Recognize this guy?
You'd better. Because he's Daniel Craig. The new (and improved) face of James Bond. Ever seen his performance in "Casino Royale," which re-birthed the Bond series? If you haven't, then go see it or hand over your testicles, guys. Because he's awesome. So was "Casino Royale." It left me greatly anticipating the next movie in which this awesome man would star an equally awesome character of fiction.
Needless to say, I happily purchased my tickets last Saturday and sat eagerly in my seat with high expectations. Those expectations were brutally destroyed over the course of the following 107 minutes.
What is "Quantum of Solace?" In a word? Garbage. Especially when compared to its incredible predecessor. This movie lacked the intrigue, suspense (it quickly became lame and predictable and predictably lame), sultriness, sensuality, and most everything else that made "Casino Royale" so great. Daniel Craig put his all into the performance, but you can't paint a beautiful picture with dog poo to work with. You can work that stuff all you want, but it'll still stink in the end.
Want a quick summary of the movie? It's pretty easy to remember. I wouldn't be surprised if prepubescent schoolgirls turned it into one of those jump rope songs they like to sing. Here goes:
Chase scene (car)
Two minutes filler dialogue
Guy gets shot
Chase scene (foot)
Three minutes filler dialogue
Guy gets stabbed
Chase scene (car again)
Three minutes filler dialogue
Chase scene (wooden motorboat???)
Boats explode
And that's pretty much how the movie went. Lots of chase scenes with a healthy serving of pointless dialogue. The plot pretty much went nowhere, and the movie left me feeling rather empty inside. The fem in the movie was very blah, especially when compared to the incredible performance of the ever-gorgeous Eva Greene in the previous film.
So here's how you can make your own crappy Bond movie: take everything that made "Casino Royale" great and strap that to your boots. Go run in a muddy field and stomp in every pile of animal turd you can find. Go for piles of dog poop. Big ones. Clifford the Big Red Dog kind of big. Then, take out the DVD, grind it into tiny pieces, and mix that in with whatever you scrape off the bottom of your shoe. Finish off with a dusting of some fight scenes that were apparently ripped from the Bourne series.
In a nutshell: "QoS" comes off as another lame action film and doesn't live up to or utilize the true potential of the franchise or the actors. For some reason, there are a lot of Bond fanboys who love the movie. This time, however, I agree with what appears to be the majority of the professional critics. You can read about that HERE.
If Sean Connery were dead, he'd be turning in his grave right about now. I'm sure Ian Fleming already has.
