DVD Review: Quantum of Solace

Posted on April 10, 2009

The James Bond franchise is in good hands. In the second film with Daniel Craig in the lead role, Quantum of Solace picks up right after the events in Casino Royale. Bond is devastated after being betrayed by Vesper Lynd and is hellbent on revenge. The worldwide conspiracy called QUANTUM has infiltrated the Bond's organization, putting his boss M in great danger. Bond sets off to find QUANTUM and stop their next project, expressly against M's orders.

His investigation leads him to Bolivia where he rescues Camile (Olga Kurylenko) from environmental entrepreneur Mathieu Amalric. Camile has her own motives for going after the man who will become the dictator of Bolivia in exchange for ownership of a vast desert that appears to be full of oil (of course, there is more going on here than meets the eye).

This Bond film really works best for viewers who have seen Casino Royale and understand why Bond is in such a terrible mood for the entire film. The action scenes are fantastic, especially the opening car chase in Italy. The cinematography is gorgeous and Daniel Craig is always worth watching. After the Italian chase scene, our favorite scene was the one set at the opera house. Any lover of espionage will appreciate the tightly choreographed cat and mouse game Bond plays with QUANTUM's agents.

The extras on the DVD are a bit of a let down, unfortunately. Most of the extras were available before the film aired. But there is an interesting featurette called "Bond on Location" that shows how the filmmakers used Panama to look like Haiti and Bolivia and how in the world they filmed those amazing chase scenes in a tiny hilltown in Italy. There are also some very short interviews with the director and the crew, and a music video featuring Alicia Keys. This DVD is worth buying for the film alone.




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