Ugh! Just a dumb, boring and bad movie

Rating: 1/10 (14 November 2006)

Sorry, this is a dumb movie with unbelievable action sequences like Jason Statham's Transporter movies. At least with the Transporter series, people know it's supposed to be over-the-top but come on, this is James Bond.
The movie has a lot of explosions that seem to be there for no reason than to convince everyone the movie has a big budget.
I was disappointed with Daniel Craig's weak portrayal of Bond. For example when he was chasing an African arms dealer, the arms dealer jumped and landed better, thus making me think the arms dealer should have been Bond instead.
The movie is dumb because when the arms dealer had a chance to kill Bond by stepping on his hand when Bond was desperately hanging on to a crane hundreds of feet above the ground, the arms dealer passed up the chance for some dumb reason. Wait, I know why, it's so Bond can recover and continue to chase him. Duh!
Craig does not convince as Bond. When shirtless, he looks like a gorilla rather than a suave secret agent. He is ugly (sorry) but he can act a little (but not enough to convince he is Bond). He looks most of the time like a p*ssed-off Vladimir Putin.
The girl Eva Green has a nice complexion but isn't drop dead gorgeous I'm afraid. On a scale of 1 to 10, Daniela Bianchi being 10, I'd give Green a 3.
Poker so tediously slow it is like old maids playing Old Maid.
A meandering plot that bores ultimately and is way too l-o-n-g.
Oh by the way, no Q (therefore no clever Q gadgets) and no Moneypenny.
Not featuring Miss Moneypenny I think was a particularly bad mistake because Moneypenny has always been there to guide James Bond. For example in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' Moneypenny went as far as to save Bond's job by changing Bond's resignation letter to one requesting two weeks' leave, and in 'Live And Let Die' she saved Bond embarrassment by keeping M from discovering the beautiful Italian secret agent hiding in Bond's closet. Since Bond is in Casino starting out as a secret agent, it is only logical that Miss Moneypenny should be around to help in some way.
Worst of the Bond movies therefore because it is so un-Bondlike and dumb. See 'From Russia With Love', 'Goldfinger', 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', 'Diamonds Are Forever', 'Live And Let Die', 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'The Living Daylights' and 'Goldeneye' for classic Bond.
Clunky and self-important - which the Bond franchise never was - Casino is in stark contrast to the humorous 'Live And Let Die' where the acting of Yaphet Kotto alone is worth the price of admission.
Or if you just want to see an action movie, there's XXX, The Transporter and Rambo. They are way better, and smarter.