak of Casino Royale '67 -- and they will speak of it -- they won't be kind. But having just sat through a double bill of true excess yesterday -- Dreamgirls and Curse of the Golden Flower, I'd have to reevaluate what's meant by extreme, everything-but-the-kitchen sink filmmaking. Casino Royale 1967 may have burned through 5 credited directors, but at least it spared our eyes the sight of a color-coordinated Gong Li going slowly, slowly nuts from poisoned tea, and spared our ears the sound of Jennifer Hudson's American Idol-winning song stylings, which is too say a sort of gospel-meets-Alpine-yodeling.

I love music that's a little understated, and Dusty Springfield's quiet, almost whispered "The Look of Love" is one of the many moments that makes Casino Royale '67the spy musical, even if the characters in Our Man Flint seem ready to burst into song at any minute. (If Casino Royale '67 was Bollywood instead of Hollywood, everyone would praise it for its craziness, instead of deploring it for its weirdness.)

When you make your list of the best James Bond films of all time, I'm sure different ones come to mind for each of you. Some people prefer early Bond like From Russia With Love starring Sean Connery, or 80's Bond like The Spy Who Loved Me starring Roger Moore or modern Bond like GoldenEye starring Pierce Brosnan. I'm sure there are even a few On Her Majesty's Secret Service fans out there who prefer George Lazenby and his take on Bond. No matter what your favorite Bond film is (or your favorite Bond actor for that matter), you can always count on a James Bond film to deliver the goods in a few key areas: spectacular action sequences, cool gadgets, memorable villains bent on world domination and, of course, a bevy of beautiful, sexy Bond girls.

Bond girls are a great tradition in the 007 franchise and have been involved in it from the very beginning. In most cases, especially in the films of the 60's and 70's, the Bond girls served mostly as eye candy or a casual fling for 007. As the series progressed, however, the Bond girls evolved from their more ornamental status and developed brains, skills and often played key roles in helping Bond complete his missions. Although, even when they did help him, they still ended up spending some "quality time" with the super-spy in the bedroom, ski lodge, car, submarine or wherever else you could imagine. But really, none of them seemed to mind.

No matter what Bond film is your favorite, Bond girls can be counted on to be smart, beautiful and in some cases as tough and deadly as Bond himself. But sometimes all they really need to do is look good in a bikini to fulfill their Bond girl duties. On that note, and in honor of the latest upcoming Bond film Casino Royale, following are my picks for the seven hottest Bond girls of all time. Alright, enough of me, let's get to the girls:

Two weeks ago, Cinematical received an invitation to a two-day press bonanza for Casino Royale. Events would kick off with a Sunday evening cocktail party and screening, followed by a day of round-robin interviews at a swank Park Avenue hotel, with catered breakfast and lunch. We want our readers to know that in order to safeguard our journalistic integrity, we politely declined all the free food and booze, except for a comp hotdog at the screening. Almost every notable from the film, with the exception of Judi Dench, turned up for the question/answer roundtables. Daniel Craig, the controversial choice to re-launch the Bond character, was there. So was the unnervingly beautiful French actress Eva Green, who plays Ian Fleming's first Bond girl, Vesper Lynd. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who was plucked from obscurity to play the film's snake-like villain, Le Chiffre, was also on hand. So was Italian beauty Caterina Murino, who plays a more traditional Bond girl in the film.

Director Martin Campbell, returning for his second Bond film after Goldeneye, and the series' longtime producer Barbara Broccoli, were also in attendance. The following is a sampling of the endless questions and answers bandied about on that day. Please note that it contains every possible spoiler about Casino Royale -- who lives, who dies, the ending, what will happen in the next film, etc ... if you want to be surprised, stop reading now.

Daniel Craig

Cinematical: Barbara Broccoli has implied that she felt Die Another Day was over-the-top. Is that something you personally want to avoid as you go forward with these films? "All I'm concerned about is that we cast the right people in the roles. As for being over the top, I mean for Christ's sakes, Mads weeps blood. That's quite over the top. But it's great because it's a beautiful Bond moment. It's done with a dab. I want it to be as stylish as it possibly can. You can do anything. If it's in the plot, you can do anything. If it's right and it feels good and it's not there because it's self-consciously there. We're in a fantasy world. This isn't real life."

One of the pleasures of anticipating a new James Bond film is considering which singer or band would be most appropriate to add themselves to the long and diverse list of James Bond themes. (Wouldn't a Radiohead theme song be just great? Or the Pixies?) It's almost like winning some kind of award. These songs will likely be revived and re-packaged for generations to come. Not all of the choices have been particularly timeless ("The Living Daylights" by A-ha), and many others are not without a cheeseball flavor (Tom Jones strutting through "Thunderball"). It's also obvious that a great song does not guarantee a good movie, and vice-versa. Hence, as terrific as the new Casino Royale is, the new song by Chris Cornell is only so-so.

In choosing my seven, I decided to omit Monty Norman's original, instrumental theme, written for Dr. No (1962), but used again in various forms throughout the series.

1. "Goldfinger," by Shirley Bassey
Bassey and the Sean Connery era go together like "martini" and "shaken, not stirred." She had that bold, brassy voice that sounded not unlike the wah-wah horns or the twangy guitar that accompany all that 1960s music. It's the most instantly recognizable song, and the most closely associated with its specific film. Plus how can you not love those bizarre rhymes, like "Midas touch" with "spider's touch" and "Goldfinger" with "cold finger"? Pure genius! Bassey returned to record "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) and "Moonraker" (1979), the latter for an undeserving Roger Moore.

Early in Casino Royale, the head of British Intelligence, M (Dame Judi Dench) makes an offhand comment about how her job used to be much more simple: "Christ, I miss the Cold War." Well, that makes two of us, lady -- and the good news is that Casino Royale, the latest film celebrating the adventures of double-0 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) is a great, gripping throwback to the Cold War intrigue, action and brutality of the early, best Bond films; in fact, Casino Royale is hands down the best action film of 2006.

My understanding and appreciation of the Bond character can pretty much be summed up in one written phrase -- and, ironically, it's not one by Ian Fleming. George Orwell noted how "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." That, to, me, is Bond -- he may stand ready in a great-looking suit, but nonetheless -- and fortunately, Casino Royale seems to understand that. Bond is a tool, a thug, what M calls "... a blunt instrument," Her Majesty's Neckbreaker. At the beginning of Casino Royale -- in a black-and-white pre-credit sequence -- Bond isn't even a double-0 agent yet. He's working on earning his wings, explaining to a fellow intelligence officer that he's already killed a man on orders. "How did he die?" Craig, as Bond, answers with a weary predator's smile: "Badly."

Casino Royale will achieve what no other Bond film has done before, as it will be officially allowed to screen on Chinese movie screens. Since Dr. No in 1963, China's board of censors has denied entry to every single Bond movie. For those of you keeping count, that's nineteen films. It's the first time the film will be seen in Chinese cinemas, but definitely not the first time a Bond film has been seen on Chinese DVD players since they have such a brisk black market for pirated DVD copies.

This is a massive score for Sony, as it means a lot more box office take for this film (China expects it to be one of their highest-grossing films of the year), and that translates to more revenue. It also allows them to establish a more important foothold in the Chinese market. Sony is probably crossing their fingers that this will make it that much easier to release the next Bond film there. If they want to keep this relationship working well, then hopefully they will keep films like Bewitched out of the pipeline to keep the Chinese government happy. We wouldn't wish that film on any foreign power.

What would really be nice is if this would open up the possibility of a Bond film shooting in China. Imagine Bond being sent deep into the Orient on assignment to track down the source of pirated DVDs. Come on, that sucker just writes itself. As long as Daniel Craig doesn't try to wear an Asian disguise like Sean Connery did in You Only Live Twice, we should be okay.