007 fans can't take 'Solace' in implausible, stunt-stuffed sequel

"Quantum of Solace," Daniel Craig's second movie as Secret Agent 007, comes on like a stunt-stuffed exercise in blurry, over-edited action scenes for ADD viewers.

Craig's James Bond leaps off buildings and sprints through crowds. He scrambles over architecture with lightning ease. He performs action set pieces with collapsing scaffolds, cranes, pulleys and ropes, all choreographed with split-second precision.

Craig's Bond has not, as many Web pundits have suggested, turned into Jason Bourne.

Bond has now become Jackie Chan.

The plot of "Quantum" (co-written by "Casino Royale" scripter Paul Haggis) sees Agent 007 jetting around the world tracking another one of those ruthless post-Cold War business moguls. The weasel-like Dominic Greene (French actor Mathieu Amalric), CEO of Greene Planet, arranges a deal with Bolivian right-winger General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio) to give him control of Bolivia in exchange for what appears to be a section of sandy desert.

A beautiful but scarred young woman named Camille (Ukranian model-turned-actress Olga Kurylenko) has befriended Greene, but it soon becomes obvious that she is using him to find Medrano so she can kill him.

Her quest for vengeance connects her with Bond, now on a private mission to locate those responsible for his lover's betrayal and suicide at the end of 2006's "Casino Royale."

In the 007 franchise's first direct sequel, "Quantum" begins minutes after "Casino Royale" ends and wastes no time recycling the series' dumbest clichés, starting with The Bad Guys Who Can't Hit Anything With Machine Guns.

Bond speeds around northern Italy in his Aston Martin, chased by expendable thugs who, even just a few feet away, fail to shoot 007 (or his tires) with a zillion rounds of bullets. Bond neatly dispatches his assailants with five or six.

Then things get nuttier.

Agent 007 drives his bullet-riddled car to an MI6 safe house where he yanks a hostage, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), out of his trunk. (Apparently, the gunmen missed the entire rear end of the Aston Martin.)

Bond's MI6 boss M (reprised by Judi Dench) conducts an interrogation of Mr. White - the man seen wounded by 007 at the end of "Casino Royale." Mr. White reveals he's part of a supersecret international organization.

"We have people everywhere!" Mr. White boasts.

"How can they be everywhere and we don't even know about them?" M asks Bond. Well, MI6 knows about them now, thanks to the blabby Mr. White outing his own formerly "supersecret" organization.

Things get even nuttier in Austria, where Greene convenes a meeting of his "secret" group during an opera performance. Armed with earpieces and mics, the secret members engage in a conference call to each other while they're in the audience during the performance. Not a single patron shushes them or summons an usher to shut them up.

To its credit, "Quantum," directed by German filmmaker Marc Forster (the first non-Brit to ever handle a 007 movie), dumps many old Bondian clichés that have turned the film series into a running joke.

No cute quips. No gadgetry.

No gratuitous threats to Bond's private parts.

No pining Miss Moneypenny. No comical Q tips.

Yet, "Quantum" hardly goes far enough in its purge of rusty conventions.

Hard-core 007 fans will appreciate the many homages to earlier Bond thrillers: the boat chase in "From Russia With Love," the deadly parachute drop from "Moonraker," the claustrophobic elevator fight from "Diamonds Are Forever," even the naked-woman-painted-gold image from "Goldfinger," with crude oil replacing yellow paint.

"Quantum" isn't nearly as well-conceived or executed as "Casino Royale," which successfully rebooted the moribund franchise as a more realistic throwback to the classic Sean Connery films of the 1960s.

In "Quantum," we get a lot of lip service about Bond's wounded heart, his vengeful soul and lapsing loyalties.

In the end, it's all a narrative contrivance to link one technically slick, shallow action sequence to the next, with Craig's raw Bondian charisma supplying a thin veneer of dramatic gravitas.

"Quantum" will easily become the biggest box-office success in the franchise history, but not necessarily because of its quality. It's the shortest Bond film ever made; theaters can jam in more screenings on a weekend.

<p class="factboxheadblack">"Quantum of Solace"</p> <p class="News">2½ stars (out of four)</p> <p class="News"><b>Starring:</b> Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric</p> <p class="News"><b>Directed by:</b> Marc Forster</p> <p class="News"><b>Other:</b> An MGM release. (PG-13) sexual situations, violence. 106 minutes</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=250407">Daniel Craig brings humor, dedication to superspy role <span class="date">[11/13/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=250018">Where does he get all those wonderful clothes? <span class="date">[11/13/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>