TNMC Recent Reviews

We saw Marc Forster’s “Quantum of Solace” (Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, and Jeffrey Wright).  Although I had a good time watching this movie, it is difficult to whole-heartedly recommend it.  It had many great elements, but lousy integration. I sensed that there was an interesting plot in there somewhere, but the filmmakers totally failed to tell the story in a coherent or understandable way.

I enjoyed it in a moment-to-moment sense; good violence, good characters, great scenery, etc. Craig makes a great hero, or maybe an anti-hero is the better term. And there was none of that silliness that marred so many of the Bond films of the Moore and Brosnan eras. But there was no “bigger picture” to pull it all together and give you a sense of accomplishment at the end.

In this movie’s defense (or is that “defence”?), I’ll say one thing: it doesn’t try to be an old-school Bond re-tread. Many reviewers have panned this movie, and their major complaint seems to be, “It isn’t Goldfinger.” Well, duh! There’s no reason a Bond movie has to have a megalomaniac villain, a superhuman henchman, dozens of gee-wizz implausible gadgets, a high-tech control room, and a massive army-vs-army climax! I applaud them for taking a pared-down approach to the story. I just wish they had told the story with more capability.

As a long-time Bond fan, I was hoping for so much more…….Jake