Predictable, Humorless and Boring travel log

Rating: 4/10 (1 December 2008)

This latest version of Ian Fleming's novel 'Casino Royale' is the most over- rated, multi-million dollar snore I've ever seen.
The charm, yes, charm of the old Bond movies with Sean Connery, still unrivaled in the role, was the tongue-in-cheek humor that is nowhere in evidence in this new version. This turkey is 2 hours of a James Bond who must really be Spider-man and Batman all rolled into one given his super-human feats of strength, agility and breath-control, coolly intoning one of the worst scripts I've sat through since Zardoz.
The settings and women are gorgeous to be sure. Eva Green is an intriguing actress and I hope to see her again elsewhere, in a better movie, but she is here merely a mannequin for some great designer gowns and tip-top make-up and hairdos. The villain, LeChiffre, is played well by Mads Mikkelsen, but he hasn't much else to do other than look wicked and rub his bloody eye. He's no where close to the being in the league of classic villains like Dr No or Goldfinger and his big white cat.
I did enjoy getting a glimpse of old Verushka at the gambling table, with no lines beyond those on her face. Giancarlo Giannini plays his part well-enough but his lines seem to be designed solely to inform the audience what is going on at the card table.
Judi Dench, the female 'M', is good in the part but too little in evidence. And she certainly lives like a queen for a government official, a far cry from Control's austere digs in the LeCarré novels, which are much more authentic in their telling of spy stories. This film falls way short of the TV versions of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' and 'Smiley's People.' But then, Fleming wasn't trying to be as serious as LeCarré. The producers of this 'Casino Royale' lost the plot completely when they chose to make this a relevant spy vs terrorist organization nail-biter.
The music is mediocre but fills in the long, drawn-out boring chases with lots of noisy brass and screeching violins. The F/X look expensive and there must have been an army of stunt extras to keep the viewers awake with their leapings about and dodging of bullets.
The whole film looked like a promo for a super computer action/thriller game for the 13 year olds with ADD.
Daniel Craig is pretty good as Bond. He even gives hints at a sense of humor when the Swiss banker comes to transfer the money to Bond's bank account. The banker has funny teeth. Ha-ha. That's where the humor ends in this bomb.
I'll take the old, corny but clever old Bond flicks from the 60s any day over this gilded, hair-ball of a flick.
I give it 4 out of 10 simply for the production values. I enjoyed seeing bits of Venice and the Bahamas, sort-of.
Skip it, if you haven't seen it. You aren't missing a thing.