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Quantum of Solace
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko,
Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Gemma Arterton |
| MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
| Released By: |
Columbia Pictures/MGM |
| Web Site: |
www.007.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
Only if you want
them to be government spies who sleep with lots of women. |
| Date Movie: |
She might like
Daniel Craig with his shirt off, but you might want to prep
her with the "Casino Royale" synopsis. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
James sleeps in
the Fields. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
There's a lot of
it, though they keep it PG-13. |
| Action: |
See "Violence." |
| Laughs: |
You get a chuckle. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
Sadly, it's
totally obvious how the desert hotel will blow up. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
"I don't give a
shit about the CIA." |
| Directed By: |
Marc Forster |
| Produced By: |
Michael G. Wilson,
Barbara Broccoli |
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Quantum of Solace
A Movie Review |
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I hate to admit it, even as a movie reviewer, but when a
movie is done and the review is written, unless it’s a movie
I want to live forever in a memory, I tend to do my best to
forget the movie, sort of forget who was in it, and try to
purge it from my brain so that there is new room for
something else to occupy those previously occupied synapses
of my mind. So, with
"Casino Royale," which I liked okay
enough, I forgot most of the plot of that movie, which was
bad because "Quantum of Solace" worked its best to intermix
the continuation of "Casino…" into a new film. Even my BFF
said, "Maybe they should have given a quick recap of the
last movie at the beginning of this one," just to remind
folks of why James Bond is pissed.
They didn’t, and for the life of me I spent some of
"Quantum of Solace" trying to remember exactly how Vesper
screwed over Bond.
In any case, Daniel Craig is back as James Bond, and he’s
out for revenge. Somehow his revenge leads him to the
Quantum folks, especially thanks to Camille (Olga Kurylenko,
and no, she doesn't get naked)
who offers him a ride. The problem now is that as much as
James is hot on the heels of a strange takeover of Bolivia,
or at least some kind of natural resource, he has gotten
into a bad habit of killing every lead that progresses his
search. M (Judi Dench as her usually great self) is pissed
at James' killing everyone, but still, in her heart, knows he
might really be onto something, only her superiors are
somehow involved with Dominic (Mathieu Amalric), or at least
his business ventures, and James’ meddling in Dominic’s
business affairs aren’t sitting too well with the
higher-ups.
So, there are a ton of chases, people are dying all over
the place, somehow Bolivia plays into the future of the
world, but sadly all of it just seems like an excuse to
have James Bond in chase scene after chase scene,
perpetually seeing someone who is after him, and instead of
mixing James growing in his shell to become a slick agent,
"Quantum of Solace" turned into a movie almost always about
action scenes and not so much about the chess game of the
terrorist world.
Sure, James does his best to get over Vesper by sleeping
with Agent Fields (that’s Strawberry Fields [Gemma Arterton] to you), there
is sort of an ode to "Goldfinger" with a killing, though
this time it is with black gold, and for the ladies, Daniel
Craig takes off his shirt to show his chiseled body. The
thing is, at least for me, is this: For my review of "Casino
Royale" I mentioned that the folks of the James Bond
franchise might have learned a thing or two from the new,
"Bourne Identity" franchise, making "Casino Royale" a
fresher look at the Bond franchise. Sadly it seems they took
"The Bourne Identity" equation and amplified it to another
level for "Quantum of Solace," a level where intrigue and ingenuity don’t matter,
only blunt force action is the name of the day, and even I couldn’t believe it.
Yes, "Quantum of Solace" will look better on the big
screen, but for me it’s only a 2 star out of 5 movie.
"Casino Royale" had a nice mix of intrigue and action
(although most scenes lasted too long), but "Quantum of
Solace" seemed to be all about "Kill this guy, or these
guys, in a big, ol’ action sequence, and instantly lead
yourself into the next big, ol’ action sequence." And that’s
kind of too bad, because I really like Daniel Craig as James
Bond. Hopefully the next film will have him become a little
more cerebral, a little more smooth and deboner, rather than
just having him as a killing machine.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |
