Casino Royale score - back to retro

[Carlson2005]

After the unimpressive techno stylings of Die Another Day, Casino Royale is a return to the more Barryesque approach of Tomorrow Never Dies, with even a few touches of Stargate in there as well. Only a few references to the title song (not included on the CD) in the score, so there’s still the post-Barry Bond score of no thematic consistency, with Arnold’s most notable main theme being an insistent, physically aggressive but slightly less relentless than expected action theme. The Bond theme itself only appears in the final cue in a particularly robust retro rendition. There are more quiet moments this time round over the length of its 74 minutes (City of Lovers probably the best) and it’s not one of the great Bond scores by any means, but in a poor year for film music it’s one of the better recent efforts.

Be warned, the track listing contains one massive spoiler!

[AndyDursin]

Doug Fake just gave it the "knockout" praise so that's going to be more than good enough for me (I would've bought it anyway, lol).

Sucks the single isn't on there...first time in Bond history it's absent if I'm not correct. It's not a great song by any means and does not sound as if it fits the movie either (especially Arnold's less electronic-reliant score) but it still would've been good to have.

[Neil S. Bulk]

The song works really well with the rest of the score.

I'm really looking forward to this movie.

Neil

[Carlson2005]

The song gets a brief and rather good triumphant orchestral workout in Blunt Instrument, but elsewhere it's more Barryesque - oddly enough closer to some of the romantic or lush cues from Octopussy, though there are very brief nods to stings from From Russia With Love and Goldfinger in the beginning of The Name's Bond... James Bond.