Best Bond in years. Not so dour as the book. Loses steam during the poker, and they have to explain everything to us during the poker scenes for some reason, where they never bothered when the game was Baccarat. Damned modern screenwriters.
Way too much damn poker. I don't even know how to play poker, so I naturally got bored. Also, it just kinda ended. I'm so used to the end of Bond flick having some sort of closure. This just kind of ended in the same way as the first Matrix. The running and jumping dude at the beginning was pretty b.a. though. I give it a B
I agree with the too much poker, statement. But at the same time it was nice to see Bond as not perfect. In some of the other movies he knows just what to do and when but in Casino Royale he almost dies, he screws up a couple times and it's what makes this the best Bond in my opinion.
I liked all the poker. Not in that it was poker, but it was nice to see Bond face off against someone in a way other than fighting. Kind of like when he golfed with Goldfinger.
The ending was a bit stilted, but I liked it overall. A-