Quantum of Solace

I hadn't blogged about a movie in a while, but that doesn't mean that I haven't seen any movies. In fact, I've probably watched more movies than ever. I seem to have almost stopped watching tv altogether and occupy my entire free time at night with a movies. Don't get me wrong. I'm not watching movies all night. The truth is that the kids and the wife usually go to bed around 9pm, leaving me on my own for an hour an a half or so. Rather than wasting my time watching the horrible mix of shows that the major networks dump on us, I watch movies. It usually takes me 2 nights to watch an entire movie. I enjoy it as it is mindless entertainment. I love to read, but work and kids and everything else leaves me too tired to read much at night.

So today's posting is about a movie that I didn't watch at home - Quantum of Solace. My supervisor takes my coworker and me to the movies as presents. That's fine with me. I had a supervisor who gave Starbucks giftcards. Sounds great - if you drink coffee, which I don't. I don't need crap, so the movies are the perfect gift.

So Quantum of Solace is the newest James Bond movie and it is a sequel to Casino Royale. Not many James Bond movies are sequels (I think not since the early 1970's), but this one is an exception.

If you recall, in Casino Royale, the always attractive French Eva Green (check out The Dreamers) played Vesper Lynd. She was the treasury agent assigned to watch the money that he lost in a high-stakes poker game when he was trying to get close to Le Chiffre. He ended up falling in love with her, only to find out she stole the money that was being used in the game, and then she died. However, he learned that she did what she did to spare his life and now he was out to avenger her death.

Back to Quantum of Solace. Bond ends up pursuing Dominic Greene, the quasi-evil-environmentalist along with new lady hottie, Olga Kurylenko, who is also seeking revenge. Bond, again, threatens to resign from the agency and M (Judy Dench) lays the hammer down on him to keep him at bay. But like a good Bond character he is more resourceful than they give him credit. M questions whether he is pursuing this missing from as an agent or as someone seeking revenge. We all know the answer. The long pursuit sends Bond through Bolivia cities and finally into the Bolivian desert. The movie includes many twists and double-crosses and is very similar in style (Surprise!) to Casino Royale.

I don't want to write too much about the movie because I recommend that you see it for yourself. But as a review of the movie, I would have to agree with Roger Ebert, which would parallel my opinion of the Casino Royale. Quantum of Solace, while a great action movie, is so different as a James Bond movie that I have a difficult time buying into the new style. Roger Ebert says that James Bond is not Jason Bourne. I agree. Too much of the movie was focused on fighting, running, chasing, blowing up, and shooting. In my opinion, the only opinion that matters, James Bond should be more about dialog, deception, critical thinking, and analysis, and most importantly - chasing women.

So from a ratings perspective, I'll rate this movie from a non-James Bond point-of-view. This is a GREAT action movie. Lots of excitement, suspense, and treachery. I give this movie 4 stars. It is rated PG-13 for violence, some language, and sexual innuendo.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for a James Bond movie. I know. The movies are usually hokey. He always gets the girl. Or, more accurately, he gets lots of girls. I think this makes him a slut. But I'm still drawn to the movie and I'm going to make you read about it.


On Comcast OnDemand this week they have several James Bond movies. I am still in the cycle of trying to rewatch the movies as I have seen them all at one point, but many I haven't seen for 20 years. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of those that I have not seen in a long time.


After playing James Bond for several movies, Sean Connery stepped down and George Lazenby was selected. Some interesting points - it was the only Bond movie for George. He later went on to star in some more important movies - the Emmanuel series of European skin flicks. Connery later returned and did another Bond movie before the role was offered to Timothy Dalton.

No, you say. It went to Roger Moore. Correct. Timothy Dalton turned down the offer saying that he was too young for the role. He went on to star in Flash Gordon and Roger Moore became the new James Bond. Dalton was reoffered the role after Moore retired from the role.

Another interesting note is in one scene a janitor is seen emptying the trash and whistling the theme to Goldfinger.


But enough about that. This movie is actually the third in the trilogy. Wait - there are +25 James Bond movies! Correct. However, there was a trilogy in the series. Many of the movies dealt with the evil scientist and his organization known as SPECTRE. However, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Diamonds are Forever are the trilogy of an ongoing story line. SPECTRE continued to make appearances in later Bond movies, but a new terrorist organization known as Quantum is the new villain in both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.


The story line of OHMSS, Bond is initially relieved of his duty and resigns, but Money Penny cleverly changes his resignation into a request for a leave of absence. Bond uses this as an opportunity to infiltrate SPECTRE to absolve himself of a perceived failure. However, along the way he keeps running into and eventually falls in love with Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo. In my opinion, she is one of the most influential characters in all of the Bond movies and she is mentioned in later movies, including The Spy Who Loved Me, License To Kill, and in For Your Eyes Only.


Back to OHMSS, Bond is able to infiltrate SPECTRE, which eventually leads to him being discovered, a gun battle, and his ultimate escape. This follows most of the Bond movie plots. In the end, Contessa Teresa helps him escape. Their love is stronger than ever and Bond asks her to marry him. They get married and they drive away eventually stopping on a cliff-side perch to remove flowers from the car. A passing car containing Blofield opened fire on them and Tracy is killed. The ending is emotional and Bond is visibly distraught, almost to the point of denial. As mentioned previously, she is mentioned in later movies and in For Your Eyes Only, Bond lays a wreath on her gravestone.


Of the Bond movies that I have seen (I have yet to see Quantum of Solace), I think On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best movies. Lazenby was an excellent Bond and one can only imagine how successful he would have been had he stayed with the character.


Overall, I give this movie 4 stars. There is a lot of gun violence, explosions, subtle sexual references, some not so subtle sexual references, and some partial nudity, not that there's anything wrong with that.


If you're a Bond fan, don't forget about this movie. It's one of the best.

Dr. No

The first of the James Bond movies, this 1962 classic stars Sean Connery, the man born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who most often plays British and Russian spies. Dr. No was not the first book that Ian Fleming wrote. In fact, it wasn't even his second. Dr. No fell 6th in the series of the 14 James Bond books that he wrote. The first book was Casino Royale, the movie most recently made with Daniel Craig.

In this movie, we are introduced to James Bond and he is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of a British agent, John Strangways. Once there, the local henchmen are quickly on to this agent and several unsuccessful attempts are made to exterminate him. Bond hooks up with his CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter, who was originally played by Jack Lord, best known for his sideburns when he played Steve McGarrett in the Hawaii Five-O series. (For you young whipper-snappers, Hawaii was the 50th state and the police refer to themselves as the 5-0, meaning 50th.)

Bond works with Lieter and they get a local to take him to Crab Keys, the dangerous island protected by a dragon that scares off the locals. There, he meets the Bond girl of the movie, Honey Ryder. Once there they are attacked by Dr. No's henchmen and taken inside the secret facility. This is where Dr. No plans to use his radioactive missile technology to disrupt the United States space program. And it's also a place where Dr. No honors Adolph Hitler. Remember, this movie came out only 17 years after World War II.

In the end, Bond, James Bond defeats Dr. No, foils his plans to destroy the space program, blows up the secret facility, and ends up rolling around in the boat with Honey Ryder. Not bad for a day's pay.

This movie is 1:48 minutes long. It is rated PG for some suggestive sexual content and mild violence. I give this movie 4 stars, mostly because of its sentimental value. It's the first James Bond movie, it stars Sean Connery, and the bond girl has a cool name.

A View To A Kill

The next James Bond movie in my repertoire, A View To A Kill is probably the one I remember the most. This movie was released in 1985, when I was 13 years old. This is when I really started to appreciated James Bond movies. Heck, it may have been the first James Bond movie I ever saw.

This Roger Moore-based Bond flick also stars Christopher Walken, who, believe it or not is going to be 65 years old this year, as the crazy (if you can believe that) Max Zoran, Tanya Roberts (of Charlie's Angels fill-in and recently on That 70's Show), and Grace Jones (Conan the Destroyer). This is also probably the first movie that I saw a black woman kiss a white guy - not that there's anything wrong with that.

This bond film is short on corny Bond-isms, but high on nice looking ladies scenes. The action is solid throughout the film, though I did think that Bond's multiple escapes from certain death a little over the top.

Christopher Walken is classic cocky, confident, and arrogant, which makes for a perfect villain. He's the result of a German genetic experiment who has used his genetic genius to his advantage. Bond is out to bring him to justice.

Like all Bond films, the bad guy loses and the good guy wins and the movie ends with Bond in the sack with the pretty lady - which is not a bad thing. I give this movie 3 stars. I still like the classic Sean Connery Bond films more, not Moore. However, I do have good memories of watching this film with my good friend Brian. As you probably can tell, sentimental value helps to increase the rating of my movies.

Moonraker

Produced in 1979, Moonraker is easily the worst James Bond movie ever made, though adjusted for inflation, it produced more revenue than the subsequent Bond movies up until Daniel Craig's Casino Royale.

This Roger Moore-based Bond movie has him tracking down Hugo Drax, the evil scientist, leader of Drax Industries, who has designed and developed several space shuttles. The one delivered to the United States is mysteriously hijacked and Bond must find it. Drax's idea is to take a super race of humans to outer space, destroy the Earth, then repopulate the Earth with his new super race.

Along the way, Bond meets metal-mouthed Jaws (Richard Kiel) and Dr. Holly Goodhead, which we assumes she does.

In his quest to stop Drax, he must hi-jack his own space shuttle into outer space to stop them from blowing up the Earth.

Of course, Bond succeeds, but only with the quick thinking of NASA which sends up their own shuttles with armed space soldiers who fight a galactic laser battle with the Drax soldiers. The whole movie loses all credibility at this point.

On succeeding, he begins his flight back to the Earth, but not before shacking up with the beautiful Dr. Goodhead. Much to his surprise, Q has decided to remote into the vehicle and simulcast to Buckingham Palace and the White House congratulate him, only to catch him in the midst of re-entry.

I give this movie 2 stars. Of the Bond movies, I liked this one the least. It just bordered ridiculous, rather then inspiring. The best part of this movie was the silhouettes of the naked women at the beginning.

Thunderball

Thunderball is the 9th of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, though the fourth in the series of movies. Adjusted for inflation, it was the most successful James Bond film grossing $924 million using 2007 adjusted numbers.

Made during the Sean Connery era, the movie often resembles the special effects of the same-era Batman tv show. For example, you can tell the boat is going really fast when they speed up the camera. And the only thing missing from the fight scenes are the "Ka-Pow!!" and "Blam!!!".

However, don't let this deter you from watching this movie. The chauvinistic Bond never disappoints. In one scene, one of the beautiful starlets lies in the bath tub when he walks in. I bit stunned, she asks if he can hand her something to put on. He reaches out and hands her a pair of shoes.

And for the corny-coolness factor, when asked what Bond does for a living, he responds, "I'm sort of a licensed trouble-shooter."

I rate this movie 4 stars. There are enough one-liners that will keep you laughing. However, if you are like me and aspire to be cool, this Bond film gives you a healthy dose of things you wish you could say on the spot and do as a secret British agent.

On a side note, the movie was remade in 1983 and called Never Say Never Again. The plot is nearly the same and this time Domino is portrayed by Kim Basinger. Additionally, Never Say Never Again ran in theaters during the same year as a competing Bond film, the titillatingly titled Octopussy.