Bond is Back and kickin' all sorts of Quantumized A$$!

After a long week, Friday has finally arrived which usheres in the opening of the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

But first a notation about tonight's post.

If you haven't seen Quantum of Solace yet you may want to wait to read this post as some of the review could possibly hint at spoilers.

So, here we go...

My friends, Coreboy, Spanky and Spanky's lovely wife Alla joined me for tonight's festivities at the movie theater. We picked a pretty excellent theater to see it in. One with reclining comfy chairs that rocked along with a digital projector and surround sound. And best of all, one that let you bring in your beers to guzzle while you viewed the movie.

Though, we picked a good theater to see it at, we didn't exactly pick a good time. At the same mall that the theater was located, they were having a special X-Mas tree lighting ceremony. This brought out every god awful yuppie family in the entire township. All of them were doing their best to utilize their SUV's and screw up traffic and parking within the entire mall area. After about 20 minutes of driving around aimlessly I ventured to the top level of a parking structure and grabbed the first open slot I could find. Jeebus! Where's a Walter PPK when you need one?

I finally got to the theater and met up with Coreboy. We chatted it up until Spanky and Alla showed up. We then went into the lobby and ordered some food and drinks. They ordered some meals and sodas and, since I had eaten earlier, I ordered a Guinness in honor of Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond. We then made our way to the theater and found our seats that Spanky had pre-ordered..... in the very last row.  No skin off my back.  I was just happy to be in a comfy, reclinable chair with a Guinness in hand. But, Coreboy wasn't impressed with the seating arrangements. Of course he and Spanky we smarmming at each other on into the beginning of the movie. It's a weird tradition for them to constantly banter back and forth with smarmy comments that hen peck each other.

We were still waiting for the meals to be ready when the lights went down for the previews. Spanky and Coreboy decided that they'd go to the lobby and check on the food, however, they really wanted to see the trailer for the upcoming re-boot of Star Trek that was rumored to be showing with Quantum. So they actually would run back and forth from the theater to the lobby after the start of each trailer to make sure they wouldn't miss it. Well they got back and stood in the side of the isle just in time to see it. I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say, it looks totally wonderful! And I'm not a Trekkie. Some great casting choices, excellent effects and wonderful set design could make this a "Zangz must see on opening day" kind of film. Summer of '09!

The food situation was settled and the movie had started. So here we go with my review of...

Quantum of Solace - I tried hard not to find out too much about this movie before I saw it. But, that's really friggin' hard to do when you're living in the prime of the information age.  I had read some not too spectacular reviews about the film and it sort of both grounded me and worried me at the same time. After seeing it's predecessor, Casino Royale, my expectations were a bit out of control at first. Casino is in a class of its own when it comes to both Bond films and action thrillers. It had a wonderful touch of characters you actually felt something for and some great storytelling also. But when I came upon some reviews for Quantum on the Internet my head came back down from the clouds. I knew I was going to enjoy this one, but at the same time, I realized it wasn't going to be a Casino Royale.

I know the questions you want to ask me...

Zangz, is this a great James Bond film?  Yep! It is!

Zangz, is this a great action film?  You betchya!

Zangz, is Daniel Craig as cool as hell as he was in Casino Royal?  Honestly, every bit as cool!

Zangz, is this the perfect sequel to Casino Royale?  Well, not exactly.

Lets get through some of the bad stuff first. I did have a few problems with the film. Unlike Casino, Quantum is a full fledged action movie.  There's not a lot of time for more character building and story development like there was in Casino.  I think a lot of fans are going to be hoping for that.  While this is the first time we've actually seen a continuation from one James Bond movie to the next (this story starts about one hour from the end of Casino), it doesn't exactly have the same feel.  This story focuses more on action rather than characters.  At least, far more so than Casino did.

And speaking of action.  Even though there were a lot of cool action sequences, the jerky, jump cuts, shaky-cam, MTV generation style of editing really took away from the thrills and excitement.  I'm sure there were some well choreographed sequences.   It's just too bad they were kind of poorly presented. Especially the opening car chase sequence.  It's so fast, it's hard to grasp what's going on.  Then before you know it, it's done.

I liked the title song, however, I wonder if it will hold up in the pantheon of all the other Bond songs. Will it stand out as one of the best in ten, twenty years from now?  I'm not totally sold on it yet.

And whats with the under 2 hour running time?  I was still getting into to the movie when it came to an end.

Those silly quibbles aside, Quantum is one Bondified love jones of ass kickery!  In this adventure we really get to see how effected Bond was by the death of Vesper in Casino.  He's a man on a self mission.  A man with a grudge!  He's not afraid of the consequences when he puts a bullet in the skull of someone who may give the British government leads.  Daniel Craig has already proven himself worthy of being Bond.  He, of course, continues the tradition here.  He's far more hardened and brutal than he was in Casino.  Very cold and cool as a cucumber.  I liked that.

The Bond girls are quite fetching, but aren't given anything really memorable or as substantial as former Bond girls had been given.  But, both do great jobs with what they're given.  Spoiler ahead! Highlight to read: One of them does a nice little homage to a scene from Goldfinger. Obvioulsy, she isn't in much of the film.

Of course Dame Judi Dench can do no wrong as Bond's superior, "M".  And it's great to see Jeffrey Wright return as Felix Lighter!  He may just be the best Lighter yet.

The villain is as slimy and greasy as they get.  He tries so hard to come off as such a nice guy and caregiver to the world.  But, in the end, he's just another greedy CEO who's a major part of a very powerful and sinister organization (no, not S.P.E.C.T.E.R. and not Smersh).

Speaking of this nasty organization, there's a way cool scene that reveals how they go about conducting their secret meetings.  And it's not at some huge, long stainless steel table in some secret lair nestled in a dormant volcano (though, that's pretty cool also).  It's conducted pretty much out in public.  Very, very clever idea!

There's a lot of very cool action in this movie (would have been even better without the speed that it is thrown at you), some good explosions and lots of fight sequences in which Bond deals out some seriously brutal blows that highlight the film.

A couple of more notations on the film.

Neither "Q" or Moneypenny show up in this movie. They have yet to be introduced in this new, rebooted Bond franchise.  I'm hoping that their characters will eventually be addressed as they're too loved and adored by fans to be complely left out of the loop.  I'm not really botherd by this yet.  But, if we get up to a few more Bond movies and they're characters are still not addressed, it will be quite disappointing.

The set pieces hearken back to earlier Bond films.  There's a cool hotel that is smack dab in the middle of the desert that looks more like one of the big ass secret villain lairs from the Bond flicks of the 60's and 70's.  Of course the cinematography and exotic setting help accentuate the whole spy thriller motif that is so prevalent in the Bond films.

Also note that you may want to give Casino Royale a viewing before you see this movie. There is a lot referenced of the former film in this one.  It truly is a direct sequel!!

Yup! I had a great time with this movie.  Did I have as great of a time with Quantum as I did with Casino?  Not quite, but Quantum of Solace is still a great Bond film and will certainly be beyond satisfactory for us die hard Bond geeks!

Well, it's late and I have to get up early for an oil change at my Bro-In-Law's garage.

Until next time, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.