FILM REVIEW OF "DIE ANOTHER DAY" (British 2002)

The twentieth installment in the long-running James Bond film franchise, “Die Another Day,” concluded Pierce Brosnan’s tenure as 007 and celebrated the 40th anniversary of the series with references galore to previous Bonds. The credibility of this epic 133 minute extravaganza suffers mildly from some hopelessly unrealistic but nevertheless exciting predicaments that challenge our globe-trotting British secret service agent. Ultimately, New Zealand director Lee Tamahori doesn’t let Ian Fleming fans down and he directs with a vivid sense of flair. Tamahori approaches “Die Another Day” (***1/2 of of ****) as if he were Hong Kong action director John Woo and often accelerates the editing with jump cuts to cover a lot of territory faster. Another example of Tamahori ratcheting up the action occurs when Bond kills the villain in the last quarter-hour of the plot.

Despite its outlandish reliance on some obvious computer generated imagery, this inventive Bond adventure qualifies as one of the better 007 sagas and a fitting conclusion for the Brosnan Bond. The race across the ice and Bond’s escape from this predicament is the primary culprit here as well as the chief villain’s frozen Icelandic residence. Gustav Graves has constructed an entire palace out of ice. Interestingly, “Die Another Day” incorporates African conflict diamonds in its serpentine plot, four years before the fashionable Edward Zwick thriller “Blood Diamond” (2006) with Leonardo DiCaprio dealt with these controversial gems. Naturally, Judy Dench returns as Bond’s superior M, and John Cleese was on his own for the first and last time as her Majesty’s quartermaster Q. The most incredible gadget that Bond receives is an invisible Aston Martin with the usual arsenal of weapons. Toby Stephens and Rick Yune make two audacious villains and “Reservoir Dogs’” Michael Madsen appears as a duplicitous, high-ranking C.I.A. executive.

“The World Is Not Enough” scenarists Neal Purvis & Robert Wade maintain the larger-than-life action with exotic locales, good-looking ladies, but a marginally darker tone since betrayal is involved. Bond amounts to a renegade British Intelligence agent out for revenge against those vile dastards who framed him for security transgressions that he would never made. In some ways, Purvis and Wade were inspired not only by John Glen’s “Octopussy” with North Koreans committing criminal acts just as the renegade Soviet general did in that outing, but also Guy Hamilton’s “Diamonds Are Forever” with a villain who deploys a satellite in outer space constructed of diamonds that can projects a monstrous beam of destructive energy. Hardcore 007 fans will spot the encore of Commander Bond’s small “Thunderball” underwater breathing gadget. The escape from a cargo plane at the end is reminiscent of “The Living Daylights.” Purvis and Wade spring a number of surprises—at least three if you are counting—that really shake up the movie. These surprises along with Tamahori’s sensational helming make “Die Another Day” a memorable 007 escapade.

“Die Another Day” opens on the Pukch’ong Coast of North Korea as 007 and two other agents surf unobtrusively into the beach. Bond and his companions steal an attaché case filled with diamonds from Mr. Van Bierk (Mark Dyman of “Until Death”) and appropriate his helicopter to fly to a secret rendezvous in the de-militarized zone in North Korea. Bond places two bricks of C-4 explosives with a timer under the diamond trays and set off to keep an appointment the arrogant Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee of “Elektra”), son of General Moon (Kenneth Tsang of “The Replacement Killers”), who has no qualms during a U.N. embargo about trading arms for African conflict diamonds. Moon’s second-in-command, Zao (Rick Yune of “The Fast and the Furious”), takes a digital picture of Bond with his Sony Ericsson cell phone and uploads it to the Internet. Later, Zao shares the results of his search with Colonel Moon, and they discover that Van Bierk is really a British assassin named James Bond. Immediately, Colonel Moon arrests Bond and destroys the helicopter with a tank-busting weapon. General Moon calls his son because he is approaching the de-militarized zone where he has his headquarters. Hastily, Colonel Moon orders his men to disperse and take the weapons with them. He orders Bond executed, but the explosives in the attaché case ignite and Bond escapes. Zao is stricken by a shower of diamonds that embed themselves in his face. Colonel Moon and Bond battle it out on the hovercraft that Moon used to transport the weapons to the location. Thousands of land mines on the border of North and South Korea pose no problem to Moon because the hovercraft can float harmlessly float over them. Bond and Moon exchange small arms fire and Moon even resorts to a flame thrower. They run out of room to maneuver and Moon plunges over the edge of a cliff while Bond seized a bell and survives. “Saved by the bell,” he quips until he sees General Moon arrive with an army. Moon takes Bond and turns him over to North Korean interrogators and during the title credit sequence, Bond is tortured.

Eventually, months after his arrest, Bond learns that he is scheduled to be released as part of an exchange for Zao. M (Judy Dench of “Shakespeare in Love”) isn’t pleased to see 007. Not only did Zao kill three Chinese agents when he tried to blow up a summit meeting, but also because British Intelligence suspects that Bond spilled his guts and exposed deep cover agent in North Korean high command. M agreed to get Bond out of North Korea to ensure that he didn’t expose more agents. Naturally, Bond said that he didn’t capitulate to his captors and betray Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bearded and ragtag, Bond vows to get the individual who set him up, but M rescinds his double-0 status. Furthermore, she informs him that he is going to be taken to an evaluation center in the Falklands. Bond has other plans and fakes a heart attack. After he escapes from British Intelligence in Hong Kong harbor, Bond begins his search for that mysterious person. Initially, with the help of the Red Chinese, 007 treks to Cuba to find Zao.

In Cuba, he finds out that Zao is in an island clinic run by Dr. Alvarez (Simón Andreu of “Bad Man’s River”) who specializes in DNA replacement. Bond meets into Jinx (Halle Berry of “Monster’s Ball”) in Cuba. She emerges from the sea like Ursula Andress did in Terence Young’s “Dr. No.” Jinx is after Alvarez, too. They team up in semi-sort of fashion and destroy Alvarez and his clinic. Bond fails to kill Zao and the villain escapes. Jinx is cornered on a cliff by two gunmen and performs a header into the ocean. She dives in just as Colonel Moon had plunged into the ocean in similar fashion.

Bond finds himself back in the good graces of British Intelligence. M meets him at an abandoned London subway station. They discuss the conflict diamonds and we get a thumbnail sketch of the latest villain, Gustav Graves, at about an hour into the action. M points out that Graves is a politically connected individual. Indeed, he is about to be honored by the Queen. She adds that Graves was an orphan who wound up working in an Argentine diamond mine. He learned engineering and discovered a trove of diamonds in Iceland, half of which he donated to charity. Bond suspects that Graves has been using his discovery of diamonds in Iceland as “a front for laundering African conflict diamonds. M allows Bond to return to M.I. 5 Headquarters and pick up several gadgets from Q, such as the invisible Aston Martin with adaptive camouflage as well as a sophisticated ring that can shatter glass. Q explains that the ring contains an “ultra-high frequency single-digit sonic agitator unit. Bond meets Graves during a fencing competition and the two fight each other for money. Graves loses control and the fight escalates with the use of cutlasses, but Graves’ public relations expert Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike of “Doom”) intervenes and keeps the guys from killing each other. Tamahori does an excellent job of staging the cutlery clash between hero and villain. Graves gracefully accepts defeat at Bond’s hands and observes, “You’re a rare challenger, Mr. Bond.”

Several things differentiate Brosnan’s final outing as the redoubtable civil servant earlier as well as later entries. First, the bullet is finally seen entering the gun barrel during the pre-credit sequence. Thus far this represents the one and only time that this has occurred in the series. Second, the title theme sequence continues the narrative with Bond enduring torture while incandescent women appear on screen and scorpions are seen scuttling about to Madonna’s song. Third, this is the only time that James Bond appears with a full beard, giving Brosnan look like a 17th century buccaneer. Fourth, the initial action transpires in Korea, the first time that this location with its volatile real life implications for possible nuclear war has been appropriated. Fifth, the plot later takes 007 from places like Cuba to Iceland. Sixth, the C.I.A. has its own agent out there in the form of Halle Berry’s Jinx Johnson. Seventh, the pre-credit sequence qualifies as one of the livelier ones with Bond battling a crazed North Korean colonel as they sweep over a mine field in hovercrafts blasting away at each other with machine guns and flamethrowers. As usual, Bond still finds the time for the classical throwaway witticism and the women are seductive.

REVIEW OF ''THUNDERBALL'' (1965)

The fourth James Bond movie, director Terence Young's "Thunderball," (**** out of ****) by far the most ambitious 007 escapade when it came out in 1965, is the only Bond picture that won an Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects. Scenarists Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins brought back the worldwide criminal organization SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Counterespionage, Terror, Revenge, and Extortion, to menace Bond after his previous adventure against Auric Goldfinger, who had cooperated with the Red Chinese. SPECTRE was behind Dr. No in "Dr. No," the villains in "From Russia with Love" as well as here in "Thunderball." Blofeld appeared in close-ups with a white cat in his lap in "FRWL" and here at a criminal organization summit when he kills a traitor. Nevertheless, you don’t get to see his face. You just hear his ominous voice. The Bond producers let Blofeld come out into the open for the next Bond epic "You Only Live Twice."

Like the best 007 movies, "Thunderball" takes advantage of actual events and the main real life event was the loss of two atomic bombs in the early 1960s. Blofeld's number two man, Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), hatches a grand scheme to steal two Atomic bombs from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and use them to hold the world for ransom. Bond villains come in three types: those like Blofeld who are criminals and want to make the world powers pay, but they don't want to destroy the world. Those villains, like Stromberg and Drax in later Bond movies "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker," who want to destroy the world and recreate civilization in their own image. Finally, there are the independent villains, like Franz Sanchez in "License to Kill," Mr. Big in "Live and Let Die," "Goldfinger," and Max Zorin in "A View to a Kill" who want to corner a market, but who have no designs of world domination. There is also a mention about the real life British train robbery that occurred in England before "Thunderball" was released. The actual train robbery netted the thieves £2.6 million. They committed the robbery on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.

The "Thunderball" pre-credit sequence ranks one of the top five James Bond pre-credit sequences because it contains a surprise and a gimmick. James Bond and a French agent attend a funeral and the casket bears the initials JB, but the initials stand for Jacques Bouvard. Bond knew Bouvard as an assassin who had murdered two of his colleagues. He watches a veiled widow leave and climb into a limousine. She pulls the rear door shut without help from the chauffeur and the vehicle drives off. At a French château, the widow enters a large drawing room to find 007 awaiting her. He rises, expresses his condolences, and then decks the lady with a right cross that sends her flying across a table. "My dear, Colonel Bouvard," Bond informs the man in drag, "I don't think you should have opened that car door yourself." A brief but potent slugfest ensues until Bond chokes Bouvard to death with a fireplace poker. Bouvard's henchmen break down the door seconds before Bond exits. He straps on Bell Aero systems Rocket belt jet-pack and flies off to his Aston-Martin where the French agent is waiting. They shove the jetpack in the trunk. Bond activates the bulletproof shield from the trunk. Never mind that the jetpack and the retractable shield could occupy the same space, then unleashes to stream of water that knocks Bouvard's gun-toting henchmen down.

Bond gets himself into several tight spots in "Thunderball." At the Shrublands clinic, Colonel Lippe (Guy Doleman of "The Ipcress File") catches Bond on the exercise machine and cranks up the speed. Bond is harnessed to it and cannot stop the machine. Later, he exploits his advantage over the nurse and has sex with her to maintain his silence over the incident. Bond is trapped during a fight in a swimming pool with one of Largo's henchmen and Largo lets in the sharks while placing a shutter over the pool. Bond is nicked in the ankle during the Junkanoo parade, and later a Largo henchman almost spears him under Largo's yacht.

Adolf Celi makes a superb villain with his scimitar shaped snout, the black eye patch, and his razor sharp voice. He is despicable from start to finish, especially when he threatens to apply hot and cold torture to Domino with a burning cigarette and ice cubes. He feeds one of henchmen to the sharks when the man fails to deal with 007. Later, after the RAF Vulcan lands in the Bahamas, he refuses to cut the impostor pilot Angelo Palazzi (Paul Stassino of "Escape to Athena") free of the cockpit straps but slashes the man's air hose so that he drowns. Earlier, after the villains killed the real RAF pilot, Palazzi demanded more money because of the plastic surgery that he had to undergo to impersonate the pilot. Clearly, Palazzi's greed motivated Largo in part to kill him, but Largo is just enough of a dastard to have done it anyway to keep from paying Palazzi period.

They plan to crash land an RAF Vulcan at sea, retrieve the bombs, and camouflage the aircraft with sharks swimming around it is inspired itself. While the landing isn't that convincing, it will do, but once the plane is on the ocean floor, it looks cool. The climactic undersea battle off the coast of Miami has been vastly underrated. At the time, this represented the biggest underwater battle in cinema history; indeed, the Bond producers would mimic it in outer space for "Moonraker." Despite the continuity problems in the underwater battle, Young and second unit director Peter Hunt have a blast; even the lobster trying to avoid the fighting is amusing. All the scenes with the sharks are neat. Bond's first two encounters with Largo at the casino and later on Largo's estate where they shoot skeet are first-rate. Young keeps the tone of the film rather serious and the one-liners and puns pay off beautifully. The briefing of the double-00s in London in that cavernous room with the huge wall map is very atmospheric. John Barry's music is tops, especially the underwater music.

“Thunderball” represented the high water mark for the James Bond franchise in the 1960s. By the time that “Thunderball” appeared, everybody else had jumped on the bandwagon to produce espionage thrillers. The parody “Casino Royale” with a host of top names came out in 1967 had nothing to do with the series of films that United Artists was producing and apparently it fooled the fans who thought it was a Sean Connery James Bond picture, which it wasn’t. “You Only Live Twice” followed “Thunderball,” but the box office receipts slackened up. The 007 producers blamed Columbia Pictures’ for releasing “Casino Royale” and believed that that terrible parody may have scared away moviegoers. As far as I am concerned, the Bond pictures did not reach the high water mark until “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969) where George Lazenby replaced Sean Connery.

FILM REVIEW OF ''A View to a Kill" (1985)

The fourteenth James Bond extravaganza “A View to a Kill” pitted 007 (Roger Moore) against the franchise’s most psychotic villain, ‘staunch, anti-Communist,’ French industrialist Max Zorin (Oscar winner Christopher Walken of “The Deer Hunter”), who schemes to corner the micro-chip market by destroying Silicon Valley. Essentially, this Bond movie recalled “Goldfinger” because Zorin resembled Goldfinger with his immense wealth and his audacious plan to wipe out Silicon Valley the way that Goldfinger sought to take over the gold market by turning America’s supply of gold at Fort Knox in a radioactive rubble.

Indeed, as villains go, Zorin ranks as one of the more memorable with an interesting back story. An ethically challenged Nazi scientist, Dr. Carl Mortner (Willoughby Gray of “Waterloo”), carried out steroid testing on pregnant women and most of the offspring died. One of them, Zorin, survived to become a genius but a psychotic. Zorin and the good doctor who had been captured by the Soviets after World War II later employed his knowledge of steroids to help Soviet athletes. If that isn’t a casual slap in the face of Communists, what is? Mind you, the Bond movies neither demonized the Soviets, nor did they romanticize the Russkies. The Soviets made mistakes, but they always managed to clean up after themselves. In the previous Bond adventure, “Octopussy,” the Soviets caught up with a renegade black market General Orlov (Steven Berkoff of “Beverly Hills Cop”) who tried to ignite a nuclear war and frame the Americans. In “A View to a Kill,” the Soviet catch up with Zorin who had been in cahoots with them in the microchip manufacturer business but the two fell out. Indeed, like all the Roger Moore Bond’s after “Live and Let Die,” “A View to a Kill” takes place with in the context of the Cold War. Furthermore, while tensions exist between East and West, there is also an air of détente that characterize these Bonds.

Although it proved to be Roger Moore’s last mission as James Bond and it didn’t surpass the box office receipt of “Octopussy,” “A View to a Kill” contains more than enough virtues, such as the snow pursuit in Siberia, Bond’s careening car chase through Paris, and Zorin’s sadistic massacre of his own men in a secluded mine in California. Original 007 composer John Barry provides a strong, atmospheric orchestral soundtrack and the Duran Duran title tune is a knock-out! The Richard Maibaum & Michael G. Wilson screenplay contains a some imaginative twists on the Bond formula, especially with regard to the sacrificial girl convention. Essentially, the sacrificial girl in most Bonds is either an agent working with Bond as in “Thunderball” or the villain’s girl as in “The Man with the Golden Gun.” Oh, yes, let’s not forget Plenty O’Toole who stumbles into bad girl Tiffany Case’s house and dies because the villains catch her. The difference with “A View to a Kill” is that Mayday (Grace Jones) is not only Zorin’s main squeeze but also a villainess herself. She has to die, but her death is heroic. Alan Hume’s cinematography is good and John Glen never lets the pace flag in his third outing as a Bond helmer.

Director John Glen stages several interesting sequences. The fistfights lack pugnacity, primarily those at Zorin’s laboratories and in Stacy Sutton’s home, but Zorin’s plan for Operation: Mainstrike against Silicon Valley takes place in a zeppelin, but we don’t know that until one of Zorin’s associates literally takes a walk into thin air for refuses to participate in his Silicon Valley scheme. The scene opens in a conference room as Zorin explains how Mainstrike will work and we don’t know until the last second that they are hundreds of feet in the air. The fire truck chase with the SFPD in pursuit is reminiscent of “Diamonds Are Forever” and “Live and Let Die.” There’s a robust disaster sequence when Zorin kills a San Francisco City Hall official and traps Stacy and Bond in an elevator while setting the building ablaze. Stacy Sutton (Tanya Roberts of TV’s “Charlie’s Angels”) qualifies as the most annoyingly hysterical heroine of the franchise. She screams convincingly throughout the blazing city hall predicament. As seemingly lightweight as “A View to a Kill” is you cannot overlook Sir Godfrey Tibbett’s murder by Mayday and Zorin’s decision to plunge a KGB agent into a shaft with a whirling propeller at the other end. Actually, we see him thrown into the shaft by Zorin’s men and he dies in a gush of water. Occasionally, Bonds contain gruesome death scenes that—owing to their PG-ratings—are left to the imagination of the spectator. Of course, it isn’t as grisly as the snow plow scene in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” but violence does creep into every Bond.

The scenes are Zorin’s equine stables and the eccentric Frenchman’s chateau is scenic. The idea that Zorin and his doctor pal are tampering with horse racings is no doubt inspired by the characteristically decadent Ian Fleming villain who cannot help but cheat, even when he has more money that most people. Christopher Walken with his blond hair is ideally cast as the devious Zorin. Unfortunately, to be as nefarious as Zorin is, he lets 007 off the hook too easily. Bond’s escape from the sinking car is slick but far from believable and the shift from the lake to San Francisco is the film’s weakest link. Furthermore, Patrick Macnee’s demise is glossed over too much. Patrick Bauchau plays Zorin’s right-hand man and actress Alison Doody is one of his girls. Robert Brown plays M and Lois Maxwell plays Ms. Moneypenny for the last time. Desmond Llewelyn shows up again as Q and gets to lecture 007about the usefulness of the microchip at the outset of the action in M’s office. Geoffrey Keen is on hand as Defense Minister Freddie Gray. Bond regular Walter Gotell reprises his role as the sympathetic KGB chief, while future B-movie action star Dolph Lundgren has a moment as a KGB henchman at a race track when the Soviets upbraid Zorin. This is one of many Bonds with a pre-credit sequence that is actually a part of the remaining plot. “A View to a Kill” isn’t as bad as some might argue. It tops “Live and Let Die” and “The Man with the Golden Gun,” but it isn’t as great as “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Naturally, "A View to a Kill" has nothing to do with Ian Fleming's short story.

FILM REVIEW OF ''CASINO ROYALE'' (2006)

When Sean Connery appeared in the third 007 thriller "Goldfinger" in 1964, the James Bond film franchise had won audiences over with its surefire formula of combining girls and gadgets with epic international criminal intrigue. James Bond always tangled with megalomaniacal villains whose larger-than-life ambitions dwarfed the skulduggery of commonplace lawbreakers. Each Bond adventure emerged as an event decked out with stunts galore and often a chart-topping title tune. The "Casino Royale" title tune is instantly forgettable. The formula served the series well as the last Pierce Brosnan 007 thriller "Die Another Day" amassed more than $400-million-plus at the box office in 2002.

Fearful that they couldn't top themselves again and fresh out of imaginative ideas, the Bond producers decided to start from scratch, like George Lucas did—with far greater credibility than he is given—with "Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace." Not only did the 007 producers send Pierce Brosnan packing, but they also trashed their tried-and-true formula. Anybody remember the new Coke? Well, Sony and Columbia Pictures, which bought out United Artists—the distributor of the previous 20 Bond pictures—have unveiled the new Bond. If you look at the money that "Casino Royale" has generated and you read the critics, the new Bond and the actor impersonating him—Daniel Craig of the first "Tomb Raider" movie—are performing better than anybody could have surmised.

Most new Bonds amount to underachievers, such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) and "Live and Lie Die" (1973), and Bonds that forsake the formula usually crash and burn. Aside from its earnings and its widespread critical support, "Casino Royale" is barely a Bond opus. Neither M's secretary—Miss Moneypenny—nor Bond's gadget supplying guy—Q, show up in the 21st 007 thriller. The producers have dispensed with risqué names for the heroines and the villainesses, and the stunts are largely low-tech. The clever one-liners that our globe-trotting hero spouts and the larger-than-life villains are both conspicuously absent.

Instead, "Casino Royale" (* out of ****) qualifies as a prequel, showing how James Bond acquired his license to kill before he became the polished practitioner of seduction and sadism in the earlier 007 outings. No, the new Bond is set in the here and now rather than the yonder of yesteryear. Actually, the black & white opening sequence is supposed to take place before the first Bond movie "Dr. No" and then the remainder of the movie—in color—occurs after "Die Another Day." Along the way, the filmmakers have cherry picked only bits and pieces from the 1953 Ian Fleming original novel where the redoubtable, double-0 agent made his debut.

Suffice it to say that "Casino Royale" establishes James Bond's lethal credentials and shows him gambling with a crafty criminal genius in a high-stakes poker game. Compared with previous Bonds, "Casino Royale" is about neither the next plot to take over the world nor a devious scheme to mastermind the perfect crime. James Bond earns his license to kill status in the opening black & white sequences that lack any kind of excitement and seem rather like a picnic for him. He beats a guy up in a public restroom and outsmarts an opponent who holds him at gunpoint with an empty weapon. Afterward, Bond makes a buffoon of himself by shooting dead a couple of people at a foreign embassy and getting caught on a surveillance camera in the act of killing! Of course, M (Judi Dench of the Brosnan Bonds) is predictably furious. "In the old days, if an agent did something that embarrassing, he'd at least have the good sense to defect." Later, British Intelligence learns that Le Chiffre (Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen of "King Arthur"), who bankrolls terrorists, has got to win big at the gambling tables at Casino Royale or face death from one of his savage, machete-wielding African clients. M sends Bond to beat Le Chiffre at cards, and the British Treasury assigns Vesper Lynd (Parisian actress Eva Green of "Kingdom of Heaven") to see that 007 doesn't blow the big bucks.

"GoldenEye" director Martin Campbell is back calling the shots on Bond 21. He must have forgotten, however, what makes a good Bond. First, "Casino Royale" clocks in at 144 tedious minutes, the longest Bond on record—longer than Peter Hunt's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Second, there are lengthy stretches where nothing extraordinary happens. The color opening set piece where Bond and a black villain cavort around a construction site as if they had wings on their ankles grows tiresome but looks spectacular. Later, a white-knuckled fight in a motel stairwell goes on ad-nauseam. The chief villain is appropriately ruthless, but he doesn't do anything to make you genuinely hate him. He does whip Bond into a frenzy in one scene, but that's small potatoes compared with other Bond bad guys. Actually, the secondary villains pose more of a threat than Le Chiffre and his clowns. Most, "Casino Royale" is humdrum and humorless in its efforts to be realistic.

The Robert Wade and Neal Purvis screenplay offers few surprises (especially if you've perused the Ian Fleming novel) and the movie serves up two false endings before an explosive but hardly exciting finale in urban renewal in the exotic city of Venice. The only thing that differentiates Le Chiffre is his ability to shed a bloody tear or two. Daniel Craig plays James Bond as a hopelessly straightforward and tight-lipped, blue-collar thug with muscles. He resembles a cross-between of Steve McQueen of "Bullitt" and Yoda from "Star Wars." He is tough and rugged but lacks charisma. Furthermore, he has to rely on others to get him out of tight spots. Indeed, if it weren't for Vesper Lynd, Bond would never have accomplished his mission—bittersweet as it turns out.

"Casino Royale" ranks as an uninspired but ambitious stab to make over one of the most successful franchises in film history. As a traditional, old-school Bond fan, "Casino Royale" left me neither shaken nor stirred.

FILM REVIEW OF ''QUANTUM OF SOLACE'' (2008)

Cobra-faced actor Daniel Craig—the fifth to play James Bond—is in better shape than the new 007 epic “Quantum of Solace." If the previous Bond movie “Casino Royale” struck you as abysmal, the threadbare “Quantum of Solace” (* out of ***) scrapes the bottom of the barrel. David Bradley’s rough & tumble second-unit action sequences and Simon Crane’s stunts provide the only bright spots. Unfortunately, neither Craig’s virile 007 nor the gripping fisticuffs can salvage this mundane melodrama that resumes the narrative where “Casino Royale” left off with Bond confronting one of the villains. Subsequently, if you missed “Casino Royale,” “Quantum's” plot convolutions may mystify you. Since Bond producer Cubby Broccoli died, the Bond movies have hit the skids. “Quantum” is the briefest Bond in history and the least compelling if you’re a traditional 007 fan. In fact, “Monster’s Ball” director Marc Forster looks like he is making a replica of a Jason Bourne thriller rather than a James Bond movie.

Ian Fleming’s secret agent hero made his cinematic debut in 1962 with a lean, mean Sean Connery in Terence Young’s “Dr. No,” and the Bond movies revolutionized spy thrillers. Before most people could pick up a Fleming novel, United Artists churned out a sequel “From Russia, With Love." The third 007 caper “Goldfinger” created the template for Bonds and "Thunderball" ensured the longevity of the franchise. No sooner had Bond redefined the spy thriller than everybody cloned the amoral, womanizing British secret agent with his double-entendre puns in knock-off versions.

Of course, Bond extravaganzas have always embraced adventure rather than espionage. Incredibly, in the Cold War era, the Bond producers—unlike most others—refused to demonize the evil Soviet empire. Instead, 007 battled S.P.E.C.T.R.E, a.k.a. Special Executive for Counter-Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion with larger-than-life villains straight out of old cliffhanger movies like Ming the Merciless from the Flash Gordon serials. The Bond movies displayed no qualms about occasionally slamming the Red Chinese. After "You Only Live Twice" in 1967 the Bonds backed off Mao’s minions.

Since “Casino Royale,” the new Bonds have forsaken everything that made the longest running franchise original. Audiences watch Bond movies for 007’s gadgets, the sexy bikini-clad babes, Bond's wisecracks, the exotic locales, and the outlandish stunts. Not only were the Bond foes arch villains who wanted to destroy the world and remake it in their own demented images, they hatched bizarre plans to achieve these means. Sometimes, Bond movies scuttled credibility to keep up with the times. For example, “Star Wars” inspired “Moonraker.” Nevertheless, 007 gallivanted from one bed to the next for nymphs with naughty names, trumping a gallery of deadly henchmen, and saving the world from extinction.

By 1989, Cubby Broccoli overhauled the series with the gritty, hard-as-nails “License to Kill.” Cubby's strategy backfired, and United Artists refused to promote the picture. After the “License to Kill” debacle, Pierce Brosnan donned the tuxedo and Cubby restored the Roger Moore formula. When production costs escalated, the new Bond producers sacked Brosnan and started from scratch. “Casino Royale” harkened back to the level-headed “For Your Eyes Only,” but the success of prequels—primarily George Lucas’s second “Star Wars” trilogy—caught on and convinced daughter Barbara Broccoli to re-start the franchise with Bond earning his license to kill.

“Quantum of Solace” goes where no Bond has gone. The trademark gun barrel opening scene that started the 20 previous Bonds precedes the end credits. Actually, “Quantum” qualifies as a sequel to “Casino,” something the Bonds have never done. Neither Ms. Moneypenny or Q return. “Casino Royale” wrapped with Bond getting the drop on the villainous Mr. White. “Quantum” opens with 007 careening in his Aston Martin through scenic Italy with a carload of trigger-happy thugs blasting away at him. (Sean Connery's Bond would have made short work of them with a oil slick.) Bond has Mr. White of “Casino Royale”) stashed in the trunk. He delivers White to M for interrogation. No sooner has their interrogation begun than M’s bodyguard Mitchell (utility stunt man Glenn Foster) starts blasting and White makes a break for it. Before he escapes, White chuckles about how the anonymous criminal syndicate that he belongs to has infiltrated virtually every intelligence agency in the world. Scenarists Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade reveal nothing about this syndicate and their screenplay is virutally incoherent where details are concerned. Bond cruises throughout "Quantum" on a mission to find who made Vesper die, but surprisingly we never see Vesper in a flashblack, so it is difficult for newcomers to savor the depth of Bond's rage.

Bond chases Mitchell and kills him. Meanwhile, British Intelligence traces the money Le Chiffre, the chief “Casino Royale” villain, used to a geologist in Panama. Bond tangles briefly with a goon hiding in the dead geologist’s motel room. Every time 007 grapples with a bad guy, Green’s people kill Bond's opponent and frame 007 for the killing. Mistakenly, M believes that Bond has gone amok in his quest to exact revenge on those who killed Vesper in "Casino Royale." Anyway, 007 recovers an attaché case that leads him to a mysterious dame. Camille (Olga Kurylenko of “Hitman”)has been sleeping with Dominic Green (Mathieu Amalric of “Marie Antoinette”), a hypocritical megalomaniac environmentalist. Green plans to topple the Bolivian government so he can buy up the country’s water supply and resell it at higher prices to its new president. Green comments a deal with the corrupt General Medrano (Joaquín Cosio of “Hitgirl”) to install him in the presidential palace. Medrano, it turns out, murdered Camille’s father, strangled her mother and her sister. Moreover, Medrano set a fire that cremated her family and left our heroine with a permanent scar on her back. Unfortunately, Medrano doesn't amount to much of a villain. He does little more than rough up two women at the end of the movie and we have no reason to hate him as much as Camille. Camille’s pursuit of Medrano resembles the Roger Moore Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only,” but "For Your Eyes Only" was far exciting. Bond teams up with Camille to thwart both Green and Medrano.

Just as the villains in “Casino Royale” emerged as lightweights, the “Quantum of Solace” villains are twerps that pose little danger to our hero. Green tries to kill Bond with an axe and chops himself in the foot. Green’s scheme to monopolize natural global resources is negligible compared with better Bond villains. The stakes are small potatoes. The fights and the shoot-outs are monotonously repetitive. The dialogue is disposable, and both hero and heroine are too preoccupied with revenge to worry about romance. The Jack White & Alicia Keyes title theme song “Another Way to Die” is a yawner. Judi Dench returns as Bond’s matronly master, but she spends more time being duped while Bond is on the run. The oil covered corpse of Strawberry Fields here is a homage to "Goldfinger." The share the parachute scene recalls the opening stunt from "Moonraker." The fight with the Special Branch operative is straight out of the Cairo scene in "The Spy Who Loved Me." “Quantum of Solace” barely registers on the Richter scale of excitment.