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  • RELEASED: 2006
  • RUNTIME: 144 mins
  • WRITTEN BY: Paul Haggis, Ian Fleming, Robert Wade, Neal Purvis
  • DIRECTED BY: Martin Campbell
  • STARRING: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino

Certainly a lot better than other Bond films but it’s overrated to me. There are many good things about it: Daniel Craig is a fantastic, gritty and much more realistic Bond (maybe the best), The action is very well shot and tension-filled and Eva Green is a likable Bond girl until a horribly cliche plot twist at the end. The problem with the film is the story and the villain. There just aren’t a lot of reasons to care about what Bond is actually doing. There isn’t any urgency and the stakes are never clearly set up. For a large portion of the film, Bond is just trying to beat the villain Le Chiffre (an incredible Mads Mikkelsen) at poker and it never really feels like it matters. And Le Chiffre is very disappointing as he’s never fully developed because of his purely stupid fate. Overall it’s mostly entertaining but it’s not very well written.