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My TWINE review will be in another few days now that I am back to work. Must say I was really disappointed in the music in that one, now that I just watched it again. A step down from TND for sure.
@SirHenryLeeChaChing - Digging your Casino Royale review, Sir Henry, especially your in depth section on the soundtrack. Arnold's use of the main title theme, throughout the movie, is quite, quite superb.
All though I don't post on here as much as I used to, I still check out the threads, particularly this one, so keep up the good work!
Especially as all I can usually come up with is 'I thought the theme song was quite good'. ;-)
Exactly! Like saying, "That was a catchy tune." For me, when I watch a film as a nonprofessional music lover and Bond fan, I may not notice the music much - but that would be because it has been seamlessly woven into the story, fits the scenes correctly, and helps bring the right mood to each part of the film. The one thing I notice of course, always, is the title theme. I like it when that is brought into play, in different variations, of the movie. I watched TND this past weekend, and I am still humming "Surrender" in the lovely, slow version, at odd times during the day. Memorable indeed. Should have been the up front main Bond theme. But I cannot describe or analyze a film's music the way a musician can, so I greatly appreciate reading SirHenry's detailed analysis of that (along with the rest of his very thorough, well thought out and nicely explained reviews).
Close, but no cigar.
BOND - 3 out of 5 Here Brosnan opens his third film as Bond with a great PTS, one of my favorites. He is self assured, highly competent, driven, and smoothly powers his way through that entire opening sequence with aplomb (personally, I really liked the tie straightening under water). I was ready for more of his Bond from TND, yet this one - despite the opener - looked a bit different already. And after he was dispatched to King's pipeline headquarters, it went downhill from there. I wasn't sure what was missing at first (besides the storyline being rather a mess), what didn't sit quite so right with me. Although I really liked his interaction with Valentin again (and the very end, as Valentin aims cleverly and rescues Bond, and they exchange final acknowledgements, was nicely done for sure). But it was otherwise all a definite step down from TND, rather like Brosnan had lost his "zing" ... and, may I say the haircut didn't help (like a blunt mower attacked him and aimed for "businessman" hair).
Brosnan, in this movie, was too staid, too grim/serious, too reigned in. Like having the very best lasagne (from TND) served up again as lukewarm leftovers, with hardly any spice or sauce. And no meat in it (where's the beef, Pierce?). I like my Bond to be a feast (continuing with the food metaphor here, bear with me ...), a smorgasbord of palpable excitement mixed with fun, a driven killer, patriotic, charming, clever, and elegant yet badass. All of which I felt Brosnan had in TND. Hard to put into words, but I missed the Bond I saw in GE and TND. The best part of this Bond was his interaction with Q and his scenes with Valentin.
WOMEN- 3 out of 5 Sophie Marceau as Elektra King was very beautiful indeed and a decent actress. I remember feeling let down when she became the villain, though, and we caught on pretty early to that. Her acting was fine, but I felt her character was not dazzling or particularly memorable. The other notable Bond girl is the Cigar Girl in the opening PTS - she was competent, lovely, smooth, and made us believe that Renard was the devil himself and she would rather blow herself up than be caught and tortured by him. Dr. Molly Warmflash was a flashback of sorts, for me, to the masseuse in Thunderball. Just sort of Oh, James, here let me compromise my training and professional standards for another intimate moment with you - yep, let me think about it for all of 5 seconds. Okay, done, let's roll. ;) I don't have a problem with that per se (indeed I can relate to a certain extent), after all it is a Bond movie. But then we come to the major Bond girl, Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones. I don't get how many guys think she is so hot or beautiful, I really don't. Aside from that, though, she played it one note annoyingly too casual and brittle. I practically expected her to be chewing gum every time she was talking. Basically, and I am joining the main consensus here I am sure, she cannot act. I don't mind a beautiful woman playing a professional, that is not an incongruity for me. I do mind the main Bond girl being worth only a bit of eye candy with no real essence of acting/personality/charm, anything of substance. Totally unbelievable, and for me pretty much tied with Halle Berry, as the worst of Bond girls in the entire series.
VILLAINS- 3 out of 5 And barely a 3. I so love Robert Carlyle, one of my favorite actors. Yet here he is so underwhelming, underplayed, bland, and NOT menacing. He is set up to be a twisted s.o.b. who wields great power. He pops up looking like a drug-wasted has been. With about as much menace. The only scene where he shows us anything approaching power and sadism is when he has the character (whose name I forget) hold the scalding rocks in his hands. Compare this to other main villains - and I am now thinking especially of Kananga/Mr. Big - who by their very presence ooze domination, power, evil, and a simmering anger. Here Robert is just tepid. I was really disappointed. Looks like he is about to ask, "Would you like a cuppa?" in most scenes. Sigh ... waste of a good actor. Who else? Do we count Elektra here, too? We should and that combines is to a 3 rating for me. Goldie was funny, a traitor and a coward, but not a threatening henchman. Yawn pretty much; which is a big failure for a crucial part of a Bond film. The villain is important, otherwise where is the tension/suspense/story?
HUMOR- 2.5 Just not good, some dodgy lines indeed. Pierce didn't seem to say them with any relish, none that was particularly memorable, although the most cringeworthy is at the very end (which I don't even care to quote, thank you). The best humor was for me given to Valentin, one of my favorite characters. All due to Robbie Coltrane's zestful performance.
ACTION-3.5 out of 5 Rather well done but I didn't feel a lot of excitement throughout this movie. Of course the splendid PTS, which was exciting and well executed. And also the skiing scenes with Elektra (parahawks, avanlanche, the whole bit), the pipeline defusing the bomb scene, and the very good caviar factory scene with the helicopter dangling the series of chainsaws. So yeah, it had decent action scenes and the action moved well; but I felt the final confrontation on the sinking (I hope they don't keep creating sinking finales, I have had enough of them, CR was more than enough for a while ...) was not very exciting really.
SADISM- 2.5 Really, where is the sadism? Considering Renard cannot feel pain, this could have been a lot more showcased. Anyway, Elektra's torture chair comes in for a pretty good scene, and the scalding rocks bit as mentioned earlier. That's about it.
MUSIC- 2.5 out of 5. I really did not enjoy most of the music in this movie, which I noticed more this past weekend. I thought the music used for the action scenes even took away from the action; I didn't think it fit appropriately, did not use the theme as lovingly or creatively, and I just didn't like the music throughout this film. So nope. Not very good at all, in my opinion. Theme song was just okay.
LOCATIONS-3.5 out of 5. Fairly lovely locations, and not globe trotting. Matched the story, but nothing too spectacular for me. Nicest was the skiing area.
GADGETS - 3.5 out of 5 . Bond had a fairly good array of gadgets; boat, watch, the fun X-ray glasses (that brought a nice touch of humor).
SUPPORTING CAST- 3 out of 5 Desmond's farewell performance, Cleese's intro (I was mixed in my reaction), Moneypenny's repartee with Bond ... all in all, pretty good, nothing to shout about. Then M ... I really did not like her being portrayed as stupid enough (and willful enough) to override security concerns and her top agent's advice and fly to King's headquarters, where she was promptly kidnapped. She looked like an incompetent grandmother for most of this film, and that is not Judi Dench's M that I know and love. How I don't like this script at times, but this is one of the worst parts. I remember complaining to my fiend in the theatre about it, too. Valentin saves the day here, bringing this tepid (the overall word for this film) up to a 3.
OVERALL RECOLLECTIONS- As I wrote at the very top of my review, by the title of the film: Close, but no cigar. Actually, this film is not that close. I did not enjoy it much in the theatre, and I liked it less on subsequent viewing. I do enjoy parts for sure - the PTS is great fun and exciting, the character of Valentin and his interaction with Brosnan's Bond is always a joy, the skiing sequence was very well done, and well ... that's about it. I can understand why some fans think of this as a "guilty pleasure." I have one friend who loves this movie because she enjoys Elektra King a lot, doesn't mind Richards, and she still thinks Pierce is hot. I have the most complaints about the script, which was at times a mess and not making sense for a Bond movie (oh, M! Nooooooooo!). I think they threw in Christmas as Dr. Jones's first name only to add some sort of humor. Ha ha. They knew it needed something, this movie. This film lacked punch. It lacked joy. It felt so flat after TND. And the music could have helped a lot! But it was not very good. So I was a good deal disappointed. I could only hope that the next one would be better again. Poor Pierce, I think he felt the same thing. We were both to be jarringly disappointed in those hopes. While TWINE left me feeling like, "Pierce, I love your Bond, bring him back from TND and add something new next time" ... there was a sense of a nagging slight toothache after watching TWINE. And then DAD would be DOA (although the first half I enjoyed). Yes, Pierce; once more into the breach. But this time, definitely no cigar.
I agree @4Ever. Personally I thought Carlyle did a good job with what he was given (I do like the scene with M in the cell for example) but sadly his character of a "tortured bad guy" felt under-written.
"the haircut didn't help (like a blunt mower attacked him and aimed for "businessman" hair)"
:))
You know what? Brosnan really does look like a businessman at times in that film.
So here we are at the start of a new era. Ian Fleming’s first book about Bond was an entertaining, leisurely romp based around a game of cards. The story was wonderful, and the game itself tense, but the book somehow did not lend itself to a film adaptation. Well not in 2006 anyway.
But this was not 2006. This was 1952.
Ian Fleming had sold the rights to this novel early on, and in 1954 it had been adapted to a one hour TV show with an American Bond and a British Leiter. Quaint and amusing to watch now, back in 1954 it must have been…….quaint and unamusing I suppose.
In 1967 a CR comedy romp was offered to the world, in competition with Eon’s You Only Live Twice. The only thing to say about it was that it was not as funny as the 1954 version and not as ambitious as the competition that year.
As the 21st century settled in Eon had finally gained the rights to the novel and as such a third and hopefully final version could be made. But Eon were not simply looking to give the world a proper filmed version of Fleming’s book, they also wanted to do something Cubby Broccoli had resisted when it had been suggested to him before. Give the world a new Bond, a younger Bond, a novice Bond.
O…M…G!
The time line would be shattered, Bond would be a new 00 even though his boss was the same person who had squared up to the relic of the cold war.
How could this happen?
Worse still, the new Bond was blonde, smaller than any of the others, and lacking the Ferrero Rochet charm of Pierce and Roger.
For God’s sake, set up a web site and reject this mutant. Issue press statements, raise a question in Parliament. Do something, but get rid of the blonde, bland Bond.
And if all else fails, we will stand shoulder to shoulder and BOYCOTT this travesty of a film.
JAMES BOND
Cocky and self confident this is the first true beefcake Bond since Connery. A Bond comfortable in his own skin, aware of his magnetism, and oozing arrogance.
When this Bond walks in a room he doesn’t hold himself rigid, squint around the room, furrow his brow or purse his lips which some actors tended to do (because it seemed to them the way to look tough and macho). This Bond just walks in the room, and allows his own natural grace and aura to do the work. He doesn’t move as well as Connery or Lazenby (like ‘cats’ according to Broccoli), but he doesn’t look the slightest bit as self conscious as the previous two actors had. The role is simply not daunting him.
When he first sees Solange we can see him sizing the situation up especially her relationship with Dimitrios. We know as he knows at the very moment he sees her that she will be his that night.
When he meets Vesper he recognises a tougher job. A ‘long game’ seduction. Again, it’s there in his eyes, summing her up, working out his chances. Not the first night, or the second, but very soon.
Even the girl behind the reception desk. It takes him about 10 seconds to recruit her in to his planned meeting with Dimitrios. And she gladly becomes his accomplice.
This is a raw Bond though (although it’s a conceit that seemed a little unnecessary), so his dress sense is not the full monty yet, his appreciation of a perfect cocktail not fine tuned, his decision making a little heavy handed...
‘I give you a 00 and you celebrate by shooting up an embassy’.
He does though have his arrogant wit, his appreciation of fine dining, his love of the gambling dens and his ability to think on his feet.
And when Bond emerges from the sea in speedos we realise that this is a moment people will talk about in 50 years time, just as we today continue to talk about Ursula Andress. A true iconic moment.
4.5/5
WOMEN
Solange, the mistress of Dimitrios is oddly beautiful, and she has so much sex appeal, - I mean buckets full - and she has such an amazing figure that it would be impossible for any man to resist her. Any man but Bond that is.
Vesper is beautiful, resourceful, damaged. She does not expect to be quite as involved in all the goings on as she actually becomes, but she tries her best and she adapts. And of course she saves Bond’s life on more than one occasion.
Because Vesper the British ‘money’ is played by a French actress we have to acknowledge how well she does with the accent. And when she says a line like
‘I just thought it was something pretty’]
in reply to Bond’s comment about her necklace, the line is transformed from a forgettable utterance in to a moment of simple beauty. It’s a remarkable moment and any red blooded male would fall in love with Vesper just then, if they hadn’t already.
Elsewhere we have Valenka, Le Chiffre’s mistress who has no actual lines and little to do other than poison Bond. She loses the girls half a point.
4.5/5
VILLAINS
Le Chiffre, a man on the edge. He loses the money invested by African terrorists and has to find a way to gain it back.
Any man in this kind of situation can not afford to panic, he has to think on his feet. And Mads Mikkelson conveys this outer calm/inner chaos so beautifully. It’s a wonderful performance.
The cruel, arrogant Dimitrios who loses his car, his woman and his life (in that order) to Bond.
Other villains: Bomb maker Mollaka who provides some terrific free running in the early parts of the film, Terrorist soldier Obanno who seeks revenge on Le Chiffre but is terminated by Bond., Dryden who sells out MI6 and gets his just rewards in the PTS (thus making Bond a 00), Carlos who tries to blow the plane up, plus Mr White and his accomplices who come in to their own in the final act.
Bond dispatches all of the villains apart, ironically, from Le Chiffre and of course Mr White who spills over into the next film.
The film is overflowing with villains, all well conceived, well cast and incorporated in the storey without it looking the slightest bit forced.
5/5
HUMOUR
In Dr No Bond watches a hearse crash over a cliff and comments about them being late for a funeral. It isn’t much of a joke but it was a startling and somewhat ground breaking moment. The hero was making fun of death. He was watching men die and being flippant about it. Audiences loved it of course, and it opened the door not only for Bond films in the future, but all action genre movies, the famous ‘one liner’ at the end of an action sequence (Schwarzenegger tirelessly milked it in some of his films to the point that I for one wanted to throttle him – if I thought I could…which of course I couldn’t).
These jokes became visual as well as verbal and by the time of Moonraker Bond was despatching villains and uttering his one liner whilst the camera was panning to the villain who was shown to be in some kind of humorous position of death (eg Chang inside a grand piano).
It was these visual jokes that needed to be toned down, and by the time of The Living Daylights they were gone, although the one liners remained, awkwardly uttered by actors who felt the pain every bit as much as we did.
In Casino Royale many Bond fans, brought up on Pierce Brosnan twinkling at the camera and milking the one liners for all he was worth, complained that the film (CR) had no humour. Well of course it did. But Craig knew, as Connery did before him, that if you are going to make a terrible joke then you have to down play it a little, not deliver it like a blunderbuss going off. His ‘every penny of it’ and ‘you noticed’ lines to Vesper were perfectly delivered and without a suggestion of Bond being the old lecher that Roger Moore was sometimes prone to.
He idly tosses the car keys away after setting off all the alarms in the car park. It reminded me of the moment Bond sets the alarm off at the health clinic in Thunderball. Casual and inherently funny at the same time.
Other characters such as Leiter and Mathis are amusing, and in a broader way, the camp casino MC.
The humour was more reminiscent of the 60s than any decade since, and that was only a positive thing.
Best of all is the running gag about Bond, much to the exasperation of M, seems to know every top secret passcode within MI6, including the password to M’s laptop.
How the hell does he know these things?
4/5
ACTION
CR is based around three big set pieces. The free running sequence, the airport scenes and the climatic scenes in Venice.
Only the last of these fails to score top marks despite having the extra impetus of Vesper’s death.
Director Martin Campbell who fronted GoldenEye and brought Bond back with a bang, tackles the big sequences well, and the physicality of the lead helps because the problems of using a body double can often be side stepped.
The brutality of the film fits well with Daniel Craig’s interpretation.
The car flip when Bond evades a prostrate Vesper is superb.
4/5
SADISM
In truth Casino Royale the novel was as much about torture and sadism as it was about a card game and a love story. In the film all three elements are represented and no punches are pulled. A naked Bond is tied to a chair and his crown jewels thrashed with a knotted rope. Lovely.
Sadly the anguish and pain are lessened by Bond’s refusal to buckle. He laughs at Le Chiffre and eggs him on. (In truth, one of those smacks would have rendered a grown man unconscious or at the very least vomiting copiously).
Le Chiffre’s mistress is threatened with the removal of her arm.
Sadistic by the very nature of it’s source material
4/5
MUSIC
The music is quite lovely at times. Is it the Vesper theme that plays when she sits in the shower? Quite beautiful.
The theme song You Know My Name is superb and used well throughout.
4/5
LOCATIONS
Prague, Uganda, Bahamas, Madagascar, Miami, Montenegro, Lake Como, Venice.
I mean WOOF!
5/5
GADGETS
The Aston has a defibrillator kit which helps save Bond’s life, as does the tracking device which is placed under his skin.
Bond has really gone back to basics though. As unimpressed as Bond was with his small radio in Skyfall, he should not have been surprised as he only really has an ear piece in the early scenes of CR (the ‘don’t touch your ear’ moment is lovingly referred to in Skyfall).
2/5
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
A more exasperated the usual M
(about Bond) Is the man deranged? And where the hell is he? In the old days if an agent did something that embarrassing he'd have a good sense to defect. Christ, I miss the Cold War.
Q and Moneypenny are no longer with us, Tanner is brilliantly played by Rory Kinnear.
A new meaner Leiter who prowls and growls around Casino Royale. Jeffrey Wright’s broad-strokes performance is nicely in contrast to some of the underplaying elsewhere. No one pauses for effect quite like this guy (just wait for Quantum Of Solace), but it works.
Rene Mathis is Bond’s contact in Montenegro and his well meaning if slightly shady ways of dealing with problems amuses Bond and earns the latter’s respect. It’s another Kerim Bey relationship (although it doesn’t play out fully until part way through Quantum Of Solace). Bond is taken by him, but is he taken in by him as well?
The bigger part of the cast comes under ‘villains’ but the strength of the characters we have earn a respectable
5/5
42/50
OVERALL RECOLLECTION
I had been a big fan of Daniel Craig for several years having followed his career from Our Friends In The North on TV. Yet, never for one second had I ever considered him as a possible Bond. I had not seen Layer Cake which apparently turned the head of Barbara Broccoli, but even if I had I probably wouldn’t have considered him. After all he wasn’t tall and dark blah blah etc….
When he was announced I google pictured him like everyone else, and I saw within those blue eyes something I hadn’t seen for many years- the steely gaze of a certain Scotsman. I was intrigued and I nodded to myself even if I wasn’t yet 100% convinced. I defended him and I wrote on our old forum that he was an ideal choice..yet I still wasn’t absolutely sure. When I saw the first trailer, I was sure.
Casino Royale is marvellous for the first two hours, but the additional 20 minutes somehow feels tacked on the end even though they were absolutely necessary to complete the story. Unlike Skyfall it really does feels like a long film.
Where it never fails is in the casting. Not just Craig, but the half dozen other main characters. Beautiful exotic women, scarey villains, great support characters. It’s a triumph of casting and harkens back to better days in the 1960s.
So, although the film just fell short of my ‘best of’ list I was thrilled and relieved to see the success it generated and the way Daniel Craig could thumb his nose (metaphorically speaking) at the Craignotbond brigade.
So we embraced his success, we marvelled at his film, we cheered at his box office takings.
And we waited for his next film..
@4Ever I think Denise's appeal is the combination of a fantastic body, full lips and large eyes. Yes, eyes, not 'knockers'. Those help as well though. I don't think she's much of an actress and truly miscast, but she's very much let down by the script as well. I mean: Bond "look at the screws, they've been scratched" Dr. CJ:"Someone has tampered with the bomb!". Really? You'd think so? I don't think any actress could be a nuclear scientist and utter those lines at the same time.
"I mean WOOF!" :D
(I read that and laughed out loud; I am going to borrow that one for a while)
Very thoughtful and I agree pretty much with what you, and SirHenry, wrote. Alas, I am bringing up the rear of this Original brigade and will get in my DAD review this coming weekend. Hopefully CR on Sunday.
... just realized I should not have double posted but added on to my previous; sorry, all!)
He does pout quite a lot though :)) Even my dad pointed that out. I do love Craig's "I don't give a crap" attitude however. In the scene between him and Domitrious at the casino he comes off as confident, mocking and self assured (i.e. everything Bond should be). A friend's dad once described him as quite "blokey" (that was meant to be a good thing.
"but if I felt...compelled to find him?"
Can I quickly mention the torture sequence? I LOVE the way Craig delivers the "no!" line, laughing at LeChiffe as if to say "you have NO chance of forcing it out of me".
Sorry, that one's mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf7a2f89iv4
Oops! In a hurry and made a mistake. Thank you for that one, dear @thelordflasheart. Were you the original "woofer" on here?
That's exactly where I got it from. :-)
couldn't resist ;-)
@4Ever yes, they should've gotten a better actress, but I still like Denise, or at least the look of her. I'd love to say 'my guilty pleasure' but I'm not Charly Sheen. But sue me, I was 19 when that film came out, and she was a young students'wet dream...
@TheLord I prefer this incarnation:
I'll be back more often starting Sunday and will get a new set of ratings released. I'll release my review of Quantum Of Solace 3/16 and then early in April we'll see if everyone is ready to tackle Skyfall before we do that one. I've barely gotten a chance to look at what's been written but I'll have lots of responses no doubt as well as catching up on my correspondence. All the reviews were well written and I've enjoyed them as much as anyone.
See you in a few days!
Nice to see that you are safe and sound, @SirHenryLeeChaChing. Have a great time in Hershey! :)
@NicNac - nice summing up of Casino Royale's humour. It was just so mature and intelligent; a complete contrast to the cringe inducing punning of the Brosnan era, and the overt humour in the 70/80's...
1. Goldfinger- 4.23
2. From Russia With Love- 4.20
3. The Living Daylights- 4.12
4. Thunderball- 4.10
5. Licence To Kill- 4.06
6. The Spy Who Loved Me- 4.05
7. On Her Majesty's Secret Service- 4.00
8. You Only Live Twice- 3.92
9. For Your Eyes Only- 3.90
10. Live And Let Die- 3.83
11. Octopussy- 3.73
12. GoldenEye (5/6 reviews)- 3.68
13. Dr. No- 3.62
14. Tomorrow Never Dies (5/6 reviews)- 3.52
15. A View To A Kill- 3.28
16. The Man With The Golden Gun- 3.13
17. The World Is Not Enough (5/6 reviews)- 3.08
18. Diamonds Are Forever- 3.02
19. Moonraker- 2.97
20. Die Another Day (4/6 reviews)- 2.70
We continue to progress towards finishing as 4Ever got her 2nd and 3rd Brosnan entries in. Below is the updated list, and hopefully next week Casino Royale will make it 21 films-
GOLDENEYE, TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH- No votes from Kerim
DIE ANOTHER DAY- No votes from 4EverBonded and Kerim
CASINO ROYALE- No votes from OHMSS, 4EverBonded, and Kerim
I checked the other day and our fellow original, reviewer, and friend Kerim has still not been here since 1/16. One of the drawbacks of Forums such as these is that short of PM or e-mails, there is no way to reach each other. I do not have a phone number to reach him, and I remain concerned as it is not at all like him to be gone for this length of time unless there was some health issue that has kept him away. I'd bet my home there's no way he suddenly decided he doesn't like Bond or us anymore, so if anyone here knows another way to reach out to him, that would be great. Worst case scenario, which I shudder at the thought of, is that he is no longer with us. I think I can speak for everyone in saying that while we will always have a special place for him, we also need to have 6 reviews or more for each film, and we may need another original to step up and be willing to cover the Brosnan and Craig eras should he not return by the time we release Skyfall for reviews. If anyone reading is willing to volunteer, please PM me or let us know here.
Tomorrow I will review and release the 22nd entry, "Quantum Of Solace". Until then, have a great weekend!
I have to confess that after my recent absence I seriously considered leaving for undetermined time, but reconsidered. I've been enjoying this less and less as it has become saturating repeating my opinion over and over without effect. The recent troll attack didn't help either.
I look forward to the new original reviews, this is without a doubt one of the most interesting threads in here.
Have a nice weekend :)
I'm with all the Carlyle fans here, as well as the films mentioned I also loved his brief role as the loony in "The Beach" with Leo DiCaprio and the ravishing Virginie Ledoyen. But what he "coughed up" in TWINE was the human equivalent of a cat coughing up a hairball. When a great actor of Carlyle's caliber can do no better than this, it shows how poorly his character was written.
Thanks Sandy. I hear you about the troll attacks and how easy it is to say the same things over and over again. Sometimes you have to step away for a bit.
The year is 2006. While Casino Royale is in production and still filming, producer Michael G. Wilson decides a direct sequel is needed in order to explore Bond's emotions following Vesper's death, and starts to develop the film's plot. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade complete their draft of the script by April 2007, and Paul Haggis, who polished the Casino Royale script, began his rewrite in May. After producer Roger Michell opts out of negotiations without a finished script in place, Swiss director Marc Forster comes aboard and stating he wanted his film to be "tight and fast...like a bullet", the Purvis/Wade script is scrapped while he, Haggis, and Wilson rewrite the story from scratch. Haggis is still working on it up until two hours before the 2007-2008 writer's strike forces him out of the production. At the point of the strike, Craig would reveal exactly what was going on in a late 2011 interview- "We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers' strike and there was nothing we could do. We couldn't employ a writer to finish it. There was me trying to rewrite scenes— and a writer I am not". He would also say that he and Forster "were the ones allowed to do it. The rules were that you couldn't employ anyone as a writer, but the actor and director could work on scenes together. We were stuffed. We got away with it, but only just". Joshua Zetumer would later contribute to the effort after the strike had ended, occasionally even rewriting dialogue while filming was going on. Michael G. Wilson decided literally days before making a press statement on January 24, 2008 that the film's title would be "Quantum Of Solace", the name of a short story in Ian Fleming's 1960 anthology "For Your Eyes Only", but the film contains no elements of the original story. In the finished film Bond battles wealthy businessman Dominic Greene, a member of the Quantum organization posing as a committed environmentalist while plotting to stage a coup d'état in Bolivia to seize control of the nation's water supply. Bond is also seeking revenge for the death of his lover Vesper Lynd and is assisted by former Bolivian secret service agent Camille Montes, who is seeking revenge for the murder of her family.
Location filming took place in Mexico, Panama, Chile, Italy, Austria, and Wales while interior sets were built and filmed at Pinewood Studios, beginning in August 2007 with the second unit filming the Siena, Italy horse race and also in Madrid, Spain for additional work. Pinewood shooting begins in January 2008 and the location work starts properly in Panama in February, which doubled for locations in Haiti and Bolivia. The latter of which was a country known for problems with their water resources according to Wilson, and was thus chosen as the fictional setting. Chile is visited in March before returning to Europe to film more scenes in Italy and Austria during April and May before production wrapped in England in June.
The film premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 29, 2008 and would be fully released in England on October 31st, with the American debut following two weeks later on November 14th. Reviews of the film were mixed to negative, noting the film failed to measure up to Casino Royale while still praising Craig's performance as the bright spot. The results of the writer's strike are obvious in the numerous gaping plot holes, with Sir Roger Moore summing up the general view by stating that while he felt Craig was still a "damn good Bond", as a whole "there was a bit too much flash cutting and it was just like a commercial of the action. There didn't seem to be any geography and you were wondering what the hell was going on". The film much like "Licence To Kill", is noted for its frequent depictions of violence, with a 2012 study by the University of Otago in New Zealand finding it to be the most violent film in the franchise with 250 separate acts giving creedence to their conclusions. Financially though, the film was highly successful and to date the $200 million budgeted production ended up grossing $586 million. Now 5 years later, the film like both "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "Licence To Kill" still manages to polarize opinions, with some loving it, some hating it, and general opinion agreeing that it could have been much better with a completed script when filming started, and a different director with a less radical and more traditional approach.
THE CAST-
- Daniel Craig as James Bond
- Olga Kurylenko as Camille Montes
- Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene
- Gemma Arterton as Strawberry Fields
- Giancarlo Giannini as René Mathis
- Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
- Judi Dench as M
- Anatole Taubman as Elvis
- David Harbour as Gregory Beam
- Joaquín Cosío as General Medrano
- Fernando Guillén Cuervo as Carlos
- Jesper Christensen as Mr. White
- Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner
- Tim Pigott-Smith as the Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
- Simon Kassianides as Yusef Kabira
- Stana Katic as Corrine Veneau
- Glenn Foster as Craig Mitchell
- Lucrezia Lante Della Rovere as Gemma
BOND- In his second outing as Bond, James Bond, Daniel Craig continues to impress in the role. Driven by an inner rage and the need to find and destroy those who he feel are responsible for Vesper's betrayal and suicide, Bond continues to be a killing machine much to M's consternation while still insisting that he is doing his job of tracking down and gathering intelligence on QUANTUM members regardless of his personal feelings, and that his murder of potential leads has been unavoidable. And in fairness, Bond is indeed doing his job such as delivering pictures of QUANTUM members until he disobeys M's orders to return home to England and report why he killed a member of Special Branch in Austria. This leads to the Bolivian branch of MI6, the American CIA, and QUANTUM themselves all looking to either capture or kill Bond and no official support much like what happened in "Licence To Kill". Craig continues the progression of returning Bond back to the traditional character as he did during Casino Royale, as we see our favorite spy insisting on only the best hotels, wearing fine clothes, and trying to enjoy the company of the women he meets. Lesson in trust learned, Bond continues to learn the other finer points of his trade on the job and by the film's end he has met M's expectations and come to terms with his personal tragedy. Craig's performance of a man trying to make sense of and balance his emotional devastation and inner conflicts, while at the same time trying to get on with his job and learning to do it as dispassionately as every M to date has always expected, is yet again fantastic and the overall focus of the film would not have worked one iota without Craig's skill and ability moving it along. His final scene with M and Vesper's boyfriend in Russia is simply awesome, purely Bondian, and brings a messy script to a sensible conclusion, but I was still waiting to see the more classic Bond we'd see a lot more of in 2012 as a fair comparison. Based on that I can't quite give a perfect score to his characterization although he deserves high marks for this showing as an overall effort- 4.5/5
WOMEN- Ukrainian born Olga Kurylenko has the lead as Camille Montes, a former Bolivian secret service agent Bond encounters during his mission. Like Bond, she is also on a personal mission of revenge against an exiled former Bolivian general and dictator who murdered her parents and older sister when she was very small and unable to protect herself or tell what happened, he leaves her to die after setting her home on fire. I liked the attention to detail relating to this, as a large burn scar is evident on her back and no doubt a constant reminder of her ordeal. She gets close to Greene as he works a deal that would return the man to power in Bolivia, and is ready to exact her revenge until Bond ruins her plan. Despite a mutual attraction to each other early on that is evident on her part and simmers beneath the surface throughout, their greater need to resolve their personal demons and achieve their "quantum of solace" unites them as partners rather than lovers, and it is mostly is a fresh approach to a leading lady that makes sense within the story. I found Kurylenko's performance to be excellent and nearly as compelling as Craig's, and can only reason that her normally great looks were dumbed down for this reason. The other woman of note is English actress Gemma Arterton as one Strawberry Fields, a local MI6 office worker without field experience dispatched by M with orders to send him home. Fields is cute as she doesn't want to tell Bond her first name so you have to wait until the credits or guess what it is, and Bond doesn't take her seriously at all past getting her in bed. Arterton is fine for the time she had on screen but is there as the sacrificial lamb, and the character suffers perhaps the most as you never see her capture or death thanks to the script, just her corpse drowned in crude oil and left on Bond's bed in an inferior tribute to Jill Masterson and Goldfinger that carries far less weight as a result- 3.5/5
VILLAINS- A very mixed variety of them, some good, some bad. Let's start with the bad in French actor Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene, a French businessman who runs a large ecology based company as a front for his activities as a seemingly important member of QUANTUM, although it's not clear to date who is the boss or even if there is one. Greene's plan, at least this is my best guess, is to create a monopoly on the distribution of water in Bolivia in what is also possibly a trial run to do the same in larger countries for even bigger profits. It's not a grandiose scheme in the annals of Bond, but if you've ever been without water you tend to understand how important it is and can be a little more sympathetic to the idea when you see people leaving their homes when the water runs dry, but in this case the script never focuses on it long enough to make the viewer care about it. Taking a different path from the usual Bond villains, Forster and Amalric wanted the character to appear normal to emphasize the hidden and secret nature of the typical contemporary corporate villain. What we also learn about Greene is that he has a huge ego, is a ruthless big moneymaker, and can swing an axe with reckless abandon. Past that, the script removes any chance to really establish much menace by not filming him presiding over the death of Fields or the beating of Mathis, and the more minor villains outshine him. And then there's his henchman, and to borrow a line from an online review- "Terror has a new name- Elvis!" Portrayed by Swiss actor Anatole Taubman, Elvis is a big goofy lug with a bad toupee and never does anything of substance other than act as Greene's bodyguard and take up screen time that could have been better used to flesh out the story a bit more. One of the most useless henchmen ever. Now to the good, and first up is Mexican actor Joaquin Casio as General Medrano, the target of Camille. This man is brutal, violent, and completely despicable, all the qualities you want in a great villain. As the story tells us, he thinks nothing of raping and killing women and children and seems to enjoy it. Casio's fine effort makes the category better and shows that QUANTUM has no scruples if the price is right. Spanish actor Fernando Guillén Cuervo is also featured as Carlos, head of the Bolivian national police and the contact of René Mathis in Bolivia, who is in cahoots with Medrano. Jesper Christensen returns to add more as Mr. White after his capture in Casino Royale, and reveals that MI6 has just now discovered their existence and that they "have people everywhere" before M's bodyguard and MI6 agent Craig Mitchell, played by stuntman Glenn Foster, frees him from MI6 custody. Next is David Harbour as Gregory Beam, the CIA chief of South America and the current boss of Felix Leiter. He joins forces with Greene thinking he's found oil, America will get some of it, and it will be a good career move to enhance his prestige, so he also wants Bond out of the way as well and is a character you can hate. Last but not least in a very limited role we get to meet Vesper's Algerian boyfriend Yusef Kabira, played by Greek/English actor Simon Kassianides. He's up to his usual tactics having seduced a Canadian agent and is getting ready to set her up much like he did Vesper on QUANTUM's behalf until Bond finally catches up to him and puts an end to his tricks. Here Bond gets the answers he wants regarding Vesper and turns him over to MI6 custody rather than killing him, showing more progression towards the normal character. Thanks to Medrano, White, Carlos, Beam, and Kabira, the cast becomes more memorable but overall it's just slightly better than average- 3.5/5
HUMOR- Due to the serious and rather dour nature of the script, humor is mostly lacking. What there is is mostly between Bond and Mathis including the handcuff line, Mathis and his girlfriend, some of it comes from M, and the occasional one liner elsewhere- 2/5
ACTION- A high premium on action similar to the prior era is emphasized, and like those films it's got plenty of flaws that have to be considered. Normally this occurs in Bond films to cover up a weak script, but in this case it's often very difficult if not impossible to follow due to shaky camera work and flash cutting. This is where people will point to the Bourne series and it's director Paul Greengrass as inspiration, but to me this also ties in with Forster's thoughts on how fast he wanted the movie to be and for using camera people who worked on the Bourne films. It's a decision that the producers must also share some blame for in watching the rushes and not recognizing this is not how a Bond film should be edited. Some of the scenes such as the opening car chase, the Bond/Mitchell chase, Bond's escape from MI6 custody in the elevator fight, and the very Bourne-like hotel fight between Bond and QUANTUM hitman Mr. Slate are nearly if not unwatchable as a result. Yet for all these issues, there are some things I can't overlook that have to be considered as successes. The boat chase is fairly easy to follow, the final battle at the desert hotel works very well on a physical and psychological standpoint, and it's impossible to ignore one of the best Bond fight sequences ever when Bond first encounters Greene and his goons that include a Special Branch bodyguard who is minding a highly respected advisor to the Prime Minister (that we later learn is also a QUANTUM agent) at the Bregenz Opera House. Because of the latter three and especially the last scene mentioned, it's impossible for me to pass the action off entirely as junk, so it winds up average at best- 3/5
SADISM- As I touched on in the villain section, General Medrano's brand of mayhem and his enjoyment of it certainly qualifies. What he did to Camille's family aside, he also smiles at the hotel barmaid and asks for his beer to be taken to his room knowing he is going to violently rape her and maybe worse later on. Greene also gets in on the act, exhorting Medrano to drop Camille's body over the side of his boat when he's finished with her. And the drowning of Fields in a vat of crude oil that he no doubt ordered also shows sadistic tendencies. You can feel a noticeable undercurrent of this running through the movie like crap through a goose, and it makes you want to see these guys get their comeuppance- 4/5
LOCATIONS- I must first comment regarding some statements out there including Sir Roger's that the locations were indisguishable and by others who thought that too many were used. If you watch the film, the former is a moot point because with every change in scenery the location is announced on the screen to let the viewer know where Bond is at any given time. As for the latter, I think it's more of a personal taste thing. This of course could have been improved with a longer run time that kept Bond longer in any given place, but some of the action sequences and plot holes I found to be more of a distraction. The Italian locations are beautifully filmed in Siena, Talamone, and Lake Garda. The floating opera house in Bregenz is also a wonderful location, Panama does nicely for the scenes in Haiti and Bolivia, and the Atacama Desert is a place filmmakers have rarely gone. Because I never suffered from any confusion, I enjoyed the cinematography as well as the interesting new places that showed the gritty reality of the lives of people that Greene was planning to exploit- 4/5
MUSIC- David Arnold returns for his 5th turn and the film opens with one of his better action pieces in "Time To Get Out" that occurs during the opening car chase. It fits the screen footage very well and adds a nice keyboard rendition of the Bond theme in the end. Just before that you also hear a little snippet of an Arnold/Black composition for Dame Shirley Bassey called "No Good About Goodbye" that officially was not going to be considered as the title theme (unfortunately), but it's inclusion in more than this one piece sure gives the impression that Arnold may have wrote it with the idea in mind on some level. The official title song "Another Way To Die" featuring the first ever duet performance of a Bond theme by Jack White and Alicia Keys is the low point and nearly as dreadful as Madonna's DAD theme, but this effort also can't be blamed on Arnold and to his credit he manages to include elements of it in other action pieces such as "The Palio". Where the title theme especially stands out in a good way is the piece that accompanies the boat chase entitled "Pursuit at Port au Prince" featuring the song's staccato section, brass mixed with a simple rock drum beat that works well in contrast, and more snippets of "No Good About Goodbye" until the last minute where the action gives way to a quiet ending with some lush strings and the Bond theme with a little Vic Flick echo guitar. A wonderful, well thought out action piece only exceeded by "Night At The Opera". If Arnold came up with the idea to intersperse his strings and muted brass with Puccini's famous Tosca opera playing in the background, give the man deserved kudos because it's ingenious and raises an already great scene into one that's become a favorite of many. The remaining action pieces are more or less average but nothing that hurts the film or soundtrack. Arnold doesn't settle for just improving his action pieces here, as he has in other Bond scores he pays attention to locales with shorter cues such as "Inside Man" and "Bond In Haiti" with tropical percussion and the Bond theme on guitar. Even better, Arnold never forgets this movie is a sequel to Casino Royale and doesn't let us either as when Mathis is around, thoughts of Vesper are never far behind. Several cues such as "Talamone" (which opens with a brief "You Know My Name" refrain), "What's Keeping You Awake", and most especially it is emotionally effective in "Forgive Yourself" during the final scene with Mathis, with all featuring the piano of "Vesper's Theme". Speaking of Vesper, romance doesn't figure in the film but there is one very interesting piece called "Camille’s Story". Echo effect flute and dark strings we hear when Camille and Bond relate their grief and motivations to the other gives way at the 2 and a half minute mark to some strings and exquisite acoustic guitar work as they walk through the desert, ending with Vesper piano. The proper movie ends with two short cues in "The Dead Don’t Care About Vengeance" and "I Never Left" with more of "No Good About Goodbye" and the Vesper piano before the end credits roll to an Arnold/4Tet piece called "Crawl, End Crawl" that I've read is also used in a Zelda video game. This is my second favorite Arnold soundtrack and it fits the majority of the scenes like a well worn glove, with the action scenes showing growth in quality of composition. Two thumbs up for this effort- 4.5/5
GADGETS- Other than Bond's phone which can take long distance, high resolution pictures with a built in telescopic lens and transmit them within seconds to MI6 headquarters, nothing else to write about- 1.5/5
SUPPORTING CAST- As this is a sequel, at least the producers and writers had the foresight to bring back 2 key supporting actors that helped make Casino Royale so good and who could solidify their links, starting with Giancarlo Giannini returning as Rene Mathis. He's since been cleared of any wrongdoing by MI6, but hasn't forgotten and is initially an unhospitable host when Bond comes knocking on his door for guidance. His girlfriend Gemma, played with some welcome humor by Italian actress Lucrezia Lante Della Rovere, immediately bursts his bubble and grouchy attitude by busting his balls and reminds him he now has this lovely seaside villa as a result of the misunderstanding, and that he should let bygones be bygones and help Bond. Having spent time in South America he knows and is friendly with police chief Carlos, but when Carlos betrays him to QUANTUM and uses him to set up Bond for execution, Bond's instinct to protect himself leads to Mathis' death. Along the way he serves again as a mentor, but this time much more on a personal level in trying to help Bond sort his emotions out and realize that ultimately Vesper chose to give up her life to save him rather than her boyfriend. His final scene, asking Bond to forgive Vesper and for Bond to forgive himself for failing to protect her life, is genuinely touching, heartfelt, and sad at the same time. Initially I also did not care for Bond placing his corpse in a dumpster and making it look like a robbery, and thought it as questionable as anything else lacking in the script, but in hindsight it was better than leaving him like a bum in the street or in the trunk of his car with the police in pursuit and accusations flying that Bond killed him. A strong performance followed by the return of Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter. Since we last saw Leiter, he's been assigned to South America as Beam's chief assistant and doesn't respect his new boss. Initially he refuses to identify Bond to Beam's visible displeasure, and later helps Bond with information that undermines Beam's plans to aid the villains. The risk pays off for himself and Bond in the end, and Wright holds his own with Giannini. As a trivial footnote, Wright follows David Hedison as the only actor to play Leiter twice. Next we have Judi Dench again strong as M, still trying to teach Bond the right way to do his job and also very funny in openly showing her frustration with Bond as he continues to kill rather than capture bad guys. Her trust issues with her new agent are still present as a result of this, as she feels he is out of control and consumed with rage that is keeping him from getting her what she wants. In smaller roles are Rory Kinnear as Tanner, Tim Pigott-Smith as the Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who is no fan of either M nor Bond, and finally there's Canadian actress Stana Katic as Corrine Veneau, a well connected Canadian agent here as Yusef Kabira's latest girlfriend and current target. Like it's predecessor, it's the Giannini/Wright/Dench show again with the minor characters doing their job and adding to the story in positive ways. Aside from Craig's, the best performances in the film come from this bunch- 5/5
FINAL THOUGHTS AND RECOLLECTIONS- As exhilarated as I was after Casino Royale and excited to see the sequel, this movie left me with the same impressions as many others. I had expected possible script issues due to the movie in production by the time the writer's strike ended, and got more than I would have liked thanks to Forster's vision of a tight, fast run time that didn't allow the movie to breathe for the extra 5 to 10 minutes that could have made a real difference. I also did not like how the action scenes also suffered from the philosophy and became too reminiscent of Bourne films in similarity. Despite the last half hour which was strong and fulfilled my expectations regarding the introduction of QUANTUM, the closure of the Casino Royale story arc and Bond reconciling his feelings for Vesper and what it all meant in hindsight, as well as developing into an accomplished agent I could better recognize, the movie left me both wanting more and upset with the actions taken by both the screenwriters guild and Forster. Did that mean the movie was the worst of the series as others have opined? No, I wholeheartedly disagree with that notion because I always knew it was a victim of circumstances that EON failed to control, yet it still managed to be better than the cheesefests of Die Another Day, Moonraker, and 3 other entries I could name which had smooth productions, lots of time to develop a working script, and still managed to fail in more spectacular and often nonsensical fashion. I'll always look at the film with some measure of respect knowing all it had to overcome and what it ultimately accomplished, but think with a equal measure of regret of what could have been. The movie scores 35 out of 50 points, for an average of 3.5
1) Many people think that QoS received "mixed to critical reviews" but it generally got good (but not great reviews). Metacritic shows it at 58/100 with a 6.5 (generally favourable) user score, while RottenTomatoes has it at 64% with a 62% user score. Even IMDB shows it at 6.7 out of 10 (with well over a thousand reviews).
2) What are everyone's thoughts on the story that no writers worked on the film after the strike was called? My experience with the industry ( I have a couple of friends who are screenwriters) is that there would be writers working under the table on the film, either as favours to the producers/director/actors or with the understanding that they would get credit after the fact and that the official story was that they helped either before or after the strike. No one would want to publicly admit this of course as they wouldn't want to be seen as breaking the picket line (so to speak)...
All in all, I still think it's not a bad film compared to 4-6 others in the canon which I thought were too OTT in their own right in certain areas.
I think I covered a lot of the issues I and others had with QOS, but the P&W angle bears some commentary. What I did not speak about in my review was regarding their original idea, which I think I like better than what we got, in having Craig go after Kabira who would then lead him to Greene and his plot. I think some holdover of their story is seen early when Bond swipes Kabira's picture with Vesper and then claims he's not going after him, he's not important. It seems set up at that point to go exactly that way but of course then the film goes in another direction with Mitchell's money leading Bond and MI6 to Greene, and we never see Kabira until the very end. So it would appear that enough elements of their original story were used that they earned credits for it.
Not that I hated the way it ended up, as Bond's confrontation and capture of Kabira followed by his admission that M was right is one of Craig's best scenes in his tenure. I would have liked more of that regarding Kabira's explanation, but I guess we are to assume she never meant anything to him as he seemed quite prepared for Bond to shoot him to death. Like what Greene had to say about QUANTUM, I guess we are going to never know what Kabira said about Vesper, and mixed with missing scenes such as Mathis' capture and Fields' death, it all lends to my notion that the film felt far less complete than it should have.
I'm with you on this. I've never been P+W's biggest fan, although there are definitely others out there who despise them more than myself. I'm simply ambivalent towards them. But I too think the original story sounded like a much better alternative to the one delivered. For a film that sets itself up as a sequel it does it's utmost to avoid making any real reference to CR. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they should have taken the bull by the horns and made an unequivocal sequel. If people had forgotten story strands from CR so be it, I feel like they bottled it and we never got the film we deserved.