Guy Down The Street

“In a Nutshell”® rating: 3/10.

The latest Bond Movie, “Casino Royale” attempts to be highly sophisticated, but fails more often than it succeeds.

Basics: Before I start my rant, here are the basics: James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) is the MI 007, working for M (played by Judi Dench), the MI chief (or something like that, who cares).

My Gripes Begin: I have three main gripes about this entire movie:

1. Unconnected, irrelevant concatenation of 3 items: Firstly, this is not one movie, but a combination of 3 separate, irrelevant, action sequences. In the first sequence, Bond is required to catch a guy who likes to climb over bulldozers and construction sites. In the second sequence, Bond is trying to win a poker game against a banker (Le Chiffre) who is a banker for corrupt heads of states and terrorists. In the third sequence, Bond is trying to stop a terrorist from blowing up a commercial airliner in its inaugral run.
2. Lack of Imagination: It appears that science has not made any advancement in the 40 years that Bond has been around, or even in the last 200 years. Guys like Bond and Le Chiffre may be smart enough to calculate probabilities while counting cards, but the best mechanism they know to kill someone is by poisoning their drink. Let me say that one more time, and allow that to sink in: Le Chiffre poisoned Bond’s drink. Yes! Knowing fully well that he is surrounded by enemies who know who he is, our dear friend Bond 007 asks for a drink and casually chats away while the drink is poisoned.
3. Repetitive Fight Sequences: This is the least of the problems that this movie has, but is a problem nevertheless. Fight sequences are basically repetitive, they might very well have used the same sequence in the 3 sections of the movie (Perhaps they did, I could’t tell).

The movie is boring. Daniel Craig acts well as the Bond 007, but cannot save the movie. This movie is unlikely to get any Oscar nomination or award.