Rating : 8/10
Running Time : 106 Minutes
Release Date : 7th Nov 2008 (India)
Director : Marc Forster; Writers : Paul Haggis, Neil Purvis, Robert Wade; Music : David Arnold
Starring : Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Mathieu Amalric, Gemma Arterton, Giancarlo Giannini
Right from the beautifully done opening sequence by MK12 where sensuous female forms merge in and out of sand dunes, its almost as if someone took a look at the last Bond film (Casino Royale) and then decided to dial everything up a notch. The plot was much better, the women more stunning, the jokes funnier, there were more action sequences with several heart stopping moments and the one liners dripped with sarcasm.
There is a mysterious group, undefined, not truly known to MI6, which is indulging in activities which don’t totally make sense to M and her cohorts, Bond included. Fronted by Mathieu Almaric, they seem to be doing a mix of sponsoring philanthropic activities and the occasional revolution. The CIA, using the expediency that characterized the Bush administration, decides that they can sleep with this group, in return for (of course) their pound of flesh. So now, as expected, its up to Bond to save the world once more, at times even without the backing of the British government.
Dull moments, that is those where your heartbeat is under 100 beats per second, are almost on ration as a car chase in a quarry soon becomes another parkour like sequence on the rooftops of the very picturesque Sienna which in turn swiftly converts into a fight sequence and later on a boat chase in Bolivia. And all this within the first half hour.
Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton provide the eye candy extremely ably. And Daniel Craig – I think I’ll have to take back my comments on him (and agree with what Rohit said in the comments section of Casino Royale) as he really has grown quite beautifully into the part, replacing the suave-ness of the Brosnan era with a very hard, physical Bond, who doesn’t mind killing a lot of people and getting all bruised and cut up.
The difficult thing about Bond movies is that you know how its going to end. The trick remains on how you can make the journey there interesting. And while they stretched the realms of credibility a bit too much with this ending for me, this one works beautifully in making the journey one of the most action packed ones in recent memory.
5 comments:
Hello Sir,
Though watching Quantum of Solace is in the pipeline, my reason for commenting in your blog is particularly peculiar - to gain your attention. I would not leave single stone unturned. Good that it is moderated so please don't publish it. coming straight to the point now is that i'm approaching you for MBA summer internship!!! sorry... can i get your contact id so that i can send my profile at least. please sir consider this request.just send a blank mail i'll reply with all i have and you can offer.
Perhaps by this i would also have a quantum of my solace. thanks and my mail id is bsaha2003@gmail.com. Rest is your wish. I'm a fresh blogger though
http://mokshabiswajit.blogspot.com/
quantum of boredom..
felt let down actually.. apart from the first 10-15 mins.. the rest i was quite disappointed.. even the bond girls werent exciting enough !!
hardly any funky cool gadgets, the brilliant aston martin was shown for just 5 seconds i think.. i mean wasnt bond all about all these things ?!
anyway so i differ on this one.. bond james the lame-s bond.
Hmm.. what solace...?!!
it was a regular action movie...
What was BOND..where was BOND??Effect...?????
Craig was as always crude, bronzy, bruised all along in the movie. He is sure a Macho .. jumping floors, houses, buildings.
The best part of the movie was Olga but she did nothing to look like a Bond woman.
My first time agreeing with your review :) I agree 100%. The thing that I did not like is the increasing emotionalizing of Bond and the lack of good looking women. I guess there is really no movie franchise left purely for men :)
This was no bond movie. Could have been any action movie. All the elements which made BOND - a branded franchise with bankable audience/trial are gone. I dont know who are they targetting. For the young generataion ( under 25s), there are better action movies with better plots around. For the ones in their 30s-40s, I think they have removed too many of the BOND bits (corny and cliched as they might be) and thus left little emotional connection. The BOND BRAND is in trouble. You dont refresh an ICONIC brand by dropping virtually everything which made it unique.
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