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Quantum of Solace
2008
Quantum Of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (Daniel Craig) in Casino Royale. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (Judi Dench) interrogate Mr White (Jesper Christensen) who reveals the .. Read more
| Starring | Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench |
|---|---|
| Director | Marc Forster |
| Run time | 106 mins |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Audio Descriptive, Drama |
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Critics' reviews
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Revenge is a dish best served cold. Which, along with mean and lean, is how Daniel Craig plays 007 in Marc Forsters... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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97 out of 99 people found this review helpful
Ticks all the right boxes, but not as good as Casino Royale
This is a good Bond film, better than all Brosnan's film hands down, although Quantum of Solace isn't as polished as Casino Royale. The villians and the bond girls aren't as memorable as in Royale, but Craig and Dench are on top form, with Dench being given a welcome extented role. The action scenes although good, are just a carbon copy of the latest Bourne film, which is a shame as Bond doesn't need to copy the Bourne films, as he has his legacy to look up to.
Don't expect any invisable cars, cheesy one-liners or any raised eye brows, as this Bond is more like the Terminator rather than a posh, martini drinking spy. That said, the story is really good and continues Bonds investigation of the dark organisation that killed Vesper. And know doubt, Bonds investigation into this organisation will play an important role in the next film which I look forward in seeing. I hope they get a Chris Nolan (The Dark Knight) to direct the next one, as I think he'll introduce some new intersting concepts to the Bond franchise. Overall solid entertainment. -
Most recent members' review
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21 out of 22 people found this review helpful
A Huge Disappointment
I have just returned from a screening of Quantum of Solace and am struck by how it left me completely cold. Bored is one thing I never thought I could feel in a Bond film. Casino Royale was a brilliant addition to the Bond canon - it had the vintage feel of a classic Bond film, a newly-defined Bond with a Flemingesque ruthlessness and gimlet eyes, a very fine villian in Mads Mikkelson, and a great script written with the aid of the award-winning screenwriter to Crash.
The screenwriters to Quantum seem to have done an aboutface. We are left with the Brosnan antics of Die Another Day - preposterous stunts, back-to-back action with little development of plot or character, little time for any chemistry between Bond and the female lead, a denouement in a villain's lair in the desert with all the ludicrousness of a Roger Moore instalment. And that makes sense, because the screenwriters for this film are the same ones as worked on the Brosnan franchise.
Something didn't square at all, and I think a large factor is the script. We don't need camp humour or biting one-liners, but we do need dialogue. The showdown between Bond and Dominic Greene required some kind of conflict, after all right from the beginning of Casino we have been led towards this climax between these two men, and yet Marc Foster had given is nothing in the screenplay to suggest that these two men had a developed hatred of one another.
Mathieu Almaric cuts a puny villain, and his henchmen are all puny henchmen. Gone is Grant or Oddjob or Rosa Klebb or Nick-Nack or Tee-Hee. Greene's henchman, who is called Elvis in the credits, but is never referred to by name in the film, wears a toupee and is weedy and ineffectual. There is no drama at all between him and Greene. You can't fault Almaric as a villain because he has absolutely nothing to work wiith. The demented turn Greene takes with an axe at the film's close is perhaps really Almaric venting his frustration out on the flat character he has been given.
The theme song was appalling. I can't recall a truly evocative Bond song since the days when John Barry composed the score, but this one really was the pits.
It may be that the thirty minutes of commercials (a lot of them playstation combat or apocalyptic games) before the film commenced had already numbed me for Bond, but in any case the action was sheer overkill. Back-to-back Bond in a car, Bond on a rooftop, Bond in a boat, Bond in a plane, and then I finally realized that it could just as well be any action hero as Bond. The camera never allowed you to settle on Craig in action, the viewer is just roughly manhandled from scene to scene, from one rollercoaster to the next. Whole sequences, as others have said, were lifted straight out of the Bourne franchaise - the opening car chase like bumper cars, the naturalistic close combat with a double agent in a Haitian apartment, the epilogue in a snowswept Russia that ties up all the loose ends (the epilogue to The Bourne Supremacy anyone? also set in a snowswept Russia, tying up loose plot-threads).
Finally, the dastardly plot. Just what is it? Greene is hoarding vast reserves of water in the Bolivian desert to do what? Sell it for extortionate prices to Bolivian farmers? I may be wrong, but Bolivia last time I checked was a small South American nation with a negligible GNP and a people who had suffered under one lousy regime after another. If Greene really wanted a plot for global domination, he should monopolize the oil industry and hoard it so that consumers all over the world have to pay extortionate prices at the pump. Now we all know that is a plot that can work.
All this is a crushing pity, because, for my money, Craig could just possibly be the best Bond we've had (and I know this may ring like blasphemy to Conneryphiles). A blunt instrument is what he is, just like Fleming's Bond.
Sorry about the rant, but someone needed to give this film a rundown. Anyway, definitely enough said. -
News and features
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Spacey's Bond dreams
- 24 Jun 2009
Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is urging James Bond bosses to consider him for a role in the next movie - because he has always dreamed of playing a 7 Things villain. The Oscar winner played legendary comic book bad guy Lex Luthor in 2006's Superman Returns, and he now has set his sights on a role opposite Daniel Craig in the follow up to last year's (08) Quantum of Solace. Spacey insists playing an arch enemy of the suave secret agent is high on his list of priorities. He says, "I would love to Read more
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