James Bond - shaken, but not stirring

Rating: 1/10 (8 October 2007)

There's only one problem with this James Bond movie. The protagonist is not James Bond. Not the James Bond that we've all come to know and love, anyway. I have no objection to Daniel Craig as the new Bond. I think he's a fine choice. I just wish they'd given him a real James Bond story in which to make his debut. Casino Royale may have been the novel that introduced James Bond to the world, but Casino Royale, the updated and filtered movie, seems to want to subtract all the James Bond elements and pull the wool over the eyes of the public that came to know 007 through all the previous James Bond movies. This movie may be about an agent called James Bond, but he ain't THE James Bond. The producers seem to have either forgotten or completely ignored all the elements that make a James Bond movie a James Bond movie. At no point did I feel like I was watching a story about our favorite secret agent. The makers of this movie didn't even have the decency to greet us with the familiar James Bond theme music. I have no idea what the music accompanying this movie was, but, unlike the original James Bond theme, it was neither stimulating nor memorable. It added nothing at all to the film. Not only that, but the casino game of choice for Mr. Bond has always been baccarat, not poker! That may have been the most incongruous element in this movie that wants us to believe it's about James Bond. Poker seems to be everywhere nowadays, but baccarat is a game that's hardly ever seen in movies of the modern era, but it's much easier for the uninitiated to follow. A viewer does not have to know anything about baccarat to follow the action. You only need to understand the value of each card and know how to count. To follow poker, you must have an understanding of the value of each hand  knowledge that the average movie-goer does not possess. Winning at poker requires skill whereas winning at baccarat requires mostly pure dumb luck. Not knowing which player lady luck is going to smile upon lends more of an air of suspense to the action, in my opinion. James Bond without baccarat or his favorite martini (shaken, not stirred) is not really James Bond.