007

I didn't blog last week, so I will make it up now. If everyone forgot and there were a few here in my office who did, the latest installment of James Bond was released on Friday along with nothing else. That isn't entirely true as Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire had a limited release. With no surprise Bond broke the previous record for a Bond opening weekend. With tickets at $11 in the suburbs nearest Hollywood, its no surprise. I'd like to look at the ticket sales for old Bond films to see which one was truly the most successful.
As for Millionaire, it brought in very good numbers with the highest attendance per showing for the weekend, creating what will hopefully be another successful indie film release to spend more on creating award buzz than its box office receipts. The independent film business just isn't what it used to be.
As for Bond, I did get to partake in the two hour tour de action force. Leaving the theater, I overheard an astute girlfriend tell her date, "There was maybe five minutes worth of dialogue." Not really an exaggeration. Maybe the girl thought he'd take her to Zack and Miri. For that matter, maybe ever critic out there thought they were going to watch a high brow spy thriller. He may not say it in the film, but his name is Bond, James Bond. This movie is two hours of stunts in cars, boats, planes and the occasional hand to hand combat. Its story may be straight forward, but at least this time around, I didn't have to sit through the cheesy love lines that Bond uses to woo Vespa. Thank goodness Bond learned his lessen to never fall in love, this Bond seems to get girls to sleep with him without a single word. As for his skills as a spy, well he needs to sharpen those up. At this point he's more of a blunt weapon, assassin than intelligence gatherer.
The critics are right about the lack of story. It seems the writers forgot what story they wanted to tell. They constantly talk about Bond wanting revenge, but he spends two hours flying across the country doing everything to bring down the Quantum players, but he completely neglects Vespa's boyfriend, who faked his death. Then he conveniently shows up at the end of the film to bring closure, but I'd rather have seen Bond figure out where the boyfriend was rather than having them skip it. That's the movie I thought I was watching to begin with. Instead, he goes after a multibillionaire that wants to take over the world who uses his environmental awareness company as a front for his terrorist transactions.
Ultimately this movie is about the stunts, but that even misses the spot at times, as Bond seems to be a one trick pony. In all three vehical chases, the car, boat and plane, he uses the same trick to escape, or as Maverick would say, "I'm gonna hit the brakes and he'll fly right by." In Bonds case, he hits the brake and the chaser runs right into his vehicle, ultimately killing them.
There are a few more action sequences than the three chases, yes there really is that much action, but overall this is a typical middle film of a trilogy. I imagine in the third film, Bond will finally capture the head of Quantum, who is probably Mr. White.