An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
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Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Marc Forster.
Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright, Stana Katic, Giancarlo Giannini, Jesper Christensen
Description: Consumed with rage, Bond joins M to interrogate Mr White, who sheds light on a secret organization responsible for blackmailing Vesper Lynd. The trail of evidence leads to Haiti, where Bond meets the alluring Camille, a woman pursing a secret vendetta. She, in turn, introduces Bond to ruthless businessman Dominic Greene, a member of the organization, who is planning to help exiled General Medrano regain power in exchange for a piece of land. As Bond edges closer to discovering those responsible for Vesper's death, he takes justice into his own bloody hands.
Country: UK/US. 2008. 106mins
Out for revenge: Daniel Craig's Bond is not the usual glamorous British agent
What are they staring at? Bond with Gemma Arterton as Strawberry Fields
Action hero: 007 takes a more embittered stance than before
There are times during this grey, not very sexy and rather humourless new 007 epic when you actually wish for a sighting of Roger Moore’s suave and insouciant version of Bond.
This implies no fault in Daniel Craig, an actor who is almost as good in the role as Sean Connery, and is certainly a much less lightweight performer than Moore.
Gallery: See pictures from the premiere here
But if Casino Royale set new standards of realism, boldly pushing 007 into the 21st century, the new Bond proves that too much realism is oddly unsatisfactory. Marc Forster’s film leaves you longing for a director and a screenplay not so determined to avoid much of the staple diet of the series. Even the opening song (performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys) is unmemorable, almost as if anything too tuneful might encourage us to take Quantum of Solace too lightly.
This is not a movie about a glamorous if unorthodox British agent but about an embittered killing machine who has lost the woman he loved and still doesn’t know whether she actually betrayed him. It’s tough stuff — but a Bond in permanent emotional travail is a Bond oddly diminished.
There are several problems which Forster fails to solve. The first is that the plot is virtually a sequel to Casino Royale and thus none too easy to decipher if you haven’t seen — or have forgotten — the previous edition.
That may not be too serious a fault since Casino Royale broke all previous records at the box office but the second problem is that the film’s grimly downbeat nature precludes either the sexiness or the humour that are part and parcel of Bond’s appeal.
The third is that while the chases and stunts are as ridiculously (and entertainingly) pitched towards fantasy as usual, the story surrounding them is dedicated to proving this is a hard-nosed thriller, almost like one Martin Scorsese might have imagined — except he would have done it better.
The whole is never incompetent or lacking in film-making skill. But it murders probability in its chase scenes and totally eschews the gimmicks which gave character even to George Lazenby’s one essay in the genre. Instead, we get a story that remorselessly pursues a much more serious tone — and the two sides of it don’t match.
There’s one interesting development in the plotting. That is the idea that Judi Dench’s M, infuriated by Bond’s intransigence, might in fact be a kind of mother figure, never quite giving up on her favourite son’s persistent capacity to do the wrong thing by killing those he should be bringing in for questioning.
Here the screenplay comes briefly to life. Otherwise it is amorphous, despite being part-written by Paul Haggis, who made the Oscar-winning Crash. We have little good dialogue and even less original characterisation in the subsidiary parts.
What we do have is the full quota of explosive fights and chase scenes which allow us to believe, when Bond finally jettisons his shirt, that the bruises on his torso are the real thing. There’s no doubt about it, Craig earns his money.
Among the stunts are a frantic opening car chase in the Alps, an even more dangerous pursuit over the rooftops of Siena, a harbour pile-up in Haiti and a fraught sky-dive over Bolivia. If the location work is more varied than ever before, and probably more expensive, it is generally used merely as a backdrop to the spectacular sequences of crash-bang-wallop.
The plot has Bond out to get Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a corrupt businessman who bids to control the water supply of the entire continent of South America and is successfully trying to persuade the powers-that-be that his motive is purely ecological.
As his superiors quickly note, the whole thing is getting acutely personal since Bond desperately wants to track down the man who took Vesper from him in the previous episode. This doesn’t prevent him from seducing Gemma Arterton’s feisty Agent Fields in a sex scene that cuts away from anything untoward almost as soon as he’s finished nuzzling at her shoulders.
The other girl in the case is the Russian actress Olga Kurylenko’s Camille, who vows revenge on the corrupt Bolivian dictator who killed her family. M becomes more and more infuriated as the film progresses — but her affection seems to persist.
Craig’s performance through all this is physically notable but otherwise achieves only a kind of tight-lipped and suppressed rage — but that’s all that’s asked of him between the physical derring-do and it will please most fans.
Some, though, will regret the one-note nature and the loss of so much that made Bond such fun. Even if you admired the 21st-century tone of Casino Royale and termed it one of the best of the series, Quantum of Solace is a bit of a let-down. Somehow it lacks that spark that pushes a movie out of the ordinary.
*Listen to the latest instalment of The London Entertainment Lowdown for exclusive red carpet interviews with Daniel Craig and the Bond cast.
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Bitterly dissappointing. After Casino Royale we went to the latest Bond installment with so much anticipation. Where was the great theme song, the glamorous locations, the haunting Bond theme in its various guises? If we wanted to see dirty, dusty Bolvia, would have stayed home and watched a documentary. Its all these missing elements that set the Bond films apart from yet another 'action' movie. Please lets not forget what made these films stand out from the pack.
- Kaddie Aufmanis, Melbourne, Australia
My main concern was the number of scene changes, I think I counted more than 6 changes in a few seconds, and this was a re-occurring. I think it's poor camera work.
- Chad Mccathie, London,United Kingdom
A Quantum of Bourne more like. Why bother ? all that gritty disemboweling with a biro stuff is so 2006. They might as well have had Bond somersaulting over his opponants in unfeasibly overblown wire stunts. To much action not enough plot - apparently written on a fag packet by the director of the previous one - and just not good enough to stand out from the herd. He's good but looks about 5'8" and whilst there are the makings of a good film in there - little things like his balcony walk to evade the CIA guys are a nice lighter touch it was all just not quite the ticket - very mediocre opening sub-Bond titles, surely Jack White could have pulled a better theme from his hat after his Raconteurs efforts, and the falling down hotel thing was just silly. Save your money for the dvd and take your partner down the pub instead.
- Squiz, Islington
The opening titles say it all: dis-jointed, incohensive, expensive but empty - toys for the boys James Bond. Totally unsexy, boring with a sometimes laughable script - how many times do you hear the word "duped" in real life?
Welcome to the world of the Bond computer game - crash bang wallop with no emotional impact.
- Gh Sussex, Brighton UK
Good movie. Great Bond. Lots of whining about the lack of lighter moments, presumably from types who really liked the sort of leaden innuendo Pierce Brosnan was lumbered with in Dire Another Day. QoS has some good and very funny lines, delivered sharply and deadpanned.
A slight disappointment was that it was all too one-paced; always all action (and too many fast cuts in some scenes). Could have done with some slower-paced scenes. And the white/keys tune is just utter garbage.
- Mark, London
I'm sorry to say that this film is a mess. I really wanted to enjoy but didn't. The plot was not just far-fetched - which, to some extent, is to be expected in a Bond film - but most of the time impossible to follow. The film jumps around constantly, leaving you wondering what is happening and why. Eventually I stopped caring. It is as if they set out to turn Bond into a Bourne Identity clone, and ended up with something far inferior.
There is almost no humour. The film takes itself, and the whole concept of Bond, far too seriously. Daniel Craig does his very best, but he is not given much to work with. I saw the film only two days ago and I can't remember one of his lines. And I still don't understand the plot.
I for one certainly don't want to see the return of the ridiculous, gadget-laden and implausible world of Die Another Day, but something fundamental has been lost in this latest attempt to modernise and reinvigorate Bond. Even the few trademark elements which have been retained lack something, right from the painting-by-numbers, unimaginative introductory sequence of the usual dancing women in silhouette.
On the positive side, there are a few decent action scenes, and Daniel Craig still looks the part. If only the writers had given him the chance to do more than just pout, shoot and punch and brood.
- By, London
VERY disappointed & actually walked out after about an hour, utterly bored! Incoherent plot, overbearing, improbable & disjointed action sequences (he WOULD SURELY be dead by now, wouldn't he?!), lack of character development & sympathy, no humour or wit. Don't waste your time & money.
- Gobbo, Leicester, UK
Charles of London, by the time I got to the third sentence in your comment, I realized you have no idea what you're talking about.
- Kat, NYC, USA
I saw it and was very dissappionted with it. This is not a Bond film, it is just an action movie. No bombastic theme tune, no gadgets, no humour, no glamour, no sex, weak story....It is just a very expense Bourne Identity film done very badly. The action scenes are good, but they are difficult to follow. The baddie had more charm than Bond. Daniel Craig has now been type cast as a miserable, humourless Bond which will make it difficult for him to shake and bring back the BOND theme tune!
- Masterg, London, England
Delphine, you're a charm.
You'd have thought having Jools Holland playing the villain they could have got value for money and had him do the theme tune too. ;o) I'd reinforce, to some extent, Mark Davies' thoughts. It does come across somewhat as a retelling of 'Licence to Kill'. Not the best, better than 'Casino Royale' though, and completely eclipses three of the four films staring Pierce Brosnan.
- Md, London, UK
Save your time and money, don't fall in for the hype like I did and rushed to see that dumb film. If you like Bond films, this is NOT James Bond, but a sad and grim shadow of him. If you don't like Bond, then you might enjoy the mindless, uninvolving actions scenes (and there's not much else anyway!) but they are probably better done in any video-games. It leaves you toatally cold and unaffected, there's no wit, no good-looking girls, no sex-scene of course, because Mr Craig is SO SO serious and grim...and the market the film targets is only fourteen ...Really no pleasure in it for anyone.
Sad to see that this big flop is still topping all entries. Hype victims, just like me !
- Petra Huys, London
Loved Craig as Bond. The BIG BADDIE was weak as was the plot line and the film. It must have been one of the worst Bond films ever made but Craig is the best Bond to date. Connery was a little too suave although the girls seemd to love him. I also think that the title sequence music was second rate rubbish and that keeping the Bond theme tune to the end was a bad decision. The Bond theme sets the mood for the fantasy. Overall, out of 10 - 4!
- Charles, London
He looks like Vladimir Putin, and he is just as boring.
Wait for the DVD as its not worth the pictures.
- Sean Dempsey, hayes london.
I saw the movie last night and thought it was fantastic. Yes, it was a bit difficult to follow in places but it made you think about what was happening.
I thought it was as good if not better than the first one. Bond was actually scary and cold. Fantastic !
Bring on the next one and everything will make sense.
- Mark, st albans
I simply cannot bear to see this short-legged, big-eared, ugly-faced Craig anymore.
- Delphine, Oxford
My only criticism of this film is the rapidity of scene changes and the difficulty of following the plot. Two scenes are spliced in a way that they interchange so that you are watching two scenes unfold at the same time. Unless you can take in a whole tableaux in 0.1 seconds before the camera flicks to another scene, then you may find the film hard to follow. Some scenes are implied, resulting in a rather more adult rather than kid film experience. Overall worth going to see.
- Neil, london uk, Airstrip ONE .
With so many trailers and reviews, there's not much point in going to see the film now.
Some BBC woman during the Breakfast TV promo interview asked Daniel Craig some key questions about the plot and conclusion, he was silly enough to tell her and the two/three million viewers
- Frank H., London.
Its starting to sound like Licence to Kill.
- Mark Davies, CARDIFF, UK
Does the reviewer simply not understand the film? The purpose is to set Bond at a low point. It is a confident film that shows the bottom of the arc in the formulation of the character. It is not meant to be an old bond movie it is a transition towards how bond becomes the secret agent we know from the more established films, not a one shot attempt to ape the previous films in the series and for its ability to let the next films pick up the pace towards the suave, joking, killer bond we know and love I think it deserves to be applauded not derided for failing to mimick George Lasenby!
- Ag, The Village of London
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