Online & Print Reviews
Hardyboy
Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
The first online review of QoS has appeared (courtesy of The Guardian), and I figure this would be a good time to start a thread where we can post and discuss reviews that appear online and in print. So, without further ado, here's The Guardian's take:
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Three out of five stars
Peter Bradshaw
He's back. Daniel Craig allays any fear that he was just a one-Martini Bond, with this, his second 007 adventure, the perplexingly named Quantum Of Solace.
I've got to admit that this didn't excite me as much as Casino Royale and the villain is especially underpowered. But Craig personally has the chops, as they say in Hollywood. He's made the part his own, every inch the coolly ruthless agent-cum-killer, nursing a broken heart and coldly suppressed rage. If the Savile Row suit with the Beretta shoulder holster fits, wear it. And he's wearing it.
This is a crash-bang Bond, high on action, low on quips, long on location glamour, short on product placement.
Under the direction of Marc Forster, the movie ladles out the adrenalin in a string of deafening episodes: car chases, plane wrecks, motor boat collisions. If it's got an engine, and runs on fuel, and can crash into another similarly powered vehicle, with Bond at the wheel, and preferably with a delicious female companion in the passenger seat - well, it goes in the movie.
There are plenty of references to other Bond moments. A horribly dangerous skydive recalls The Spy Who Loved Me. A pile-up in Haiti which spills a macabre lorryload of coffins recalls the voodoo creepiness of Live And Let Die. And, most outrageously of all, the grotesque daubing of a female corpse brings back Goldfinger - though Sean Connery got an awful lot more mileage out of that sort of thing.
As in Casino Royale, the famous John Barry theme tune is saved up until the end; a baffling, decision, I always think, not to use this thrilling music at the beginning of the film.
Bond has hardly got his 007 spurs, when he's infuriating M, Judi Dench, with his insolence and insubordination. Out in the field, he's whacking enemy agents in short, sharp, bone-cracking bursts of violence when he should be bringing them in for questioning.
In theory, he is out to nail a sinister international business type: Dominic Greene, played by French star Mathieu Amalric, who under a spurious ecological cover plans to buy up swaths of South American desert and a portfolio of Latin American governments to control the water supply of an entire continent. As Greene, Amalric has the maddest eyes, creepiest leer, and dodgiest teeth imaginable.
Clearly, Bond has to take this fellow down. But he also wants to track down the man who took his beloved Vesper away from him in the previous movie: he is pathologically seeking payback, and to the fury of his superiors, this is getting personal. But it hasn't stopped him cultivating female company in the traditional, fantastically supercilious manner. His companions are as demurely submissive as ever. Olga Kurylenko plays Camille, a mysterious, smouldering figure, out to wreak vengeance on the corrupt Bolivian dictators who killed her family.
Britain's Gemma Arterton plays Agent Fields; she greets 007 wearing a trenchcoat with apparently little underneath, like some sort of MI6 strippogram. And she is the recipient of his ardour in the luxury hotel suite - that quintessential Bond habitat. This movie is, in fact, a reminder of how vital hotels are in Bond films, providing the essential narrative grammar: the checking in, the fight with the stranger in the room, the messages left at reception, the luxury cars lovingly photographed outside.
I was disappointed there was so little dialogue, flirtation and characterisation in this Bond: Forster and his writers Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade clearly thought this sort of sissy nonsense has to be cut out in favour of explosions. Well, perhaps that is what Bond fans want (not this Bond fan, though). But I was also baffled that relatively little was made of the deliciously villainous Amalric: especially the final encounter.
But set against this is the cool, cruel presence of Craig - his lips perpetually semi-pursed, as if savouring some new nastiness his opponents intend to dish out to him, and the nastiness he intends to dish out in return. This film, unlike the last, doesn't show him in his powder-blue swimming trunks (the least heterosexual image in 007 history), but it's a very physical performance. Quantum of Solace isn't as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig's Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it's an indefinably difficult task for an actor. Craig measures up.
What concerns me right now are two things: first, apparently again there's no Bond Theme until the end of the film (What? We know we get the gunbarrel--what's playing under it?); and, second, the reviewer finds the villain underwhelming. Otherwise, things look good for QoS. So far. . .
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Three out of five stars
Peter Bradshaw
He's back. Daniel Craig allays any fear that he was just a one-Martini Bond, with this, his second 007 adventure, the perplexingly named Quantum Of Solace.
I've got to admit that this didn't excite me as much as Casino Royale and the villain is especially underpowered. But Craig personally has the chops, as they say in Hollywood. He's made the part his own, every inch the coolly ruthless agent-cum-killer, nursing a broken heart and coldly suppressed rage. If the Savile Row suit with the Beretta shoulder holster fits, wear it. And he's wearing it.
This is a crash-bang Bond, high on action, low on quips, long on location glamour, short on product placement.
Under the direction of Marc Forster, the movie ladles out the adrenalin in a string of deafening episodes: car chases, plane wrecks, motor boat collisions. If it's got an engine, and runs on fuel, and can crash into another similarly powered vehicle, with Bond at the wheel, and preferably with a delicious female companion in the passenger seat - well, it goes in the movie.
There are plenty of references to other Bond moments. A horribly dangerous skydive recalls The Spy Who Loved Me. A pile-up in Haiti which spills a macabre lorryload of coffins recalls the voodoo creepiness of Live And Let Die. And, most outrageously of all, the grotesque daubing of a female corpse brings back Goldfinger - though Sean Connery got an awful lot more mileage out of that sort of thing.
As in Casino Royale, the famous John Barry theme tune is saved up until the end; a baffling, decision, I always think, not to use this thrilling music at the beginning of the film.
Bond has hardly got his 007 spurs, when he's infuriating M, Judi Dench, with his insolence and insubordination. Out in the field, he's whacking enemy agents in short, sharp, bone-cracking bursts of violence when he should be bringing them in for questioning.
In theory, he is out to nail a sinister international business type: Dominic Greene, played by French star Mathieu Amalric, who under a spurious ecological cover plans to buy up swaths of South American desert and a portfolio of Latin American governments to control the water supply of an entire continent. As Greene, Amalric has the maddest eyes, creepiest leer, and dodgiest teeth imaginable.
Clearly, Bond has to take this fellow down. But he also wants to track down the man who took his beloved Vesper away from him in the previous movie: he is pathologically seeking payback, and to the fury of his superiors, this is getting personal. But it hasn't stopped him cultivating female company in the traditional, fantastically supercilious manner. His companions are as demurely submissive as ever. Olga Kurylenko plays Camille, a mysterious, smouldering figure, out to wreak vengeance on the corrupt Bolivian dictators who killed her family.
Britain's Gemma Arterton plays Agent Fields; she greets 007 wearing a trenchcoat with apparently little underneath, like some sort of MI6 strippogram. And she is the recipient of his ardour in the luxury hotel suite - that quintessential Bond habitat. This movie is, in fact, a reminder of how vital hotels are in Bond films, providing the essential narrative grammar: the checking in, the fight with the stranger in the room, the messages left at reception, the luxury cars lovingly photographed outside.
I was disappointed there was so little dialogue, flirtation and characterisation in this Bond: Forster and his writers Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade clearly thought this sort of sissy nonsense has to be cut out in favour of explosions. Well, perhaps that is what Bond fans want (not this Bond fan, though). But I was also baffled that relatively little was made of the deliciously villainous Amalric: especially the final encounter.
But set against this is the cool, cruel presence of Craig - his lips perpetually semi-pursed, as if savouring some new nastiness his opponents intend to dish out to him, and the nastiness he intends to dish out in return. This film, unlike the last, doesn't show him in his powder-blue swimming trunks (the least heterosexual image in 007 history), but it's a very physical performance. Quantum of Solace isn't as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig's Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it's an indefinably difficult task for an actor. Craig measures up.
What concerns me right now are two things: first, apparently again there's no Bond Theme until the end of the film (What? We know we get the gunbarrel--what's playing under it?); and, second, the reviewer finds the villain underwhelming. Otherwise, things look good for QoS. So far. . .
Vox clamantis in deserto
Comments
This is a Bond adventure that's badder, better but not bigger.
Clocking in at one and three-quarter hours, it's a good half hour shorter than 007's previous outing. And its reduced running time results in a leaner, tauter experience.
Picking up shortly after the end of Casino Royale when Bond confronted the mysterious Mr White, Quantum of Solace quickly throws him into a round-the-globe hunt.
Bond is trying to track down the shadowy organisation whom he holds responsible for the death of Vesper - the woman he loved and who died at the end of the last movie.
And that leads him to sinister bad guy Dominic Greene, played by Mathieu Amalric.
So far, so familiar. But what this film does differently is to focus closely on an emotionally battered Bond, his mission and his motivation.
There are odd moments of uncertainty when the film tries to juggle Bond's personal story with the ambitious plans being pursued by Greene.
But for the most part the villainy rightly takes a back seat to Bond's emotional journey.
007's mission may be what drives the film's plot, but the real interest lies in how Bond deals with the individuals and situations he meets along the way.
That's not to say that the film jettisons all the things that have characterised the previous stories.
There are broad nods to Goldfinger especially, but this film manages the difficult task of moving the franchise into interesting new areas.
The raw nature of the film may put off some who yearn for the days of gizmos, gadgets and Bond quips as he dispenses with faceless opponents.
And it's a brave step to push even further a lot of the themes developed in Casino Royale, especially the rediscovery of who Bond is, and why he is the way he is.
It's a film that feels like the second part of a trilogy, with this being the bleaker second act.
For a lot of the movie Bond is a particularly unsympathetic character, and often it's only Craig's performance along with the shifting morality of Bond's legion of enemies that forces the audience to root for him.
Olga Kurylenko, who plays a refreshingly different kind of female companion, does well with a part that has far more depth than most Bond girls.
And Gemma Arterton is superb in her brief role as an agent whom Bond encounters in Bolivia, cementing her position as one of cinema's brightest young stars.
As ever the end credits promise that James Bond will return, and thanks to Quantum of Solace, the sense of anticipation for this should be particularly high.
Not to see what super villain Bond will be battling, but to discover what the next stage will be in a character that Daniel Craig has managed to reinvent and develop movie by movie.
Quantum of Solace opens on 31 October.
For a Major Spolier scroll down.......
The Bond theme doesn't appear till the very end....AGAIN!!!
Dose of salt alert: the track "Field Trip" on the OST (as featured on iTunes) is nothing BUT the James Bond theme...
@merseytart
4/5 - I'm happy!
I've always felt that a 4/5 Bond film is a 5/5 one for the fans. Definitely the case with Casino Royale.
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=134523
Plot
Still angered by the death of Vesper Lynd, James Bond (Craig) goes after the shadowy international organisation he holds responsible, even when M (Dench) orders him to stand down. Bond clashes with Dominic Greene (Amalric), who is cornering Bolivia’s water supply, and teams with Camille (Kurylenko), who has her own mission of vengeance.
Review
Quantum Of Solace picks up moments after the credits rolled at the end of Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig’s bereaved and blooded Bond in Siena, wrecking his Aston Martin in a pre-credits car chase complicated by thick traffic, twisty mountain roads and emotional Italian drivers. In his car-boot, with a bullet in his leg, is Mr White (Jesper Christensen), a higher-up in the cartel (Quantum) which employed and then killed the baddie of the earlier film, and who Bond blames for the death of the girl he loved last time round. Mr White is taken to be grilled by M, just as the local horse race (the palio) is taking place (obviously, the filmmakers saw the documentary The Last Race too), only for the villain to sneer that MI6 and the CIA obviously know nothing about Quantum’s many well-placed agents, whereupon someone presumably trustworthy pulls a gun – and Bond is back in action, leaving wounded enemies and allies behind as he barges through crowds, runs up stairs, dangles from scaffolding and dodges swinging girders to get his man.
In an era marked by franchise bloat, it’s entirely admirable that Quantum of Solace is the shortest Bond movie to date – it drops a great many of the long-running series mannerisms (callous quips, expository lectures, travelogue padding, Q and Moneypenny) as it globe-trots urgently from Italy to Haiti to Austria to Italy again to Bolivia to Russia with stopovers in London and other interzones. The major gadget on offer is a neat trick with a mobile phone, which the film trusts us to follow without a pompous lecture on how it works, and there’s a nod to traditionally absurd Bond girl names in Gemma Arterton’s Agent Fields – she refuses to give her real, silly, embarrassing name which we only find out from the end credits (it’s not Gracie or London). Everything in this movie is edited as if it were an action sequence, which means that when the set-pieces come they have to go into overdrive to stay ahead of the game, with Bourne veteran Dan Bradley staging more brutal, devastatingly fast fights and chases. We get striking locations (including primaeval caves and a South American desert) and absolutely gorgeous, stylised art direction – but there’s little lingering on the backdrops, since a brief establishing shot is usually enough to set up the nimble, nifty, explosive action that takes place against them.
Previously, the Bond films have been a series, but this is an actual sequel – an approach Ian Fleming used in his books, but which was dropped from the movies because the novels were filmed out of order. This makes for a film which hits the ground running, but also means we get less to latch onto emotionally since Daniel Craig became the complete 007 over the course of Casino Royale, and here just has to be set loose. The sparks struck between the wounded hero and scarred heroine Camille – whose revenge-driven sub-plot owes a lot to July Havelock, the girl from the story ‘For Your Eyes Only’ – don’t match those between Craig and Eva Green last time round because this Bond is human enough to start worrying about how regularly his girlfriends get killed. The slinky, sultry Olga Kurylenko is in fact so fixed on murdering her enemy that it’s possible she technically doesn’t even count as a Bond girl – she’s good, but doesn’t get the breakout showcase Green landed in Casino Royale. However, for the diehard romantics, Bond does tenderly hug a dying male friend before disposing of his corpse in a dumpster (‘he wouldn’t care’) and gives Camille handy tips on professionally assassinating the extremely unpleasant would-be dictator who slaughtered her family.
Casino Royale had one of Fleming’s best plots to stick to, but Quantum of Solace is on its own, taking only its title from the 1960 story. Extrapolating from hints dropped in the earlier film about who ran the late LeChiffre, it introduces Quantum, a SPECTRE-type organisation which ought to be good for a few more movies. The notion of an international alliance of high-stakes criminals with heavy political ties is Flemingesque, but gets a credible, cynical 21st Century spin in that the American and British governments (and security services), above criticism in Fleming’s day, are perfectly happy to get in bed with killers and megalomaniacs so long as the oil keeps flowing – which forces Bond out on his own, pursuing a crusade either for utterly altruistic (helping drought-blighted Bolivian peasants) or utterly selfish (getting his own back on the one small fish directly responsible for Vesper’s plight) motives. Quick jabs evoke highlights of the earlier films, as Craig’s sea-bathing in Casino Royale referenced Ursula Andress in Dr No; one major character’s fate is a stark black updating of one of the most famous early Bond images, and signals which commodity has become most prized in a world where Goldfinger or Blofeld would seem like jokes.
Daniel Craig continues to be his own man as Bond, though this instalment scarcely gives him breathing room between strenuous activity to show off his more stylish or snobbish aspects. When he chugs his signature martini (take notes as the bartender rattles off the recipe) even devoted allies worry that seven brain-numbing drinks in a row might not be good for the agent’s long-term mental state or ability in the field. Craig looks good in a tux, blending into the crowd at an opera first night where the villains have convened to mutter evilly through Tosca, and wears his bruises and scratches like badges of honour. He shows a certain expense account flair in turning down a modest La Paz pensione to check into the poshest hotel in the city by insisting that the ‘teacher on sabbatical’ he is pretending to be has won the lottery. But, presumably coached by Bradley, he is at his most elegant in tiny action moments – upending an idling motorbike to send a minor thug flying, casually stepping off balconies and walking along ledges, efficiently crippling a liftful of agents trying to arrest him.
With all the ills of the world down to Quantum, the baddies we see are – like those in Dr No, From Russia With Love and Thunderball – junior associates of archfiends who operate at such a high level we don’t even get to meet their cats. The French Mathieu Amalric makes the smarmy fake environmentalist Greene a suitably loathsome character, as much for his persistently cruel treatment of his mistress Camille as his complicated scheme to overthrow the government of Bolivia and grab the country’s natural resources; like Mads Mikkelsen’s LeChiffre, he’s young and fit enough to hold his own in a scrap, but has a nice line in craven delegation, posing a minion with a gun to face certain death as he tries to escape the climactic spectacular conflagration, and gets some of the smart, threatening, witty script patches we assume Paul Haggis dropped in. A nod also to the Mexican Joaquin Cosio, who plays a South American would-be dictator whose filthy foreign habits (like celebrating a big deal by raping a waitress) Fleming would have enjoyed despising.
Verdict
A pacy, visually imaginative follow-up. If it doesn’t even try to be bigger than Casino Royale, that’s perhaps a smart move in that there’s still a sense at the end that Bond’s mission has barely begun and he’ll need a few more movies to work his way up to destroying the apparently undefeatable Quantum organisation. The only real caveat is that while it’s exciting, it’s not exactly anyone’s idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more.
Could my long held desire that her first name is Strawberry be true?!?
@merseytart
Oh dear!...
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=134523
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Still, his style looks vaguely familiar...I think he posts here
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
http://www.screenjabber.com/quantumofsolace
And here's a VERY glowing review from Radio 1
http://www.radio1movies.com/
First things first - if you're gonna check out Quantum Of Solace when it releases on 31st October, you could do worse than spinning through 007's previous outing, Casino Royale, beforehand. QOS takes no prisoners when it comes to carrying on the story of Vesper Lynd, Mr White and Le Chiffre, the action kicking off just an hour after the last pic ended.
That made me love it all the more. This Bond flick is a lean, mean fighting machine. Crap dad gags are kept to a minimum in favour of ruthless, brutal action, globetrotting from London to Haiti, from Switzerland to Bolivia whilst a poutier-than-ever Daniel Craig relentlessly tries to track down the mysterious bad guys that killed the woman he loved.
Audacious highlights include a high tension action scene with an operatic backdrop, Bond's masterful seduction of posh civil servant Fields (Gemma Arterton) and, of course, the drama packed opening titles, Jack and Alicia's "Another Way To Die" ripping up the speakers when played at cinema level volume.
Mathieu Amalric is suitably slimy as yet another megalomaniac bad guy - although the panto days of cat-stroking baldies are long gone - whilst the sultry Olga Kurylenko smartly matches Bond when it comes to being a rogue player out for revenge. They sizzle, making the male/female duet of the theme tune even more relevant.
At 106 minutes this is streamlined, super slick action - yes, even more Bourne-like than ever but with a panache that manages to both hark back to 007's 60s heritage at the same time as being slap bang on target with its onslaught of bling gadgets. A slam dunk then, Bond squaring up to his cinematic rivals with balls the size of an elephant and making a case for the the super spy's best movie ever.
Those three paragraphs push my excitement levels over the edge...Bond is a man..not a superman...it's great to have the reasons he does what he does picked apart on screen..Daniel is a great actor and with the right scripts he will shine..and the franchise will shine...DC's Bond films could be the best ever Bond films..Bond films for adults with nods for the younger audience...not the other way around..one happy little boy here if that's true
I couldn't agree more! We are at last getting the real deal - Bond may be a blunt instrument - but one who is after all human and has the qualities that most of us have. He has problems -and has to face them. Whether they be personal or to do with his work. DC's Bond is really identifiable. Which helps to make the plots more believable -and therefore relevant. I so can't wait to see this film -it really is going to be awesome.
From Undercover.com:
UK Reviewers Say James Bond Is Licensed To Bore
by Paul Cashmere - October 19 2008
Early reviews out the UK for the new James Bond movie have give `Solace of Quantum` an overwhelming thumbs down.
Normally you would expect to see the elite media rubbishing a Bond movie because it is the cool thing to do, but the negative reviews for ‘Quantum of Solace’ are going across all publications.
The Times says “It’s James Bond, licence to bore”.
The Daily Mail call is “A Quantum of Nonsense”. “About an hour in, I began to feel something I haven't for quite a few years in a Bond film – bored,” writes reviewer Christopher Tookey.
The Mirror writes, “Mostly it doesn't feel like a Bond film at all. Not once does Craig say: "The name's Bond. James Bond." There's no Q or his gadgets. Heck, we even see Bond in a cardigan”.
It is not surprising that the critics have turned on this Bond film. I thought they were remarkably polite about the last one ‘Casino Royale’.
‘Casino Royale’ wasn’t a Bond film, it was a 2 hour advertorial of product placement. James Bond driving off in a Ford with a close-up of the logo? Please!
And what about the villain? It was never really understood exactly who Bond was chasing. Bond is meant to chase terrorists and save the world, not petty thieves. The bad guy just wasn’t bad enough.
‘Quantum of Solace` is the 32nd Bond movie. It opens on November 19 in Australia.
Yes, you read that right--the 32nd Bond film. OK, three negative reviews somehow means that the entire UK media are trashing the movie? And, of course, all the critics who praised CR were being "too kind." I'm surprised there wasn't a picture of Craig morphing into a caveman. Well, how seriously can you take a guy named "Cashmere?"
"All negative reviews of QoS must immediately be thrown out and regarded as implausible."
One isn't supposed to judge QoS until they've seen it. Yet those who have seen it (and been critical) have been mocked or deemed unqualified to comment.
Last time I checked, none of us have seen QoS. It would be nice if you practiced the reserved judgment that you preach about everyday.
This is why I never wrote a review of CR. And why I don't plan to do so for QoS either.
-Roger Moore
I will try and find that review...just to give a balanced view....
However, the Time review is this:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/london_film_festival/article4965892.ece
Quantum of Solace: the Times review of the new James Bond
Wormy, arrogant villains, naked agents - latest film has it all
The latest incarnation of Bond is a master of heartache and punishment. And Gemma Arterton as a fellow agent in MI6 is no slouch either
James Christopher
Quantum of Solace
James Bond is back, and this time it's mighty personal. Daniel Craig's craggy agent picks up exactly where he left off in another bruising thriller that leaves you feeling both drained and exhilarated.
There are hand-to-hand fights that make your eyes water and old-school stunts involving motorbikes, speedboats, jet fighters and expensive cars that give you whiplash just looking at them. Really, nobody does it better than the new 007.
What makes Marc Forster's film such an intriguing watch is that this is the first of the 22 Bond movies where the plot flows organically from the last instalment, and Quantum of Solace looks a far stronger picture for this rare continuity.
Needless to say the plot is as forbidding as the title. After the death of his girlfriend, Vesper Lynd, at the end of Casino Royale, Bond mixes revenge and duty dangerously as he hunts down the shadowy group that blackmailed Lynd to betray him.
A link to a bank account in Haiti puts Bond on the scent of Mathieu Amalric's chief creep and ruthless businessman, Dominic Greene. All great Bond adversaries are generously blessed with kinks and quirks and Greene is no different. Amalric has a wonderfully wormy arrogance.
His sidekick, Elvis (Anatole Taubman), sports a monkish fringe, and Tarantino bad looks. But it's the manner in which Amalric manages to poison all trust in Bond, even from his nearest and dearest, that makes him one of the classic arch-adversaries.
Cold rage threatens to derail Bond's mission to crack Greene's dastardly organisation known as Quantum, and I doubt that there's a better actor at bottling rage than Daniel Craig.
All muscles, he has defined himself as a darker and more bare-knuckle Bond than any of his elegant predecessors.
The deadpan humour is still there. And despite the occasional blasts of visceral and grisly violence, Craig is threatening to become the most popular 007 yet, certainly with the younger generation.
Even the famous Bond babes seem to be getting tougher. Olga Kurylenko's stunning, hard-as-nails beauty, Camille, has her own private vendetta that she wants to bring to a bloody conclusion, with or without Bond's help. And Gemma Arterton's effortlessly foxy Agent Field appeals to the better side of the wounded anti-romantic.
"Do you know how angry I am at myself," says the naked, raven-haired M16 agent as Bond kisses his way up her spine. But Bond rarely lets a life-threatening difference of opinion get in the way of a decent flirt.
The familiar faces returning from Casino Royale pose a far more subtle, acidic test for Bond who has to tread carefully around treacherous old friends: Jeffrey Wright's lugubrious CIA agent Felix Leiter; Giancarlo Giannini's silky string-puller, René Mathis; Jesper Christensen's duplicitous Mr White; and Judi Dench, of course, as his witheringly unimpressed boss, M.
"When you can't tell your friends from your enemies it's time to go," growls Dench.
Of course, Bond is having none of it. There are new necks to break and toys to play with as the action rips across Austria, Italy, and South America.
The global stakes are as precarious as ever. Amalric's masterplan to destabilise a South American regime, install a dodgy dictator, General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio), and take control of the biggest source of fresh water in the world is fabulously ****-eyed. But that's one of the main reasons why we can't get enough of the greatest franchise of them all.
The director, Marc Forster, has absorbed the lucrative lessons discovered in Martin Campbell's Casino Royale. He has also managed to pace his sequel much better. Royale felt slightly wheel-clamped by one too many longeurs. If anything, the crunching chase sequences in Quantum of Solace are even more magnificently dangerous. And the daredevil leaps and tumbles through glass roofs are just as sensational as the splintering high-speed pyrotechnics.
But it's the amount of heartache and punishment that Craig's new Bond absorbs that makes him look so right for our times.
Bond is no longer a work in progress. He is now the cruel, finished article.
Why didn't you write a review of CR, Tee Hee...did you like it or not..?..I assume not...DC not to your liking...no problem...your time will come again...my time is here now...I have my 'grown-up' Bond...good scripts...intelligent scripts...real acting...
Just as all negative reviews are valid..so are all the positive...but, when Daniel started I didn't see him being given a fair chance...a "lets wait until we see the movie before we comment"...no..he was panned pretty unmercifully...in fact anybody that liked him seemed to be in the minority...well...box office figures don't lie...he was a monumental hit...CR was a monumental hit....I hope QoS smashes those figures...
Pass the Kool-Aid...
But it's the Nectar of Life for the Vocal Minority
Bond has never really been a critical darling, so in that sense the previous film was something of an anomaly. Of course, we'll see how it all plays; as my colleague in the Loyal Opposition points out, we haven't seen the film yet---and the reviews have only just begun to trickle in---but my optimism is unthreatened by a handful of slags from the Brit tabloids. All we can glean, so far, is that (like the vast majority of Bond outings) this one will have both fans and detractors. All's fair.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
From the AJB Glossary (So Far)TM:
"Kool-Aid - This refers to the decades-ago mass suicide in Guyana, by followers of cult leader Jim Jones, who served up cyanide-laced grape Kool-Aid. 'Kool-Aid drinkers' are said to be blindly committed to a principle---at all costs."
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
No Hardyboy, not you. You've been more than fair, posting reviews of varying degrees of praise, voicing your own concerns, etc.
I agree with you. Mr. Cashmere's opening generalization is certainly ill-advised. The film hasn't even been released yet! 8-)
However, regardless of the popularity of Mr. Tookey and Mr. Cashmere, their reviews still raise concerns, concerns that should be considered and debated. The same goes for those over at danielcraigisnotbond.com, even though eloquence may not always be brought to their presentation.
I hope so, but I have my doubts. Audiences around the globe have responded enthusiastically to the new direction the series has taken; the producers would be fools not to give them more of the same. A return to the traditions of old (i.e. gadgets) does not seem likely any time soon.
As with any minority viewpoint, it's nice to know that you're not alone. That said, I don't wish failure upon QoS. I didn't boycott CR (in fact, I saw it four times on the big screen) and I'm not going to boycott QoS. I’ll be there on opening night. It may not be my cup of tea, but Daniel Craig or not, a world without Bond would be unthinkable.
As always, I’d like to be pleasantly surprised. If not, I’ll just sit back and enjoy what I can until a more traditional actor assumes the role or until the balance is restored, whichever comes first.
-Roger Moore
Thanks Lexi.
I think a balanced picture is emerging that QOS is a very good action movie, but possible not a great Bond movie, and not up to CR overall. However several reviwers have praised Daniel in particular, and some have used phrases like 'saved the film' in connection with his performance which should make you happy.
I'm going to see it on saturday, and am really looking forward to it. As I have always felt that Bond is revealed in the non action scenes I suspect that I might be a bit dissapointed, but not devastated by what might have been...Forster has been moaning surprisingly loudly about how little time he had to cut the film, and I suspect that a much better one is somewhere on the cutting room floor, with more narrative and exposition. I already feel that what I really want is to see the 'Directors cut' on DVD.
I was encouraged by one review (I forget which ) that said that in tis film they use action to develop and reveal character. If they have managed to pull that off It will be very good indeed. Here's hoping...
But yes, some of these UK reviews are just tabloid slagging fodder, that's the way it goes.
I hope we're not going to work ourselves up into a frenzy the next two weeks...
Roger Moore 1927-2017