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When you have the ability to crash a $150,000 Aston Martin and calmly walk away paying attention only to the dust on the shoulder of your Armani suit you are one badass dude and chicks dig you. Bond is that guy, and then some. Since the addition of Daniel Craig to the flat-lining, English Blue Blood infused and utterly sissified Ian Flemming series, James Bond has been Walther PPK'd back to its roots. A literary series born of single malt Scotch, brutality and cool, Daniel Craig plays Bond like Arnold played Terminator and like Matt Damon played Jason Bourne.
Craig was born for the role of Bond and he plays it like no other. The list of Bonds following Sean Connery reads like a who's who of British snobs who care more about their hair and the length of cuff under their tuxedo jackets than they do actually becoming the hard core, ruthless, womanizing, blue collar killer Bond really is. As Bond, Craig is cold, calculating and his actions are as efficiently precise as a surgeons scalpel.
 In Quantum of Solace Daniel Craig is back with a vengeance and proves his first performance as Bond wasn't a fluke. I know the ladies loved Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan and I am cool with that, but the reality is neither of those guys could hang with Craig in the gym nor could either of them even hope to walk away from a back alley brawl with Craig. Gone are the days of the goofy karate chop to the neck and silly watches with corny lasers and here are the days of a spy who hands out as many broken bones and bruises as he receives. Craig is Bond and Bond is outright possessed.
Quantum of Solace delivers the beautiful scenery, hardcore action, dry humor and intrigue of Casino Royal, where it falls short is its story line and directing. When you are rebuilding a franchise and your first film was a blockbuster hit, the act of changing directors seems idiotic. Especially when the replacement last directed Finding Neverland and Stranger Than Fiction. Both movies sucked. Further, if the plot of your film is set a mere 15 minutes after its predecessor there should be some type of precursor outside of the commercials and critic reviews. I'm just saying....Bond's motive is clearly revenge yet that motive isn't so much briefly touched on as it is lightly brushed. Judi Dench is amazing and cold as M while the introduction of Olga Kurylenko falls a little flat.
Quantum of Solace is worth the price of admission and Craig is killer, however Marc Forster does his best to ruin the movie with strange cutaway scenes during intense action and an often confusing plot line that doesn't truly come together until the movie is almost over. Quantum is filled with guns, girls, flash, fights and all out action yet the emotion has been drained leaving its personality a bit dry. Casino Royal provided the viewer a more intimate and deeper sense of Bond's ability to connect with the opposite sex and explored his vulnerability while still keeping his tough guy persona well guarded. Quantum of Solace certainly upholds the Bond standard of smash mouth action, scotch sipping and womanizing however the depth of Bond's emotional pain is shelved early in the film. Ultimately Quantum will still go down as one of the best Bond films of all time yet it leaves many of us Bond fans wishing we could once again see Sean Connery deliver a trusty "Hong Kong Fuey'esque" karate chop to the neck of an evil villain.
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