Daniel Craig's not James Bond in this movie, he's just a random hit-man

Rating: 5/10 (27 November 2006)

That's the first thing that popped into my mind while watching what I consider one of the biggest disappointments of 2006. Like King Kong, I was once again suckered in by the reviews that hailed Peter Jackson's movie as a masterpiece on every aspect but I left thinking I wasted 3 hours of my life for very little. In this adaptation of Ian Flemming's first novel, our hero begins his first major assignment, after getting his double-0 license, which involves him tracking down a terrorist bank holder who invests their money by gambling and using goons for terrorist plots in a way he profits from them. Sounds interesting, but does it work? In theory ,yes, but when you actually see it? No. If the internet outrage of the casting of Daniel Craig as Bond was any indication of the film going wrong, this just confirms it. Daniel Craig while manages to be convincing in the beginning of the movie(where he takes out his two targets), but after a while, that's all he's got: looks,a bit of charm,but nothing else. While making him a more real character seemed like a good idea in theory, but when you actually see it, you get the impression you're watching an interpretation based on an adaptation of the Hit-man video game series from Eidos. Also, the plot of the movie in theory seems good, but when you actually see it, the way the movie goes from Bond catching the low-level bombers to the high-uppers and stopping their plots(the best part of the movie, hands down), to spending the rest of the movie facing off the main villain by playing card games seems terribly misleading if you're expecting an all out bang-for-your-buck action movie, not to mention boring as heck. The ending didn't seem enough to satisfy most of the second half of the film, but it was a nice touch. The opening credits also made me cringe, sure, they make sense in the big picture but they still got some laughs. The Bond girls in this movie also don't have a label on their face that clearly screams "Bond Girl", which is likely one the things that worked on this film considering they wanted a more realistic approach. The main villain, Le Chiffre also gets some respect as an early Bond villain, despite not doing much other then the torture scene. If you're a James Bond fan, you might overlook some of it's flaws, but other espionage fans and moviegoers might have to look elsewhere.