Quantum of Solace «««
PG-13, 105m. 2008
Cast & Credits: Daniel Craig (James Bond), Judi Dench (M), Giancarlo Giannini (Rene Mathis), Mathieu Amalric (Dominic Greene), Jeffery Wright (Felix Leiter), Gemma Arterton (Agent Fields), Olga Kurylenko (Camille). Screenplay by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade. Directed by Marc Forster.
I am not a die-hard fan of the James Bond series. I look at the longest running spy franchise the way I look at most, if not, all sporting events. I don’t mind spending a few hours watching a hockey game. Just don’t call me a fan as I have no favorite team. Much the same way that I have no favorite actor who’s played 007 since Dr. No (1962).
The only time I ever get interested in the James Bond series is whenever the producers are searching for another male lead to fill 007’s shoes. When I saw Casino Royale (2006), I went in with the only impression the film would have the distinction of being the longest of the 21 Bond movies to date; 144 minutes. I got more than that. When it was over, I was pleasantly surprised. After all these years of sitting through a series of movies that were largely formulaic and predictable, here, finally was a James Bond movie where the producers and screenwriters decided they should take a different route with the character and explore how he got started.
When Daniel Craig’s lean, muscle bound blond 007 says “Do I look like a give a damn” in response to a bartender’s question how he’d like his dry martini in Casino Royale, I said to myself, “Yes!” Now this is a James Bond I can identify with. Like Timothy Dalton, whose only two outings as 007 I enjoyed were The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989), Craig’s Bond was a spy who was mostly all business, though he can still find time for pleasure every once in a while.
I had the same similar feeling about Quantum of Solace. Like Casino Royale, a part of me went in knowing the twenty-second installment in the franchise will have the trivial distinction of being the shortest of all the Bond movies; one hour and forty-five minutes. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to learn the film offered a lot more. In fact, it didn’t feel like 105 minutes.
I guess I should have expected a shorter running time here. When someone is out for revenge who wants to spend time making small talk? Perhaps that’s what screenwriter’s Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade had in mind when they adapted author Ian Flemming’s short story, Quantum of Solace, into a full-length adventure. The film literally hits the ground running with a confusing car chase throughout the hills of Europe and takes very little time to rest when it comes to delivering action. I confess it took me several minutes to realize the car chase sequence had to do with where Casino Royale left off in which 007 went after the ones responsible for killing his girlfriend, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).
Within the first half hour, Bond’s boss M (Judi Dench) isn’t the only one upset that most every person 007 goes after ends up dead before he can get any answers out of them. I overheard someone in the audience say, “Damn, James.”
If I were a film critic who had been in the journalism profession reviewing movies for twenty years plus, I admit I would cringe every time I had to see a Bond movie and write a review because there wouldn’t be a whole lot to say. The word that has best described most, if not, all of these movies is “formulaic.” They all open with an action sequence where Bond is off on some mission to which he comes out alive, of course. Then the theme song by a popular singer plays as the opening credits flash on the screen and images of 007 are mixed in with shots of beautiful women before we get down to the main story that has Bond out to save the world from a maniacal villain. To not see Bond bed or befriend at least one or two women along the way would go completely against what we’ve come to expect from the character and these movies.
In Quantum of Solace, Bond meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko) who it turns out the two have the same thing in common; they want revenge.
When Camille asks him if he ever caught the person responsible for the death of his possible significant other, she says, “Tell me when you do, I’d like to know how it feels.”
Watching Casino Royale and now Quantum of Solace, I am left with the impression the filmmakers want to take this series into a completely different direction. “A Bond for a new century” one might say. Craig has even said in interviews that perhaps it might be time for an African-American to take on the role now that the United States has an African-American president who will be taking office this January.
What we’ve been given here with these two films so far are femme fatales whose names don’t turn on the dirty minds of men or women when they hear someone say, “My name is Pussy Galore.” Anyone who tells me their mind hasn’t wandered through the sexual gutter at least once upon hearing the names “Dr. Holly Goodhead” or “Xenia Onatopp” is a born liar.
By comparison, when Bond meets up with a fellow agent in Quantum of Solace, she introduces herself strictly as “Agent Fields” (Gemma Arterton). I had to laugh upon seeing the credits though as her name was actually listed as “Strawberry Fields.” Perhaps the filmmakers didn’t want to go through any legal issues asking surviving members of The Beatles for permission to use the name.
Also still missing is Q; the guru of technical gadgetry responsible for supplying Bond with a supply of communications devices and weapons to help him carry out his latest assignment. No doubt we will probably see him for the first time in the next one.
Even the villain, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), comes off as someone whose diabolical plans seem more simplistic. His hideout looks a hotel in the middle of a sandy desert that reminded me of how gangster Bugsy Seigel built a hotel/casino in Las Vegas in the middle of nowhere back in the late 1940s and no one showed up opening night.
Greene’s front is making organizations believe the money he needs is to help the environment when behind closed doors, he uses contacts within the Central Intelligence Agency and the British government to help overthrow a regime in Latin America that would grant him full control over the country’s oil and water supply.
Now if the screenwriters had been really clever, this character could have been a great jab towards former Vice President Al Gore and the environmentalist wackos who make millions fooling the gullible public into thinking society isn’t doing enough to protect the planet’s natural resources.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next Bond movie, the villains are for example, Al-Qaeda, tackling the kinds of sinister masterminds we are confronted with today instead of conjuring up characters whose delusions of grandeur range from someone who builds a space station that can help bring about the destruction of mankind in Moonraker (1979) to an industrialist planning to destroy Southern California to corner the microchip market (A View to A Kill-1985).
I have a feeling though the filmmakers won’t want to stray too far from a winning formula that’s been able to generate millions at the box office for more than forty years now. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Bond is back to doing a normal mission, which will likely be how the next installment plays out.
Come to think of it, if the words “James Bond will return” had not shown up at the end credits, I probably would have been disappointed.
©12/5/08
PG-13, 105m. 2008
Cast & Credits: Daniel Craig (James Bond), Judi Dench (M), Giancarlo Giannini (Rene Mathis), Mathieu Amalric (Dominic Greene), Jeffery Wright (Felix Leiter), Gemma Arterton (Agent Fields), Olga Kurylenko (Camille). Screenplay by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade. Directed by Marc Forster.
The only time I ever get interested in the James Bond series is whenever the producers are searching for another male lead to fill 007’s shoes. When I saw Casino Royale (2006), I went in with the only impression the film would have the distinction of being the longest of the 21 Bond movies to date; 144 minutes. I got more than that. When it was over, I was pleasantly surprised. After all these years of sitting through a series of movies that were largely formulaic and predictable, here, finally was a James Bond movie where the producers and screenwriters decided they should take a different route with the character and explore how he got started.
When Daniel Craig’s lean, muscle bound blond 007 says “Do I look like a give a damn” in response to a bartender’s question how he’d like his dry martini in Casino Royale, I said to myself, “Yes!” Now this is a James Bond I can identify with. Like Timothy Dalton, whose only two outings as 007 I enjoyed were The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989), Craig’s Bond was a spy who was mostly all business, though he can still find time for pleasure every once in a while.
I had the same similar feeling about Quantum of Solace. Like Casino Royale, a part of me went in knowing the twenty-second installment in the franchise will have the trivial distinction of being the shortest of all the Bond movies; one hour and forty-five minutes. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to learn the film offered a lot more. In fact, it didn’t feel like 105 minutes.
I guess I should have expected a shorter running time here. When someone is out for revenge who wants to spend time making small talk? Perhaps that’s what screenwriter’s Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade had in mind when they adapted author Ian Flemming’s short story, Quantum of Solace, into a full-length adventure. The film literally hits the ground running with a confusing car chase throughout the hills of Europe and takes very little time to rest when it comes to delivering action. I confess it took me several minutes to realize the car chase sequence had to do with where Casino Royale left off in which 007 went after the ones responsible for killing his girlfriend, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).
Within the first half hour, Bond’s boss M (Judi Dench) isn’t the only one upset that most every person 007 goes after ends up dead before he can get any answers out of them. I overheard someone in the audience say, “Damn, James.”
If I were a film critic who had been in the journalism profession reviewing movies for twenty years plus, I admit I would cringe every time I had to see a Bond movie and write a review because there wouldn’t be a whole lot to say. The word that has best described most, if not, all of these movies is “formulaic.” They all open with an action sequence where Bond is off on some mission to which he comes out alive, of course. Then the theme song by a popular singer plays as the opening credits flash on the screen and images of 007 are mixed in with shots of beautiful women before we get down to the main story that has Bond out to save the world from a maniacal villain. To not see Bond bed or befriend at least one or two women along the way would go completely against what we’ve come to expect from the character and these movies.
In Quantum of Solace, Bond meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko) who it turns out the two have the same thing in common; they want revenge.
When Camille asks him if he ever caught the person responsible for the death of his possible significant other, she says, “Tell me when you do, I’d like to know how it feels.”
Watching Casino Royale and now Quantum of Solace, I am left with the impression the filmmakers want to take this series into a completely different direction. “A Bond for a new century” one might say. Craig has even said in interviews that perhaps it might be time for an African-American to take on the role now that the United States has an African-American president who will be taking office this January.
What we’ve been given here with these two films so far are femme fatales whose names don’t turn on the dirty minds of men or women when they hear someone say, “My name is Pussy Galore.” Anyone who tells me their mind hasn’t wandered through the sexual gutter at least once upon hearing the names “Dr. Holly Goodhead” or “Xenia Onatopp” is a born liar.
By comparison, when Bond meets up with a fellow agent in Quantum of Solace, she introduces herself strictly as “Agent Fields” (Gemma Arterton). I had to laugh upon seeing the credits though as her name was actually listed as “Strawberry Fields.” Perhaps the filmmakers didn’t want to go through any legal issues asking surviving members of The Beatles for permission to use the name.
Also still missing is Q; the guru of technical gadgetry responsible for supplying Bond with a supply of communications devices and weapons to help him carry out his latest assignment. No doubt we will probably see him for the first time in the next one.
Even the villain, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), comes off as someone whose diabolical plans seem more simplistic. His hideout looks a hotel in the middle of a sandy desert that reminded me of how gangster Bugsy Seigel built a hotel/casino in Las Vegas in the middle of nowhere back in the late 1940s and no one showed up opening night.
Greene’s front is making organizations believe the money he needs is to help the environment when behind closed doors, he uses contacts within the Central Intelligence Agency and the British government to help overthrow a regime in Latin America that would grant him full control over the country’s oil and water supply.
Now if the screenwriters had been really clever, this character could have been a great jab towards former Vice President Al Gore and the environmentalist wackos who make millions fooling the gullible public into thinking society isn’t doing enough to protect the planet’s natural resources.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next Bond movie, the villains are for example, Al-Qaeda, tackling the kinds of sinister masterminds we are confronted with today instead of conjuring up characters whose delusions of grandeur range from someone who builds a space station that can help bring about the destruction of mankind in Moonraker (1979) to an industrialist planning to destroy Southern California to corner the microchip market (A View to A Kill-1985).
I have a feeling though the filmmakers won’t want to stray too far from a winning formula that’s been able to generate millions at the box office for more than forty years now. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Bond is back to doing a normal mission, which will likely be how the next installment plays out.
Come to think of it, if the words “James Bond will return” had not shown up at the end credits, I probably would have been disappointed.
©12/5/08
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