Bond, James Bond.

Quantum of Solace is out in theaters today.

I had really grown distant from the James Bond franchise during the Pierce Brosnan days.  While I liked Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is not Enough and Battle for the Ice Castle in Racecars Die Another Day were so awful that they went a long way towards completely turning me off to James Bond.  It was a multitude of factors, but bad acting, ridiculous over the top scenes and sloppy gunplay just did me in.

Then Casino Royale came out, and I was filled with fear and trepidation.  A new Bond, new directors, and…holy cow it was awesome.  I remember walking out of the theater thinking “where was this James Bond all my life”?  With that in mind, I am extremely excited about the new Bond movie, The Quantum of Solace.  If, like the reboot of the Batman franchise, they continue in the same direction as the Casino Royale with gritty, intense action, and stay away from the cheesy weirdness that has haunted the Bond films, then they will have made another excellent movie.

9 Comments

  1. I really didn’t like Casino Royale. I like the idea of returning to the beginning of something to give it a fresh feel and for that, I thought I would like CR. But it ended up being just another shoot ’em up movies where the main character escapes harm by the skin of his teeth and everyone around him is killed and there are already plenty of those around.

    I enjoy Bond movies for the gadgets and tech that he uses. The distinct lack of that (other than the in-car AED) in CR has turned me off to the list latest incarnation of Bond.

  2. I also really liked Casino Royale, and look forward to QoS.
    What I liked about Casino Royale is they sort of borrowed some mojo from the Indiana Jones formula…a hero who can suffer and get hurt, but comes fighting back. I appreciated the gritty realism of Casino Royale, seemed truer to Ian Fleming’s more roguish, street-tough Bond, who hasn’t quite developed the debonair flair of high society yet.

    The only thing I did NOT like about Casino Royale was the length of the film…there were a number of places where it could have ended and made a fine movie right there (with the rest of it saved for the next film). As is, I’m told this next one is more of an extended footnote to Casino Royale.

    The Brosnan films–ah….like Timothy Dalton, his formula got old quickly. Goldeneye was fan-friggin-tastic, I still love that movie to this day. Brosnan, a.ka. Remington Steele, playing the role he seemed DESTINED to play. Tomorrow Never Dies was ok, but seemed only like a variation on a theme. The World Is Not Enough was stupid, and I didn’t even bother to watch DIE ANOTHER DAY. Brosnan turned out to be a flash in the pan, a one hit wonder (but what a hit!).

    But I like the twist Daniel Craig & Co have put on the Franchise…it just might save it from oblivion, re-tool it for the post 9/11 world.

  3. Honestly, I hated QoS. Too long. Too convoluted. Too disjointed. Too “OMG, he’s bluffing… but now he’s not…. but now he is… but do I have an effing clue?!” And too much Daniel Craig, whom I personally despise as an actor.

    I was not terribly interested once I heard he had come back for this new installation. Once I found out there would be no Q or Moneypenny, any interest I had at all completely evaporated.

  4. Less,

    Action +10, Plot -10.

    Wait, James Bond movies are supposed to have a plot?

    (I mean other than “Chase, Fight, Chase, Sex, Shootout, Sex, Villain Confrontation, Escape, Chase, Shootout, Dead Villain, Sex,” of course.)

  5. Ok, so I was the one who said:

    “action +10, plot -10. Terrible…”

    I’ve got to agree that that Bond movies don’t have much “plot” to speak of, but at least in the past the villians were actually, you know, Nefarious. I mean, if I wanted to experience eco-terrorists playing a utilities company I would’ve just stayed in Chicago.

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