Idiot Royale?

I just finished watching the latest installment from everyone's favorite British agent. And I have to tell you - I thought Daniel Craig was great, but I have no idea what the movie is about.

We watched a lot of James Bond movies growing up. My mom is a big fan, which, thinking about it is kind of strange because if you knew my mother you would never guess she would love 007. But I always tend to have the feeling about halfway through these movies, that, while entertained, I've lost the thread of the movie. Or maybe I never had it to begin with.

I confess Casino Royale had me baffled from the get go. Despite the stellar opening action sequence on the scaffolding of a half-built building outside an embassy in Madagascar, I wasn't able to grab hold of why Bond was chasing this guy. And then, the bad guy seemed to shift about 100 different times in the movie. There was a lot of poker playing. A lot of text messaging. The romantic plot, dropped quite unbelievable from the sky three-quarters of the way through (following the literal ball-busting scene that was so torturous, I had to cover my face).

Shortly after that, the credits were rolling, and, while I was quite sure that Bond had saved us all, I wasn't sure from what.