Winning hand, but not quiet a full house

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2006)

Every Bond series is a product of the times. Daniel Craig is the harder reality above the almost "in-joke" techie nature of the last few movies. I like the film and for the most part they are very good bringing together something fresh, as far as Bond movies go, but not quite anything fresher than Daniel Craig's face.
Horray for dumping corny lines and nice to see Felix back in it. The action scenes were pretty good, though some a little too drawn out. The Airport scene in the movie is almost complete dropped from memory until I read some other reviews recounting the plot. It needed some trimming. There were only two other problems I had in the otherwise enjoyable outing.
First, I think they pushed the love story a little too hard. Yes, they are trying to peel the layers off Bond to soften him up a bit, but the dialog was simply better off in another movie. This subplot could have been trimmed a bit also.
The only other thing I noticed in the film, was dialog. Or the complete lack of it from Daniel Craig. He does a lot of blue-eyed staring into the lens, but talks very little. Most of the scenes involve other members of the cast talking up a storm, while we hear little from Bond himself. Perhaps that is the tone they were going for, but I know this Craig guy can act, I want to hear him speak.
Other than that, I hope they keep up this line of style which is more Jason Bourne than, Inspector Gadget.