A James Bond movie - I really enjoy the James Bond movie series. Sure the plots tend to be from the same mold each time, but I watch movies to be entertained and this delivers entertainment.
I believe this one focuses so heavily on the high stakes poker game to draw on the peak of poker's public popularity. The poker game is No Limit Texas Hold 'Em - the same poker variety that was sweeping through poker tournaments and casinos and getting shown on ESPN in 2006. I'm sure that facet's inclusion was not a coincidence.
The plot involves your typical Bond-going-rogue in his quest to complete his mission his own way. There are double crosses with twists and more double crossings. Bond gets his girl as usual. If you like James Bond movies then you'll like this one. If you don't you won't. It's that simple.
Some things that caught my eye this time through (I have seen it before as well):
1. MI6 knows the bad guys locations, their crimes, and cohorts. Bond looks through the main enemy's dossier midway through - complete with known associates and a rap sheet. Why go through the risk, hassle, and un-needed event that was the high stakes poker tournament? Just arrest the criminals and be done with it. (Of course, then there would be no movie - but a movie with things like this in it...? Find a way to make it a necessary plot element?)
2. It seems Bond recovered from his ball smashing torture rather quickly and ably - boning up the Bond girl not much after (the time-line is somewhat vague there, but the description given of the torture didn't leave much room for 'parts being usable afterward'...)
3. At the 2hr 3m 18s point in the movie, the Bond girl (yes she had a name in the movie, but I prefer to use this reference) was on a boat with Bond when the scene focuses on her facial expression. In the background is a storefront type building with "I R" on it in big letters. As I watched this scene I noticed something I had never caught before - the letters seem to float in mid air. That is, as the buildings flow by in the background (they are traveling down the river) the letters do not move in a manner consistent with the building movement. Go ahead and check it out, let me know what you think.
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