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Bond, gadgets, girls back on the big screen

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 13, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Daniel Craig stars as James Bond 007 in a scene from "Quantum of Solace."

Photo by Susie Allnutt © Sony Pictures

Daniel Craig stars as James Bond 007 in a scene from "Quantum of Solace."

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Daniel Craig stars as James Bond 007 in pursuit of an Mi6 traitor in a scene from "Quantum of Solace." Along with sports cars, gadgets and sex appeal, an impeccable sense of style is a hallmark of the now 46-year-old James Bond movie franchise, which expands to 22 films with the release of "Quantum of Solace."

Photo by Susie Allnutt © Sony Pictures

Daniel Craig stars as James Bond 007 in pursuit of an Mi6 traitor in a scene from "Quantum of Solace." Along with sports cars, gadgets and sex appeal, an impeccable sense of style is a hallmark of the now 46-year-old James Bond movie franchise, which expands to 22 films with the release of "Quantum of Solace."

Olga Kurylenko as Camille in Quantum of Solace (2008)

Photo by Susie Allnutt © Sony Pictures

Olga Kurylenko as Camille in Quantum of Solace (2008)

Quantum of Solace, the latest and least savvily-titled of the 22 James Bond films, roars onto the screen. Literally.

In the opening frames, we join Bond's Aston Martin as it's being pursued by a thug-toting Alfa Romeo on an Italian road. As they jockey for position on the winding thoroughfare - guns blazing, motorists cringing, cliffs closing in - the extreme action close-ups and ferocious soundtrack rattle your fillings.

Just another day and another brush with death for 007 (Daniel Craig), the British secret agent with a license to kill.

The question suggested by trailers for the film is whether this Bond is on a quest for revenge. At the end of Casino Royale his girlfriend, Vesper Lynd, was killed, and MI6 station chief M (the always watchable Judi Dench) is convinced that Bond is going after the killer. He denies it, of course, but M and company sense a new urgency - and an uptick in anger - in Bond.

For the first time in franchise history, Solace is actually a sequel, picking up where the last film left off. Bond's mission is to track down the head of a shadowy organization (Quantum) that has infiltrated most of the world's governments and is manipulating them for financial gain. One suspect is Mathieu Amalric as the head of an environmental group that uses do-gooderism as a cover for duplicity.

This being a Bond film, the action naturally hopscotches the globe: Italy, England and Bolivia. We also get the requisite Bond touches: Pretty girls (Olga Kurylenko leads the pack as a daughter out to avenge the death of her parents), seduction (only one), chases (roads, rooftops, etc.) and betrayal.

In his second outing as Bond, Craig burrows into the role and then some. He may lack Sean Connery's suave menace or Roger Moore's winking humor, but Craig is definitely a man of action. His Bond is so driven you wouldn't be surprised to see him kick a puppy if it got in his way.

He also gets a nice supporting cast. Giancarlo Giannini returns as Mathis, the elusive spy Bond befriends, and Jeffrey Wright is Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA pal. Giannini brings a grizzled familiarity to the role of a spy on one last mission. And Amalric oozes corporate villainy as Dominic Greene, an ecological altruist whose greatest beneficiary is himself. (Note to Dench fans: She has a much larger role than in recent Bonds films.)

So what's not to like? The script by Paul Haggis and others doesn't make a lot of sense; the shadow organization propelling the plot is never really explained. How is it that even when he's strapped for cash, Bond always manages to turn up neatly tailored with a fresh gun in the next scene? The series' reliance on high-tech gadgets is mostly abandoned here. And what are we to make of Kurylenko's character? Most people with her psychological problems would be popping Prozac, not loading a pistol.

Quantum of Solace is for those who like James Bond as action hero. It rarely stops moving, alternating chases with explosions with gunplay with dressings down from M. All that action doesn't leave much time for subtlety, and if you want humor, you'll find it in short supply here.

Still, director Marc Forster has directed a relatively short James Bond film at only 106 minutes (30 minutes shorter than Casino Royale), and the second-unit action footage is often astonishing. Whatever they're paying Craig, it's probably not enough for all the dashing and dangling he does here.

In Craig's hands James Bond has become a darker character, more feral than felicitous. That allows Quantum of Solace to deliver time-honored elements of the franchise. In other words, it leaves you shaken, not stirred.

Quantum of Solace

Bond's out for revenge.

* Grade: B

* Rated: PG-13

* Running time: 106 minutes

pearsonm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2592

It's not unanimous

"This is not a Daniel Craig hate site. Daniel Craig is not the devil, merely a talented actor who we feel was miscast as James Bond."

danielcraigisnotbond.com, which has stuck to its mission despite the overwhelming support for Craig's turn in Casino Royale. They call Craig's Bond a "handy man in the potting shed."

The hits keep coming

The unlikely duo of Alicia Keys and Jack White are the artists behind Another Way To Die, the theme song for Quantum Of Solace. Bond has had decent luck pushing songs up the charts over the years. Where some of the songs have peaked in the past:

1 A View to a Kill, Duran Duran

2 Live and Let Die, Paul McCartney and Wings

2 Nobody Does It Better, Carly Simon

4 For Your Eyes Only, Sheena Easton

8 Die Another Day, Madonna

8 Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey

Yeah, baby!

"Austin Powers, that didn't help. Very funny movies, but they have not helped the cause. He almost reinvented the whole genre by making fun of it. . . . We now have to kind of reinvent it again, so someone else can parody it. "

Daniel Craig, explaining why the Bond franchise needed a reboot

Hurts so good

The stunts took their toll on Craig, who headed to the hospital for a variety of ailments from filming:

* Surgery to repair a labral tear in his right shoulder.

* Eight stitches after he got kicked in the face.

* A wound cauterized after losing "about a postage stamp worth of skin" on one of his fingers.

Comments

  • November 14, 2008

    10:46 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    primafacie writes:

    Whatever happened to Bond movies? The downward spiral began during the Pierce Brosnan era, and now with the joyless Daniel Craig, the Bond of Sean Connery is but a distant and wistful memory.

    Bond movies used to be smart, witty, whimsical, occasionally silly, always fun. Now they are standard-issue action flicks with requisite explosions and implausibly death-defying stunts. Watching "Casino Royale," I kept picturing Bond being played by Ahnold or Stallone, complete with oiled muscles and a bandana around his head, figuring no one could tell the difference.

    This new one may be worth seeing. Just know it's really "Die Hard 47," not a Bond flick.

  • November 14, 2008

    1:34 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    LadyBird112 writes:

    I concur, prima. Though I still haven't decided if I'm going to see this one or not...is it worth seeing, anyone?

  • November 14, 2008

    1:56 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    avsfan71085 writes:

    quit your crying and put some celebrex on your joints you bunch of whiners ^^ It's called "keeping up with the times" this isn't the 1960-1970's anymore bud. Did you walk up hill 5 miles both ways in a snowstorm too? Times change, DEAL WITH IT!!

  • November 14, 2008

    2:01 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RockLobster writes:

    Certainly Sean Connery will always stand as the ultimate Bond, James Bond, but I have always been a fan of Pierce Brosnan and thought his three roles as 007 placed him second, only to Connery. I didn't care much for Casino Royale. Craig just seemed so cold and I just wasn't able to build any real care or concern for his character. I suppose I'll check out "Solice" when it comes out on Blue Ray but I don't see myself heading to the theatre for this one.

  • November 14, 2008

    2:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Willy writes:

    Connery was the Best, by far. I hated Bronsan as Bond - too much of a "girly man".

    The Casino Royal (Craig version) was a good action movie but lacked the subtle humor of earlier versions.

  • November 14, 2008

    2:26 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Jeff writes:

    Everyone has their favorite Bond, but it's important to remember that the inventor of the character, Ian Flemming, intended Bond to be pretty cold-blooded. In that sense, Craig is probably close to what Flemming intended.
    Don't get me wrong; I really liked Roger Moore's more fun take on the character, for instance.
    So, don't hate on Craig too much. If you look at the history of the franchise, it has always pretty successfully re-invented itself when it was starting to get stale. That's all that's being done with the Daniel Craig installments. I personally think it's exactly what the franchise needed.

  • November 14, 2008

    2:28 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    TimeLord writes:

    Craig made a great Bond in Casino Royale. Those of us who have read and re-read every one of the novels were glad to see a Bond that seemed to capture Fleming's character for once. Brosnan had potential but was in some very badly written and made movies, and other than Connery the only other to do the role justice was the always overlooked George Lazenby. Of the smirking caricature Moore the less said the better.

    Which brings us to "For the first time in franchise history, Solace is actually a sequel, picking up where the last film left off."

    Not true. While not a full sequel, Connery's return in Diamonds Are Forever following On Her Majesty's Secret Service started out with Bond on a mission of revenge for his murdered wife, picking up from the ending of the previous film.

  • November 14, 2008

    2:42 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Shaupeen writes:

    I'll still pay my money to see any Bond film! They're like red wine, sex, or pizza--even when bad, they're still good.

  • November 14, 2008

    2:50 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bythereever writes:

    I appreciated the difference in the way Bond was played by Craig, the movies were getting stale with the old formula. I think the decision to make Bond a more complicated, brooding figure has brought new interest to the series and I look forward to this and future films with Craig as Bond. As some other posters have said it was definitely time to shake up the formula.

  • November 14, 2008

    3:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    vendari01 writes:

    As much as I enjoyed Connery, Moore, and Brosnan, each for a different reason, I must agree that Craig is Fleming's Bond. So, I'll keep on watching. It's escapism at it's finest, because it lets me imagine being all the things I can never be- and would probably not enjoy at all, in reality.