Congratulations Slave and Catrin!!!

[Hank Chinaski]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdEKrzcUd9I

sort of funny sex change music video- of course one might turn the volume down if at work

[Shape Shifter]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

Really? This is your criticism? Out of all the things in Bond movies to care about, how could something like this bother you? His cars have missiles, oil, smoke, machine guns, hub cap slicing machines, defibrillators and ejector seats, as well as every other contraption that may be handy in any given instance, but you're stuck on the part about the bad guy who has to make a bunch of money playing a high-stakes poker game because Bond fucked up his last money-making scheme, which involved infiltrating airport security to blow up the newest, biggest plane in the world? It's Bond, baby.

TM

That stuff is cool.

Now under pressure to recoup his clients' money, Le Chiffre sets up a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro. Hoping that a defeat would force Le Chiffre to aid the British government in exchange for protection from his creditors, MI6 enters Bond into the tournament. He meets up with René Mathis, his ally in Montenegro, and Vesper Lynd, a treasury agent, who is assigned to look after his handling of the government's $10 million buy-in. Vesper does not have the best interest in Bond at first, as she believes that poker is simply a game of luck. As the tournament progresses, Bond believes that Le Chiffre is bluffing on a particular hand, and goes all in, but realizes that Le Chiffre has tricked him, and thus loses his initial stake.

Distraught over his failure, Bond prepares to assassinate Le Chiffre when he is intercepted by one of the other players, who introduces himself as CIA officer Felix Leiter, who is also out to get Le Chiffre. Leiter believes Bond has the skill to beat Le Chiffre and offers to supply him with enough funds to re-enter the tournament in exchange for allowing the CIA custody of Le Chiffre. Back in the game, Bond rapidly recoups his losses. When Le Chiffre and his associates attempt to poison him with digoxin, Bond narrowly survives due to Vesper's intervention by the use of a one-shot defibrillator. Bond wins the tournament on a straight flush. Following her celebratory dinner with Bond, Vesper is abducted by Le Chiffre, who uses her to lure Bond into a near-fatal car chase and ultimate capture. Le Chiffre tortures Bond for the access code to the game's winnings and when it becomes clear that Bond will not yield, Le Chiffre prepares to castrate him. At that moment Mr. White enters and executes Le Chiffre and his associates for their failure. Bond and Vesper are left alive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(2006_film)

This is just stupid. I realize the necessity of a compelling protagonist with obstacles to overcome, a beginning, middle, and end, friends becoming enemies, enemies becoming friends, and a main character who is richer from the experience, but the poker game just doesn't cut it.

[Gattigap]

Originally Posted by Shape Shifter

This is just stupid. I realize the necessity of a compelling protagonist with obstacles to overcome, a beginning, middle, and end, friends becoming enemies, enemies becoming friends, and a main character who is richer from the experience, but the poker game just doesn't cut it.

The poker game thing doesn't bother me.

I'm as big of a fan as anybody of Bond films featuring an evil villian with his lair inside a volcano, because whatever its implausibility, it's fun. Casino Royale's poker game is the means to the end. If you want to complain, I suppose you could complain about the weird plot points in QoS with Quantum doing all this shit just to get a signature on a lease. By comparison, the poker game is very much like a volcano.

[Shape Shifter]

I enjoyed CR, but if they wanted to have a poker scene, they could have woven it into the storyline much more convincingly. It was a pretty transparent effort to just throw in a poker scene because poker was popular at the time. The pitch overwhelmed the plot. It just didn't make sense.

A dude having a lair in a volcano, on the other hand, makes total sense.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally Posted by Shape Shifter

It was a pretty transparent effort to just throw in a poker scene because poker was popular at the time.

There is just no excuse for departing from Chemin de Fer.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)

There is just no excuse for departing from Chemin de Fer.

Agreed. I'm equally ignorant of poker and baccarat, but the game as described in the book was about as compelling as a novel can make a card game sound. Plus, the other movies all have him playing baccarat as his preferred casino game. The switch to poker was both to capitalize on the televised poker trend (which was over three years ago anyway) and to make Craig's Bond less debonair (hi, Less!) and more gritty and brutal. They might as well just make him American and be done with it. The whole point of Bond is that he's British and de jure more sophisticated than other killers. He even went to the bother of getting a license, which is, I believe, the most British thing a person can do in this world.

[Cletus Miller]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

He even went to the bother of getting a license, which is, I believe, the most British thing a person can do in this world.

I believe that it would be more British if he had obtained a licence.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

He even went to the bother of getting a license, which is, I believe, the most British thing a person can do in this world.

It seems somewhat German to me. But if he was just conferred upon him by HRH, then it is indeed quite British.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

Agreed. I'm equally ignorant of poker and baccarat, but the game as described in the book was about as compelling as a novel can make a card game sound. Plus, the other movies all have him playing baccarat as his preferred casino game. The switch to poker was both to capitalize on the televised poker trend (which was over three years ago anyway) and to make Craig's Bond less debonair (hi, Less!) and more gritty and brutal. They might as well just make him American and be done with it. The whole point of Bond is that he's British and de jure more sophisticated than other killers. He even went to the bother of getting a license, which is, I believe, the most British thing a person can do in this world.

Except for baccarat and chemin de fer are complete and total games of luck.

[Penske_Account]

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)

There is just no excuse for departing from Chemin de Fer.

I had a nice Verdehlo from down unda' last week, and I daresay, that it would have been appropriate to serve, although not quite as a traditionally continental as a french bottle.

How can the fashion board be missing the point of the card game? It gives everyone a chance to dress up, sashay around fancy rooms in eveningwear and comment on each other's clothing ("I see you've changed your shirt") while still being essentially a manly and Coltrane-esque tooth and claw duel to the death (poker, that is, not those other frou frou games).

Bond may look good running around a volcano in a dinner jacket, but who's going to notice the cufflinks and the stylish narrowness of his lapels? Some henchman getting thrown off a catwalk? What do they know, with their jumpsuits? For proper appreciations you have to be sitting down across from your nemesis, preferably with an overmixed drink at your elbow.

The only other adversarial situation that allows for such considered judgment of clothes is a long deposition, which I understand will feature in the next Bond movie, "Modicum Of Insurance Defense."

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by ironweed

How can the fashion board be missing the point of the card game? It gives everyone a chance to dress up, sashay around fancy rooms in eveningwear and comment on each other's clothing ("I see you've changed your shirt") while still being essentially a manly and Coltrane-esque tooth and claw duel to the death (poker, that is, not those other frou frou games).

Bond may look good running around a volcano in a dinner jacket, but who's going to notice the cufflinks and the stylish narrowness of his lapels? Some henchman getting thrown off a catwalk? What do they know, with their jumpsuits? For proper appreciations you have to be sitting down across from your nemesis, preferably with an overmixed drink at your elbow.

The only other adversarial situation that allows for such considered judgment of clothes is a long deposition, which I understand will feature in the next Bond movie, "Modicum Of Insurance Defense."

hamilton academical? you're playing school teams now?

[Shape Shifter]

Yeah, people tend to dress pretty fancy at poker tournaments.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Just about everyone* on the board today is making some really good points.

*hi hank!

[Penske_Account]

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick

Just about everyone* on the board today is making some really good points.

*hi hank!

Thanks!