As part of the normal moviemaking drill, the producers of Casino Royale had to take out an insurance policy on their new leading man Daniel Craig. They should definitely up the coverage. Not only is Craig capable of anchoring the franchise for years to come, he's an acrobatic James Bond and -- stunt doubles or no -- the heirs of legendary impresario Albert "Cubby" Broccoli will want to protect their investment. 

His predecessors would not have attempted the same dangerous feats, both because the ante has been raised on action films in general and because they were more comfortable in the club bar than leaping from a tall crane the way the rubber-legged Craig does in an early sequence. Craig's gymnastic Bond is tailor-made for the 21st-century. Fortunately, the tux still fits and Craig will have ample opportunity to fill out other dimensions of the role.

He takes significant strides over the course of Casino Royale. Based on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel published in 1953, it's the ideal vehicle to launch a new Bond. When the movie opens, James is in the process of earning his "00" status by notching two kills. The learning curve is significant as M (Judi Dench) often tells her relatively green spy during the subsequent mission, an opportunity for on-the-job maturation and a lesson in humility. By the time the familiar theme music kicks in two-and-a-half hours later, he's up to speed and this crowd-pleasing movie proves rolling the dice on Craig was a smart wager. 

In addition to his buff athleticism, Craig's Bond differs in other ways. Like the movie itself -- which has three credited screenwriters, among them Oscar-winner Paul Haggis -- he's droll when he wants to be but not as thoroughly refined. He's suave in a fresh, less establishment sort of way. In other words, he's rough around the edges and tries mightily not to show it. He's openly ambitious and not always one step ahead of the game; in fact, he gets duped on more than one occasion.

As for similarities, he fancies fine caviar and fine, preferably married, women and is willing to forgo a night with one betrothed beauty (Caterina Murino) to track her crooked husband. Where his libation of choice is concerned, it's complicated. He invents a newfangled cocktail in an effort to befuddle the expectations of viewer and adversary alike. And later, in a fit of pique, he rejects the question whether his vodka martini should be shaken or stirred with: "Do I look like I give a damn?"

At that precise moment, he couldn't care less because the mission has just been dealt a blow prompted by his own hubris. Unlike previous Bonds, this one lets it show when he's ruffled. His vulnerability explains his slightly robotic, devil-may-care exterior. Yet there's reason to believe he gives a damn and will eventually, when his career and reputation are firmly established, hide his emotions behind unflappable urbanity, while also expressing allegiance to crown and country and not simply to his own career.

Earning his promotion during a prologue in which he ferrets out a traitorous colleague, Bond's next stop his Africa where a long, reckless chase leads to the elimination of a terrorist and bureaucratic trouble back home. Although angry that he blew up an embassy, M lets 007 continue working on the case. His quarry is one Le Chiffre (played by Dutch actor Mads Mikkelsen) the world's leading money manager for terrorists. This villain with asthma and a whiff of Nazism is in hot water for dipping into the funds clients have hired him to invest.

When Bond foils his plan to sabotage a prototype jumbo jet at the Miami airport, Le Chiffre hosts a $150 million, winner-take-all poker game in Montenegro. Naturally James is invited. Accompanying him on the gambling junket is a Treasury Department babe named Vesper portrayed by Eva Green from Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers.

After playing heads-up against his host, 007 finds himself in Le Chiffre's clutches and the victim of a painfully rudimentary form of torture aimed directly at his manhood. A romantic idyll follows his fortuitous escape, then the sinking of a Venetian Palazzo, and eventually the newly-minted Bond coated in cynical armor rises.

The plot details won't sustain close analysis, a quality Casino Royale shares with every other movie in the series. The villain and primary squeeze aren't the most memorable, which might be deliberate to help Craig shine. It's also possible to quibble with the wan theme song by Chris Cornell, the fact Bond strikes the famous marksman pose in a loo, the absence of gadget guru Q, and the overlong runtime.

But just as Bond underestimates his adversary, doubting this movie's ability to entertain is a mistake. Casino Royale has all the necessary ingredients and deserves to be watched on a big screen in a proper theater, not on your cell phone or computer monitor. Add to that a spanking-new Bond -- whom it seems even M has a bit of a crush on -- and you get your money's worth. 

(Released by Sony Pictures Entertainment and rated "PG-13" for intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content and nudity.)