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@4EverBonded what a thorough, wonderfully written review.
I'll be waiting for the rest of the QoS eagerly.
Bond
It’s an unusual premise to see Bond as something of an emotional wreck (following on from his loss in CR). Previously we have watched the character bounce back from disappointment between films (OHMSS/DAF) or indeed between scenes (witness the scenes following Paris’s death in TND).
Here though Bond has to cope with the loss of his first love, and it’s a bumpy ride. Bond is still quietly dry with his delivery, emotionally detached wherever possible (Mathis, Fields) and terrifically Gung Ho when it comes to taking on his enemy (the opera scenes, the climax). He isn’t above getting a little drunk, he understands Italian and he absolutely refuses to stay in anything less than a 5 star hotel.
4.5/5
Women
Camille, another damaged heroine, scarred as a child in a fire, she teams up with Bond. Unusually there is never a suggestion of any hanky panky.
Even more tragic is Agent Fields a pen pusher given the job of collecting Bond at the airport and returning him to HQ. M blames Bond for her eventual death but let’s face it if M had given it enough thought she would have guessed the outcome, and sent a man or at least a less attractive female.
Bond has no other involvement with the ladies. The two main ones are tall, slim and functionally beautiful but somehow lack the qualities required to go down in Bond history.
3/5
Villains
Quantum villains Dominic Green (slimy and satisfying as The Lion King’s Timone would say) and Mr White. We also have General Medrano who was the man who killed Camille’s parents, Green’s sidekick Elvis who doesn’t seem bright enough to be a confidante nor tough enough to be a body guard, and most interestingly of all Yusef the man who broke Vesper’s heart.
At a stretch we should include Agent Beam who isn’t exactly a villain, but his corruption knows no bounds.
Generally three dimensional, but like the ‘Women’ this lot somehow fall short of being remembered amongst the elite of Bond’s finest nemeses. I like Medrano though, and Beam is a terrifically odious character beautifully played by David Harbour.
3/5
Humour
The humour is quite low key, but it’s there. Bond’s well known one liner about teachers on a sabbatical who have won the lottery works well, and when Mathis suggests Fields may have hand cuffs Bond leeringly replies ‘I do hope so’.
I enjoyed the rambling taxi driver and Mathis arguing with his mistress, but the visual jokes which worked in CR were less successful here. Fields tripping Elvis up and Elvis’s ridiculous hairpiece didn’t raise a titter and didn’t deserve to either.
The best line for me was Beam’s ‘’You’re right, we should only deal with nice people’’. It wasn’t particularly funny but I loved the irony.
3/5
Action
The ever divisive action sequences, with loads of shaky cam and fast edits.
I’m more or less ok with it all (as long as it didn’t become a staple of the series, which of course it didn’t) and now with hind site it looks like an heroically failed effort to update something that didn’t really need updating. Bond has a style that incorporates big action scenes with big laughs and real stunts, and like everything else in Bond’s world we can update, we can tweak, we can improve where possible. What we can’t do is throw it all out and start again. This is too new, too different. BUT there is plenty of it, therefore..
3/5
Sadism
Medrano’s treatment of the girl in the hotel is a little too unpleasant and makes me feel uncomfortable. We already know what he is like, we don’t need this kind of thing to be reminded.
Camille is mentally tortured as she is reminded of the fire that killed her family.
And heaven knows what poor Fields went through before she died. Thankfully we were spared that.
3.5/5
Music
I rather liked the music here and not even that averse to Jack White’s theme (although that comes from a White Stripes fan) 4/5
Locations
Sienna and Tuscany in Italy, the Tosca opera in Austria is beautifully and lovingly shot, Bolivia (including the desert), Haiti. I agree with SirH that the locations are original, well considered and nicely photographed 4/5
Gadgets
Were there any? Bond did some nifty photography at the Opera and transmitted the images back to M, but otherwise my mind is a blank.
1/5
Supporting Cast
My second favourite moment in the film is also the only laugh out loud moment I had with QOS, even though it wasn’t meant to be funny.
When Leiter is given the mobile phone to identify the man (Bond) who was following them, he pauses prior to looking at the phone, then he looks and pauses again. These pauses go on and on and the sudden and mind boggling amount of testosterone that bounces off the cabin walls is overwhelmingly funny. It should have been cringingly awful, but Jeffrey Wright understood something. This is a Bond film and moments like this are solid gold – he played it perfectly.
Elsewhere we have M and Tanner and the return of Mathis the only person Bond appears capable of trusting. All great characters.
And my favourite scene in QOS? At the end of the film Bond finally faces off with Yusef. Bond’s moment has arrived. Yussef is with his latest victim Corrine who has no doubt been feeding Yussef secret information from her job with Canadian intelligence.
Bond explains to Corrine what has been happening and dismisses her. In a quietly powerful and heart breaking moment Corrine murmurs a thank you to Bond.
No where else in the film is there any evidence that Marc Forster was capable of producing a moment bursting with this much tension that is packed with pathos and anguish. Whether it is down to the way the three actors deliver their performances I don’t know, but for 3 minutes Quantum Of Solace is a marvellous film.
5/5
Overall Impression 33/50
Some of this film works well. The Opera sequence, some of the action sequences, the last scene with Yussef all work well. The performaces of Jeffrey Wright, Daniel Craig, David Harbour, Joaquin Cosio, Judi Dench and Giancarlo Giannini were all top notch.
But this is a relatively short film and the pace it moves at suggests it should be snappy and exciting like Pierre Morel’s ‘Taken’ but when QOS quietens down it loses it’s edginess and at times becomes insufferably dull. The scenes at the dock when Medrano first appears are not long but they seem to go on for an eternity. It’s unforgiveable that a film with this much action should become tension free in between times. But it is what it is, a Bond film that somehow manages to be nothing better or worse than OK.
I love the same things you do, and especially the ending. I think the ending of QOS totally saved the film actually. Meaning, the film was flawed, and I hated the shaky cam and too quick cut editing .... but the ending was near flawless, emotional, expertly acted, and moving. I left the theatre on that note; and that helped tremendously.
Thank you @4EverBonded. Glad you saw that the same way I did. :-)
I agree, I love how Nic manages to efficiently compact so much thought in his reviews. Especially apropos was describing Gregory Beam as "odious", a perfect term. He is that indeed and a toad of a man besides between his weight and a mustache so bushy it no doubt hides remnants of earlier meals- I think that if he held out his arms and clapped I might mistake him for a walrus and throw him a fish. You can smell the stink of corruption that Nic mentions. Excellent insights.
Ratings update tonight, getting closer to Skyfall.
I thought that was what you meant. And I agree, Dan always gives a great Bond performance.
Absolutely! One of the things I love about this thread is that in the reviews there's a distinct difference between the acting and the characters, meaning that in so many reviews 'outside' stinky characters are seen as 'bad acting'. Beem is played exellently, and that walrus feeling is definately there. Especially when he's sitting next to Leiter when Bond calls. You can almost smell the fish!
I do hope Jeffrey Wright is in the next one, by the way; I really like his Leiter.
BOND 5 What can we say, Craig knocks it out of the park in his fine interpretation of our gentleman spy. though he is not very gentlemanly but high marks.
WOMEN 3 I just did not care for Camille. Olga K is attractive enough and the makeup gives her the exotic Latina look but I just did not care for her character. Agent Fields is good but does not receive enough screen time. The gratuitos (misspelled forgive me) sex scene between she and Bond was kinda out of left field. As if the writers assume the audience expects Bond to sleep with some (any) woman in a Bond film. This "by the numbers" harkens back to the worst of the Brosnan years.
VILLAINS 2 This is a real low point for the film and the series. People rank on the gallery of rogues in TLD but I take that bunch over this group of ...what? Greene is awful, Madrono is just so dispeciable that you only want to see him die in a horrible way. Aside from the brief appearances of Mr. White, the villians all sucked.
HUMOR 2 neither here nor there.
ACTION 4 Lots of action but it's just "there" because audiences come to expect it in a Bond film. Again more reliance on tradition rather than telling a story....
SADISM 4 The gruesome death of everyone's favorite Agent Fields, talk of Greene's final demise and the treatment of Mathias' corpse. I only wish they could have killed Madrona in a brutal way.
MUSIC 3
LOCATIONS 4 Had a feeling of being there and utilized. EVen if it was just a desert.
GADGETS 2 Nothing to write home about.
SUPPORTING CAST 5 The film has a great supporting cast. I do feel that Jeffrey is wasted, It was good to see him reprise his role as Felix Leiter but he is given so little to do. Dench is at the top of her game as always. The other actors did a good job as well, Leiter's CIA superior, Mathias, good. show.
OVERALL SCORE 34 or 3.4
I ask how can one film do everything so right while the sequel manages to do so many things wrong? The opening credits and song pale in comparison to the earlier film. The opening chase is good and the debriefing scene when White escapes , up to this point the film is doing okay then they had to start going all over the map with that silly revenge subplot for Camille, the stupid Dominic Greene storyline and all crap in the desert. Craig and the cast manages to save the film from being a total disaster.
My main compliant is that the plot is too convuluted with too many twists and subplots. Why EON insisted on making the plot so complitcated is beyond me. Had they stuck to the Mr. White/Vesper/CR ties this may have riviled CR. Maybe they did not feel that the straight sequels to the earlier film was good enough to carry the film.
I dont' know the reasoning but I did not need Madrano, Camille, Greene, and all that water, desert horseshytt.
My thought on OHMSS' main complaint about the convoluted plot is simple- with too many hands and ideas involved, this was bound to happen. They scrap the P&W script just in time for the strike thanks to Forster, which I have trouble understanding why they would do, let alone even allow. You have to be more aware of these things in this business and not assume it would work itself out. Then they have Haggis working half to death until the last minute and the job wasn't done. I guess Wilson must be in that union due to prior efforts from the 80's as evidently he bowed out from this at one point, although I have to wonder how much of his success was due to Maibaum. So as Craig indicated it was left to him and Forster and we know judging by this that they indeed aren't writers and should not have been forced into this position in the first place. Now we're up to 6 writers and here comes Zetumer to make it 7. I know why they didn't stop and regroup at this point with all the travel/location arrangements and contractual commitments to the crew already made, it would have been a huge financial loss with all the delays and obviously they were less concerned with the script and thought they could get away with it rather than taking it deservedly on the chin. Everything else that we see go wrong like the editing (mostly Forster's doing again) just compounds and makes it worse. The script issues for me are the primary reason the film was just "okay", but like Lancaster says Bond is Bond, Bourne is Bourne, and this hybrid experiment was not only unnecessary, but unsuccessful.
The small amount of screen time for Leiter did not bother me at all. It's a bit part to begin with, with a few exceptions such as DN and LTK of course, but I think the amount of what we got from Wright was about right. He had more dialogue and more scenes here than he did in CR, and like Nic says he played it all really well. As far as Medrano, agreed he could have had a more heinous and imaginative death. But there is no doubt whatsoever that it was right for Camille to show she wasn't once a Bolivian Secret Service agent for nothing, and for her to be the one to kill him.
Nic's points added up to 34, OHMSS' points were right on, and now we have majority reviews to put this one up in the ratings thanks to both getting their thoughts and scores in. Thus, there's been a change of plan. Instead of tonight, I'll post the update tomorrow. And while I'm at it, I might as well get Skyfall up and going too. I'm only sorry Kerim hasn't returned =((. Thankfully though, I have a backup plan and a very knowledgeable fellow original ready to jump in, someone who appreciates both Brosnan and Craig and knows his stuff, so we will see this through.
Until tomorrow then...
"Beam is a Walrus"
I like how Felix is all, "Excuse me, somebody? I'm sitting next to a walrus here. Anybody?" He kind of looks like Zach Galifianakis in "The Campaign" too, which makes it even harder to take the chump seriously.
He should be singing The Beatles song, shouldn't he? =))
And yeah, I love the look on Jeffrey's face, too.
If so, dear David Harbour please realize we say these walrus references in a good way - such a good actor, your character was an odious walrus for sure. :D
Yes, I wonder this as well, because I often ask myself, "Brady, if you were in a Bond film (especially a major role) would you scour Bond sites to see what the opinion of you or your film was?" I then ultimately say to myself, "Why yes, myself, indeed I would."
And so, if this should be true, I really hope I haven't spoken badly to a Bond actor in disguise, especially that of Daniel who I would like to think does such things as investigating Bond sites. It would also be slightly ironic if Michael or Barbara were one of the administrators or directors too (I always suspect @JamesPage of this).
But at this point, anything is speculation. ;)
Anyway, my QOS review will be in tomorrow I hope. I am looking forward to the update from SirHenry very much. It is hard to believe we are up to the point of reviewing Skyfall! It's been fantastic fun, and hard work, doing all these reviews. All feedback is appreciated from members.
@ Brady- Holy mackerel, it does appear Beam is offering to treat Felix to lunch ;)
1. Casino Royale (5/6 reviews)- 4.36
2. Goldfinger- 4.23
3. From Russia With Love- 4.20
4. The Living Daylights- 4.12
5. Thunderball- 4.10
6. Licence To Kill- 4.06
7. The Spy Who Loved Me- 4.05
8. On Her Majesty's Secret Service- 4.00
9. You Only Live Twice- 3.92
10. For Your Eyes Only- 3.90
11. Live And Let Die- 3.83
12. Octopussy- 3.73
13. GoldenEye (5/6 reviews)- 3.68
14. Dr. No- 3.62
15. Tomorrow Never Dies (5/6 reviews)- 3.52
16. Quantum Of Solace (4/6 reviews)- 3.38
17. A View To A Kill- 3.28
18. The Man With The Golden Gun- 3.13
19. The World Is Not Enough (5/6 reviews)- 3.08
20. Diamonds Are Forever- 3.02
21. Moonraker- 2.97
22. Die Another Day (5/6 reviews)- 2.68
Below is the updated list-
BROSNAN ERA, CASINO ROYALE- No votes from Kerim
QUANTUM OF SOLACE- No votes from 4EverBonded and Kerim
I know everyone is waiting for my Skyfall review, but you will have to wait just a little while longer. It's written and ready to go but won't appear until later this afternoon or this evening as I have some mundane matters to first attend to. I would like to thank my fellow originals in Lancaster, 4Ever, OHMSS, and of course NicNac for staying the course and helping us get to this point. It will be very interesting indeed when we've finished and can individually post our personal lists and thoughts against our collective poll and see how much we agree or disagree. That should be the next step and then hopefully we can come up with a weekly topic to keep us all involved. I've also really appreciated all the other feedback from our guests here, and have been gratified that you've enjoyed our work here.
As for Kerim, I don't know what to say except that I'm sure he would understand that we are at the point where we have to move on. I will honor his reviews through the Dalton era but we have seven more films that need to have a 6th person reviewing them. As soon as I double check with him to make sure he's still in on the plan, I'll come back to let everyone know who he is.
That's it for now. As always, I look forward to more thoughtful and well written reviews to come and hope you will all enjoy my Skyfall review later on. Have a great weekend everyone!
BOND- Brosnan got the Job this time around and to this day I cry that Dalton didn't take this gig, but what's done is done. Pierce was actually old enough here, not the tyke he was on Remington Steele. He brought back charm and humour to the role after Dalton's pitch-perfect hard & cold literary Bond. The change in tone was not jarring, just a bit of a throwback to the Connery/Moore cinematic Bond, but widely accepted by the public. I found his Bond very easy to like, and his repartee with M was particularly delightful. But most importantly, he seemed to enjoy the part. ...4/5
WOMEN- I liked Natalya, but the knock out for me was Xenia... easily the best henchwoman ever. - 4/5
VILLAINS- The movie shines here; Alec Trevelyan was the anti-Bond, and Sean Bean brought him to life stunningly. Ourumov was top notch as well. - 5/5
HUMOUR- While the 'Forgot to knock' intro line was both unnecessary and unfunny, most of the other humour in this film works well IMO. Dead centre between the likes of DAF & QoS.- 3.5/5
ACTION-From the PTS' bungee jump to the fight on the antenna platform, this movie pulled no punches. Brosnan's best fight ever and Meddings' final & memorable contribution to s**t blowing up in this series. -5/5
SADISM- Crushing rib cages during sex? Licking chops during machine gun executions? - 5/5
MUSIC- Éric Serra delivered a cold, echoey score that was, err, interesting... but not very Bond IMO. Only Turner's excellent song brings the score up some. - 2.5/5
LOCATIONS- Russia, Monte Carlo, London, Cuba... this flick is all over the place, & nicely photographed to boot. - 4/5
GADGETS- Actually not a whole lot. Exploding pen, the Goldeneye itself I suppose... always nice to see the Aston Martin though.- 3.5/5
SUPPORTING CAST- Samantha Bond, Robbie Coltrane, Desmond Llewelyn and the rest make for a nearly flawless supporting cast. - 4.5/5
OVERALL SCORE - An amazing film with a serious air drifting through it leftover from the Dalton movies, it scores 41 out of 50 points.
BOND- If Brosnan was comfortable by TND, he was a carpenter for this one because he nailed it. It was a fantastic blend of cinematic & literary Bond with a touch of Pierce's own real life pain thrown in. This is where he got to go dark..."I never Miss...". ...4.5/5
WOMEN- Sophie Marceau was a brilliant and oh-so-sexy Elektra; Denise Richards was nice eye candy, but not a lot more. - 4/5
VILLAINS- Robert Carlyle did a fine job as Renard though his character was a bit underwritten, however the real villain is actually Elektra (whoah, twist!) - 3.5/5
HUMOUR- Mainly a serious movie, the humour was limited to a stupid underwater tie-straightening, a good line from John Cleese, and a Moonraker-worthy final Christmas joke.- 2/5
ACTION-A terrific PTS followed by spotty action and a so-so climax. It all served the story, but nothing past the PTS was truly exceptional. - 3.5/5
SADISM- Dumping a body in the trash? A strangulation chair? Shooting the b***h? Pretty badass if you ask me. - 4.5/5
MUSIC- Arnold delivers yet another fine score reminiscent of but not limited to Barry! - 4/5
LOCATIONS- London, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea... not extensive, but not claustrophobic either. London was the highlight for me, personally. - 3.5/5
GADGETS- Q's retirement boat takes the cake. - 3.5/5
SUPPORTING CAST- Robbie Coltrane rocks again, Desmond Llewelyn has an emotional (for me) send off, but we have a little more of Judi Dench than was called for, I think. - 4/5
OVERALL SCORE - A noble effort with some great moments- 37 out of 50 points.
Let the sky fall...
BOND- By now Brosnan didn't need to try- he was so good at it. And the nonsense in the film tested him. Boy did it test him. No matter what the threw at him, he remained Bond. Well, there was a bad haircut during filming in Cuba... - 4/5
WOMEN- The normally hot Berry was so obnoxious in this that I actually realized Holly Goodhead wasn't that bad of a Bond girl after all. On the other hand, Rosamund Pike was astounding, and solely responsible for the score here. - 4/5
VILLAINS- Graves/Moon... what can I say, a decent actor, I guess, badly written... maybe if they had just- that Robo suit was- or that dude with the diamonds in his face... he...
screw it. - 2/5
HUMOUR- Yo Mama.- 2/5
ACTION-Lot of cool (!) CGI action mixed with some little bits of good car & hovercraft stuff & fights with lasers & stuff. - 3/5
SADISM- Diamond acne & laser amputation & a Firefly-like engine dive. - 3/5
MUSIC- David Arnold abides despite the mess. - 4/5
LOCATIONS- North Korea, Havana, Iceland, some pretty cool places to see, very diverse. - 4/5
GADGETS- An invisible car. An invisible car. - 2/5
SUPPORTING CAST- Madonna. Madonna. - 3/5
OVERALL SCORE - Despite my obvious contempt for the way this movie was produced/directed, there is still much fun to be had in a mindless sort of way, the score isn't bad, and Ms. Pike redeems quite a bit of it. 28 out of 50 points.