It’s been speculated by some that this new direction for Bond may have been borne in part out of Jason Bourne envy, but Casino Royale never dipped into outright Bourne copycatting.
Quantum of Solace does, going so far as to duplicate entire Bourne scenes, only done much more clumsily and with only a fraction of the artistry found in Matt Damon’s roof jumping or close quarters knife fighting in The Bourne Ultimatum.
Yes the second installment in the new Bond franchise is just as gritty and dirty as the first one which everyone loved, but it’s quickly becoming less original, less surprising, and less exciting.
Maybe Quantum of Solace would have been helped if someone had taped Bond to a chair and punched him in the balls. It did the trick last time.
Other critics are bound to trumpet Daniel Craig’s 007 performance as the movie’s saving grace. Quantum of Solace picks up shortly after Casino Royale, with James still stinging over Vesper’s death and though he denies it, looking to get even. This is a revenge tale, and that should mean plenty of breathing room for a great Daniel Craig performance.
Unfortunately the script, in yet another blatant borrowing from the Bourne franchise, seems to contain very little dialogue at all for James. Even more than he was in Casino, Bond is now a silent killer, walking through the film like a brutish pitbull shooting and driving and murdering without expression or remorse.
His mask breaks only very rarely and in the most extreme of circumstances, as in a scene where he pauses to stare intensely at the camera while holding a dying friend. Bond does a lot of that intense staring, his substitute for actual emoting. Anyone else starting to miss Pierce Brosnan’s impish grin? Daniel Craig’s performance as Bond is largely silent and mostly stoic, though the film seems to hint repeatedly that he’s suffering from immense inner turmoil. I’m not buying it.
Read more, Quantum of Solace – Review
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Update
British Girls Prefer Joe The Plumber, Not James Bond
James Bond did just what you’d expect from a tough-as-nails spy on the weekend: kicked Harry Potter’s butt.
The movie Quantum of Solace, the latest in the Bond film series, debuted in Great Britain on Friday to record one-day ticket sales of 4.94 million pounds ($9.6 million), according to distributor Columbia Pictures.
That tops Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous record holder with $7.8 million in 2005. It also beat the $5.6 million first-day total for the last Bond flick, Casino Royale, in 2006.
The movie opens here Nov. 13 at midnight.
But not everyone was loving all things Bond.
The Communist party in St. Petersburg, Russia, in a letter on its website, dissed Bond girl Olga Kurylenko for betraying her roots.
“In the name of all communists we appeal to you, prodigal daughter of poor Ukraine and deserter of Slavic world,” the party admonished Kurylenko, who plays a Bolivian agent in Quantum of Solace.
The Soviet Union “gave you free education, free medical care but nobody knew you would commit an act of intellectual and moral betrayal that you would become a movie kept girl of Bond, who in his movies kills hundreds of Soviet people and citizens of other socialist countries: Cubans, Vietnamese, North Koreans, Chinese and Nicaraguans,” the party said.
Sergei Malenkovich, head of the party’s regional organization, told the Associated Press that the latest Bond movie is “an insult for Russians.”
“In this movie they wanted to show that a Ukrainian girl sleeps with an American. It’s a part of information and psychological war,” he said.
In fact, Kurylenko does not have sex with Daniel Craig’s Bond – unlike nearly all other leading ladies in the Bond films – only exchanging a kiss toward the end of the film. And Bond is actually a British secret agent.
Apparently, Kurylenko’s movie character isn’t the only one who’d give Bond’s bed a miss.
A survey by PARSHIP, a European online matchmaking service, found that most British women prefer job security and marriage to an accountant over adventure and an exciting Bond-style boyfriend.
The results showed that although British women may fantasize about a glamorous James Bond-style romance, in reality they prefer job security, an accountant boyfriend and marriage over adventure.
Only one in four people said they would leap at the chance of a round-the-world trip from a boyfriend/girlfriend of just four months, according to a poll of 13,000 Britons.
“Whilst an all-expenses paid year-long adventure certainly has some appeal, it seems that for most people this would only be pure fantasy,” said Victoria Lukats, psychiatrist and PARSHIP’s dating expert.
“Even in this hypothetical situation, perhaps even imagining the perfect partner in the scenario, the people who would openly throw caution to the wind are in the definite minority.”
The number of people who said they would accept the global trip, increased to more than half of the women surveyed (52 percent) if they believed their boyfriend would guarantee their job, accommodation and financial security on their return.
The majority of people surveyed (55 percent) said they wouldn’t risk their job or give up their social life for a relationship of just four months’ standing.
However, if their partner proposed marriage, one in three – 32 percent of women and 29 percent of men – would say yes to a lifetime of commitment.
British women are also more likely to be impressed with a bunch of flowers, a nice restaurant, a weekend away, than by a fabulous adventure, the poll showed.
British women in general didn’t rate James Bond-style qualities as particularly attractive in a man.
More than half saw the appeal of a groomed, toned body. But only 39 percent were attracted to ruthlessness, 35 percent to a dominating personality, 22 percent by an alpha male, 13 percent by a high earner/over-achiever and 49 percent by a male protector.
A mere six percent could tolerate a womanizer. – Star
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