007

[Eric Renderking Fisk]

I just got word that there will be a third James Bond movie staring Daniel Craig in the works that will be released in 2012. I'll post more later.

[ortega76]

Nice. The series is getting better but needs regular releases.

[Doug Palumbo]

I loved Casino Royal but I didn't much like Quantum of Solace. If Royal was an 8 out of 10, Solace was a 4.5 .

[DanielJones]

BBC America will be playing James Bond all month. So far there has been some great Sean Connery 007.

So, I wonder if this new one will be a new story or will they try to recreate one? Thus far I'm liking Daniel Craig in the role.

Cheers!

Dan

[Eric Renderking Fisk]

I loved Casino Royal but I didn't much like Quantum of Solace. If Royal was an 8 out of 10, Solace was a 4.5 .

What didn't you like about Solace?

[Doug Palumbo]

Nothing seemed to fit in the Bond tradition. No opening credit with the gun barrel, no Q (I am for fewer gadgets but Q should be in the film), no over-sexed female character...nothing that makes Bond, Bond. Totally different feel and chemistry than Royale. Less of a continuation of Royale and the general Bond mythos and more of an attempt at making a contemporary political action thriller.

[DLFerguson]

QUANTUM OF SOLACE


Directed by Marc Forster
Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
Screenplay by Joshua Zetumer, Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade
Based on characters and a story written by Ian Fleming


I come by my love of James Bond movies honestly. My dad took me to see “Diamonds Are Forever” in the theaters way back in 1971. And since then I’ve seen every James Bond movie first in the theaters. Day One. I’m there. Because James Bond is something I’ve grown up with. I even stuck with the character through the dismal Roger Moore years. I have all the Ian Fleming books and read them so many times I’ve had to buy new copies regularly since pages fell out of the previous ones. And I own, read and enjoyed many of the ones written by other writers after Mr. Fleming passed away. So I feel qualified to say that QUANTUM OF SOLACE is probably the most boring James Bond movie I’ve ever seen. I actually had to see it twice because I fell asleep during the first time I saw it.

Yeah, you read that right. I feel asleep during a JAMES BOND movie. I didn’t even fall asleep during “A View To A Kill” which until I saw QUANTUM OF SOLACE I considered the worst James Bond movie ever made. I talked to my “Better In The Dark” co-host Thomas Deja and amazingly we found that we both fell asleep during the same sequence; the plane chase.

Okay, let’s get into the plot…such as it is…

Here it is in a nutshell: the movie takes place 20 minutes after the end of CASINO ROYALE with James Bond (Daniel Craig) finding out that a mysterious worldwide conspiracy called Quantum was behind the death of the great love of his life, Vesper Lynd. Bond then goes after Quantum’s front man, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric) an ‘eco-friendly’ businessman who has something to do with trying to overthrow a Middle Eastern government so that he can get the water rights to that country. I think. I’m not sure. Dominic Greene is the blandest Bond villain of any movie and I was never sure of what he wanted or even why. The Bond girls in this movie are equally boring and bland except for Gemma Arteton as Strawberry Fields. She was cool and spiced up the scenes she was in. She was the only person in QUANTUM OF SOLACE to actually be aware that she was in James Bond Movie and act accordingly.

Okay, let me get to the heart of this review so that I don’t waste your time and mine: I didn’t like QUANTUM OF SOLACE. I could not believe that they got it so right with “Casino Royale” but got it so wrong here. I got so tired of the scenes between such good actors as Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig trying to put new spins on the same tired lines: “Can I trust you?” Jeez, M… either you trust him or not. Do we really have to sit through ten minutes of you taking off your makeup while you ask him that? Daniel Craig himself looks as if he’s lost here. I don’t know who he’s playing here but it’s not James Bond. In “Casino Royale” we saw glimpses and hints of the character we would later see in the Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and even the brief two Timothy Dalton movies. And I got it. In “Casino Royale” we were watching an ‘origin’ story and seeing James Bond grow into the super agent we know and love. But in QUANTUM OF SOLACE…I didn’t understand anything that was going on. James Bond goes from Italy to London to Spain to whatever and I never understood why. And to be totally honest here, as an organization QUANTUM is so inept they make KAOS look good. When you have your number one guy kill everybody in the room except the head of The British Secret Service I have to wonder at the quality of your agents. Given what I saw in this movie, I could take over QUANTUM in a month.

What else is wrong with this movie? The inept direction of Marc Forster who front loaded all his major action scenes in the first hour of the movie so that we have absolutely no action scenes in the last hour and 40 minutes. The truly lousy theme song by Jack White and Alicia Keyes. It’s a song where we can’t tell who is singing what lyrics. We’re left with nothing with some really boring dialog. We got M and Bond doing their “Can I trust you” routine two or three times. And Dominic Greene talking to everybody else except Bond. I do like Daniel Craig as Bond. I do believe he has a career as 007. He proved that with “Casino Royale”. But he got it up the grainy hole here with this one. There’s no story here. No plot. Nothing that distinguishes this as a James Bond movie. I don’t like it. I don’t recommend it and it’s only a movie that should be seen by die hard James Bond fans.

So should you see QUANTUM OF SOLACE? If you’re a James Bond fan like me then you’ve probably seen it. Hey, I’ve seen it twice and I don't like it. But if you haven’t seen it and you're not a long time James Bond fan then don't bother.


106 minutes
Rated PG-13

[Bendingoak]

Didn't much like him or either film.

[Doug Palumbo]

Fantastic review (as always) DL! Spot on with my view of the film.

Eric, here's another review for the main site!

[n11pilot]

I have to agree with Doug and DL. "Casino Royal" was a very good film and Craig did a great job as a grittier slightly more realistic Bond.

In "Quantum" I found myself wondering if the writers had even a passing familiarity with the main character. The Bond one liners were more snarky than clever, the plot was convoluted and not in a good way, and Criag was given dialog that made him seem like he was sleep walking through much of the film. The choice of master villian was a little weak, a money driven eco terrorist? Please, thats not even a field exercise for an operator holding the OO designation (At least that is what I've come to believe from the books and prior flicks).

Sorry, but as much as a Bond fan as I am, if this is the best they can do perhaps Mutt should take over this franchise and kill it instead.

[Doug Palumbo]

Sorry, but as much as a Bond fan as I am, if this is the best they can do perhaps Mutt should take over this franchise and kill it instead.

Ouch, that was a good one!

[News Hound]

"The Next James Bond Movie Has $45 Million Worth of Product Placement"

When James Bond orders his next martini "shaken, not stirred," perhaps he'll also request a specific brand of gin. The Sunday Times reports that in the next James Bond movie — already long-delayed owing to MGM's money problems — a full third of the budget will be raised via onscreen product placement. For the bean counters at home, that's $45 million, the biggest product-placement bonanza ever. Maybe Morgan Spurlock spoke too soon? [Sunday Times UK via Australian]