Monday, January 12, 2009

3.45pm - Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (2008)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric
Genre: Action thriller

Random observations:
- More of the jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Has that become this version of Bond's trademark?
- Awesome fast-paced opening scene, and Daniel Craig is so much more believable as an action star than that girl's blouse Pierce Brosnan. 
- I need me one of those palm-sized cameras that can take photos of faces from a hundred metres away with such clarity that face-recognition software can be used.
- First a boat battle, now a plane battle. What's next, a train battle?
- The girl who died covered in oil looks a lot like the girl who died covered in gold in Goldfinger. Deliberate homage?

Overall comments: First off, I need to make it clear that I hate James Bond movies. The only one I've ever watched all the way through was Casino Royale, which turned out to be the most unBond Bond movie of them all. With Daniel Craig, gone are the smarmy nancy boys supping on martinis (Brosnan, Connery etc). His Bond kicks ass and makes no apologies about it. But while I loved Casino Royale, I merely liked Quantum of Solace. I'm not sure what was missing, but I think it might have had something to do with the main bad guy. Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre in Casino Royale was a creepy-as bad ass, whereas Mathieu Amalric's Dominic Greene in this movie is... well, he's just not a very menacing villain. Perhaps the director (Marc Forster) is also partly to blame, not having much of an action background, unlike Kiwi Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). Quantum has way too much talking and not enough action for my liking.

Up next: Futurama - The Beast With a Billion Backs

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