Casino Royale

Not only does he have a tell, but this supposed mathematical genius and poker expert sucks out on the river twice.

 

Hey, when they are only raising a couple million at a time, you just keep throwing in your chips and hope for the best.

 

I was kinda underwhelmed, but I'm not the biggest Bond fan anyway.


SMALL SPOILER BELOW











But the way they handled the ending -- the last line, the music -- was outstanding.

 

Got to see it last night with my wife ... much better story line and pacing than the Brosnan Bond flicks ... the storyline and feel was more toward the Bourne series of movies than anything Bond in a long time. I wonder (based on his turn in the Thomas Crown Affair) if he could have done as good a job as Daniel Craig.

Another vote for Eva Green ... the first dress she wore at the gaming room was a showstopper.

 

If you like Eva Green, check out The Dreamers. Terribly boring movie, but she does get quite naked.

 

Yeah, but wasn't his "tell" just a setup?

And just one more comment about the ending, in this case a bit of a quibble:

































They shouldn't have whacked Mr. White and his one-eyed henchman. One thing I always liked about the really good Bond stories (like Thunderball and those from that era) was the presence of one omnipresent enemy organization --- specifically, SPECTRE. They missed a shot to set up an ongoing plot line with a SPECTRE-like organization that I think would be good for the franchise ... say, a group that funds and guides international terrorism for its own purposes (for instance, making the prices of a given stock or group of stocks fluctuate in order to turn a larger profit.

 

It was either a real tell and he was tipped off about it.

Or it was a setup, which was so obvious Bond should have known better.

But he is shown pulling his finger away from his head one time, so it appears as if it was a real tell.

 

Coffeeman,

And the thing is SPECTRE is a much more viable plot line than it was in the 60s. Al-Qaida is pretty SPECTRE-like.

 

Not so much, and for one simple reason: there was nothing religious about Blofeld and AQ doesn't work the way Fleming's SPECTRE did --- let the superpowers fight it out and then move in to take on the weary victor.

All that said .... who knows? Mr. White could have been the representive of a "new" SPECTRE, which means that MI6's "newest" double-0 is suddenly looming on their radar screen. He did say something to the effect that "we needed to know who we can trust." And Cubby Broccoli's daughter gives a very illuminating interview here, with additional comments from Daniel Craig.