TheRetroCritic

Gotta love those exciting, exotic locations recent Bond outings have given us... I kid. I kid 'cause I love.

After the success of Casino Royale , Daniel Craig's second Bond movie came with a lot of anticipation. The heat was on and people wanted confirmation that the first movie wasn't a fluke and that Craig was indeed a worthy 007. Unfortunately, Quantum Of Solace failed to wow audiences and since then the film is often dismissed as either the lesser of the latest Bond films or simply a disappointment altogether. Complaints usually involved the grittier Bourne-style approach (shaky cam, destructive indoor fist-fights, lots of jumping around), the somewhat underwhelming opening title sequence and the super serious tone palpable throughout. But you know what? The so-so Jack White/Alicia Keys musical theme aside (check out the actually great rejected theme "Forever - I Am All Yours" ), Quantum Of Solace is still one badass Bond outing and, in some ways, outdoes Casino Royale. Yes the film is very much inspired in style by the Bourne movies but frankly, I personally r

Every Bond renewal comes with a bit of a risk. Every time an actor is introduced to become the new 007 there's always a weird overprotective (irrational) fear that studios would put their foot in it and cast Paul Giamatti or something. Ironically, the result is usually fine and actually makes for a stronger Bond film. Perhaps all this freaking out is for the best and gives everyone the chance to put a little effort into not screwing up the best spy franchise out there. If only this much thought-process had gone into Moonraker ... Essentially, although the Bond franchise feels like a continuous thing, what it comes down to, really, is a collection of quite separate trilogies/series. Casino Royale tries something a little bit different by not only starting from the top with the origins of Bond and showing how he earned his licence to kill, met Felix Leiter, built a bit of an emotional shield between his life and his work... all interesting stuff we kind of take for granted in