Quantum Of Solace (2008/MGM Blu-ray + DVD) + Never Say Never Again (1983/MGM Blu-ray/James Bond)
Picture: B+/B-/C+
Sound: B+/B/C+ Extras: B- Films: B-
Daniel
Craig has established himself as the grittiest, toughest and most lauded James
Bond since Sean Connery, yet it is not that simple. Besides the grittier turns by George Lazenby
(in his single outing in On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service) and Timothy Dalton (in his second and last Bond, Licence To Kill), Connery’s last two
Bond outings were as comic as they were gritty.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
was filled with clever adult wit that made for a huge hit, while his last Bond,
the outside-of-the-series Never Say
Never Again (1983) was (as Roger Moore rightly pointed out) made to be as
comic as Moonraker and Man With The Golden Gun. So it is with some irony that Never Say Never Again and Craig’s huge
second Bond Quantum Of Solace (2008)
arrive on Blu-ray at the same time.
There are
many odd things about Quantum
including many up and downs for the film and the series. It is the most expensive Bond to date, yet it
is also the shortest ever released and considering it is not loaded with
gadgets or space trips, it is amazing so much was spent on it. It has one of the most interesting villains
in Mathieu Amalric (Munich, Marie Antoinette, Heartbeat Detector) as Dominic Green and two exceptionally
interesting and beautiful new actresses in Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton,
making for the best supporting cast in many a Bond film, yet the film is so
co-dependent on the viewer seeing Casino
Royale that it frustrated many and always will in that respect. Yet once you get past that, it is a pretty
good action film.
Bond
discovers a secret organization even his division did not know about is behind
some of the events of his previous, personal case, almost costing “M” (Judi
Dench) her life. When Bond investigates,
he discovers how extensive they are and that they are so overconfident they are
mostly undetectable that he starts to peel the layers away. Many considered the fight sequences too
similar to that of the Matt Damon/Jason Bourne films, but the Bond people hired
some of those choreographers to do these sequences, so that was intentional and
shows how the Bond franchise will add anything to the films they think will
work.
That has
led some to comment that this is too much like an action film and not enough of
a spy film, but it is arguable that a Bond like this needed to be made where
the action was up front and gadgets are limited. That is special spy gadgets, as Bond uses
plenty of gadgets that most people use every day here, so to call it
gadget-free is a bit misleading. Director
Marc Forster is more miss (Finding
Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction)
than hit (Monster’s Ball, Kite Runner) but his better side pulls
through in the main work he does. Though
its short length and narrative fracture disappointed many, in years to come,
people will realize how much better a Bond this is than it seems now. It is fun and delivers the goods the way the
series always should. It remains the
premiere action franchise and it is nice to see it back on top.
Turning
back the clock a quarter century, Never
Say Never Again is the only action Bond outside of the series, which
deserves brief explanation. The story
begins in the 1950s when Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham were hired by
CBS-TV (who made an hour-long Casino
Royale in 1954 for the anthology show Climax!)
to write a Bond TV pilot for a TV series that never happened. Fleming got his hands on that work and
without the writer’s permission, turned it into the hit Bond novel Thunderball. When the Bond movie series began in 1962,
court battles began, leading to McClory becoming a co-producer on the Thunderball feature film in 1965, ten
years after which, rights to that book would revert back to him.
He
thought he could launch his own entire James Bond series and even landed the
coup of having Sean Connery on board.
They even wrote an entire feature film screenplay called Warhead
with John LaCarré, but the Bond producers and United Artists stopped that
project that would have had Orson Welles as Blofeld. Turns out McClory and Whittingham invented
both Blofeld and SPECTRE, not Fleming, which is why the series dumped that
organization and those characters after Connery left. Then others became involved with new lawyers
and copyright law, winning McClory, Warner Bros. and all involved to at least
be able to remake Thunderball (still
the biggest Bond in ticket sales ever) so that is how Never Say Never Again came into being.
The Bond
producers and MGM/UA tried to stop it from being made, but could not and two
Bond films (the other being Octopussy)
almost opened head-to-head in the summer of 1983, but Never Say Never Again has both money and production troubles which
led its release to be postponed until that fall. It did decent business, but not as well as
the Roger Moore film, which surprised many.
The idea was that Connery’s following would put Never Say Never Again over the top, but not all of it worked out.
The
underrated Irvin Kershner (aka Kersh to his friends) became the only American
to ever direct a Bond film as the producers only hire Europeans and like
directors for the actual series. He had
helmed dramas like Loving, comedies
like S*P*Y*S, thrillers like Eyes Of Laura Mars, the highly
underrated existential drama/comedy Up
The Sandbox with Barbra Streisand and just came off of Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back when he signed on to make this
film. Years after the lack of budget and
aged technology shows, his work helps keep this film interesting, even if it is
not totally successful. Though the
makers said they were going back to the books, it is the most comical of all
Connery Bonds and that turned off too many of the fans of the older films.
Still,
they got an interesting look in the actual film and a good cast that has only
appreciated in value over the years.
Besides Connery one last time (despite saying he’d never do this again,
thus the in joke title of the film) they landed Klaus Maria Brandauer as Largo,
Kim Basinger as Domino, Max von Sydow as Blofeld and Bernie Casey as the first
African American Felix Leiter years before Jeffrey Wright landed the role in
the Craig Bonds. Pamela Salem is Miss Moneypenny,
Alec McCowen has a nice brief turn as “Q” and Edward Fox is the new “M” almost
implying he is the successor of Bernard Lee in the official series. Also look for a pre-Mr. Bean Rowan Atkinson
(around the time he began Black Adder) as comic relief in Nigel
Small-Fawcett. He is very funny here and
if they had been able to continue, there is the hint his character would have
returned.
As in the
1965 film and original book, SPECTRE is stealing two nuclear warheads with the
help of Domino’s brother, who is being exploited by SPECTRE and their sexy
assassin Fatima Blush, played with great energy, joy and sexuality by Barbara
Carrera at her star peak. Despite the
comedy, this has sexual touches the series had abandoned after Connery left and
it is fair to say only the Craig films have been as sexual since. No, it is not a great bond, especially when
it tries to imitate Raiders Of The Lost
Ark, but it is so interesting even when it does not work that it is worth
seeing again.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on both are an interesting tale of two
transfers. Quantum offers an interesting combination of HD formats and Super
35mm film, while Again was shot in
real anamorphic Panavision (superior to the other formats) to look
expensive. Yet, both are on the grainy
side. In the case of Quantum, it is the style chosen so it
can be a gritty Bond with some glamour mixed in, as shot by Director of
Photography Roberto Schaefer, who has been lensing all of Forster’s films of
late. Unfortunately, it is a strategy
that holds back the transfer and performance of the film overall, but this
still looks good here in its AVC @ 28 MBPS transfer, as it did in 35mm. There are many times the approach works, but
a little more polish in scenes would have been nice. It also looks decent on the anamorphically
enhanced DVD, but lacks the detail and solid Video Black of the Blu-ray. Again
is here encoded in AVC @ 35 MBPS, yet looks poor throughout for many reasons.
Though
shot in a superior format and by no less than Douglas Slocombe, who would lens
all three Indiana Jones films, this print is not in good shape at all and
neither is this transfer. Some shots
look like a DVD, the daylight scenes at the beach look dirty and dull as if
there was overcast, detail is not always great and depth is bad. Color is also a big problem and any luster
the 35mm print had is dulled out in most shots.
Why? This was not given a 4K HD
upgrade like the films in the actual series and the producers of the Bond films
now have legal control, so they have no vested interest in making this look
good, which is sad but here it is. They
were never happy with the film and apparently have no intent to upgrade it.
The
DTS-HD MA 5.1 on both are also as different as their picture performance with Quantum offering an often state-of-the-art
mix that shines in the action sequences and has a smart mix with
character. Sound is well recorded on
location and music is mixed in nicely.
The big miss all the way is the worst theme song in the history of the
series in Another Way To Die, an
ill-conceived duet with Jack white of the terrific White Stripes and Alicia
Keys, both out of their element here screeching the lyrics here of a song by
White that sounds like lower-case White Stripes. In the title sequences, it is pumped up to
embarrassingly high levels as if that will hide how bad it is. It is the low point of the mix and for themes
in the series, a disaster. The DTS on
the DVD is pretty decent, but no match for the DTS lossless on the Blu-ray.
Again had a 4.1 Dolby Magnetic Stereo soundmaster
for its 70mm blow-ups and the previous DVD and 12” LaserDisc were on the warped
side, seemingly sourced from 35mm Dolby A-type analog materials going bad. Sadly, the DTS mix here is also on the warped
side at times, the sound is too much in the front speakers and music can be
outright weak. That is still better than
the previous Dolby DVD, but MGM has reissued the film on DVD at the same time,
though we did not get that copy. It
could only be worse. Too bad, because
there are some fun and interesting sound moments here, but the title song by
Lani Hall (a sort of joke song) is also bad, though actually more tolerable
than Another Way To Die, but even
odder is Michel Legrand’s score which does not include any of the James Bond
Theme as the series owns it and sounds like a dated electronic keyboard score
at its worse. The music warp points are
the saddest thing here.
Extras on
Solace include a fun section of
min-interviews with many of the people whop made the film which originally
debuted on the internet. We also get a
Music Video for the duet, theatrical & teaser trailers and several nice
featurettes including Bond On Location,
Start Of Shooting, On Location, The Music, Director Marc
Forster and Olga Kurylenko & The
Boat Chase. That is good, but I was
expecting more. Still, it is not
bad. Extras on Again include a photo gallery, trailer, feature length audio
commentary by Director Kershner & Bond scholar Steven Jay Ruben and three
featurettes: The Big Gamble, Sean Is Back and The Girls Of Never Say Never Again.
That seems fuller than the latest Bond for whatever reasons.
For more
on related Bond films, try these links:
Casino Royale
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5088/Casino+Royale+(DVD-Video+++Blu
Thunderball
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7716/James+Bond+Blu-ray+Wave+One
- Nicholas Sheffo
