MSNBC.com is featuring an article that recounts the history of the James Bond franchise and talks about the chances of the latest installment, "Casino Royale."

Then I heard that the new movie, “Casino Royale,” the first of Ian Fleming’s novels, would detail how Bond became Bond, and for that, yes, a bit of youth would help. Then I saw “Munich,” in which Craig plays the most intense of the Mossad assassins, and thought, “You know, he could work.” Then I saw the dynamite summer trailer for “Casino Royale” and thought “Wow.” Then I saw the film.

The author goes through each of the James Bond eras by actor and his observations of how each fared. His statements are pretty spot-on, at least for the movies that I've seen (I skipped the Timothy Dalton era completely).

I do agree with his final assertion that the premise of Casino Royale is promising, but time will tell if it's a fresh change or just more dilution of the franchise.

Click the Read link below to read the entire article for yourself, and check out the movie when it opens this Friday. Don't forget to write a Reader Review afterwards!