Quick Cuts

Some unfinished business
If, like critic Roger Ebert, what appealed to you about James Bond films in the past were the silly one-liners, the constant bedding of beautiful women, the elaborate gadgets, the over-the-top villains out for world conquest and the cute little running gags with the likes of Q and Miss Moneypenny, then the latest 007 flick, “Quantum of Solace,” is definitely not for you.

If, however, you’re like me and found all that Bond formula stuff a bit tiresome and welcomed the tossing out of much of the series “furniture” in the reinvention of the franchise with Daniel Craig’s hard-edged Bond in “Casino Royale,” then I expect you’ll thoroughly enjoy its sequel, “Quantum of Solace,” which opened this weekend.

Unlike “Casino,” “Quantum” is pretty much a lean, mean action machine with not much time taken out of its brisk 1 hour, 45 minutes for side trips and diversions. Bond is gunning for the folks responsible for his love Vesper’s death in “Casino,” and won’t let anything, including the CIA and his own government, get in his way. If he happens to mess up the plans of the shadowy group of bad guys, known as Quantum, while he’s at it, that’s a bonus.

As Christopher Nolan has done for another franchise with “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” the Craig 007 films are grittier and more reality-based than their predecessors. If that means Bond is more like the Jason Bourne films now, well, that’s certainly not a bad thing in my book.

Besides Craig, who manages to be a ruthless killing machine while also showing Bond’s damaged, vulnerable side, the best thing about the new film is the growing relationship between Judi Dench’s “M” and her bad-boy agent. The action set pieces are pretty spectacular, though Leslie and I agreed that director Marc Forster aped the second and third Bourne films a bit too much with all the disorienting super close-ups during the fights and chases. This was the first action film for Forster (“Monster’s Ball,” “Finding Neverland”) and I think it shows a tad, but not to the point of ruining the sequences.

Much to the consternation of some Bond fans, 007 only beds one of the two “Bond girls” in the film — Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton — and then only briefly. That’s not what Bond’s about on this mission of vengeance. But there is a nod to the past when one of them winds up dead on a bed covered in a valuable substance — black gold this time.

You still get the exotic locations, too, with Italy, Haiti and Bolivia among those featured this time around.

As for humor, there are none of groan-worthy puns or flippant jokes as Bond dispatches the bad guys; Craig’s 007 takes his work too seriously for that. Instead, the humor in the film is more subtle, as when Bond, who’s been eavesdropping on a Bluetooth conference of the villainous Quantum group at an opera performance suddenly breaks in on the conversation with, “Can I offer an opinion? I really think you people should find a better place to meet.”

While the story picks up only minutes after the end of “Casino Royale” and many of the characters are holdovers from that film, it is not absolutely necessary for you to have seen “Casino” to enjoy “Quantum.” It will enhance the viewing, however, since this is the only true sequel in the Bond series. In fact, this really should be considered “Casino Royale Part 2.”

By the end of the film, Bond has settled his “unfinished business” and when M tells him that she needs him back, he coolly says, “I never left.” And then, at the end, we get what was always the traditional opening of Bond films, with tuxedoed Craig caught in a rifle scope and turning to shoot at the screen, which then turns red. It’s as if to say, “OK, enough with the back story. NOW he’s James Bond.”

If there’s one quibble I have with the film, it’s the opening theme song, “Another Way to Die,” featuring Jack White and Alicia Keys. As I’ve said before, it’s got a nice guitar riff, but the hip-hop-influenced vocals seem out of place.

That’s a minor complaint, though. Overall, I really liked “Quantum of Solace.” As for those who think it’s an awful title, not only is it taken from one of Ian Fleming’s original Bond short stories, but it makes sense at the end of the film as Bond finally gets at least a portion of consolation.

A family note: Leslie also enjoyed “Quantum.” In fact, she liked it even more than “Casino Royale” because she’s not really an Eva Green fan. On the other hand, I am a big fan of Green’s (see my top Bond babes below), so I’d have to go with “Casino,” though “Quantum” comes close. On the other hand, my daughter Olivia didn’t really like this film because she found it too violent and missed the romantic relationship at the heart of “Casino Royale.” You can read her view at
http://ojpking.livejournal.com/

One more “Quantum” note: For those who miss the colorful names for Bond girls from the past, check the credits to find the first name of the ill-fated babe known in the film only as “Fields.” Hint: Think Beatles.

IN CONCERT: I took Olivia and my son Bill to see Coldplay perform at Atlanta’s Philips Arena this week and we all gave it a thumbs-up, with my son’s only complaint being that the band performed just an hour and a half and left out a couple of tunes he would have liked to hear. Leaving your audience wanting more isn’t really a bad thing, of course. While the bulk of the audience appeared to be folks under 30, there were a few geezers like me who appreciate the British band’s unceasingly melodic bent. They did favorites from the past (including “In My Place,” “Speed of Sound,” “Fix You” and “Yellow”) intermixed with numbers from their most recent album, “Viva La Vida.” They also threw a couple of curves, such as doing “techno” versions of “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk,” and even added a song for their second show in a week in Atlanta that they had not done previously on the tour, “Green Eyes.” Technically, the show mixed state-of-the-art touches such as colorful orbs hanging around the venue that sometimes doubled as video screens with old standbys like colored confetti falling from the rafters. Like the Rolling Stones, they also ventured out to satellite stages amid the fans for several numbers. All in all, it was arena rock at its best, artfully presented.

MORE AT THE MOVIES: Among the coming attractions we saw before the Bond film were previews for a couple of films that look promising. One, due in February, is “The International,” starring Clive Owen in a thriller where the villain is an international bank up to no good. Showing up in theaters before that will be “Valkyrie,” the plot-to-kill-Hitler adventure with Tom Cruise. You can see the Valkyrie preview at:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/valkyrie.html?showVideo=1

At the theater where my daughter saw “Quantum,” they also had a preview for another Daniel Craig picture, the World War II resistance adventure “Defiance,” opening in December. She said it looked like a must-see. I found a trailer for the film online and agree. You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8OI0JP50

ON THE TUBE: Longtime readers will know I grew up enjoying Ed Sullivan, Andy Williams, the Smothers Brothers and so on in the golden age of the variety hour on TV and would welcome its return. There are some baby steps being taken in that direction, with TBS doing another Ellen DeGeneres variety special Nov. 29 and Rosie O’Donnell hosting a variety special on NBC on Nov. 26, the night before Thanksgiving, that might lead to a regular series. And, in the tradition of Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell and other hitmakers who hosted variety hours in the past, singer-songwriter John Mayer is in talks about a possible weekly variety show to debut on CBS next year. Maybe, with network TV watching its audience share erode, the time is right for variety’s return, as it could offer the cheaper production costs of reality TV only with people actually worth watching.

QUICKIES: Originally it had been announced that the new season of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” would start this month on USA, but now it’s been pushed back to early 2009 so that the season’s 16 episodes can air uninterrupted. … Moviefone did a poll on fans’ favorite Bond girls and it was topped by Ursula Andress, who made one of the most memorable movie entrances of all time in that white bikini as Honey Ryder in “Dr. No” in 1962 (and also played Vesper Lynd in the 1967 spoof version of “Casino Royale,” a role later played by Eva Green in the official “Casino”). The rest of the Top 10 in the poll in descending order: Halle Berry, Kim Basinger, Barbara Bach, Denise Richards, Evan Green, Isabella Scorupco, Jane Seymour, Britt Ekland and Jill St. John. What’s with these polls? No Diana Rigg??!! My own favorite Bond girls in ascending order: Carole Bouquet as Melina in “For Your Eyes Only,” Luciana Paluzzi as the deadly Fiona in “Thunderball,” Maryam D’Abo as Kara in “The Living Daylights,” Izabella Scorupco as Natalya in “GoldenEye,” Barbara Bach as Anya in “The Spy Who Loved Me,” Jane Seymour as Solitaire in “Live and Let Die,” Diana Rigg as Tracy (who briefly becomes Bond’s wife) in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and Eva Green as Vesper in “Casino Royale.” The worst? Tanya Roberts in “A View to a Kill.” And creepiest? Teenager Lynn Holly-Johnson trying to bed old-enough-to-be-her-grandfather Roger Moore in “For Your Eyes Only.”

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Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Oldies

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