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.

Thanks for reading!

Darkness

DARKNESS-2002-Interesting little horror film that never got the big screen attention it probably deserved (especially considering the state of horror films these days).

An American family moves to a house in Spajn that turns out to be haunted. The mother (Lena Olin) and the daughter (Anna Paquin) fight a lot. The father (Iain Glen) has a psychotic episodes and the young son (Stephan Enquist) draws weird pictures. It turns out the house was built by some devil worshippers decades before in a failed attempt to end the world with the murders of 7 children. Yep, you guessed! They’re going for round 2! Giancarlo Gianni is their grandfather.

This not a typical gory horror film and uses suspense and good acting to carry it. Not for everyone I guess. Director Jaume Balaguero made another horror film I'd like to see called {REC].

Thanks for reading!

Monkey Gone To Heaven

CQ-2002-When your dad is an Academy Award winning director who owns his own movie studio you can do anything you want! Roman Coppola has. He wrote and directed this weird "81/2" like story which takes most of it's influence from French "new wave" films.

Jeremy Davies (who later played Charles Manson in a TV remake of HELTER SKELTER) is a young film editor who winds up helming a troubled sci-fi film in Paris after 2 directors are fired (one is played by Gerald Depardieu). Model Angela Lindvall is pretty hot as the film within a film's heroine named Dragonfly. Giancarlo Giannini (who was in HANNIBAL the same year) is the Dino DeLaurentis (?) like producer. Sofia Coppola has a small role as his wife and Dean Stockwell, Billy Zane and John Phillip Law have supporting roles. I kind of wanted to like this movie but it's too boring and pretentious.



THE FAIRY FAITH-2001-This short film features interviews with people (mostly from Ireland) who believe fairies exist. A short history of their legend is also included. An artist shows off his "fairy inspired" paintings and another gentlemen uses a kind of divining rod to find "fairy energy" on a hilltop. I would have liked it better if they'd captured the little guys on film though.....



Thanks for reading this!

PS-The title has nothing to do with this post. I just felt like using it!