BACK-TO-BASICS BOND IS YOUNGER, HUNGRIER 007.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

By now, you've probably heard that ``Casino Royale'' is the best Bond movie since ...

Well, whatever early Sean Connery entry purists hold high in the canon. The hyperbole reminds me of the buzz surrounding every new album the Rolling Stones (England's other pop culture war horse) release that's heralded as their best since ``Tattoo You'' or ``Some Girls'' or ``Exile on Main St.'' Maybe it's true, but does that make them any more relevant?

The problem with reinventing Bond is that there have been 20 such movies over the past 44 years, and it's hard to pretend they don't exist.

So when ``Casino Royale'' introduces us to a young, hungry Bond who has (gulp) feelings and isn't exactly sure that he wants to spend his days wandering the earth, bedding beautiful women and killing bad guys hungry for world domination, are we supposed to (double gulp) empathize?

Can we really buy into the idea of Bond chucking the secret-agent life, shuttling the kids to school and taking a day job as a haberdasher?

Of course not, which means that as great as Daniel Craig is as the new Bond, you have to be something of a Bond junkie to really get excited about ``Casino Royale'' as a study in character invention. The movie is agreeably free from bad puns, loony gadgets and daffy action set pieces that have our hero parasailing over glaciers. Bond doesn't even have sex until the film's two-hour mark, and the bedding comes after a particularly nasty torture scene that makes you fear for the future of 007's family jewels.

But if the filmmakers were going to make a back-to-basics Bond, shouldn't they have remembered that ``Dr. No'' clocked in at 1 hour and 50 minutes? At nearly 2 1/2 hours, ``Casino Royale'' is just as bloated as the Brosnan Bond movies, which isn't surprising -- it was written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (with an assist from Paul Haggis), the screenwriters behind the series' last two lamentable efforts.

And because it was written by these guys, it should also not be surprising that the back story of Bond's shaken-not-

stirred martini is often more interesting than the psychology behind the agent himself.

The movie's story comes from Bond creator Ian Fleming's first 007 novel, which pits Bond against a banker, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), who works with terrorists. To stop Le Chiffre, Bond must beat him at a high-stakes game of poker (and we all know how excitingly a game of hold 'em translates to the screen). Helping Bond is a beautiful treasury official named Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), who's every bit as guarded and enigmatic as 007 -- which means, naturally, that he falls for her.

Don't cue up Carly Simon singing ``The Spy Who Loved Me'' just yet. In fact, you might want to take the movie's opening song, performed by Michael Mann favorite Chris Cornell, into consideration. Mann loves Cornell's abrasive voice, feeling it fits his gritty crime world.

That the Bond producers picked Cornell over, say, Sheryl Crow, says much about the nasty direction in which they've taken the franchise.

And that's a good thing. So is the bravura black-and-white opening scene, Green's womanly work, Martin Campbell's spirited direction and a finale that ends the movie with an exclamation mark. For all that, the best moment in ``Casino Royale'' might just be after Bond puts on a tailored tuxedo. Craig preens in front of the mirror -- what a handsome devil! Who knows? Stylish dressing just might be habit-forming for this work-in-progress.

Glenn Whipp, [phone].

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CASINO ROYALE - Three stars

(PG-13: intense sequence of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content, nudity)

Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen.

Director: Martin Campbell.

Running time: 2 hr. 24 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Daniel Craig makes for a great, mean Bond in a bloated origin story that asks us to forget the previous 20 movies in the series.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) The new James Bond (Daniel Craig) plays poker, left, and plays with the beautiful treasury official Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), right, in ``Casino Royale,'' which takes the secret agent back to his younger, tougher self.