One of the reasons I really like the Bond producers is they’re always making smart decisions which confuse idiots eg “why would you cast Daniel Craig instead of Pierce Brosnan?”, “why call a film Quantum of Solace?” Variety gave a half-hearted review of this and I think part of it was due to the anti-Americanism of the script (this would be the most anti-American Bond of them all, despite the nice Felix Leiter, with the CIA complicit in the plot of the baddies in order to get oil rights in Bolivia). It’s even a bit environmental too with the baddies out to control…the world’s water supply.
Daniel Craig is in good bruised form as Bond – every time he’s in an action sequence it seems to hurt him. He’s not bad with a dry quip, I wish they’d given him a few more. It’s a shame also they killed off his mate and the nice British girl he beds (in a homage to Goldfinger). (Having said that the death of his friend is the one really emotionally affecting scene in the movie... because it's about revenge for the death of a character in a previous movie.)
The cast is very strong, with a very good Bond girl and villain. Occasionally some of the chase scenes are a bit too reminiscent of the Bourne films (even the music is familiar) but they are still thrilling. (NB isn’t that a bit insensitive of me – all that work and skill for the sequence and I just wind up saying “a bit too reminiscent of the Bourne films”? Well it’s true).
Some great action sequences – good fights, car chase on a windy cliffside road (there’s always something especially exciting about car chases set in Europe, they seem so much more cramped for space there), some pleasingly exotic locations like Italy, Haiti and Bolivia, a striking Zabriskie Point-like climax with a hotel in the middle of the desert.
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