Paid movie critics seem to be leaving Quantum of Solace in a state of shock, wringing their hands and wondering whatever happened to the "classy" James Bond of yesteryear.
It's always fun when critics whine. Here is David Edelstein, just warming up on the theme song: The movie opens with a car chase that’s a hash, but nowhere near as ghastly as the theme song that follows, an anti-fusion of Jack White’s caterwauls and Alicia Keys’s breathy soul stylings called “Another Way to Die.” Worst Bond theme ever? Let’s just say Madonna is now off the hook for “Die Another Day.”
Here is Anthony Lane, on the film's title: Impact is what “Quantum of Solace” is about. The title is too frail by far. Someone should have called it “Total of Wreckage.” Or “Batter of Ram.” Lane continues in this vein, but then goes on to ponder how this film managed to haunt him beyond the exit door.
Even as prone as I am to nostalgia, the "standard" of former James Bonds strikes me as too shaky a proposition to merit serious consideration. For the most part, Connery and Moore capably justified a trip to the cinema, where the other three struggled to distract. I suspect Lane's observations are closer to the money -- my money, at least. Daniel Craig remains firmly in step with Connery, enticing me and my wife to join the theater queue.
Links: Metacritic is underwhelmed; my wife and I spent a date on Casino Royale and enjoyed ourselves.
6 comments:
I'm with you, WP. I'll be off this weekend to see the latest 007 on th ebig screen. My spouse, unlike yours, unfortunatlely cares not for pyrotechnic heroics involving bad loud music and clenched fists and exploding muscles.
I'll have to wallow in my adolescence alone.
Yeeee HAWWWW!
I shall be with you in (adolescent) spirit, DV. Ba-dup - BAH-DAAAAAAAH!!
Am I the only one who thinks the new Bond is just a rip-off of the WWE's "Stone Cold" character?
Is this the guy you're talking about? Bring back the leisure suit, baby!
Quantum of Solace is entertaining at least... a lot of high quality visuals, but the movie as a whole could stand to lose six or seven fewer chase scenes
I've not yet seen QOS, but when I recently rented Casino Royale to watch it for the second time, I found myself skipping all of the chase scenes except for the first, when Bond sprints after the baddie in a construction site. Contrast that scene with the scene in Venice inside the sinking house, and there I was, glancing at my watch. The first seemed genuinely perilous, the second seemed to take place in an artfully construed set.
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