The villains sit rows apart in a giant outdoor theater, whispering into their earpiece-microphones as a chorus belts ``Tosca'' on stage. Bond has the same device, and can hear everything they say.
``I really think you people should find a better place to meet,'' says Bond, disrupting the chatter. The villains walk out one by one, while their bodyguards track British Secret Agent 007 in a sequence entwined with the ``Tosca'' stabbing scene.
Bond is back -- with ``Quantum of Solace,'' and Daniel Craig again in the title role. The Sony Corp. film is directed by Marc Forster (``The Kite Runner,'' ``Stranger than Fiction''), not Martin Campbell, who helped make ``Casino Royale'' (2006) the highest-grossing Bond movie of all.
``Quantum'' has the right ingredients: plenty of car, plane or boat chases -- I counted four just in the first half hour -- not to mention spooks, vendettas, and turncoats.
Filming is done in more countries than any Bond picture: Italy, the U.K., Austria, Panama, Chile and Mexico. The technology is state-of-the-art; the gizmos slicker than ever. Producers have gone all the way: ``Quantum,'' according to the trade publication Screen International, cost some $225 million.
What's missing is magic, and a decent plot. Director Forster has been dealt a weak hand: The story is based on an idea that producer Michael G. Wilson had as a follow-up to ``Casino Royale,'' not on any Ian Fleming novel (though the title comes from a Fleming short story.) Writers Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were hired to script it.
Speeding Story
Forster, new to Bond movies, seems determined to give today's jaded, been-there-done-that audiences faster-than-ever action. In his push to outdo the past, he sacrifices the story.
Here's how the plot works. A skinny French villain with greasy hair is scheming to put a general from Bolivia in charge of the country and control its natural resources. The general is burly, mustachioed, and piggish around women.
Also pursuing the general is Camille, a tanned, pouty young woman who, in typical Bond style, manages to pull vertiginous stunts in a miniskirt and spaghetti straps, and walk away with no more than a few comely cheek stains. Camille is played, not unconvincingly, by Ukrainian-born Olga Kurylenko.
Bond, the do-gooding spy, has a few scores to settle after experiencing love, betrayal, and loss in ``Casino Royale.'' Along the way, he meets Camille, a couple of CIA agents, and a cute redhead from the British consulate in Bolivia, who is paid by Her Majesty's Government to rein him in.
Cowboy Boots
Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton), in nothing but a trenchcoat and cowboy boots, books Bond into a decrepit Bolivian hotel. Bond switches to a palatial suite, and reels her in with the words, ``I can't find the stationery. You come and help me look.''
Otherwise, 007 doesn't seduce much; those who liked the love- bitten Bond of ``Casino Royale'' get a hardened, bitter spy. He bumps off many guys, most of them needlessly, prompting his boss M (Judi Dench) to deadpan, ``If you could avoid killing every possible lead, it would be deeply appreciated.''
Dench brings tongue-in-cheek humor to her role as the tough spy mistress. And Craig's performance, despite the feeble script, is very real. We are spared the ``Bond, James Bond'' chestnut line, and the cheesy spectacle of his pecs on the beach, though he appears shirtless a few times. Craig is definitely a keeper; he will star in the next Bond film, too.
The disappointer is Mathieu Amalric as the villain Greene -- an unfortunate name for a bad guy with ecological pretensions. Amalric, who gave a magisterial performance as the paraplegic editor in Julian Schnabel's ``The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,'' is phony here. His presence seems part of a trend in suave French baddies; he recalls Vincent Cassel in Steven Soderbergh's ``Ocean's Thirteen'' (2007).
In its zeal to surpass expectations, ``Quantum'' underperforms. A meatier plot, rooted in the Ian Fleming material, would help next time. Rating: **.
``Quantum of Solace,'' from Sony Corp., opens on Oct. 31 in the U.K. and France, and Nov. 14 in the U.S.
(Farah Nayeri writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
What the Stars Mean:
**** Excellent
*** Good
** Average
* Poor
(No stars) Worthless
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The general is burly, mustachioed, and piggish around women.
LMAO
Edited by bondrules, 31 October 2008 - 06:10 PM.