Not that good, better wait till DVD

Rating: 2/10 (10 December 2006)

Watched Casino Royale last night and was mainly disappointed. On the plus side: the new Bond is OK, the story is OK, the girls are fine, the free running scene (early on in the film) is awesome. Now, on the negative side... The film is flawed by 2 dramatic slow-downs in the pace. First there is an interminable card game scene - it never ends!! In the movie it is played over 2 days. While the "poker match-high stakes-secret blinking eye/giveaway tell-2 men staring into each others eyes" scene represents a proved movie plot exercise(albeit extremely clichéd), in this film you have to endure it three times in succession! 2 dramatic episodes segment the poker playing, the first a fight scene with 2 African terrorists which on reflection made very little addition to the plot. The second slow-down is when Bond and his girl go through a boring long romance, with "i love you - oh, I love you too" quality dialogue. You'll know this scene when you get to it. Terrible. That leads me to criticism no. 3 - the film is too long. There are multiple scenes that are just too long, and some which should have been cut. Finally there is a tremendous amount of product placement. At several points it feels more like a TV ad than blockbuster. The Ford car in the Bahamas is probably the most blatant. Nice to see Richard Branson though. So mainly disappointed. I don't think it was terrible, but definite recommendation to wait till its on DVD, or better yet TV. I am also disappointed that all the reviews I have read have been very positive - I was expecting a great film.