Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (2008) - Movie Wallpaper
Originally uploaded by GuitarBrother

“You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!”
Dr Evil – Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Dr. Evil may not have been a character in the Bond universe but he perfectly summarizes what the James Bond franchise had become; Bond was no longer about a badass British spy, but a man who had an invisible car, a watch that could shoot laser beams, drank an endless amount of martini’s and could bed any woman – and he happened to also be a spy. After 40+ years on the silver screen Bond had ceased being relevant and was simply a caricature of what it used to be. With Die Another Day Pierce Brosnan and crew tried to do something different with the franchise, but it was still far too farfetched to be ultimately different – Bond was getting overtaken by the likes of Alias and Bourne.

For 2006’s Casino Royale it was decided that the series needed a new angle, so not only was Pierce Brosnan out and Daniel Craig brought on as the “controversial” choice for the new Bond (why he was considered controversial for being blonde when Connery was a Scott and played the Englishman I have no idea) but the series was effectively “rebooted” starting at the beginning of Bond’s career. Casino Royale brought Bond back to the present, out of science fiction and made him relevant again.

That brings us to the latest Bond film Quantum of Solace which also brought on a series of “firsts” for the franchise – the film is the first direct sequel to the previous film, and maintained the same writers as Casino Royale. For once people behind the scenes were paying attention to the myth of Bond and not his gadgets – this is about the man and the spy not the explosions and the toys.

Quantum of Solace picks up literally where Casino Royale left off – Bond has captured Mr. White and brings him to M for interrogation. That’s where the fun starts, as we realize Bond is still clinging to Vespar’s memory Mr. White reveals that there is a large and powerful terrorist organization at play and manages to escape when an inside man tries to kill M. This starts Bond on his new quest to find this organization and figure out how it was tied into Vespar.

What I loved about this movie is that they were able to bring some of the loved elements of Bond into the film without making them feel like the cliché’s they were just a few years ago. For starters there is the very elaborate credits sequence at the beginning of the film, and the target shot at the end. There is also the wonderful homage to Goldfinger and we see Bond drinking a martini among other things. If you are a fan of the franchise you will spot the homage’s. I also enjoy that one of the Bond girl’s full names is Strawberry Fields, but that you never find out her full first name in the movie – just her last, I had to IMDB the movie to find out her name; it’s an homage to names like Pussy Galore without the cheesiness of actually having to hear it during the film and being forced to suppress the giggles.

I also am a giant fan of Daniel Craig. I first saw him in Layer Cake and when I found out he was Bond I was far too excited. I think that Craig is an exceptional choice for Bond and is probably my favorite right along with Connery. Craig makes me believe that Bond could not only kill a man but be the ladies man – both of which are critical to the essence of the character.

While I don’t think Quantum of Solace was quite as good as Casino Royale that is in no means intended as an insult to the movie. The film is a great addition not only to the Bond franchise, but to the body of film.

Director: Marc Forster
Writers: Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade
James Bond: Daniel Craig
Camille: Olga Kurylenko
Cominic Greene: Mathieu Amalric
M: Judi Dench
Mathis: Giancarlo Giannini
Strawberry Fields: Gemma Arterton
Felix Leiter: Jeffrey Wright
Mr. White: Jesper Christensen
General Medrano: Joaquin Cosio

M: It'd be a pretty cold bastard who didn't want revenge for the death of someone he loved.
James Bond: I don't think the dead care about vengeance.

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is on my list of guilty pleasure movies; I’m not quite too sure why it’s a guilty please but it just feels like one of those movies I shouldn’t love as much as I do. The film is yet another of Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare adaptations and while I haven’t seen all of his Shakespeare adaptations, I think this one might stand as one of my favorite adaptations right up there with Baz’s Romeo & Juliet.

Like most of Shakespeare’s comedies Much Ado About Nothing is pretty silly, and pretty complex. Beatrice & Benedick have a love hate relationship leaving heavily towards the hate but neither can stop trading witty barbs. When Don Pedro brings Benedick and the rest of his men to rest at Leonato’s house merriment ensues that includes the banter between Beatrice & Benedick and Benedick’s friend Claudio meets Leonato’s daughter Hero and falls madly in love. Claudio & Hero become engaged & Don Pedro decides to see if he can trick Beatrice & Benedick into falling in love. All would be good and merry except for Don John (Don Pedro’s brother) who meddles and tries to ruin everything his brother and men are doing.

I have said before that there is usually one thing with every Shakespeare adaptation that drives me mad; this entire film used to drive me mad. I didn’t understand the casting of all things. Now I realize that the casting is part of what makes this movie work so well as a comedy. It’s unexpected in some cases and absolutely perfect in others.

What I liked from the start wast young Kate Beckinsale as Hero opposite House’s Robert Sean Leonard as Claudio & Kenneth Branagh as Benedick opposite Emma Thompson as Beatrice. The chemistry between these couples is fabulous. The roles that used to throw me for a loop were Michael Keaton as the a local and annoying member of the law enforcement, Denzel Washtington as the jovial Don Pedro and Keanu Reeves as Don John.

The character of Dogberry (Michael Keaton) used to annoy me because I just thought he was horrible - I thought he was more Monty Python than Shakespeare. The more I have watched this film the more that has changed and Dogberry has simply become a wonderfully funny character and Michael Keaton is fabulous at it.

I never had anything against Denzel Washington as Don Pedro, but it threw me that he was a black character in an otherwise ethnically undiverse cast. Washington was great, but I had to get over my ideas that Shakespeare is a bunch of white Englishmen. He was really cast because he was perfect for the role.

This brings us to what used to be my biggest problem with the movie and what is now one of my greatest joys with this version of the play – Keanu Reeves as Don John. So much used to grate on me about his portrayal of the character. Let’s start with the obvious – he’s white. Don John is Don Pedro’s brother. Pedro is black, John is white…there is no logic outside of adoption that makes that make sense. Then we have the highly evolved acting skills of Keanu (please sense the sarcasm). I like Keanu, but I think he needs a very strong director’s hand to deliver a good performance and try as he might Keanu is one of the people that cannot deliver Shakespeare’s language in the slightest. In Much Ado About Nothing he gives one of the worst Shakespearian performances that I have ever seen. I did not understand why on earth he was cast as the villain of the piece.

Then one day the light bulb came on for me. I watched the movie again and realized that because of Keanu’s lack of Shakespeare skills the movie became funnier, his character became funnier. Don John is now one of my favorite characters in the film and I think Keanu’s casting was a feat of underhanded brilliance.

I don’t think enough people have seen this version of the Shakespeare classic and I highly encourage you to do so. I love it and I really want others to experience it.

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer: Wiliam Shakespeare & Kenneth Branagh
Beatrice: Emma Thompson
Benedick: Kenneth Branagh
Hero: Kate Beckinsdale
Claudio: Robert Sean Leonard
Don Pedro: Denzel Washington
Don John: Keanu Reeves
Leonato: Richard Briers
Dogberry: Michael Keaton

Beatrice: Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. Men were deceivers ever. One foot in sea and one on shore, to one thing constant never. Then sigh not so but let them go and be you blithe and bonny, converting all your sounds of woe into hey nonny nonny.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

There are always those movies that get caught up in a critical or fan frenzy when they come out and become absolutely huge. Some of these movies are big movies to begin with and are elevated even further (The Dark Knight) and some of these incredibly praised films are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum so that when they begin to be praised so greatly they are elevated beyond the little films they are and raised onto a national or international platform. One of these little films that grew big was My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

I loved My Big Fat Greek Wedding when it came out. I thought it was just amazing. My opinion has changed since then; I was pre-film school at the time I saw the film, and while I had a large film vocabulary, I didn’t have a gigantic one like I do now. Rewatching this film I realized not that the film was bad, but that it possibly suffered from being elevated beyond its level. It is well written, it is well acted, the film is even pretty darn entertaining – but worthy of a Oscar nomination for best original screenplay? Probably not. I think this can partially be evidenced by the fact that a film lauded as much as this was when it was released no longer a part of pop culture, it is not referenced on any of the AFI lists, never on top 10’s, etc. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is good, but it was not capable of reaching beyond the small movie that it really was into the film cannon. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a place in people’s collections, or that it won’t be watched frequently by those that enjoy it – hey, it’s part of my DVD collection.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is in reality a very small, simple story. Toula is a child of parents who immigrated from Greece; pushing 30 she still lives at home and works for her parents because that is what’s expected – the only thing she hasn’t done as expected is get married. She finally gets so fed up at being unhappy all the time that she decides to change her life for the better and begins a journey of self discovery which leads her to meeting Ian Miller a non-Greek school teacher. Knowing that his non-Greek heritage will be as horrible to her family as telling them someone died she hides her relationship until it gets serious and eventually they become engaged which leads to the real comedy of the situation – the merging of the two cultures and families.

Nia Vardalos is pretty much 100% responsible for this adorable film. She wrote and acted in the play on which it is based, and wrote and is the main character in the film. With the help of Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks the film took off. What is great about this film is that it portrays a main character, the romantic heroine of the piece who is not your typical twiggy, perfect, proper girl. She is as close to a normal girl that film can get; that is really refreshing to see and it makes her character very relatable.

I know that I am partly to blame for my opinion on My Big Fat Greek Wedding changing some. My tolerance for romantic movies has gone down a great deal since I got out of high school, that trend started in me even before I hit film school.

Director: Joel Zwick
Writer: Nia Vardalos
Toula: Nia Vardalos
Ian: John Corbett
Gus: Michael Constantine
Maria: Lainie Kazan
Yiayia: Bess Meisler
Aunt Voula: Andrea Martin
Nick: Louis Mandylor
Angelo Joey Fatone
Mike: Ian Gomez

Toula Portokalos: Nice Greek girls who don't find a husband, work in the family restaurant. So here I am, day after day, year after year, thirty and way past my expiration date.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

When Dawn of the Dead came out I avoided it like the plague. I really didn’t think it could be any good; remakes in general are usually never worth your time and even though I hadn’t seen George Romero’s original at the time I knew there would be no way that a remake by a then no-name director would be able to hold a candle to the original. Turns out Zack Snyder and James Gunn had the same thoughts as I did.

The remake of Dawn of the Dead is as different from the original as it could possibly be. Snyder and Gunn took the idea of the zombie plague and survivors trapped in the mall and changed everything they could to pay a gentle homage to Romero without being caught in the trap of having to do a literal remake.

In this remake the rules are slightly different than Romero’s; in Romero’s zombie infested world there are several things that remain constant – people are fighting against the undead and the zombie’s populace. For Snyder’s remake no help might be somewhere but it is not an available presence. However, the most memorable change is the zombies.

The Dead trilogy has a very specific style of zombie; when you are bitten it takes days to change, and when you do you are a slow, lumbering, brainless beast. From the first sighting of a zombie in this film the difference is evident – victims are changed as soon as they release their last breath and they are vicious. These are not zombies that will slowly make their way to you and try to tear you apart, these zombies are lighting fast, brutally strong and completely savage. Changing the zombies changes the tone and feel of the piece, taking it from a remake into a film that could have been given a different name and the avid Romero fan would have simply recognized the film as an homage.

What I did love is that Gunn and Snyder take the time to pay homage to Romero. The mall is obviously an homage to the original Dawn of the Dead, to pay tribute to Night of the Living Dead the first zombie that is seen is a little girl and to in reference to Day of the Dead the survivors want to escape to an island where they hope the undead won’t have reached. There are a great deal more subtle nudges to the original films, but these were by far my favorites.

Having seen what is considered Snyder’s first major film it is easy to see that he is capable of much more than comic book adaptations. The man does have a style of his own and it is a very fun one. I just want him to start working with completely original material because he is quickly going to becoming the man who does movies based on graphic novels.

Director: Zack Snyder
Writer: James Gunn
Ana: Sarah Polley
Kenneth: Ving Rhames
Michael: Jake Webber
Andre: Mekhi Phifer
Steve: Ty Burrell
CJ: Michael Kelly
Terry: Kevin Zegers
Bart: Michael Barry
Nicole: Lindy Booth
Norma: Jayne Eastwood
Tucker: Boyd Banks
Luda: Inna Korobkina

Kenneth: Is everyone there dead?
Steve: Well, dead-ish.
Kenneth: Is everyone there dead?
Steve: Yeah, in the sense that they all sort of, uh... fell down... and then got up... and started eating each other.

Dawn of the Dead image from Art of the Title.

Let the Right One In

Somehow only about seven theatres in America got Let the Right One In and one of them was a theatre near me – I didn’t even have to drive to LA. Halleluiah, because I wanted to see this movie very badly. I do think I’m probably in the minority of people that wanted to see Swedish language child vampire film for recreation.

Let the Right One In is not a vampire movie in the traditional sense. The vampires are not invading, they are not the devils spawn brining ruin wherever they go, or even the bored undead that just want to see a little destruction. No, this is one vampire in the persona of a twelve year old girl and how she interacts with a twelve year old boy.

Oskar is a twelve year old boy who is docile and violently bullied by his classmates, but he doesn’t let his parents know this. One night new neighbors move in and Oskar’s life changes, Eli and her father move in next door. Eli at first tries to warn Oskar away from her but before long the two forge an unexpected friendship and for the first time in his life Oskar has a real friend; the twist is that this is a friend that has to live off blood and can’t go into the daylight unless she wants to commit suicide.

This is a movie carries by child actors. A little research told me that these kids were not professional actors and didn’t ever get to read the script. They were part of a nation wide casting search that the director put on to find Oskar and Eli, and though their parents read the script the children never did. They learned their lines through having the director read to them. While I cannot fathom taking that approach myself, Tomas Alfredson made a beautifully crafted film that stands unique amongst its genre so I cannot fault him for it.

Let the Right One In is not a horror film though it contains some pretty standard horror elements. This film is a story of friendship and two souls that finally find someone that understands them – everything else to the story is secondary.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writer: John Ajvide Lindquist
Oskar: Kare Hedebrant
Eli: Lina Leandersson