Quantum of Solace: Review By B. Alan Orange

This relentless piece of pop spy action never stops moving. James Bond comes on like Bruce the Shark. He never stops thrusting forward, teeth bared, ready to chow down on whichever victim gets caught in his path. For all intents and purposes, Daniel Craig might as well be the new Terminator. He certainly has more in common with that stalking piece of fleshy metal than he does any incarnation of James Bond up until this point. Sexy, strong, and built like a brick sh*t house, he’s not exactly the guy you’d have over for evening tea and crumpets. I don’t see this guy mocking up a parody of himself in a Cannon Ball Run remake ala Roger Moore anytime soon. Craig has created a whole new persona with his Bond. He made this steely-eyed cad work wonders in Casino Royale, and now, with Quantum of Solace, he continues running down his own one-man path of total ass kickery without tripping or falling at all. He is unstoppable. Heck, the guy barely makes time for martinis and strawberry haired vixens, let alone a bathroom break. He is liquid silver rolling down a slanted tin roof at 100 miles per hour.

Bond 22 may not be the best 007 adventure to ever come our way, but it certainly is the liveliest film to come out of this hard-boiled franchise in the last twenty years. Despite a few memorable action set pieces sprinkled throughout its run in the past, most Bond movies bore the living snot out of me. And their plots tend to confuse my simpleton brain. Not here. This thing doesn’t breath until midway through closing credits. When you hear “non-stop” action thrown in the face of whatever new adventure movie is out there, it usually means that the film in question moves at a brisk pace. Not Quantum of Solace. It truly is non-stop, and you will either see that as a good thing, or a bad thing. It all depends on your affections for this swarthy British secret agent. When you have this much constantly buzzing electric energy, some of the plot is going to get tossed off the side of a cliff. Yeah, there isn’t much of a story here. Things aren’t fleshed out in crayon scribbles. It goes and goes, and goes. And then its over. Thing is, Quantum of Solace never allows you any time to question it’s lack of detailed character building.

The story picks up right where Casino Royale left off. Vespa has been killed, Bond has been betrayed, and our favorite secret agent has Mr. White in the spacious trunk of his brand new Astin Martin. In an opening scene curbed from Lethal Weapon 2, things kick of with a high-speed chase through the mountains of Italy. The lights go down, the curtain goes up, and we’re there with Bond as he skirts through gunfire and head-on truck collisions. It takes us a moment to catch our breath, because we aren’t necessarily expecting such wattage to zap us right out of the gate. Most movies would then slow down to a crawl with at least twenty minutes of boring spy-tinged exposition. Not QOS. It has another agenda up its sleeve.

After the high octane car chase, we are treated to one of the most beautifully rendered, artfully tasteful, and just down right cool Bond opening montages seen in many a moon. It is helped along by the film’s rousing new theme song “Another Way to Die”, written by Jack White and sung by White with Alicia Keyes. As an audience, we expect the film to slow down from here. And it does for about two seconds. Bond and M are about to interrogate Mr. White. Things look like they are about to get really talky and boring. Then boom! Before we can blink, Bond is on a foot chase that sees him leaping from the rooftops of tall buildings and narrowly being trampled by a horse at the racetrack. Next thing you know, he is chasing someone on a motorcycle, and then he is taking over an aircraft. Every other vehicle or means of transportation is utilized in this prolonged segment which makes up more than most of the film’s running time. Each new stunt tries to out do the other. There is a very elegantly staged shootout at an opera, and an exploding army fortress powered by solar panels. We get parachutes, liquor, and Jeffery Wright all thrown our way in exciting equal measure. First time Bond director Marc Foster, the man behind Stranger Than Fiction and Monster’s Ball, does everything in his power to make this a buffet style joint that won’t disappoint those hungry for bullets and babes.

Yes. It’s a fact. Foster has not forgotten about the requisite Bond girl. Here, we get two flavored hotties. First up is Camille, played by Olga Kurylenko. She is a super sexy olive skinned minx that is out for revenge. She teams up with Bond to stop an environmental baddie played by Mathieu Amalric (who, for some odd reason, bares a striking resemblance to banned director Roman Polanski). Camille is full of rage and anger, and never really has any time to get naked with 007. So, the story quickly introduces a fetching winch by the name of Strawberry Fields. Before you can say, “Whoa!” She is naked and wrapped around Daniel Craig’s body in a means to keep the action going. Of course, she later turns up dead and covered in black crude oil. It’s a neat little nod to Goldfinger, and you sort of have to see it to understand its sheer awesomeness.

Quantum of Solace is a thoroughbred workhorse. It wants to entertain you with all of its heart, and it accomplishes just that. It’s a back handed bitch slap that, if you’ve been keeping up with this series for the last twenty years, you might not be expecting. That loss of equilibrium is sure to throw off some fans. But so what? They won’t have any time to realize their disappointment while watching the film. Only when they are in their car, heading home, will they suddenly realize that they got gypped on a fully fleshed out story. I say, “Who needs that? This is Bond! Just keep bringing the highly stylized energy.”

I, for one, have developed a new found interest in this action-packed franchise. Quantum of Solace gets a big Whoop-Doo!

(All of B. Alan Orange’s reviews are based on the Boo! or Whoop-doo! evaluation system.)