Posted on 01 March 2008 by Filmonic

We heard last week how Paul Haggis, writer of Quantum Of Solace, didn’t actually know what Quantum Of Solace meant. Well hopefully the new plot summary below will make things clearer for him…an us.

“‘Quantum of Solace’ continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (Daniel Craig) in ‘Casino Royale.’ Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal.

Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (Judi Dench) interrogate Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), who reveals the organization which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined. Forensic intelligence links an MI6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman who has her own vendetta.

Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organization. On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world’s most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). Using his associates in the organization, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.

In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene’s sinister plan and stop his organization.”

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Premiere talks to Bond's new nemesis, Mathieu Amalric, on set in Panama about idyllic islands, Bond babes, and why he really took that part in 'Marie Antoinette.'

By Karl Rozemeyer

Read the first part of Premiere's interview with Mathieu Amalric.

Premiere's interview with Mathieu Amalric from the set of the 22nd Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is interrupted several times. Filming is taking place in Panama's second city, Colón, a port on the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, and the actor is called away more than once to complete a film sequence. "Yeah, it's very busy. I had a big scene," he says. As are most actors from the highly secretive Bond 22 sets, Amalric is a little evasive on the subject. He fails to divulge much more about the details of the day's shoot other than that he displays the "habits of a villain guy" by showing the corpse of someone he has just executed to Bond vixen Olga Kurylenko (of Hitman fame) in order to impress upon her that the idea of betraying him shouldn't even cross her mind.

What is known is that Amalric is Dominic Greene, a ruthless businessman and major force within Green Planet, the mysterious organization that blackmailed Vesper Lynd (played in the previous Bond installment by Eva Green). Greene, it is revealed, is also linked to Vesper's death. Quantum of Solace picks up the thread of Casino Royale a little over thirty minutes after the credits of the most successful Bond film rolled. Forensic intelligence links a traitorous MI6 agent to a bank account in Haiti. While there, James Bond (reprised by Daniel Craig) is introduced to the seductive Camille, a Ukrainian-Bolivian femme fatale played by Kurylenko — who has her own personal axe to grind with Dominic Greene.

The Panama location is meant to double for Bolivia and, aside from the Colón shoot, scenes were also filmed in the now dilapidated club of former dictator General Manuel Noriega in Panama City, including a confrontation involving James Bond and Dominic Greene as well as Camille and MI6 Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) who works at the British Consulate in Bolivia.

Playing the villain hellbent on taking down agent James Bond can be exhausting. "It's a lot of work and I'm not allowed to leave for more than one day, unfortunately," says Amalric. But now, after a few weeks in Central America, he finally has had a day to himself. "Yesterday was Sunday so we went to [an island archipelago] called San Blas. It's absolutely beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! There are 350 little islands, with just sand and coconut trees and Indians that live there. No tourists, or very [few] tourists... So I just spent one day in a postcard, really a cliché of happiness, just eating fish and swimming in blue water." But the idyll will not last for long, Amalric believes, and so he considers himself fortunate to have had the opportunity to enjoy this unspoiled stretch in the Caribbean: "It's going to [change] because Panama is just becoming a big, big tourist center. Hotels are being built absolutely everywhere. They don't have enough cement; they have to import cement from Russia because it's just expanding everywhere. Big companies are making a lot of money here."

Directed by Marc Forster (The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball), Quantum of Solace is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's compendium For Your Eyes Only and is described by producer Michael G. Wilson as "uncharacteristic of most of Fleming's work." The short story that the film's title refers to is a character study that does not involve "any plots or anything with spies... but references what happens to Bond and what happens in this film," Wilson stated in a press conference at Pinewood Studios in London. Quantum of Solace is "not a revenge movie but is a follow-on from Casino Royale and has lots of action but also deals with the inner turmoil that Bond is facing," Wilson added. Quantum breaks with tradition in that, while most Bond movies have paid homage to others in the series, this film is the first true sequel to a previous installment. Forster says, however, "I don't see this necessarily as a sequel because it has within it a story that is self-contained."

Part of the attraction for Forster, who claims he had always been a fan of action films, was the opportunity to work with Craig: "Daniel Craig took the franchise in a different direction and he is such a superb actor that I thought there is the possibility to explore something [interesting] with him." Amalric concurs that Craig's performance brings a level of depth to the character that may never have been fully realized in lesser hands: "With Daniel Craig, you feel this guy is really completely involved in the feelings of Bond. I mean, there's almost a broken heart in this film. There is the fantasy, of course, of a James Bond film, but there is something that is very, very realistic in the feelings. The James Bond girls are not girls that you just smack and then you kiss and you make love to through the night and then move onto to the next one. It's not that anymore. It's completely different. So I think it's why Mark [Forster] was approached. We have a lot of stunts. I practice stunts every day. I just love that. I have a big fight sequence of course, with fire and everything. But there are also scenes that have to do with very intimate feelings."

Forster claims that from the outset the script for Quantum wasn't set in stone but rather was developed together with the producers. And it appears that the screenplay continues to evolve, even during production: "Every day there is a sort of 'work in progress' spirit on this set," Amalric echoes. "There's a new writer that has arrived. We have new lines and it's changed." In helping devise the script and its shooting, Forster "has brought a lot of humanity to the characters and makes a very intriguing story to go with the action", notes Wilson. And that humanity, agrees Amalric, is explored during rehearsal and on set: "With Mark, with the writers, with Daniel, with Olga, we rehearse before. Something that [Forster] loves to do, for example, is to do two shots in a row without stopping. The camera continues to roll. So that he just grabs things from us. He's not behind the video [monitor]. He really looks at actors." When pressed about the scope for improvisation on the set, Amalric carefully notes that "improvisation is a big word" but he does concede that Forster leads his actors and shows how their characters develop as opposed to sticking very closely to the script: "Oh yes. There's no storyboard or things like that. So things can change [during] rehearsals or we bring things."

Полностью ЗДЕСЬ

Daniel Craig hated taking his clothes off for sex scenes in upcoming James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace - because he was surrounded by strangers.

The British actor had to bare all for several steamy scenes in the eagerly anticipated 007 movie.

But Craig admits it was hard to feel all loved up because there was a group of unfamiliar people watching his every move.

He says, "You can never feel comfortable. You're still in a sex scene where there are 10 people in the room who you don't really know that well.

"So you're not exactly feeling sexy. Unless you get a kick out of that! Some people do, but I don't."

Взято с IMDB

PS раньше он вроде не был таким стеснительным

2) Craig: 'I won't wear trunks again'

Thursday, September 18 2008, 07:38 BST

By Michael Thornton
Craig: 'I won't wear trunks again'

Daniel Craig has refused to wear more swimming trunks like the tight-fitted pair he sported in Casino Royale.

The actor said he is "not going to put those trunks on ever again", adding that fans should not expect the same toned and muscular body in new instalment Quantum Of Solace.

However, a source predicted that his physique will still impress viewers, saying: "Even if he has spent less time in the gym and will be wearing more clothes, Daniel would be hard-pushed to disappoint his female fans."

It was recently revealed that Quantum Of Solace will have its first public screening at the BFI London Film Festival on October 29, the same night as its world premiere.

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Достали бедняжку, а мы страдаем

как мне его жалко...

знатоки говорят, такие сцены самые сложные по исполнению... и физически, и морально... но на его месте я бы так не переживала - у него с внешним видом всё в порядке, с package'м тоже бог не обидел, мог бы и не капризничать... а доставить зрительницам удовольствие...
однако... некоторые закидоны звезд мне реально не понятны... такое ощущение, что фильм делается не для зрителей, а просто для развлечения актера... и вот заметила, чем круче актеру платят, тем больше у него всяких - "я этого не буду" и "я того не хочу"... но - имхо...

не думаю, что где-нибудь есть стрипклуб, где выступает Крейг... ведь многим, (я себя кстати к таковым не причисляю, по мне так - фиолетово, в трусах он или в штанах, да пусть хоть в ватнике... хорошую актерскую игру, ценительницей которой я являюсь, не затрешь никакими декорациями...)
так вот многим не нужны бессмысленные телодвижения никому не известных актеров, которых в титрах не указывают, или пишут с уменьшительно-ласкательными суффиксами, а нужно воплощение секса именно в этом теле, с этим лицом, и этим голосом... это крест бокс-офисных актеров...

1)Craig: 'Bond Curse Rumour Is Offensive'

2 October 2008 12:06 PM, PDT | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

James Bond star Daniel Craig is appalled by the recent rumours of a "curse" on the set of forthcoming 007 movie Quantum Of Solace - dismissing the idea as "offensive".

The production of the film was marred by accidents - including a crash which left stuntman Aris Comninos critically injured and an Aston Martin sportscar being accidentally driven into a lake.

Craig also suffered his fair share of injuries - the actor was rushed to hospital after slicing off the top of his finger; he suffered a bruised eye and fractured arm, as well as requiring eight stitches to repair a gash in his face caused during a fight scene.

All of the disasters led internet gossips to speculate about a film curse - but Craig insists the mere suggestion of it is ridiculous.

He tells Britain's GQ magazine, "The thing about the Curse of Bond thing is that it's f**king offensive, really. Let's be honest. It's f**king offensive.

"There's a risk in everything we do and we literally have the best people in the world who do this and every precaution is taken to minimise the risk. But there is a risk. And there's no blame. Taking my finger as part of a 'curse' - that's offensive. This is what we do but it gets magnified and taken out of context."

Отсюда

2)Craig: 'Bond Films Will Lead To Surgery'

2 October 2008 5:42 AM, PDT | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

James Bond star Daniel Craig is convinced the new 007 films are so dangerous, he will need plastic surgery within five years.

The British actor sustained numerous injuries while filming the forthcoming Quantum of Solace - he was rushed to hospital in June after hurting himself on-set in South America, and was recently seen nursing a bruised eye and fractured arm.

Craig admits the dangerous stunts are all part of playing the superspy - but fears it won't be long before he will need to have plastic surgery to rectify his injuries.

He says, "It's what happens when you do something like this. I got tagged in a fight sequence and needed eight stitches. Plastic surgery? Give it five years."

Отсюда

...и про разбитый Астон:

Bond Fan Buys Wrecked Movie Car

2 October 2008 5:42 AM, PDT | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

A James Bond fan has paid thousands of dollars for the sports car which was wrecked during the filming of new movie Quantum Of Solace, according to Daniel Craig.

The luxury Aston Martin DBS was smashed to pieces in April when a stuntman accidentally drove the vehicle into Lake Garda in Italy.

The car - one of six used on the movie set - was subsequently dredged from the water, but deemed unfixable.

But Craig admits that film bosses made their money back by selling the vehicle to a 007 fan - for more than its original worth.

As new, the car is valued at $129,500 (GBP70,000), but Craig says the wrecked Aston Martin was sold for approximately $370,000 (GBP200,000).

He says, "I think somebody paid about GBP200,000 for this written-off Aston Martin. It was a Bond aficionado."

Здесь

Craig Praises 'Gorgeous' Dench

9 October 2008 9:03 AM, PDT | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Daniel Craig has heaped praise on his James Bond co-star Dame Judi Dench - but is adamant the pair will never enjoy an on-screen romantic liaison.

The Oscar winner has played the role of M in the 007 movies since 1995, and Craig feels honoured to be working with the British actress, insisting she is "gorgeous".

But he rules out a union between Bond and his boss - unless the scriptwriters become desperate.

He tells Elle magazine, "All men have thought about her at least once in their lives. The great thing about Judi Dench is that she's the matriarch of British film.

"She has an innate power about her... Bond needs a woman like M to contain his nonsense and say, 'Look, 007, you've been an idiot!' But they won't sleep together. Not unless the cupboard gets very bare in terms of storylines."

Источник

Last updated at 10:00 PM on 04th October 2008

Casino Royale was a hugely successful return to a darker, grittier Bond in tune with Ian Fleming’s original vision.

Its sequel is even more of a throwback – to the extent that one major character’s death scene in Quantum Of Solace is a direct visual quote from Goldfinger’s most iconic shot. It’s all deliberate.
Gemma Arterton: ‘I couldn’t move, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe or hear because the oil went in my ears. It was unpleasant, but it’s something I’ll always remember and it will be an iconic part of the film’

The success of Casino Royale gave Daniel Craig a deciding voice in the direction of the next two films, and he pushed for a creative team who would take Bond back to the early days of the franchise, when legendary production designer Ken Adam oversaw the sets.

Out went several Pierce Brosnan-era personnel, to be replaced by, among others, director Marc Forster and production designer Dennis Gassner (who Craig knew from The Golden Compass and Road To Perdition).

Marc Forster: ‘I wanted the action to be simple and real. I used as little green screen as possible. The Bond films I love are the early ones with Connery – Dr No, Goldfinger. In Quantum you have the girls and the villains, but I kept it very low-key with the gadgets. I wanted to keep it more on a psychological, emotional level.

'I have a moment with Bond on a payphone, and I love that image – it’s one of the things I enjoyed from the old films that I sprinkled in this movie.’

Daniel Craig: ‘This film has been about pushing myself physically and getting my face on camera as much as possible. Because that’s how Bond used to be. I think audiences know when it’s for real and when it’s not.’

Producer Barbara Broccoli: ‘The template was the early Sixties films, the original Bond. For instance, for the fight scenes our inspiration was From Russia With Love – the train fight with Sean Connery and Robert Shaw.’

Gemma Arterton: ‘Agent Fields is deliberately old-fashioned. We wanted everything about her to be typically Fleming – a throwback to the old Bond. At the same time, we wanted her to be a bit naughty.’

This image of Agent Fields lying dead in Bond’s hotel room is a modern interpretation of the scene from 1964’s Goldfinger in which Bond’s lover (Jill Masterson, left) is killed by having her entire body covered in gold paint.

In Quantum, Agent Fields drowns in oil. Gemma Arterton: ‘I couldn’t move, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe or hear because the oil went in my ears.

'It was unpleasant, but it’s something I’ll always remember and it will be an iconic part of the film.’

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The Bond Style
'I wanted something elegant that would remind us of the suits Sean Connery wore as Bond. Tom Ford is a genius - he just got it'

Ex-Gucci designer Tom Ford provided 12 slightly retro, shawl-collared dinner jackets in midnight blue (above), worn with a small bow tie to suit the proportions of Daniel Craig’s face. Ford mixed up details of past suitsto create the perfect Bond two-piece (above and below). Bond also wears a casual Y-3 bomber jacket (right)

Costume designer Louise Frogley: ‘I wanted something elegant that would remind us of the suits Sean Connery wore in the early films. Tom Ford is a genius – he just got it. He tracked down a Sixties material called “mohair tonic”. We required a huge quantity, as we needed 20 suits for Daniel and some for his body doubles. Tom also provided the sunglasses – and Daniel isn’t easy to fit with shades. He’s had his nose broken so many times – they sit at the end of his nose or too high so he looks like an insect.’

Daniel Craig: ‘You might have expected us to go to Savile Row, but Tom Ford’s at the cutting edge of couture for men. I couldn’t be happier that he got involved.’

Отсюда

Olga Kurylenko: ‘Daniel’s look is key to his success as Bond. He looks so masculine and tough. The power in his eyes is incredible – he cuts right through you.’

Daniel Craig: ‘If anything, there’s more pressure on this one – it feels harder. Casino Royale was a departure for Bond and this has to be a departure again, exploring different things but also tying up the loose ends. If you put the two films together, you’ll see one continuous story.

‘I’m not as big as I was. Last time I wanted to look beefy, like a man who’d just dropped out of the Army. I know Quantum picks up 20 minutes after Casino Royale, but I had to get fitter in a different way. There was a lot more physical activity on this one. I went running more. Consequently, I’m not as wide as I was. The suits fit me better.’

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DANIEL CRAIG - CRAIG HAILS NEW GENERATION OF BOND GIRLS
10/14/2008 12:16:59 PM

DANIEL CRAIG admires the latest batch of sexy Bond girls - because they are tough enough to put the suave spy in his place.
Brit newcomer Gemma Arterton and Ukrainian model turned actress Olga Kurylenko star in the latest installment of the film franchise, Quantum of Solace, which is due for release on October 31st.
And Craig loves the fact the new generation of Bond girls is not afraid to stand up to 007.
He says, "I think Bond is as misogynistic as he always was. But the difference is that we try to cast great actresses playing strong women who, if he misbehaves, will tell him to f**k off.
"Instead of it being a giggling girl in a bikini - and there's nothing wrong with giggling girls in bikinis, sometimes it's quite nice - there are women who challenge him."

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Craig has lost touch with reality since Bond role

Wednesday, October 15 2008 RSS SMS Gadgets

London (ANI): James Bond star Daniel Craig has revealed that he has 'lost touch with reality' since he started playing the role of 007 agent. The 40-year-old, who has been wounded several times while performing own stunts for the forthcoming movie Quantum of Solace, admitted that since his acceptance of the part in 2005, the star has found it difficult to cope with the real world.

"By doing Bond I've lost touch with reality quite a lot. I've become a bit of a commodity and I've got security guys around me most of the time," the Telegraph quoted him as saying. However, the actor insists that it was his family and close ones who helped him keep his feet firmly on the ground. He said: "Fortunately, I've got a great family and really close friends and they give me a hard time. But it's something I encourage them to do, because otherwise I'd disappear up my own a**e!

"I mean, for six months of the year, six days a week, all you're doing is Bond, all you're talking about is Bond. For nearly three months before that, you're doing pre-production on Bond, and when the movie comes out you're promoting Bond."

Источник

Latest Bond shakes and stirs, but where’s the old humour?

Reviewed by Geoffrey McNab
Saturday, 18 October 2008

Daniel Craig, as Bond, hunts down an Mi6 traitor, a member of the shadowy organisation called Quantum

Daniel Craig, as Bond, hunts down an Mi6 traitor, a member of the shadowy organisation called Quantum

James Bond is back for the 22nd time. The story carries on where Casino Royale left off. Bond (Daniel Craig) is still smarting over the death of Vesper Lynd and desperate to exact revenge. Frenetic, full of chase sequences and sudden switches in location, the film has a demented energy about it, as if it’s taking his feverish tempo from Bond himself. He – we learn early on – is “running wild”.

Barely five minutes into the film and we have been whisked from Siena to Port-au-Prince via London. Cars have screeched round mountain-top roads. Bond has been shown racing through gutters, alleyways and over rooftops. We’ve seen him in a motorbike and on a boat. Not much later, he’s in a plane.

In interviews in advance of the film, the director, Marc Forster, had talked about Bond as if the secret agent was a latterday Hamlet – a character who beneath his hard shell is vulnerable and repressed. The way he explores the tortured psyche of cinema’s favourite spy isn’t through lengthy dialogue sequences – it’s through action. There is something desperate about Bond. Craig plays him with a gimlet-eyed intensity that makes his first turn in the role in Casino Royale seem lightweight. David Arnold’s rousing score seems to be driving him on.

The drawback to the frenetic approach is that the chases risk merging into one another. Comic relief is in short supply. We don’t have any boffins introducing new gadgets.

Craig’s Bond may still sweet talk receptionists, but he doesn’t spend much time about it. Nor does this Bond have much time for womanising. As Camille, Olga Kurylenko isn’t just Bond’s lover: she is his mirror. He’s cut up about Vesper. She is equally traumatised by incidents involving some wicked Bolivian general during her childhood. It isn’t sexual attraction that brings them together. It’s a shared desire for revenge. The plot, reassuringly, is sheer hokum – a far-fetched yarn about rogue environmentalist Dominic Greene’s plans to topple the Bolivian government, put a military dictator in power and gain control of most of Latin America’s water supply. Greene is really working for the shadowy organisation Quantum, which has secret agents everywhere, including – as M (Judi Dench) discovers – at the heart of the British secret service.

Among the main pleasures of an uneven Bond movie is Dench’s wonderful performance. She is more in evidence here than in her previous Bond movies and has a relationship with 007 that is maternal and flirtatious. Nothing flusters Dench’s M. In one tremendous scene, we see her running her bath and dabbing at her face with wipes as she gives orders to operatives around the world to curb Bond’s movements.

Gemma Arterton is also good value as Agent Fields at the British consulate in Bolivia, a siren with a touch of St Trinians about her, saying “oh gosh” when she sends one of Greene’s henchmen flying.

There is a tension at the heart of the movie. On the one hand, this is an out-and-out action flick. On the other, Forster (the director of arthouse hits such as Monster’s Ball and Stranger Than Fiction) is trying to show us the paranoia and loneliness of a homicidal spy’s life. The set-pieces are supposed to be exhilarating but also reveal Bond’s anger and bereavement. One of the film’s most ingenious scenes is when Bond interrupts the villains during a performance of Tosca at the Bregenz Festival House in Austria. While the performers are singing about love and vengeance on the stage, Bond is in the wings, fighting with Greene’s henchmen. Opera plots are often far-fetched and illogical. We shouldn’t be surprised that Bond movies are the same. At their best, they provide us with the same excitement and escapism.

Quantum Of Solace doesn’t seem like a major entry in the Bond canon. Well under two hours long, it’s shorter and more frenetic than most of its predecessors, and an often-jolting experience to watch. Loose ends about. What it does have, though, above all, is vigour. The franchise hasn’t run out of juice quite yet.

Independent

Very little solace for some 007 fans

Quantum of Solace reviewMovie critic Carl Jones was among an elite group of journalists invited to the world premiere of the new Bond film. Here he delivers his verdict.

A man who once screen tested for the role of James Bond - Jurassic Park star Sam Neill - was busily stealing the limelight in Leicester Square last night as he took to the red carpet for the London Film Festival.

Meanwhile, just 100 yards away at the cinema next door, a far more significant 007 event was taking place almost un-noticed, under an incredible veil of secrecy.

A select gathering of world media was being treated to the world’s first screening of Bond’s 22nd big screen adventure, Quantum of Solace.

Yes, Bond is back… and he’s more brutal and unforgiving than ever.

Daniel Craig pulls no punches in his second adventure as Ian Fleming’s superspy, snarling and brawling his way through 104 frenetic minutes of noisy, breakneck chaos.

Fistfights

It may be the shortest Bond film ever made, but it manages to pack in more fistfights, more action set-pieces and more wild globetrotting than ever before. No wonder it feels like the characters barely have time to pause and utter a meaningful line of dialogue!

If Casino Royale invited us to delicately embrace a tougher, meaner Bond, then Quantum of Solace positively rams this image down our throats.

Craig barely cracks a grin in his quest to get to the heart of the mysterious Quantum organisation, which he holds responsible for the death of his first true love, Vesper Lynd.

The story picks up just minutes after the end of Casino Royale, with 007 interrogating the mysterious Mr White (Jesper Christensen).

The trail leads him to a rogue agent in Haiti, an opera house on an Austrian lakeside, and eventually the remote deserts of Panama.

Quantum of Solace has many plus points, not least sultry Olga Kurylenko as vengeful Latino Camille, who plays part friend, part foe and must go down as one of the most beautiful Bond girls ever.

It’s also got an overload of action and pyrotechnics as 007 battles evil in every imaginable form of transport, from Aston Martin to twin-engined jet, speedboat and motorbike.

But the whole movie does feel rather hurried, sometimes edited so abruptly that it’s hard to keep track of who’s doing what to whom, and why.

Laughs are in short supply. While Pierce Brosnan’s Bond was very much for the family, Craig’s incarnation feels almost exclusively adult-orientated. It’s difficult to know what young teenagers will make of the almost unstinting brutality and simmering bitterness, despite the 12A certificate.

Many of the peripheral characters come and go so abruptly that it’s hard to build any kind of rapport.

Worst to suffer is Gemma Arterton, whose supporting turn as MI6 Agent Fields promises much, but is disappointingly brief - her much publicised “covered in oil” death scene had the potential to become an iconic “golden girl” moment rivalling Shirley Eaton’s demise in Goldfinger, but is tamely wasted.

Devious

Mathieu Amalric is creepy yet rather insignificant as chief baddie Dominic Greene whose eco-friendly front is merely a cover for a devious South American moneymaking scheme, and only Judi Dench’s feisty and prickly M gets any kind of meaty dialogue.

Die-hard Bond fans who fear their hero is being turned into a Jason Bourne-style clone will have much to chew over here. A chase across Italian rooftops, shot on hand-held cameras, is highly reminiscent of The Bourne Supremacy, and the impact made by many members of the Bourne production crew added to the 007 team is clear to see throughout.

So can Bond fans take even a quantum of solace from this movie? If they crave the adrenaline rush of frantic action, then yes. If it’s suave one-liners and drop-dead-cool moments they yearn for, then perhaps not.

Personally, I feel the producers jettison too many of the tried-and-tested 007 traits at their peril. Much like its predecessor, Quantum of Solace is a good action thriller, but certainly not a classic Bond movie.

Quantum of Solace is released at Shropshire cinemas on October 31.

Have your say on 'Very little solace for some 007 fans', comment below
This article was posted on October 18, 2008 at 7:00 pm.

Источник

From The Sunday Times
October 19, 2008
It’s the audience who will need solace, 007

No wit, no sex and a lousy song: our correspondent finds the new Bond movie a letdown

Richard Brooks, Arts Editor

It's James Bond, licence to bore. Quantum of Solace may be a sequel to Casino Royale but it lacks that movie’s panache and brio.

Casino Royale’s strength lay not just in Daniel Craig’s acting but that fact that it was based on a fine book with which it kept faith.

Quantum of Solace was a short story by Ian Fleming. The film-makers have simply taken the name, which itself means a tiny unit of compassion, and adapted it to suit their purpose for a follow-up to Casino Royale.

With Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball and The Kite Runner) as director and a script from Paul Haggis, rated these days as Hollywood’s most intelligent screenwriter, Quantum of Solace ought to have worked.

Instead Bond is a boorish oaf who simply rushes from country to country with the manic speed of Jason Bourne, including sequences shot in Panama, Chile, Italy, Mexico and Austria, in a plot about holding a country to ransom over its water supply.

Quantum of Solace lacks any wit, ironic or otherwise, which has been a strength of so many 007 films.

It has a tuneless opening song by Alicia Keys and Jack White. No sex either, except for a two-second flash of the naked back of Agent Fields, a colleague of Bond’s who is played by Gemma Arterton.

Neither is there much violence. At least parents will not have the problems they experienced with Casino Royale, particularly its eyewatering torture scene in which Bond was tied naked to a chair and his private parts thwacked with a knotted rope.

This is not to say that all was a bore. There is one terrific 15-minute sequence where Bond and his sidekick Camille (Olga Kurylenko) are escaping the agents of a dastardly tyrant.

They are in an ancient plane being chased through mountainous scenery by the villain’s super-duper jet. It is the only sequence that really remained in my head afterwards.

At around one hour 40 minutes, this Bond is shorter than most. Somehow it felt longer.

Sunday Times

Добралась до интернета сегодня утром, а тут столько негатива (в рецензиях, а не на ukoz'е разумеется )

Средненький фильмец вышел судя по всему, но Дэна везде хвалят, что не может не радовать.
К тому же Вызов скоро, он-то явно не упустит своего в смысле любви критиков

The reviews are pouring in for Quantum of Solace, and here is a run-down of what most of them are saying:

BBC

It's a film that feels like the second part of a trilogy, with this being the bleaker second act.

For a lot of the movie Bond is a particularly unsympathetic character, and often it's only Craig's performance along with the shifting morality of Bond's legion of enemies that forces the audience to root for him.

Empire 4/5 Stars

A pacy, visually imaginative follow-up. If it doesn't even try to be bigger than Casino Royale, that's perhaps a smart move in that there's still a sense at the end that Bond's mission has barely begun and he'll need a few more movies to work his way up to destroying the apparently undefeatable Quantum organisation. The only real caveat is that while it's exciting, it's not exactly anyone's idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more.

Totalfilm 3/5 stars

The action is loud and proud, but the story feels disjointed and muddled, with some uneven flecks of comedy. Still, Craig's presence keeps the edges from fraying too far and Forster just about nails the extra levels or artsiness and melancholy.

Times Online 4/5 Stars

The director, Marc Forster, has absorbed the lucrative lessons discovered in Martin Campbell's Casino Royale. He has also managed to pace his sequel much better. Royale felt slightly wheel-clamped by one too many longeurs. If anything, the crunching chase sequences in Quantum of Solace are even more magnificently dangerous. And the daredevil leaps and tumbles through glass roofs are just as sensational as the splintering high-speed pyrotechnics.

But it's the amount of heartache and punishment that Craig's new Bond absorbs that makes him look so right for our times.

Bond is no longer a work in progress. He is now the cruel, finished article.

The Independent 3/5 stars

Quantum Of Solace doesn't seem like a major entry in the Bond canon. Well under two hours long, it's shorter and more frenetic than most of its predecessors, and an often-jolting experience to watch. Loose ends about. What it does have, though, above all, is vigour. The franchise hasn't run out of juice quite yet.

The Guardian 3/5 stars

Quantum of Solace isn't as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig's Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it's an indefinably difficult task for an actor. Craig measures up.

Ну в приницпе, какие бы отзывы ни были, даже если КМ слабее КР, мы же все равно его засмотрим до дыр, правда, девочки?

Review: Daniel Craig shakes and stirs as Bond

By CNN's Glen Scanlon

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Phwoar. You can just about hear the collective exhale from the women in the audience when Daniel Craig turns and smolders at the screen for the first time in the latest Bond movie "Quantum of Solace."

Craig's Bond is not keen on the cheesey comic turns of Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan's smarmy charm. He's a cool killing machine wrapped in a perfectly fitting, crisp suit. He is, frankly, sex on a stick.

Following further in the footsteps of the highly energetic and wildly popular Bourne series, director Marc Foster has upped the ante with a series of bone-shaking stunts.

Craig's Bond is constantly bleeding, always bruised. It's a neat way of externalizing his battered emotional state following the death of girlfriend Vesper Lynd at the end of "Casino Royale."

Bond wants revenge but also needs to balance his loyalty to Queen and country, represented here yet again by the tough motherly figure of Judi Dench's M.

"Quantum of Solace" starts off with a full throttle chase and the foot is only lifted from the pedal for the briefest of moments during the film.

Bond has grabbed Mr White (Jesper Christensen), the shadowy figure from the end of "Casino Royale" who is connected to Lynd's betrayal and death.

It's a pity more isn't seen of Mr White, a figure reminiscent of the menacing, chain-smoking "Cancer Man" from the "X-Files" series.

However, he is bound to reappear in future Bond films. This is a point which marks the current films out -- it is the first time the the plot line from an earlier episode has seriously been continued and looks set to keep running. It is a definite strength.

Mr White escapes, but Bond -- quickly piling up the bodies with a ruthlessness that leaves M exasperated -- stumbles on to Dominic Green, played by French star Mathieu Amalric.
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Green is part of a mysterious organization called Quantum, who are hellbent on world domination of a type through the destabilization of third-world countries and the annexing of their natural resources.

While Green is the film's main villain, there are a lot of them including a dodgy Bolivian general (Joaquín Cosio) -- a very traditional, too cliched Bond baddie -- who dreams of dictatorship.

He is the link to Bond's prime female helping hand -- Olga Kurylenko's striking Camille, who is also intent on revenge.

Bond fights his way through Italy, Haiti, Austria and Bolivia. There are some incredible scenes, including a head-spinning moment in a plane. It's raw, exhilarating and quite tiring stuff.

Perhaps the best moment is in Austria, when at the opera, Bond coolly breaks into a secret conversation of Quantum's members. It's beautifully shot and more deft than some of the film's racier moments.

There is strikingly little dialogue in the film, which does harm the development of the characters. Bond's brief fling with Gemma Arterton's agent Field is shallow even by the franchise's typically low standards.

Still, this is part of what Bond films have always been about.

While not as engaging as "Casino Royale," Craig's captivating physical presence and the all out action will have most fans already looking forward to the next installment.

Quantum of Solace runs for 105 minutes, has a 12A rating in the UK and is released on October 31.

CNN