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From: kermodeandmayo
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  • I liked Duran Duran's "View to a Kill". And the Bond franchise is just going from bad to worse with this movie

  • Quantum of Solace is not a Bond movie. It just isn't.

  • Along with the ones for Benjamin Button and Watchmen, this is one of Kermode's best reviews (whether you agree with him or not - I don't fully agree with his assessment of the Fincher romantic epic).

  • Mark Kermode has always been an Arsehole and a very unlikeable bastard i know quantum of solace was pretty bad compared to Casino Royle which was a great film and still felt like a bond movie but this guy just loves to do shit reviews he gave twilight a good review so god knows what plane hes on.

  • @charlieiscool1000 calling someone an idiot for liking a film you dislike makes you...an unlikeable bastard. It's not an argument because the review comes from his personal experience. i don't like Twilight either but i'm intelligent and reasonable enough to understand that different opinions are available. i don't need everyone to agree with me to respect them. but apparently you do beause people liking twilight seems to upset you.

  • @Regenmacher175 What are you talking about i don't hate twilight i don't even waste my time watching it nor going on twilight videos im simply saying that i cant stand this guy he gives people bad impressions of films before they even have a chance of judging the movie for themselves which is one of the reasons critics ruin a lot people view on a film before it even comes out and Kermode is just a dull Irritating man its got nothing to with not liking his views and twilight does Not bother me.

  • @charlieiscool1000 on the other hand i'm sure that if you come out of a bad film you think "i wished someone would have told me how bad that was because now i wasted my time and money". that's why you have critics. Also, never judge a film you haven't seen. I give Twilight this: it seems to work with its target audience but I agree with you that I have no interest in watching it but i canot judge it, as I haven't seen it.

  • Twat. Mark Commode wouldn't know a good movie if it bit him on the arse. AVTAK is an awesome song and it's 'DEWRAN'!

  • of all the previous bond songs to state he says a view to a kill, come on please did you not remember madonna's sigmunt freud anaylse this, fucking hell, orrrrrr sheryl crow which is like nails on a chalkboard... a view to a kill is not one of the worst

  • The plot is perfectly clear! Someone wants to steal the water from Bolivia!

    Unfortunately, understanding the plot means I care about it even less...

  • 71 people are fish of trees

  • Great review-especially the music discussion

  • tell me the story ... lol

  • I want to see Fish of Tree's

  • I want to see pond of wood.

  • the guys are supposed to compliment each other styles.. and they do great at that. they work together nuff said. idc for the new bond or casino or royale...i want goldeneye!!!!!!

  • these guys dont like each other...

  • @IXM360

    Yes they do.

  • I was an extra for Quantum of Solace so I'm heavily biased in it's favour - even so I think it's one of the worst ones!

  • The theme's the only good thing about QoS!

  • these guys are fags?

  • @lumpfish99 ermm is that a question?

  • @gillri yes and no...cos if you said yes i wouldnt be suprised and if you said no i wouldnt believe you!! peace.

  • @lumpfish99 no, they just speak the truth about one of the worst bond films ever made.

  • @killwill83 i agree the film is crap.....

  • i like A View to a Kill :(

  • QOS is the only bad Bond film. Its crap!

  • @KISSarmyGuy Moonraker? Die Another Day?

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  • WORST BOND MOVIE EVER!

  • @mengutimur I agree.

  • @mengutimur die another day then the world is not enough then moonraker then this

  • I mentioned before the one thing that I didn't agree with, Kermode stating that the second unit is 'action'. But there's also his claim that Lazenby was rubbish.

    I liked him as Bond and would have liked to see him continue in the role. Connery is still the best, though.

    Anyway, it's a fantastic review that nails everything that's wrong with the film.

  • There are times when the good Dr misses the mark and this is one of them. One of the best Bond films ever, if not the best. Forster did a great job with this.

  • @Mike9MilesFromLeigh Your opinion, but I think it's in the minority. QOS was a mess of a film. an inscrutable plot, mindless, poorly edited action and a love interest with no chemistry.

  • @killwill83 - What was the love interest? I know I'm in the minority in loving QoS but I can't see how you can say the action was poorly edited when it contained some of the most thrilling scenes we've seen in Bond. It's not to everyone's tastes admittedly but the action is exceptional.

  • @Mike9MilesFromLeigh The love interest was the girl who was out for revenge against the Dictator/General character (his name escapes me now).

    The action could've been spectacular but was let down by everything being cut to look like a poor man's paul greengrass Bourne movie. The cuts were so hectic that for instance the falling from the plane scene is almost incomprehendible. Moonraker had a far better skyfalling/parachute scene.

  • @jhvorotin - 100% right. Both rubbish film and song since man with the golden gun

  • Have you listened to Die Another Day theme song? That's the worst right there!

  • @jhvorotin

    I'd say the world is not enough is worse but they're very close

  • A View to a Kill is awesome!

  • So you didnt like it then Mark?

  • what?! i disagree, A View to a kill had the BEST Bond theme ever! but yeah, this theme song sucked. so did the film pretty much.

  • Mark Kermode is the best movie reviewer on this planet.

  • James Bond...can anyone say: " Done to Death!?" If they made a James Bond where Bond finally gets killed for a noble cause, I would get up and cheer in the theater and I would say: " Greatest Bond film ever!" Maybe they can then switch over to Jane Bond, starring Kate Beckinsale, title of the Film: London's Tigress. Opening scene: Spy School, Kate kicks everyone's ass.

  • teletubbies bouncing around in a padded cell, I swear I've got a game that allows you to do that. Yes the plot is more implied than explicitly stated but it was good, Or maybe I only think that because the last bond film I saw was die another day.

  • This movie SUCKED!

  • A View To A Kill had a cool opening sequence, a decent song, and a great finale and that is it. Crap film. Quantum of Solace was a huge letdown. Pure rubbish.

  • It was really bad. The theme tune was terrible. Bring back Shirley Bassey!

  • Duran Duran's A View To A Kill was great.

  • @TemplePhantom BOO!

  • @TemplePhantom Yeah I agree- View to a Kill even sounds good played on piano. Have to disagree with Mark about that point, but otherwise he's right- the film was pretty crap, and the title makes no sense.

  • Interestingly 'A View to a Kill' is the only Bond theme tune to have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. I'm surprised Kermode hates it above all other Bond themes (apart from QoS clearly). To my mind Licence to Kill, Octopussy and Die another Day all have less memorable and inferior theme tunes than A View to a Kill.

    Overall though I agree with the review - QoS was a mess that need not have been after such a glorious rebooting of the franchise in Casino Royale.

  • I like Duran Duran's Bond song. :(

  • I've always respected Mark Kermode as a film buff, but his reaction in this video is terrible. He won't allow the man on the other end to answer questions half the time, and when he does get a chance, he's too scared too because he knows Mark is going to cut into him half way through a sentence. I understand QoS wasn't a classic, but it wasn't a terrible film as such.

  • @whengoodtimesgobadd yes its a great job but do you think you could be as concise, as cineliterate, as witty, as intelligent or as entertaining as Mark?

  • Slavoj Zizek's reason for liking the film, "James Bond saves the socialist regime of Evo Morales".

  • Badly directed, incoherent action scenes, over-flashy editing, over-colourized, it's everything i hate about modern action films. Kermode is spot on - there is no danger in these Bond movies now. Trying to be serious, gritty, then falling off buildings and constantly flying through the air etc does not work. Rotten, boring film in my opinion.

  • what's so bad about the a view to a kill song? I like it.

  • Did you watch the same movie I did.... what do u mean no story....

  • erm... there was no plot to speak of. There were action scenes for action scenes and coz it was a Bond movie. Terrible film

  • Quantum of Solace is a great title because it's unique sounding and enigmatic.

  • So is Pond of Wood.  That's the point.

  • Quantum of Bollox

  • it was shite compared to the world is not enough

  • it was a shite film compared to casino royale

    

  • view to a kill was awsome!

  • Theme tune was terrible but not as bad as the world is not enough

  • I love the word "funnily." I swear he uses at least once every review.

  • View to a kill is a good theme tune!

  • I agree, quantum of solace worst james bond movie ever

  • Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace were shit. If you are a true Bond fan, these two films are blasphemy. CR was boring as shit and QoS moved so damn fast and had no direction and way too much action with too little story to make me care. Craig is NOT a good Bond.

  • @DanSheaMovieReviews CR is faithful to the orginal book which started it all. What's wrong with that. I prefer it to making a cartoony exaggerated remake of Dr No *cough Die Another Day*.

  • Dan Bradley = Done Badly

  • Durrin Durrin? Never heard of them.

  • The villain is completely forgettable. Amalric is a good actor, but he looked completely lost or uninterested in the script.

  • Why's that guy being rude/ultra-dry to Kermode? Do they have some kind of banter going on or is it personal?

  • @carlosmontros534535 They are always like that.

  • Wrong about the theme tune, Jack White and Alicia Keyes did a great job and I can hum it.

  • @batmanofni I can remember the tune but its hardly one of the best themes. Look up Quantum of Solace "rejected theme" for a far better one.

  • Last night on TV was the first time I had ever seen Quantum Of Solace. I recognised the connection with Casino Royale as soon as Le Chiffre was mentioned not too far in from the start of Quantum Of Solace and then Vesper was mentioned, too. The action in QOS was too fast and furious for me to tell what was really happening to whom.

  • Casino Royale was much better, I agree. Kermode gesticulates too much though.

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  • Daniel Craig will not play Bond again - I am certain of it. He is going to get frustrated and disillusioned by the delays and quit in order to get on with his career.

  • Daniel Craig is the best Bond? Oh Kermode, Kermode, Kermode. You really do try too hard sometimes.

  • I love how the exact amount of time the film begins after CR is never firmly established. Some people say a few minutes, some say an hour, some say 2 hours.

  • Also, the solace that you are looking for is clearly Bond's understanding of what Vesper's intentions were when she seemingly betrayed him and his love for her. She was extorted to work against Bond because of something within the Quantum organization. Secondary "solaces" were Camille's revenge on the general and Bond's seeking protection and retribution for M. The cinematography was gorgeous in this film, by the way. I really like the feel of this film. Give Quantum another chance.

  • Wow, everyone is hammering this film. I totally agree with criticism based upon my initial viewing at the theater. I didn't get that it was a sequel until the very end and Bond's emphasis on Vesper. Recently I viewed Casino and Quantum back to back and that changed everything. The plot with Quantum makes much more sense, although it is very subtle and understated-- but it is clearly there. I'm actually looking forward now to the next Bond and finding out more about the Quantum organization.

  • Why haven't any Austrailian film makers made a Bond spoof called Pond Of Wood?

  • THANK YOU.

    Finally someone that points out the retardation of the entire film

  • This review is the reason I became a fan. Well put, sir.

  • Christopher Nolan would be great for a Bond movie, not because he's good at reboots or whatever (just because we've had one bad Bond it doesn't mean we need another friggin reboot), but because one of Nolan's strengths is professional morally ambiguous well-dressed male leads, whose professionalism is shattered by their emotions, usually due to a women (i.e Inception, Dark Knight, Prestige). The Escapist's MovieBob taught me that.

    Also, does anyone else think the View To A Kill theme is awesome.

  • @charlesr456 The worst Bond theme is Die Another Day by Madonna - after an atmospheric opening, it becomes a twee disco tune - horrible horrible horrible

  • Quantum Of Solace had terrible direction, bad characters, Boring music, z-class title song, Awful plot, laughable gunbarrel at the end and unlike the other 007 films I actually don't like the character of James Bond. One of the worst films ever made. Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson should be utterly ashamed.

  • @TRUMPER007 I fully agree. The funny thing is that all its defenders can say is that "it's close to Fleming!" when the opposite is true...

  • Only Christopher nolan can save this franchise....obviously they will keep on churning bond movies one after another....but by save i mean make a movie worth making with a decent script...when u have such a terriffic bond in daniel craig...why make garbage like quantom of solace...also this guy talks a lot...that was my rant.

  • @majesticmaniac Oh shut up with that Christopher Nolan crap, he's the most overrated director of his generation.

  • HOW DARE YOU HATE WALKEN AND DURAN DURAN. FUCK YOU!

  • 5.25 - the sound man.

    Poor guy. That's a lot of ranting to put up with.

  • agree with everything mark says apart from i quite like the a view to a kill song - and who is that, simon mayo ? SO annoying, why does he just interupt mark non stop !? prick

  • "pond of wood." LOL

  • I want a Christopher Nolan Bond film

  • @navylaks2 it's called Inception ;)

  • @navylaks2

    That'd be amazing!

  • @navylaks2 very good idea

  • @navylaks2 you already did in a way.....it's called "Inception" :)

  • @stuim41

    Nah not the same and if that be true then i want 6 more of those:)

  • @navylaks2

    We already got it--it was called Casino Royale. It was basically Batman Begins in the Bond universe.

    And as much as I like Nolan's films, I don't want his stamp on every damn movie. The man has his niche and his style. This is like wanting David Fincher to make every movie. All you'd get is the same dark cinematography and a movie about obsessions.

  • @enzobot24

    And that's basically what every James Bond film has been about:)

  • @navylaks2

    I just think that a lesser known auteur like Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In), Rian Johnson (Brick), Nicolas Refn (Valhalla Rising, Drive) or Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) should get the chance to make a Bond film--bringing arthouse edginess to the blockbuster franchise. Sadly, the Brits wouldn't allow anyone but Duncan Jones to do it.

  • @enzobot24

    Well as a dane i know to Nicolas Vinding Refn's stile and it's a bit harsh, alot of han held camera work and some very long scenes maybe not the most appropriate for Bond but i am looking foward to Drive later this year:)

  • theme tune's rubbish, worst theme tune since duran duran's a view to a kill, "thanks grandad", do me the theme tune? "i can't its rubbish" lol

  • QOS is the worst Bond movie. Lifeless, short, and confusing . No humour, emotion and a complete rip off of Bourne. Daniel Craig gave the dullest Bond performance ever.

  • @ADAM79929

    "Lifeless, short, and confusing."

    Are you my biographer?

  • There was something about a general guy.. and withholding water... and a woman with a burned back who wants revenge or something... I dunno.

  • View to a Kill is awesome

  • Finally, they killed off giancarlo giannini's character, nuff said.

  • QoS sucked because they got a privileged hack director who thinks he was making a Jason Bourne movie. Casino Royal was wonderful, and I had high hopes for the sequel. Now that the third installment will be directed by the same hack, again, I'll pass. This third turd will be the nail in the coffin of the Craig bonds. Shame, since Craig was excellent.

  • @biped19 Where did you get the idea that the next one will be directed by Marc Foster. It's going to be directed by Sam Mendes.

  • @Ihavealife100

    Thank god.

  • That thing Mark said about, "do I not know what's going on because I don't care, or because the story is incomprehensible" is EXACTLY what went through my mind when I watched it.

    Oh, and the camera literally gave me a headache. I checked, and at least one of the cutaways to something important (a gear shifter, I think) is LITERALLY one frame long. That is not long enough to tell us why Bond's car is not going over the cliff!

  • @TheSamuraiGoomba

    Literally one frame?! Are you serious? LOL. Oh the action is disgracefully put together in that film. I bet Paul Greengrass is laughing his ass off at all his detractors, yelling at the screen, "See?! There's more to it than shaking the fucking camera up and down and splicing single frames together!" Actually, we all know he wouldn't be caught dead watching a Bond film - he hates the character, full stop.

  • I know him its my friends dad 

  • Been listening to Kermode for many years now, and as a film critic myself, this is his best review...

  • I like view to a kill

  • (post 2)

    ...bourne films. let's just hope that ''bond 23'' will be better because i think that it is such a shame that they feel the need to mangle a 50 year old series with films that don't stay true to the winning formular. perhaps this break in the production will be a good thing because it will give them time to rethink their stance. there was a six year gap between ''license to kill'' and ''goldeneye''. perhaps it will encourage a bit more creativity and good direction.

  • (post 1)

    in my opinion ''goldeneye'' is the best bond film purely because it was the first film to show emotion within the charactors and was updated for the 1990's. it went downhill since then with ''die another day'' being the low point. the quality picked up in ''casino royale which had more realism and grit however the film itself was underwhelming. finally we are left with ''quantum of solace'' which is just uninteresting, unoriginal, unmemerable and quite clearly a rehash of the jason...

  • doesnt quantum of solace mean literally a small amount of solace? - that makes total sense in relation to bond's attitude towards killing people.

  • aaahh what?? a view to a kill was a great bond song, the only better one is the living daylights

  • He's absolutely right, Quantum of Solace is a huge mess.What really bothered me about it was the lousy editing of the action sequences.

  • I have to agree with the Daniel Craig statement. I think that Daniel Craig has all of the mannerisms that we attribute to the charachter of James Bond. However, due to all the previous Bond actors having brown hair, I thought that for all of Craig's Bond roles he should at least have brown hair.

  • Part of what went wrong was the choice to drag in references to the events of Casino Royale. There should really have been a clean break between the two films.

    Agree with all Kermode says, but I did love that plane/dogfight sequence :)

    So many good actors let down by a crap script. Nowhere near enough of Gemma Arterton - she would have been great as the main bond girl. instead she dies within 5min and in a rather pointless reference to Goldfinger is covered in oil or treacle?!

  • @GerbilEssences

    I actually think it was a real waste of Olga Kurylenko too. She's supposed to have this amazing backstory with her family getting burned alive, and being a Bolivian agent who's infiltrated the villain's circle - and most of all that stuff is just passing exposition, cos you barely get to see her do anything in the entire film.

    The plot is mostly incomprehensible, what can be made out is completely trivial, the action all falls flat, and tonally its all over the shop. Ugh.

  • Damn, I almost stopped listening when he says that Daniel Craig is the best Bond

  • Casino Royale surprised a lot of people because Daniel Craig was brilliant and exceeded everyones expectations and the movie really raised the bar where previous Bond movies had fallen well below. Having raised the bar Quantum came along and became a big disappointment because it felt rushed and appeared to be made by a director who was in a rush to get the movie finished so he could move onto another project. Hopefully the delay for the next movie will mean a better end product than Quantum.

  • Haha, I almost feel sorry for Mayo when Mark is telling him to recite the story :-P

    Great review, Mark, as usual. Agree with you 100%

  • i find it hilarious how marc forster directed Stranger than fiction which was brilliant. although even in that movie there were still alot of special effects.

  • as much as i agree with kermode on quantum of solace being rubbish, i dont see why people are so in love with graig, he is just the worst bond since ages. he has a face of a hitman, no elegance whatsoever, he doesnt make the character any different from any other action hero...he shouldve been in the expendables:D

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  • 106 minutes? Really? Felt like 3 hours. I managed to get not one, but two naps in during it and never felt I missed anything. Awful, awful film.

  • @MercyBlowz

    In a way it's an incredible achievement. Never has something, so very loud, so frenetically shot, and so short in actual run time, felt so dull, slow and long. The worst thing is that it cheapens Casino Royale by association. A waste of a good debut for Craig. My own hunch is that they were all too aware of MGM's financial difficulties approaching like a hurricane, and quickly wanted to get another one in the can before the studio's long awaited collapse.

  • HE SHOULD BE AN AMERICAN IDOL JUDGE

  • so spot on it was a shit movie just a bunch of chase scenes

  • This and "All Time High" from Octopussy are the worst Bond themes.

  • Quantum of Solace is the best James Bond film ever made. By far.

  • @Andreano123 You probably haven't seen that many Bond films

  • i personally believe that Qos felt like an inferior sequal to CR. CR is far better however i still thought that it was underwhelming compared to what i was expecting. pierce brosnans first 2 films are far supierior to daniel craigs first 2. it was brosnans last 2 that were borefests. Qos should have been called The Bond Ultimatum for its unmistakeable rehash of the jason bourne series. so let's just hope that bond 23 will be significantly better and more bond'ish.

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  • The View to a Kill theme is awesome!!

  • SHUT UP SIMON MAYO!!!

  • @clemarochies Can I give this 10 thumbs up please Youtube?

  • @FrogmortonHotchkiss Wasn't about that idiot it's cos i hate simon mayo cos he interrupts mark i'm not as pathetic as u.

  • now that i think about it I can't remember what the story of any of the bond films are. Well shit I guess that means they all suck.

  • @BootyBot They do. The only good thing to come out of them was Goldeneye on the N64.

  • "Go on, do me the theme tune."

    "I can't, it's rubbish."

    I like Jack White and Alicia Keys but this had me LMAO

  • Bond films should NEVER be 2 parters. Each film needs to be separate from the others. This last film was just a device to tie up lose ends of Casino Royale (a great film). It's contrived and I didn't care about any of the characters.

  • Bizarre - geared accidentally or not to an Eastern Audience....some clunkers in the Bond series, but they are extremely rare, only 2 or 3...incorrect on Lazenby..he wasn't a polished actor though

  • SPOILERS The resolution of the revenge arc was disappointing. We know the Algerian guy/Quantum was blackmailing Vesper for the "poker" money. The Cdn spy was Quantum's next target b/c she had sensitive info. About what? We never find out. IMO, the movie would've been better if: 1) the Quantum endgame was more diabolical & had more scope. 2) the Algerian was blackmailing specific spies to get access to info that was crucial to the Quantum plot & Bond had to figure out how the info fit together.

  • View To A Kill was great. I agree though Keys and Jack... whatever..

  • @wendileona My taste is just the oposite. However...that new song...not a bond song. Good song...but not for a bond movie.

  • Fantastic review by Kermode, I agree with everything he says except when he defines second unit as 'action' which it clearly isn't.

  • I really hate it when mayo interrupts.

  • Mayo's interrupting/mickey taking is why this partnership works so well, lightens the mood and answers some basic questions (not everyone knows what a second unit does for example). Kermode knows Mayo's on a wind up and being a pro takes it in good heart.

  • !!! a view to a kill is one of the best bond theme songs ever!! wots kermode on about

  • It's an apauling film. There's loads of incontinuities in the filming too. The actors did they best they could, credit to them all, but it's such a pathetic film and such a dull story. I don't know how the script was ever commissioned. The script's like one written by a high school pupil. The camera work in the action scenes is crap. It's so shakey that you can't see what's happening... just like Bourne Supremacy. Crap film, crap director, crap script writer. Just utter crap.

  • the second guy, whoever fuck he is, is irritating as hell. keeps interrupting mark with all sorts of stupid shit.

  • @Chandu83 You don't kno