longbough

Casino Royale 9.5/10 - (in Blu-Ray on my 60" DLP screen) - kicks ass! On par with Sean Connery's Bond. It would have been 10/10 except when they changed Baccarat to "Texas Hold 'em" it was a huge disappointment. It may be a small issue for most but it smudged the elegant sheen of the picture when I wanted to suspend disbelief.

Poker has also been filmed more convincingly in other films. The elementary use of "the tell" as a plot device is a tired one and has been done better in "House of Games", "The Cincinnati Kid" and other movies where card games are depicted with more complexity, suspense and authenticity. It's not a completely trivial issue because the whole plot of Casino Royale revolves around a card game.

In a nutshell - exotic story, action, plot, women and drama revolving around a popular game that can be played online - OK that's being harsh.

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"I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence." - Mahatma Ghandi