DVD: Quantam of Solace: Thumbs down.

[Jaqhama]

Mindless violence, stunts and action scenes.
Nothing wrong with that...but the action should be part of a movie, not the basis of the whole film.
The Bourne Identity meets the Transporter...and by a strange coincidence the lead character's name was James Bond.
Yeah, great.
Can we have the cynical, wisecracking, sophisticated bloke back now?
Cause this new version of 007 sux.
Big time.
The James Bond movie you watch when you're not watching a James Bond movie.

Knife fight scene taken from Bourne Identity #1.
Bloke left stranded in the desert scene from The Eiger Sanction.
Car chase at the beginning a mix of Bourne Identity movies and the car chase through/along Nice from Ronin.
The lift fight copied from another movie the name of which I can't remember.
There certainly wasn't anything original going on here.

Second fight scene at start of movie...nobody falls as far on such solid objects and doesn't break arms, legs spine, neck and smash skull.

Once again my newest fave sexy female star had a lead role.
Olga Kurylenko.She smoulders.
Daniel Craig just isn't James Bond for me.
Judy Dench in her role of M looked particularly bored.

The bad guy wasn't up to the evil geniuses we've come to expect in a Bond movie either.

One does expect certain things in a Bond movie.
This latest installment in the series doesn't deliver any of them.

Cheers: Jaq.











The Jaqzone:
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[tlmorganfield]

It's available on DVD now? I haven't seen any commercials for it. ETA: Ah, after checking Amazon, I see it comes out on the 24th. Thanks for the heads-up.

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[Bryant]

Have to disagree with you there, Jaq. Can't think of a movie ever made that didn't have scene(s) stolen from other movies/books.

To enjoy 'Quantum' you needed to see the first Bond with Craig as Bond. Two followed one. And frankly, Daniel Craig fits the bill as far as recreating the Bond from out of the books.

And as far as the Bourne movies go--and I love the Bourne movies---they're not too heavy on plotting a story line.

[Jaqhama]

I did see the first Daniel Craig Bond movie.
Seen the Bourne movies too.

I've seen plenty of movies that didn't have scenes stolen from others.
But most of them were made between 1950 and 1980.
Directors and screenwriters have gotten lazy these days. It's easier to copy, it seems.

As I said above; it wasn't a James Bond movie for me (or many others apparently).
The perfect Bond movie is generally considered to be Thunderball or From Russia with Love with Sean Connery.

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[Jared Evers]

I loved Casino Royale, and I'll see Quantum once I can get it on DVD. Sure, I also love the old Bond movies, but if I want to see those movies I'll watch those movies. I like the new Bond because it's a different angle, a different way of looking at the same man. Depending on how long they keep Daniel Craig around, it should be very interesting to see his Bond mature into the man he'll eventually become.

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[xiaotien]

that's too bad you didn't like the film.
i'd say it doesn't really hold a light to casino royale
either. but i enjoyed it. it being drooling over daniel craig
as bond. =)

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[Keralen]

Saw it on the London-DC flight yesterday. Agreed, a DEFINITE suspension of disbelief. That scaffolding / rooftop fight just got silly. But Craig is not hard to look at, and it beat hell out of having to talk to the crazy lady next to me.

[bleacheddecay]

I liked the first new Bond film okay but to me it wasn't Bond, it's was Bourne-lite.

I have yet to see Solace.

bleacheddecay

[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 the 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 from the ?Get Smart?TV series 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 about the common sense of your agents.

What else is wrong with this movie? The inept direction of Marc Forster. 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 three or four 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.


106 minutes
Rated PG-13

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[Christopher_Heath]

I thought Quantum of Solace was watchable (not great), and we all seem to be in agreement that Daniel Craig makes a good bond. Let's face it, though, most Bond films have plot flaws and the suspension of disbelief needs to be pretty high, and understandably so considering the material. I'll have to completely disagree with the description of 'truly lousy' for the theme song by Jack White. The song is awesome and Jack White is one of the few guitar heroes out there these days (his vibe resonates like a modern day Marc Bolan)--Another Way to Die is the best Bond theme since McCartney's Live and Let Die, though there are a few others I've liked over the years since. Bowie was asked to do a Bond theme and he declined; I so wish he hadn't.

Christopher M. Heath

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