The new Bond movie has a ripped-from-the-documentary-channel feel at points, with a villain plottting to control water in the third world and sell it back to poor people at a profit. Real villains are doing just that as we speak. Quantum of Solace leavens that realism with some giddy, over-the-top action, including a fight wherein Bond and an assassin are dangling from construction ropes in a Sienna cathedral in mid-restoration.
Daniel Craig's Bond doesn't have much of a sense of humour or libido this time around, grieving as he is for the girlfriend he lost in Casino Royale.Thus, current Bond babe Olga Kurylenko was much hotter in the downmarket vidgame adaptation Hitman. And continuing in the recent tradition of revisiting classic Bond scenes, there's a death scene that's a visual nod back to Goldfinger.
Not quite up to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace still beats anything from the Brosnan years, so the series will go on — as if there was any doubt. In an intriguing exchange near the movie's end, Bond asks one lovely: "You're Canadian intelligence, aren't you?"
Canadian intelligence? That drew a chuckle at a Vancouver screening. But here's a thought for Craig's third Bond flick — bring that character back and give her the big role as the Bond babe: "James I felt the earth move, eh?"