Casino Royale

Molly and I saw a preview of Casino Royale last night, kindly sponsored by Smirnoff (a damn great Vodka, btw) and had a blast. The opening chase scenes are INTENSE! I thought I was watching the Urban Ninja from youtube:

It felt as if, in the editing room, the movie was just too long. The end of the movie appears where they took their most generous cuts, as the story seems to jump and bounce for the last 30 minutes. Which is sad, as the rest of the movie is great.

BTW...You will quickly realize that while the story starts with Bond's first assignment, it is set in modern day. So the toys, technology and luxuries are definitely today's future.

One last point: product placement central. Bond driving a Ford? Sony digital cameras? Vaio notebooks? Bars lined with Smirnoff? Sony Ericsson phones in everyone's hands? The products placed so perfectly, the action stopping just enough...it is every marketers wet dream. We laughed and actually pointed to the screen to highlight product placements. A fun little game!

For all of you actually worried about transparency...Diageo provided the event for free. However, I dig Smirnoff and always have. So there.