We saw CASINO ROYALE yesterday afternoon at The Bridge. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The action sequences were sharp (particularly the first chase, which brought to mind the agile athleticism of the best Jackie Chan routines), the "origin" touches were effective (my favorite was the use of the trademark "down the gun barrel" shot in the pre-credit sequence), and Daniel Craig provided electric charisma as Bond. The romance aspects fell flat for me, alas.
But the most distracting aspect of the movie was the rampant product placement. CR was the first Bond movie made by Sony (and possibly the last, as it's likely to lose its controlling interest in MGM/UA), and the movie apparently takes place in a world where everyone uses Sony computers, Sony laptops, Sony cameras, and Sony electronic equipment. (Considering that the movie debuted the same day as the Playstation 3, I wouldn't have been surprised if Bond had challenged Le Chiffre to a few video games. "You're the best Madden player on the service, 007 . . . .")
The worst was the in-movie commercial for Bond's Omega watch. ("Your watch. Rolex?" "Omega." "Beautiful.") Product placement is nothing new for Bond movies -- GOLDFINGER moved a lot of Aston-Martin DB5s, and subsequent movies plugged everything from Playboy to BMWs. But in this movie, the placement is exactly the sort of "blunt instrument" M accuses Bond of being.
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