“Bond is back.”
I will be the first to admit that I was done with the Bond franchise. After seeing what Jason Bourne did for the genre I figured Bond was no longer needed. Blame it on Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan, the fact remains that the character was getting to be old, greasy and washed up. And worse off, unbelievable. Even in a film of unbelievable stunts and scenarios you at least want to see actors who can pull these things off as if they were possible. Bond had become this Austin Powers ladies man who couldn’t run across the street much less pull off what they had him doing. Add to that cliché story lines that were lame and focused more on Bond’s lady man skills, and it was time for a license to kill off the films all together. So it goes without saying, though I will, how welcome and saving Daniel Craig is for the entire legacy.
In Quantum of Solace we find Bond (Daniel Craig) still reeling from the death of his woman and vowing for revenge; without really admitting it. All the while still trying to get to the bottom of an over zealous tree hugger who seems to be behind some dastardly deals. And this eager environmentalist may or may not be linked to an organization that has spies everywhere, including M’s own back yard. When several countries water supplies become the object of greed Bond joins with a revenge motivated hottie named Camille (Olga Kurylenko) to infiltrate the system and shut it down.
This is the Bond film that just might reinvigorate the fans. Sure the plot is thin and the action over the top. But finally we have a Bond that makes all of it work. Craig is rugged and steely in his portrayal. He still has the charm that Bond needs but that is not what gets him through the day. It is his ability to kick serious butt when need be. He has a swagger about him that we have not seen in a Bond for some while. Many gave Craig a hard time being that he was blonde and not like the Bonds of the past. Well Amen.
Quantum of Solace is full of action from the opening bell to the final credits. Car chases and hand to hand duels keep this film moving at a fairly decent pace. There was a brief moment near the middle when I thought it was going to stall out, but it pulled through and stayed strong until the end. Plus it has that tinge of old school Bond films where the bad guy is world dominating in his mindset and plots. The perfect bad guy you love to hate. Unlike the past Bond films, Camille is a girl that isn’t totally reliant on Bond to save her every time. She has a steady spine and when push comes to shove can deal with the best of them.
Quantum of Solace is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sexual content. Not nearly the sexual antics and innuendos of the past failures but enough for Bond to still prove he has a way with the ladies. The action is intense but not with a lot of gore and bloodshed. There are bullets flying everywhere and if you are not into gun play then you might be left out of most of the action. I give this Bond flick 3.75 out 5 scaffolds. Craig is the perfect Bond and even though I still have no idea what a Quantum of Solace is, I enjoyed this action ride from beginning to end.
Matt Mungle (matt@mungleshow.com) (11/11/08)
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Review copyright 2008 Mungleshow Productions. Used by Permission.
10 users commented in " Quantum of Solace – Movie Review "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI read an article about the preview, where Tom Cruise got laughed at when his preview of his movie came on. In the movie Cruise wears an eye patch. http://www.observer.com/2008/o2/quantum-solace-offers-peek-2009-watch-out-tom-cruise
I agree that Craig is a more believeable MI-6 agent and that the plot was thin in “Quantum of Solace.” I think it interesting that someone who is believes themselves capable of film critique doesn’t know how to find out for themselves what Quantum of Solace means. LOOK IT UP if you don’t know.
I have been watching Bond movies for years and when I saw “casino Roya;e” I just had to see the sequel. The whole time I was watching the movie I understood where he was in his thoughts. Without a doubt Quantum of Solace is a hit. Bond is back…..
Haven’t watched it yet. The last Bond movie I watched was about 10 years ago. Hope that Bond is back
Quantum of Solace was entertaining, but they could have done with seven or either less chase scenes
Plz dont watch this movie!
I watched this movie last evening but wasn’t as good as the previous ones.The action scenes weren’t up to the mark as well as the villain was not a strong opponent of bond! This surely goes into one of the bad movies of Bond.
OK. Perhaps my last comments were really a review of Casino not having seen QoS. Now I have seen it and there are so many problems with it I do not know where to begin. All the chases are herkey, jerky, shaky stuccato film clips. You can never really see what is going on. This is contrary to the taditional Bond flick replete with detail. And if Craig is gritty, moody, mean & vindictive one can still see a path by which he becomes a cooler if not cold uber-professional agent with a dry, sardonic sense of humor. This Bond clearly appeals to a feminine perspective that escapes me. I understood him not becoming ‘involved’ with the other women in the 2 flicks as having high standards and was at least relieved to see his response to Fields as, what we would term a normal orientation! (The women seem to love that Bond does NOT ‘hook up’ with the main girl in either film and broods ceaselessly like a forlorn Hamlet for his unrequited lover from Casino). Even the opening chase, usually one of the best, is almost visually incomprehensible. Car chase, rooftop chase, sewer chase, apartment knife fight chase, boat chase, plane chase, Chase-Morgan, certainly they all were purloined from the Bourne genre but somehow Bourne’s were more believable.
The opening graphics were not as bad as I feared, but were definitely not 007 quality. Far too much of Craig shooting his Walther PPK .380; (don’t make me go into why that is a problem). We have grown accustomed to the sultry, sexual/sensual and awesome graphical intro to the Bond films. This one was not of the same caliber. Ditto on the theme song. It was not a good as past songs but I was fearing worse and it was actually passable relating somewhat to the general theme of the film. The barrel scene was placed at the end of the film. I prefer the beginning but in either case it should be presented with high quality graphics and punctuated with 007 theme song riffs. It was not.
Lots of chases. Most are barely watchable. I actually liked the reference to the traditional 13th century Italian Palio horse race in which the riders can use their longer wooden canes to encourage their steeds or discourage their opponents; and the actual event was supposed to be occurring outside of the chase area.
The knife fight was lame. How did the baddie die anyhow? Please tell me not with the little pair of cuticle scissors Bond had. And if the death blow was to the only wounded area shown, the left jugular, where did all the blood go as Bond let him ‘bleed out’. Not to worry the details because we are soon introduced to THE BOND GIRL. Well, a little anti-climatic because she is not quite as attractive as we are used to although she has very pretty lips. The rest of her seems strangely disproportionate for some reason. It’s also strange that she would return to the baddie who just tried to have her whacked. That has little probability for success for someone who we later learn is “Bolivian Secret Service”. Oh well, not to worry, we are off on another chase, this time with boats. It is perhaps the best done but for the last scene in which the grappling hook is somehow thrown onto the rubber speed boat and flips it from the front of Bond’s boat over the top to the rear…… can’t quite figure the physics out on that one. Not to worry, we’ve docked and Bond mysteriously hands the unconscious maiden who he has just rescued over to a dock attendant…what?
Well were off to track this baddie and somehow reconnected with the GIRL in Bolivia where we eventually learn that the baddie, Mr. Greene of the evil Greene corporation in conjunction with the even eviler Quantum Criminal Consortium LLC has concocted a plot wreaking with the venom of true corporate greed, evil capitalism and nefarious financier-ship; to wit, steal all the fresh water in where? Why Bolivia of course and sell it back to them Bolivians at double the price! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh). We learn at a big party that times are tough in Bolivia because it is costing a weeks wages for an average Bolivian to buy a gallon of clean water! As I remember, the average Bolivian earns about $0.25 per day making the water cost about $1.75 a gallon; pretty much on par with market values in Cleveland. Perhaps this is not the best country for our get richer quicker scheme.
No matter, we are off to the evil opera where the evil baddies are meeting to plan, well, evil. This is where we juxtapose a modernistic version of the Tosca operatic bloodshed whilst Bond dabbles in the real thing dispatching the body guards of the evil biggies who, now discovered & uncovered, are making a hasty retreat for the exits faster than attendees at an Al Gore speech.
No matter, while in Bolivia we are matroned by the closest thing to a real Bond girl, agent Fields. Unfortunately we never really figure out what is beneath that trenchcoat although it appears that Bond does. Also unfortunately for Fields and us, she is quickly eliminated by the baddies in what can only be termed as a ‘crude’ theft of the Goldfinger modus operandi. I would have expected more of a mess but why waste camera time on the slickened Fields when you can spend it on bathroom scenes with….who else….M of course. Perhaps the most difficult what seemed to be15 minutes of the film (as if minutes were hours Mr. Spock) was watching M in her bathrobe apply & remove cold creme. The threat itself would have sent Mr. Greene permanently into pro bono philanthropy. Not finished with us yet, M draws her bath and the tension in the theater built noticeably as we all began to fear that we would be greeted with an au natural scene of her slipping out of the robe into the tub. Fortunately we were spared that experience (wait for the unedited version coming to DVD soon!). However, it just calls into question what fob with a mommy complex of some sort is calling the shots in these films.
M continues to demonstrate why she should not be “M” vacillating from suspecting Bond to needing him back in 00 some 4-5 times during the movie. We did get a glimpse into the possible personality of M’s hubby when he meekly announced, “the calls for you dear on your private line”. Whatever.
M may welcome Bond back with open arms or have him captured or killed, no matter, the BOND GIRL is rescuing Bond in her getaway car, a 1964 VW Beetle. I guess the Bolivian Secret Service does not get to roll like the 00’s in MI6. At least it was a 40HP!
No matter. We are now off to a hotel in the middle of a high plains Bolivian desert. Time to charter a plane…no, not the little Beachcraft Bonanza that would actually be faster and more maneuverable. Choose the DC-3 with a load of cargo on board. Watch out though, you’ll get shot down by the Bolvian Air Force in a single engine Marchetti SIA1 (which I have been corrected on and is a fast little number) I guess the BAF doesn’t get to roll like the 00’s at MI6 either.
No matter because they are both jumping out of that crate with the only parachute. Somehow everything turns out ok after wrestling for 10,000 feet with the BOND GIRL & parachute falling at 120 MPH because the chute opens 20 feet off of our LZ, a nice big soft slab of granite. BTW, the BOND GIRL walks for miles on granite stones in her bare feat…she’s a hearty lass.
It’s off the hotel to find the baddies. The hotel, located in the high plains desert of Bolivia, is called the Plaza del Sol. It is completely self-sufficient and powered by…solar….no you idiot, hydrogen fuel cells. In fact, each room appears to have its own hydrogen fuel cell and its accompanying hydrogen supply tank. The maids must make your bed and refill your hydrogen tank when they replace the shampoo in the bath, I guess. Naturally the hotel, located in the high plains Bolivian desert is made substantially of steel & stone. Unfortunately, the steel & stone in Bolivia is not quite as durable as the steel & stone you and I have grown to love as we discover when Bond causes a baddie car to crash through a wall igniting a hydrogen tank. The rest of the hydrogen tanks ignite sequentially. Darn it, I hate when that happens, you just can’t get good hydrogen tanks anymore. Again, unfortunately, the Bolivian steel & stone burns more like paper mache. Bond battles the Greene baddie but aborts to rescue the BOND GIRL who is caught up in her own subplot vendetta too trite to be explained here. Mr. Greene escapes into the desert only to meet a cryptic fate induced by other unknown baddies and Bond’s 10W-40 payback for the treatment of luscious Agent Fields.
You would be better off waiting for this to hit DVD. At least then you can slo-mo or replay the chase scenes making sense of them, spend more time with the slick Agent Fields and most importantly, FFW or skip over M’s bathroom escapades. You have been warned.
I prefer the previous ones myself
Matt you are right the previous ones are way better. Especially the really old ones with SC.
kinda like what that you wrote actually. it really is not that easy to find even remotely good posts to read (you know really READ and not just browsing through it like some zombie before going to yet another post to just ignore), so cheers mate for not wasting my time! 😉
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