Quantum of Solace

The second outing of Daniel Craig as a taciturn and athletic James Bond, Quantum Solace is a brutally action-packed flick that traverses the globe from Siena to Port-au-Prince to Bolivia before a short epilogue in Siberia. The incisive cinematography, the exotic and effervescent locations and the stylish sets make for a very watchable movie. But the plot, which takes up threads from Casino Royale and has a vaguely environmental theme, is hard to follow, the acting one-dimensional, the product placement excessive and the violence somewhat repetitive. The best scene sees the camera switching repeatedly between apparently real footage of Siena's madcap bareback horse race and the invincible Bond chasing a treacherous MI6 agent through the city's atmospheric medieval street scape and buildings. At the other end of the spectrum, the last big scrap, set in an exploding eco-hotel in the featureless Bolivian desert is rather anticlimactic and contrived. Particularly unconvincing and out-of-character is the scene where Bond appears to be about to shoot his Russian-Bolivian love interest to save her from being burnt to death. 7/10