I’m kind of disappointed, because I haven’t seen any ads for a James Bond Marathon on cable this year, and it’ll be a lonely Thanksgiving indeed without 007 to cheer me up as my family starts talking about politics or the economy. I’m holding out hope that either Spike TV or TBS will swoop in and save the day, but time is running short. Thankfully, there’s a Bond film in theaters right now and seeing it for the third time this week has only managed to solidify just how much I like it. Every time I see the film, I pick up new things and nuances that help to subtly join it with the rest of the series, while still reiterating how this is a new modern take on 007.
Honestly, it just feels so good to have a supremely bad ass movie in theaters right now. Sure, the summer was pretty great on this front, with a ton of ass kickers showing their stuff during the blockbuster season, but since then the trail has gone cold again. Nicolas Cage, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Mark Wahlberg all disappointed with gun-toting performances that seemed to put us to sleep more than they thrilled us. Max Payne was so bad that it rivaled The Happening for the worst film I’ve seen all year, only he didn’t talk to any plants this time out.
Hopefully, the year is going to end strong through. Quantum of Solace has gotten the ball rolling, and hopefully this Twilight fad will be over with kind of quickly. We’ve still got Transporter 3 coming out this coming week, Valkyrie may still surprise us with how good it can be, and Clint Eastwood’s final screen performance in Gran Torino promises at least one good beat down from one of the greatest, if not the greatest, screen bad asses of all time. Still, even on top of that we’ve got longshots in Punisher: War Zone, which will at least be super brutal, The Spirit, which could be a train wreck, and David Fincher looks to have a really elegant movie up his sleeves with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and it even re-teams him with his star from Seven and Fight Club to finish the year out.
Even if none of these work out though, its still been a pretty decent year on the action movie front. Our boys John J. Rambo, Indiana Jones, Batman, The Incredible Hulk, and James Bond all made appearances, in theaters and made bad guys wish they’d never even been born. We’ve even gotten some new blood out there like the cast of Wanted and Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark. So yeah, its been a fun year for me, and I can’t wait to put together my “Bad Asses of the Year” list really soon. In fact, if you’ve got your own nominations for the list, let me know and I’ll see if they’re up for consideration.
If nothing else, Bond is in theaters right now, and few times ever has he been more of a killing machine.
Quantum of Solace Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, and Giancarlo Giannini. Directed by Marc Forster.
As I said last week, most of the reason I like this movie is because of Craig’s Bond. He’s a wrecking ball, taking down bad guys with the precision of a Louisville Slugger. There’s a moment early on when he just wants to question a bad guy, and gets attacked, and instead of subduing the man, he throws him through a glass door and ends up killing the man brutally. What really punctuates the scene though isn’t a one-liner or a smirk though, it’s the fact that Bond sits there as the man dies and holds his arm, watching him as the lights go out. It’s a crazy scene that gives you another moment of Craig’s Bond being no-nonsense when it comes to the violence that’s inherent in his life. Taking life doesn’t preclude a pithy comeback, and that’s the biggest difference with this 007.
I think that really goes back to the Fleming character quite a bit. His Bond was moody and reflective at times, which through the first 20 films we never really got that much. You’d get little moments from Moore or Dalton every so often, but it would just be a footnote to the giant body counts. Here, with the staging of some of Marc Forster’s scenes, such as the end of the boat chase or after the climactic finale, we’re shown a 007 that doesn’t seem to take death lightly.
That’s not to say that Craig’s Bond is all business. Like I said last week, I love the scene where 007 seems to steamroll Agent Fields into doing what he wants to do. More so, I love how defiant Bond is when confronting a villain or Judi Dench’s M. He’s just such an overwhelming presence that not even Dench seems to be a match for his wits and forceful nature. It’s that sheer force of will that seems to make Craig so much fun to watch.
Having less fun is Olga Kurylenko as Camille, who doesn’t have time for love or amusement because she’s out for revenge. Her performance is actually a lot like Carole Bouquet’s Melina Havelock from From Your Eyes Only and she carries herself really well throughout this picture. There’s something very unglamorous about her, which I kind of found refreshing, and besides, Bond is supposed to be so driven and hurt after the events of the previous film that he doesn’t have much time for love here anyway. At any rate, I wouldn’t mind seeing this character again at some point in Craig’s tenure. I feel like there’s some really great moments between the two of them, especially near the film’s closing and I wouldn’t mind seeing them together when there aren’t nearly as many explosions around.
I really think this movie comes down to what you really want out of a Bond movie. Do you prefer Moonraker or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service? If it’s the latter you prefer, then this movie might still be for you, and for the others, there’s still a lot of Bond-isms. I especially love the update of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. with Quantum, the new villainous organization that will hopefully run through at least the next few of these movies. I’ve been saying for years that its been time to bring a S.P.E.C.T.R.E.-like organization back and I couldn’t be happier that its finally happened, and not only that, they seem to have a terrific cast of villains.
I’m absolutely loving Jesper Christensen as Mr. White, the deliciously smarmy guy who Bond captured at the end of the last picture. If he gets screen time in the next say, four 007 movies at least, I‘ll be perfectly happy. We’re growing so accustomed to hating him, he could end up a terrific nemesis for Bond if they let him be, and its been so long since there‘s been a Blofeld-type villain for Bond to pursue. Just let him work behind the scenes and then let Bond finally have his showdown. Wait, and it could be an amazing pay off for this series in a way that it hasn’t had since You Only Live Twice.
S.P.E.C.T.R.E. though, always had a villain for Bond to tangle with while Blofeld did his dirty work. This time out Quantum gives us Dominic Greene, played with a sly charm by Mathieu Amalric. I think Amalric really looks the part, and there’s something about a heavy with a thick foreign accent who really knows how to say “Mr. Bond…”, but he doesn’t really have the menace of someone like Adolfo Celi’s Emilio Largo or even Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre from the last picture. Now, I’m of the opinion that Bond Villains don’t necessarily have to have a deformity, especially in these new pictures, and I do like how Amalric handles himself when 007 isn’t in the room, but he’s simply outclassed by Bond, which is too bad. We’ve got to feel like there’s some chance the villain has of winning, and overall I don’t ever feel like that in this picture.
Still, there’s a lot more here to be admired. Too little attention has been paid to Giancarlo Giannini’s Mathis in this picture, who gives one of the best performances in this movie, and maybe one of the best in any Bond picture, even with the small amount of screen time he’s given. (Note: the rest of this paragraph is pretty spoilerish) There’s a real kinship with Bond, despite how things ended up in the last picture. Their scenes together have a genuine sadness, bringing out real reflection in 007, especially in Mathis’ last scene together with Bond, which is one of the most emotional scenes ever in any 007 picture.
All of this character work is a testament as to why Marc Forster was hired to do this picture, and its too bad that all most people will remember from the picture is that he used this rough editing style to hide that he’s a bit of a novice when it comes to action. He even does some clever staging, as I love the final showdown in the remote hotel, which is a nice meld of the modern and more fantastic motifs of this series. This picture tries to have it both ways at times, and while its not as successful as Casino Royale, I think it gets it right here. Just look at the last fight with Greene and Bond on a catwalk while a giant explosion consumes the hotel around them. If that’s not Bond, then I don’t know what is.
Quantum of Solace isn’t the best of the 007 series and isn’t a masterpiece like Casino Royale, but it’s a solid picture that outclasses any Action film since the end of the summer. With Action stars like Mark Wahlberg and Nic Cage stinking up the joint recently, this Bond is a breath of fresh ass kicking air. Hopefully, this isn’t the last bad ass that’s worth anything this year.
