James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#701 Post by Brian C » Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:32 pm

It was still a niche craze though - it’s not network TV was dominated by poker tournaments. It was just on a few cable channels and even then usually late-night.

I’ll put it this way - if NO TIME TO DIE turns out to hinge on minor celebrities singing in elaborate costumes, it’ll be more explicable than gratuitously long scenes of dudes playing poker.

User avatar
cdnchris
Site Admin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#702 Post by cdnchris » Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:40 pm

Big Ben wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 3:44 pm
I realize looking for realism in a Bond film is not a wise thing to do but even I couldn't help but go "Really?" in the theater as Bond shot down a helicopter with a handgun in Spectre. Craig's Bond films are either hit or miss for me and I still to this day wonder how the man who directed the more grounded Skyfall also managed to direct the ludicrous Spectre. Spectre that not only wasted a set up formed in previous Craig films but they managed, incredibly to waste the wonderful Christoph Waltz. And that's saying something.
I can forgive a lot with the Bond movies, but the one-shot helicopter take down was beyond dumb.

Die Another Day is still the worst in believability for me. Sadly, it wasn't the invisible car or DNA editing subplot that did it (as stupid as those were) but that ridiculous CGI wind surfing scene midway through. The fuck was that!!??
Brian C wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:00 pm
GOLDENEYE mostly holds up for me. Its basic plot - former MI6 colleague turns traitor over an old historical grievance - is a little stronger than most Bond films and actually feels like an old Dalton-era plot, and I think the movie makes the most of it by setting it against the fracturing of the old Soviet bloc. And Campbell does a pretty good job of balancing that (relatively) gritty story with some classic Bond elements, foremost Famke Janssen’s character, who’s gotta be the best “evil” Bond girl in the series. Plus the stunt work is the best of the Brosnan films (probably the last one with good stunt work before CGI augmentation became so common), and I like Eric Serra’s uncharacteristic score.
Dalton's films are good, and you're right that Goldeneye does seem to build off of his, with some more of the grander "sci-fi" (I guess you can call them) elements from the Connery/Moore ones. Janssen was the best thing in the film for me at the time. She was and still is one of the highlights of the whole series. But the reasons you listed are why it has grown on me over the years: the action scenes are good, the throwback to the cold war is good, and the plotline is solid enough, even if it's disappointing that Bean's scheme, in the end, is a heist. A BIG heist, but a heist.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#703 Post by knives » Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:58 pm

Brian C wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:32 pm
It was still a niche craze though - it’s not network TV was dominated by poker tournaments. It was just on a few cable channels and even then usually late-night.

I’ll put it this way - if NO TIME TO DIE turns out to hinge on minor celebrities singing in elaborate costumes, it’ll be more explicable than gratuitously long scenes of dudes playing poker.
You can blame Fleming in part on that. The original story was jam packed with card playing. (and honestly the film has bigger problems than cards anyway).

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#704 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:04 pm

Brian C wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:00 pm
I think it’s better than Campbell’s CASINO ROYALE franchise reboot, which inexplicably went all-in on watching people play cards.
I just rewatched the film and was surprised at how little time the film actually spent at the poker tables. There are maybe three scenes of single hands that take the time to build suspense: the first one where Bond learns the tell, the second where he fails to recognize the tell and loses, and the third where he wins. This really only makes up the middle section, since the first act is a long setup to get there- Vesper doesn't arrive on the train there until almost the halfway mark over an hour in, and then the last 45 minutes-ish are spent following the final game. It's really a brief period of the film and I think the time is used well to establish Bond's ego and break him down into trusting his gut while remaining conscious of his overconfidence as a flaw, in the end winning based on luck and because he has the best hand 'in addition to' skillful playing, rather than a chicken-game of bluff, which his former cocky self established as the only skill he needed. If anything, they could've spent more time at the tables to develop this change in a less rushed manner. I don't love the film either btw, and think it's wildly overpraised by both Bond and non-Bond fans alike, but still pretty good. I'll revisit Goldeneye soon, but it would probably get the edge from me too. Janssen is a formidable villain (that bathhouse scene is so intensely emasculating as she uses his own superpowered libido to assault him!), and her demise is great too.
cdnchris wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 3:32 pm
I also think Spectre is a turd: I liked how it tried to pay tribute to the early Connery ones and that, but I'll never understand why they felt the need they had to link up all of the Craig movies, despite the Bond movies never really going for continuity, and then doing it in such a bad way. They also turned Blofeld into a whiny man-baby with daddy issues. Bautista as the henchman was wasted too.
I'm gonna go rewatch this maybe tonight, but yeah it's pretty bad. There are many scenes of promise that stand out in my memory fondly but the executions are just continuous loops of laziness, as if the writer's room involved a bunch of excited pitches strung together and when they went to shoot the script realized they had to do more than set the scene, and connect said scenes together in some way, and couldn't figure out how to elevate a theoretically decent beginning to a setpiece into... an actually investing setpiece.
cdnchris wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:40 pm
Die Another Day is still the worst in believability for me. Sadly, it wasn't the invisible car or DNA editing subplot that did it (as stupid as those were) but that ridiculous CGI wind surfing scene midway through. The fuck was that!!??
My god, I forgot about the invisible car. You're right, it's the worst.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#705 Post by Brian C » Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:31 pm

I don’t even remember a wind-surfing scene.

In retrospect, it’s kind of amazing that Rosamund Pike’s career turned out as well as it did. Regardless of her actual abilities as an actor, being associated with that movie easily could stopped her career momentum in its tracks.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#706 Post by knives » Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:35 pm

I get the feeling that Britain has a lot of avenues for career success outside of the movies that allow room for that sort of future success. Without looking into it much, I imagine television and theater helped keep her reputation solid.

User avatar
Big Ben
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:54 pm
Location: Great Falls, Montana

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#707 Post by Big Ben » Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:43 pm

Brian C wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:31 pm
I don’t even remember a wind-surfing scene.
I think that it's important to make a distinction between old effects and bad effects but the wind surfing scene somehow manages to be both. It's ludicrous even by Bond standards.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#708 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:46 pm

I suspect that, like just about all of us apparently, most everyone buried elements of that movie somewhere deep. I forgot Rosamund Pike was even in that film, that would guess others did too.

User avatar
Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#709 Post by Finch » Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:55 pm

Die Another Day was one of the few films and the only Bond I actively contemplated leaving 30 mins early and I really wish I had left.

The Bond films are escapism to me but little else. Casino Royale is the only one I own on disc; the only other one I might consider is From Russia With Love (which would be great if not for the interminable sequence with the gypsies). Goldeneye has a great opening and a good villain in Sean Bean but beyond that, I was surprised by how tedious I found the rest of the film upon a rewatch. Of all the Bonds, I think Brosnan had the lousiest run as I find none of his entries good and one of them as mentioned above, is not just the worst Bond but an all-round appalling film.

I'll second the complaints about the editing and lack of spatial awareness in Quantum of Solace and the waste of Amalric.

Am I the only one who thinks, even accounting for the script, that Christoph Waltz is a terrible Blofeld in Spectre (and Skyfall continues to be the only decent film Sam Mendes has made, Bond or otherwise)?

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#710 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 05, 2021 6:07 pm

I like some other Mendes films to varying degrees (Jarhead, Away We Go and, yes, American Beauty) but agree Skyfall is definitely his best work

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#711 Post by Brian C » Tue Jan 05, 2021 6:17 pm

Thanks for the link, Big Ben. Somehow even after watching it, I still don’t remember it. Props to Brosnan for making Roger Moore’s green-screen work look vigorously athletic by comparison.

User avatar
captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#712 Post by captveg » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:18 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 6:07 pm
I like some other Mendes films to varying degrees (Jarhead, Away We Go and, yes, American Beauty) but agree Skyfall is definitely his best work
It would take a lot for something to top Road to Perdition for me. That film just hits all the right notes for my tastes.

User avatar
captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#713 Post by captveg » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:21 pm

Brian C wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 2:03 pm
I’d probably enjoy DIE ANOTHER DAY more if I saw more that was amusing in its awfulness, but all I see is the awfulness. It doesn’t even fail in interesting ways - it’s just an overstuffed and undercooked Bond movie.

I do like the opening credits sequence though - Bond’s torture works surprisingly well with the Madonna song, and it’s weirder and more effective than the more self-consciously “dark” tone of the Craig films.
To me the most fun aspect of Die Another Day is all the tips of the hat to the 19 previous films for the 40th Anniversary nature of its release. Brief moments, but enjoyable on that Easter Egg level, especially at the time when the internet was still less about immediately providing Wikipedia in your pocket.

The fact that I was mostly searching for the Easter Eggs while watching in for the first time in the theater in 2002 betrays the film's poor quality.

I'm a Dalton fan; I revisit his two films most often.
Last edited by captveg on Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#714 Post by Brian C » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:38 pm

I think the Dalton films would be a lot more fondly remembered in general if they didn’t have the Bond name on them. As Bond films, they’re kind of odd ducks, and Dalton’s version of the character is comparatively humorless and intense. And LICENSE TO KILL especially was a nasty bit of business for a Bond movie. I think they were a little ahead of their time; the world was ready for a more Daltonesque take on the character by the time Craig came around, but seemingly it was a lot to ask of fans in the ‘80s after Moore’s run.

But aside from that baggage, as ‘80s action movies, they’re pretty nifty.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#715 Post by knives » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:48 pm

captveg wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:18 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 6:07 pm
I like some other Mendes films to varying degrees (Jarhead, Away We Go and, yes, American Beauty) but agree Skyfall is definitely his best work
It would take a lot for something to top Road to Perdition for me. That film just hits all the right notes for my tastes.
Honestly, I love all his films sans AB. I think he’s very good at getting to the essence of his subject matter which is why his Bond films function as these primal screams cum DP reels.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#716 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:58 pm

I like Dalton's two, which were most welcome following A View to a Kill and too much Moore in general, if one is viewing chronologically as I did on annual binges growing up. I'm a purist though, and find Connery's first five and Majesty to be the best (I prefer some others to Dr. No but it has some great moments mostly accentuated by in-jokes with my friend and Bond-marathon partner growing up). Moore is ridiculous, and I kinda like him- I even find Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun enjoyable- but a dog like Moonraker makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Speaking of Amalric wasted, how about Michael Lonsdale!

I decided to put on Die Another Day, and we'll see if I make it til the end (I was wrong about any praise lobbed at this beginning), but things are off to a promising start when the Korean antagonist in the opening scene says he majored in Western Hypocrisy as a dis to Bond's British nationality.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#717 Post by Brian C » Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:30 pm

IMO Moore is what he is. If one accepts that, he's fine, and if one just wants something different from the character, then he's not fine. I think he got to be a real problem in the later films, though, when he was plainly not physically capable of doing any of the things Bond does ... actors just didn't age the way back then that the Tom Cruise generation does now. And the stuntmen were always very obviously not middle-aged men. Plus the romances became kinda icky, even by the standard of Bond movies.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#718 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:42 pm

I agree re: Moore, he doubles down on Connery's cheesy qualities and carries around a breezier, less aggressive, and more vapid charm. He works well in The Spy Who Loved Me, where his contention with Jaws in particular tests him to forfeit some of these to 'try' a bit. For Your Eyes Only has already been discussed as an interesting Bond outlier as well, which is his best one I think.

I gave up on Die Another Day after the first encounter with Berry, which had the most eye-rolling back-and-forth flirtation. "What do predators do at night?" "They feast" Though I did like the introduction, "My friends call me 'Jinx'" "My friends call me 'James Bond'" mostly because Brosnan's delivery was completely monotonous, reminding me of Connery's best nonchalant deliveries in the originals, only, you know, not good. Maybe I'll give it another try another day.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#719 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:36 am

cdnchris wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 3:32 pm
I also think Spectre is a turd: I liked how it tried to pay tribute to the early Connery ones and that, but I'll never understand why they felt the need they had to link up all of the Craig movies, despite the Bond movies never really going for continuity, and then doing it in such a bad way. They also turned Blofeld into a whiny man-baby with daddy issues. Bautista as the henchman was wasted too.
Rewatched this tonight, and yeah, the Blofeld arc is even worse replayed. I don't need believability, but the explanatory scene where he reveals his relationship to Bond is just too conveniently wrapped and boring. One child grew up to be the world's greatest secret agent and the other step-brother grew up to be the world's greatest arch villain... if you're going to take four films to drive home this grand storyline, maybe spend more than two minutes to establish the emotion or rationale behind the motive?

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#720 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:22 am

I don't mind Die Another Day as much as others here (I had long passed the hopeful longing for another Licence To Kill by that point) but yes some of the CGI was pretty awful. And it was strange that there was another attempt at doing a CGI windsurfing scene here after the surfing scene in Escape From L.A. highlighted the impossibility of doing such a thing years before that!

But I agree with Brian C that I did like the torture-centric opening credit sequence that is probably the most daring of all of the Bond opening titles (and I would say that whatever the other merits of the Brosnan run of Bonds, they always had at least memorable theme tunes, though of course Tina Turner's GoldenEye song is still the peak entry, both Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner and sung from the perspective of the villain at the main character. Conversely, I don't think a single one of the Daniel Craig film theme tunes has stuck in my head at all), and it was interesting to find out from a recent Todd In The Shadows video about the American Life album that it was associated with that it was only the inclusion of the Bond song that stopped it from being Madonna's first album to not make the charts.

The rest of the film was... fine (though of course Rosamund Pike was the best discovery of the film), and I honestly did not really note the film was doing a tribute to the rest of the Bond series outside of the material with Halle Berry, who recreates the Ursula Andress coming out of the sea moment from Dr No, but here it looks as if someone has been forcibly been holding her under the water until she pops out of the ocean in a very undignified manner, gasping for breath! No amount of slow motion can make that seem sexy (And they probably knew it needed a do-over as they got Daniel Craig to do it all over again properly in the next film)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:54 am, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
John Cope
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
Location: where the simulacrum is true

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#721 Post by John Cope » Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:56 am

Always really liked and admired Quantum of Solace. Always thought that the jagged, fragmented editing style seemed utterly appropriate, even intuitively so as the perfectly understood PTSD complement to the tragic events that end the elegant Casino Royale. It seems only right that this is the style which spills forth from that end. Also deeply love the moment, however brief, In which Bond contemplates joint suicide for a flicker of a second in the face of an imminent and presumably more painful fate. That's an extraordinary moment, not referenced nearly enough, which, along with being the peak moment of the Craigs, delivers up that rarest of reveals, a moment of genuine flickering despair observed in an otherwise superheroic figure. Skyfall is, for me, the least of the Craigs, rebelling as I do against what I regard as pat psychological reductionism throughout bloated up to supposedly revelatory epic length. It's endless banality writ large, labored over and over indulged while the psychic fracturing in Quantum is expressed principally through its aesthetic.

I am a fan of the series but only really select entries any more. And I say that as someone who has never been particularly entranced by the Connery pics, however heretical it may be to say so. As far more of a Patrick McGoohan fan I can never not think about how much different the series would have been and what a different template setter he would have been had he actually accepted the role (though in all honesty I gladly give up Bond entirely if it means, which it probably does, that that's what got us The Prisoner). I grew up with Moore and am still very entertained by most of his films, even the seemingly still much hated Moonraker and View to a Kill (Moonraker is grandly awesome from that still stunning pre-credits sequence on and through a glorious theme song I still find myself suddenly singing at inopportune moments; View to a Kill, meanwhile, is just a blast: "Five days to Alaska."). The Dalton Bonds are among my favorites. I love the variety of notes hit by those two films together. Such a range. It's unfortunate circumstances prevented from a further exploration of that embodiment of the character. Brosnan, meanwhile, seems like the quintessence of being careful what you wish for as I nearly gave up on the series during his incredibly under inspired tenure. I remember thinking, during one of those generically titled middle pictures, that it genuinely did seem as though someone was simply going through a stock list of tropes and ticking them off as each appeared on screen. Having said that, and perhaps primarily by contrast, I enjoyed the ultra camp Die Another Day very much. Totally ludicrous but ludicrously fun. And I should mention that as much as I dislike Skyfall I do generally like Mendes quite a bit (for the magnificent Jarhead alone but also, and especially, Revolutionary Road which I regard as among the best movies of the century so far). The best Bond though, for me, will likely always be On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Just gloriously realized from start to finish. My mom, who was the big Bond fan before me, has always thought and still thinks that it would have been the best had it only starred Connery and I can understand thinking that but I disagree; Lazenby's comparative freshness, openness and naivete are what make that picture's tragic elements so powerful and poignant. I don't know if I ever would have accepted that same level of tragedy befalling Connery's version of Bond.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#722 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:27 am

Interesting thoughts- well, we can agree on McGoohan’s The Prisoner besting everything and Lazenby’s unfamiliarity as perfectly suited for a more sensitive and (this sounds weird to say) enigmatically human Bond.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#723 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:58 pm

Tomorrow Never Dies was better than I remembered, even if it didn't have any particularly memorable moments, though that's not a bad things since it plays as a serviceable Bond programmer with Michelle Yeoh adding welcome spark and spunk to the heroic side. Goldeneye has gotten worse over the years with repeated returns, but I've seen it so many times at this point I chalk this up to it losing its flavor for me personally rather than revealing itself as a worse film. Still, a revisit reminded me how many relentless setpieces we're taken through, like North by Northwest-level except colder and less inspired, which made the video game work so well in step with the narrative. The film also clarified how much potential Brosnan had as Bond, with his subtle expressions of pathos toward revelations in his friend's betrayal shining through emotionally without compromising the stoicism of the character, and it's a shame he wasn't given an opportunity to explore this strength that too few Bonds were able to do, including Craig in the more thematically sentimental recent entries. I finished Die Another Day as well, and all I can say is that it's hands-down the worst Bond for all the reasons people have said here and probably infinitely more. I also rounded out the Brosnan revisits with The World is Not Enough, which I still enjoyed but no longer gets the edge from me for nostalgia's sake, so I can more or less cosign Brian's impressions of the Brosnans decreasing in value over time based on the strength of Tomorrow Never Dies' redemption (and it helped to view it as a return to the Moore-structure, complete with a fleeting ending without an imposed need to wrap anything up more dramatically, which was much appreciated).

Revelator
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:33 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#724 Post by Revelator » Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:03 am

knives wrote:
Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:58 pm
You can blame Fleming in part on that. The original story was jam packed with card playing. (and honestly the film has bigger problems than cards anyway).
In Fleming's defense, the card game in the book was baccarat, which is a very easy game to follow and explain. I have no interest or real knowledge of gambling but was riveted by the card game in the book, whereas the Texas Hold 'em Poker in the film felt interminable. The film also softened the book's other big setpieces--it put jokes in the torture scene, turned Vesper's comeuppance into an action sequence, and instead of ending as harshly and brutally as the book it gave Bond a moment of triumph. Of course the film worked like gangbusters with audiences and most critics (Andrew Sarris, who'd panned Bond and Thunderball back in '65, called it the best ever Bond film), whereas my idea of a faithful adaptation (complete with the long dialogue on the nature of evil) would have been box office poison.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: James Bond Franchise (1962-∞)

#725 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:31 am

Thunderball has the greatest card game scene in the series, with Bond triumphing by exactly one point each round with Largo, becoming more casual and loose as the villain gets more serious and agitated. It's so self-conscious to Bond's luck, with Terence Young and Connery already fully spoofing his iconic play on the character- yet playing the drama with intensity. Maybe Sarris couldn't handle the tonal shifts operating on a wavelength he wasn't willing to acknowledge as an idiosyncratic internal logic.

Also a quick internet search doesn't reveal how much of the running time is playing cards in Casino Royale but it does clock in that 'segment' of the film around 30 minutes which more or less matches my recent viewing- and of course only a small fraction of that time is devoted to the table, with a couple intense (and decently long) action scenes mixed in with bar chatter and mingling. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual table games made up roughly 15 minutes if the film, maybe less.

Post Reply