'Casino Royale' Ranked Among Best Action Movies of All Time
The debate around which movie in the James Bond franchise is technically "the best" has been ongoing for decades, with fans constantly disagreeing about which adaptation captures the spirit of Ian Fleming's beloved novels most strongly.
While early instalments like Goldfinger were generally considered the gold standard for a long time, newer sequels such as Pierce Brosnan's Goldeneye also made a splash and pushed the franchise in bold new directions, which many fans enjoyed.
However, it wasn't until Daniel Craig came along and totally reinvented the blueprint of the franchise that James Bond finally found its magnum opus. Casino Royale introduced a much darker version of Bond, with less experience and more ruthless vulnerability, backed up by incredible action sequences and grounded, intimate storytelling.
To counter the growing perception that the James Bond franchise was somehow outdated or culturally passé, Casino Royale proved that the franchise still had fresh ideas to push it away from the clichéd spy movies of its past and towards a much more mature, engaging future.
Casino Royale was also coming off the back of the widely popular Austin Powers franchise, which satirized many of the tropes previously used in the James Bond movies of the '60s and '70s. This meant that Daniel Craig's era had to separate itself from this immature storytelling, which was becoming increasingly mocked in pop culture.
Craig himself claimed that Bond had been "completely f**ked" by Austin Powers, which forced them to adopt a more serious tone in his sequels. Filmmaker Martin Campbell completely understood this, transforming Casino Royale into a gritty crime thriller with brutal action sequences and grounded character arcs.
The result was the best James Bond film to date, and one of the greatest action movies ever made in general. The film appeared at No. 19 on Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Best Action Movies of All Time, with the publication writing: "Craig's suave yet brutish Bond was a shaken-not-stirred infusion of fresh blood for Ian Fleming's hero, and this reset brought him firmly into a world where intimate hand-to-hand combat and parkour chases were as much a part of the job as looking good in a tuxedo."
Despite the acclaim that Casino Royale now receives, the franchise faced major criticism in the months leading up to its release due to Daniel Craig's controversial casting. He was seen as a departure from the typical "tall, dark, and handsome" perception of Bond, and was relentlessly mocked by the media for his appearance and personality.
Nevertheless, he quickly proved that he was up for the task with Casino Royale and continued to win the press over with his four Bond sequels, which all dominated the box office with unprecedented success.
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 4:52 AM.