12 Things You Learn Rewatching Casino Royale
4. The Card Game Is Basically "Poker For Dummies"
The prolonged poker game at the Casino Royale is one of the movie's key set-pieces, and serves as a wonderfully classy, tripwire tense showdown between hero and villain that's only intermittently spliced with actual violence.
However, because the general public knows sweet bugger all about poker, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis' script spells things out hilariously blatantly.
The various characters involved in and watching the game over-explain everything that's going on - especially Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), who literally turns to Vesper and narrates what's happening - to the point that it's really quite laughable.
It's still a great scene, but maybe have just a tad more faith in the audience to get the gist of what's going on, no?