Casino Royale

Watched Casino Royale tonight...while my Cheese-o-Meter was set off a few times (hey, this IS a Bond film, after all) it was a good couple of hours well spent. Warning! Spoilers below!

The Good:
1) The ACTION. Boy, was it good. No resorting to ridiculous high-tech gizmos and doodads, just plain old-fashioned violence. Me likey.
2) Daniel Craig's wardrobe. He looked good in anything he wore. I especially liked his white polo & tan slacks at the resort...and at one point he had this great all-black (or dark colored, whatever) outfit. Even WBen liked his shirts enough to comment on them. And when a guy notices another guy's shirts look cool, they must really be something.
3) The construction chase scene was FUN.
4) Judi Dench's (M's) trenchcoat when she comes home to find Bond in her flat.
5) Actually, Judi Dench as M is always great.
6) Bond's change from thug-with-gun to the first glimmerings of the suave 007 we all know and love. That's is what Jason Bourne should've been in Bourne Identity. (Will post rant on that movie some other time.)
7) Attention to detail - when Bond beats up two mercenaries, he returns to the poker table and you can see his knuckles are all scraped up. The cuts on his face from exploding glass were a nice touch too.
8) Parking was never a problem. Is it a Bond trademark to always park cars and boats well?
9) A really good reason for Bond's dismissive (if not downright chauvinistic) attitude towards women.

The Bad:
1) Daniel Craig's hair. Oh, I don't give a damn if he's the first ever 'blond' Bond, he just had remarkably bad hair.
2) The requisite car chase scene wasn't long enough. What a waste of two sweet cars.
3) Vesper and Bond's one-upmanship in the train. While amusing, you almost expect them to start stripping off their clothes to compare scars (ala Martin Riggs and Lorna Cole in Lethal Weapon 3).

The Ugly:
1) I should change the title of this to 'The Cheesy'. The lines spoken by Vesper and Bond in the hospital garden after the torture scene made me cringe. (Hint: little finger)
2) When you realise his support team is shafting Bond - what is this, Mission Impossible 1?

Things That Made Me Go, "Hee!":
1) Le Chiffre has a Gullwhacker. (Fans of Brian Jacques' Redwall series, unite!)

This review is still in the process of being updated. Will add more when the muse (and my memory) cough up.