James Bond .. Relatively Stirred not Shaken (SPOILERS)

Rating: 6/10 (28 November 2006)

Watched this on Wednesday at a Ford Screening in London and came out feeling fairly satisfied with this latest offering from the Broccolis .. A complex tale of intrigue, middle men, money laundering , and Gambling at the Casino Royale with Daniel Craig in his first outing as Bond ! James Bond. The film engages you from the off with the usual whambamb action man sequences, the relentless set pieces are more like an Indiana Jones movie, dramatically spiced up with the Parkour free style running, edgy imaginative sets and use of height to scare the Living Daylights out of you !! .. Forget the popcorn you need a dozen red bull to keep u going in this energy sapping intro ! So what now for Bond well he keeps on going unbelievable so, and morphs into Bruce Willis in Die Hard with a Vengeance in an elaborate if not overly long Airport action scene which includes wait for it,, wait for it celebrity placement .. yes forget Sony, Rolex or Gucci ,, try Richard Branson !! The dialogue is minimal and the action is to the Max !!! So now we are in Montenegro and the intrigue begins with an exhausted Bond who decides to confront the kingpin of terrorist Money Laundering Chifre or as I know him Tommy out of The much acclaimed Danish pusher Trilogy .. It moves from the Motorway to the pedestrian sidewalk and ambles on with recurring exchanges between Bond and Chifre over a tense game of Poker playing for Zillions of money.
We are reminded of Bonds new darker violent side with scenes of sporadic violence which keeps the interest level above freezing as it moves closer to the two hour mark To be honest it never gets boring and is more than watchable but you begin to wonder and ask questions,, who is that ?? What is going on,, ? Are you joking ? the film becomes disjointed in places and the plot holes become an irritation and the cheesy lovey dovey scenes should have been shot at Dawn.. Do these people ever learn !!! The impressively imaginative finale on the 2hour 25 mark re energises the movie as the sparring moves to a Sinking venetion House with Bond evading more bullets than your typical Zombie !!! Entertaining enough