Bad..James Bad

QUANTUM OF SOLACE-2008-This is the second of the "new" James Bond films and takes up soon after the last one. Daniel Craig returns as the blond haired 007, a violent, no nonsense killing machine who although on the side of good mostly seems like some out of control cyborg from a Jeff Wincott video.

Judi Dench once again plays M, looking a lot less like she's smelling some foul odor than she did in previous outings and leading lady Olga Kurylenko (CENTURION) is pretty forgettable.

Bond is out to avenge the death of his lover from CASINO ROYALE but winds up getting involved with a guy who wants to help a dictator regain power in Bolivia so he can buy up the water rights! Though this is action packed it's ultimately a little disappointing. For one the filmmakers take several shots at the US especially that they are turning a blind eye to the events going on because they want oil. This coming from the country that let the Lockerbie bomber out of jail so it could get an oil deal from Libya?! Two, though Jeffery Wright returns a Felix Leiter, he's more or less a stooge/wimp and most importantly number three: What has happened to the Bond villains?

Toward the end of the Roger Moore series there seemed to be a deliberate shift away from a super villain type bad guy to some ordinary sneering known it all. Once there was Goldfinger, Dr. No, hell even Jaws but at least it was something. In this one we get Mathieu Almaric (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) as some bug eyed wimpy whiner who somehow almost manages to beat Bond in the climax with an axe!

Giancarlo Giannini returns from the last film also. The one woman Bond has sex with in this film winds up killed with fuel oil in a nod to GOLDFINGER. The end credits only say "James Bond Will Return". Director Marc Forster had made MONSTER'S BALL and FINDING NEVERLAND.

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Bond..

CASINO ROYALE-2006-It’s a ironic that the most serious and violent adaptation of a James Bond story would be the one that was first done as a comedy. Blond haired James Craig is a very different 007: a detached anti-hero with a big ego and violent tendencies. Still in a film world where every leading man is a detestable jerk, Craig at least holds your interest and makes you want to see more of him in action. The stunts and action scenes are the usual over the top kind but very well done. A murky torture scene (although part of the original novel) seems unnecessary however. Bond has a wild ride on a gasoline truck, gets poisoned and plays high stakes poker.

Craig had had supporting roles in movies like TOMB RAIDER THE ROAD TO PERDITION MUNICH and THE JACKET. Director Martin Campbell had directed GOLDENEYE with Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Also with Eva Green (from Bertolucci’s THE DREAMERS), Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffery Wright and returning Judi Dench as “M”.

The original film version of CASINO ROYALE was first adapted for American TV in the '50's with Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond".

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Invasion of The Inept Film Makers

THE INVASION-2007-Nicole Kidman tries to save her Hollywood movie career by starring in this new adaptation/remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (based on the book by Jack Finney).

She plays a psychiatrist who notices people are “changing” after a space shuttle crashes and spreads a flu like disease. Current James Bond portrayer Daniel Craig is her scientist boyfriend. The transformed humans do a lot of spitting into the faces of their intended victims. Alien police round up people who show emotion. Kidman pops a lot of pills and washes it down with Mountain Dew.

The whole intent of the original story is kind of twisted here. Where as in the original version aliens taking over human beings against their will and turning them into emotionless drones, stealing their individuality and making them incapable of feelings like love was to say the least a pretty evil act! However in this version the aliens are actually seen as a force for good because while people might lose their emotions they have somehow eradicated the war in Iraq and gotten George Bush and Hugo Chavez to work together (and get oil for NYC!).

You would think that Kidman would have seen her ex-husband’s WAR OF THE WORLDS remake and learned from his mistakes.

Also with Veronica Cartwright (who was in Phillip Kaufman’s 1978 version), Jeffery Wright, Jeremy Northam, Josef Sommer and Roger Rees. Former video action star Jeff Wincott is a small role as a cop.

This was the first English language film by German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (THE DOWN FALL). After it was finished the studio (Warner Bros.) was unhappy with his final cut and brought in THE MATRIX brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski to do some re-writing and James McTeigue (V IS FOR VENDETTA) to direct some new scenes. This may account for dismal premise and the shoddy ending that ties everything up and makes no real sense.

"The road to a friend’s house is never long"-Danish proverb

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