I love the Bond movies. Even the campy ones (just not as much). 'Casino Royale' was one of my favorites, so naturally I was looking forward to this one a lot. And for as much as I loved 'Casino', I did not feel like watching it again. That is kind of what happened with this movie. The whole movie had the feel that it was not a sequel, but simply the last half of 'Casino' released two years later. Granted, it did have its own plot, different villains, etc. but there was far too much time spent wrapping up the mysteries left from 'Casino', and not enough time focusing on the potentials of this movie. It had a great idea; and a good way to go about getting bond in the middle of it. The villain was great: Mathieu Amalric played the wealthy power hungry yuppie who was ready to loose his sanity at any moment. Craig did the top-notch bond again, and all was right in the acting world.But sadly enough, only the third movie will tell whether this installment will be the 'Empire Strikes Back', or the 'Austin Powers II' of Craig's Bond story. Because, sadly, even though the action was good (a little too quick edited for my taste though), acting was great, and what original story it had was good, but it relied too much on 'Casino' to be a great stand alone Bond film. If you want my advice, take an afternoon and watch 'Casino Royale' and this one right after, and pretend they are not supposed to be separate movies.
All in all: Wit & Wild
Lives up to the pre-views: I guess…
Stars (out of five): 3.5
T
