Posted in 007, Hollywood, India, Info, James Bond, Movie Reviews, Moviez, Musings, Reviews

Movie Review: Quantum of Solace

‘So less’ of Quantum. That ought to sum it up nicely. The much vaunted and so-anonymous-that-MI6-doesn’t-know-it-exists super criminal organization, which I suppose will be the pool from which all future Bond Villains will arise from, is mentioned just once in the whole movie. Maybe it was just a curtain raiser and we’ll get to know more of it in other upcoming instalments. I guess it is modelled on the lines of S.M.E.R.S.H and S.C.E.P.T.R.E from the 70’s and 80’s era of Bond Movies.

Quantum Of Solace Anyways, am just back from the screening of the 22nd James Bond Movie – Quantum of Solace, starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Amalric, amongst others. And its no coincidence that I mention Judi Dench second in that list; for she has got a considerable role in this movie and essays it with aplomb. It may not be fair to categorize Olga as a Bond girl coz there’s just one kiss between her and Bond and  share no more than a car seat. Mathieu Amalric is sufficiently sinister at times but again, is a very feeble Bond Villain…a general in the Quantum army, so as to say. His and the organization’s motive – broker a coup in Bolivia in return for a seemingly barren piece of land which eventually turns out to be a natural source of water – is slightly bizarre, if not overtly stupid! The  star of the show is obviously Daniel Craig who carries on with the same grittiness and gut-wrench-iness from Casino Royale. Seething with rage and blinded with revenge, he shoots, stabs and pushes his way across the links leading out of Vesper’s betrayal and sacrifice, much to the chagrin of M.

Continue reading “Movie Review: Quantum of Solace”

Posted in Awareness, Happenings, Hyderabad, India, Info, Moviez, Musings, Previews, Video, Web Travails

007 days to go…

Quantum of Solace Poster

It releasing here on the 7th of November and I sincerely hope that unlike last time around, the English version is released simultaneously as the Telugu version. Bond fans will remember that for Casino Royale, the Telugu version – Prapanchaaniki Okkadu – was released earlier and was allowed to run for two full weeks before the English version was released in the theatres! Some of my friends went ahead and watched it in Bengaluru!!!

Hope sanity will prevail this time around. Here’s a theatrical trailer to whet up your appetite for QoS:

Continue reading “007 days to go…”

Posted in Awareness, Happenings, India, Info, Previews, Web Travails

Shilpa Shetty in Quantum of Solace?

Via Ultimate James Bond Fan Blog

The rumor mills have started spinning again! Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is now said to be “officially” cast in the next James Bond Movie – Quantum of Solace. MI6 reports how Shetty’s name has been added to the cast of QoS on its IMDb page.

Notice how D unravels the rumor building by pointing out the fact that IMDb pages can be edited by registered users so the mere fact that her name’s on the page doesn’t make it “official”! Also notice the “rumored” nomenclature beside her name.

See what people with hyperactive imagination can do! Maybe its Shetty’s legion of fans at work, trying to project her as the first Indian Bond Girl :mrgreen:

Posted in Music, Web Travails

James Bond Themes – My Favz

James Bond needs no introduction……but his movies have always had some terrific intro scenes and spellbinding opening sequences. Maurice Binder is the brain behind several of those artistic and captivating title sequences. But that I’ll leave off for another day. Letz talk about the theme songs that play during the opening title sequences. The Bond movies have shelled out some scintillating theme songs over the years and I keep listening to them day in and day out. Who can forget the mesmerizing James Bond signature song composed by Barry Norman Monty Norman and which has found its place in every James Bond movie! Apart from the signature tune, there have been several other tracks which are truly Bondish in nature. Here I list 10 of my personal favorites:

  1. You Know My Name – Chris Cornell from Casino Royale
  2. You Only Live Twice – Nancy Sinatra from You Only Live Twice
  3. Diamonds are Forever – Shirley Bassey from Diamonds are Forever
  4. The Man with the Golden Gun – Lulu from The Man with the Golden Gun
  5. Tomorrow Never Dies – Sheryl Crow from Tomorrow Never Dies
  6. The World is Not Enough – Garbage from The World is Not Enough
  7. Live and let Die – Wings from Live and Let Die
  8. Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey from Goldfinger
  9. From Russia with Love – Matt Monro from From Russia with Love
  10. View to a Kill – Duran Duran from A View to a Kill

The WWW is a vast resources for all of these and more! Too bad YouTube is inaccessible here otherwise I’d have seen all the title sequences back-to-back. For those of you who can, here’s where to find them.

Other Resources: Bond Title Sequences | James Bond Music | MIDI’s of Themes |

Posted in Daily Rants, Moviez

You Know My Name

Saw Casino Royale again today :mrgreen: . This time around, I was accompanied my colleagues and though most of them found it boring and lacking pace and speed, I’m sure those views were borne from their innate comparison with previous Bond flicks! It is with consumnate ease that most people tend to gauge how good (or bad) a movie is by comparing it with an older one. Whereas the last view was at PVR, this time it was Prasadz that played host.

Read my Casino Royale Review here

BTW, I think that the song that plays at the credits was awesome! Itz titled You Know My Name and is sung by Chris Cornell. I managed to dig its lyrics.. Continue reading “You Know My Name”

Posted in Hyderabad, India, Info, Moviez, Musings, Reviews

Casino Royale – Movie Review

Casino Royale

Natalya Simonova: How can you be so cold?
James Bond: It’s what keeps me alive.
Natalya Simonova: No. It’s what keeps you alone.

That dialogue from GoldenEye aptly states what Bond is! A Cold and ruthless spy with a licence to kill! And Casino Royale shows why he is so….

I finally got to see Casino Royale, after the two-week ban effected by the distributors on the english version had elapsed. And in one word, it is Good! Two things though, if one is a die-hard fan of the Bond Movies, they may not like this one! And if one is a keen follower of the Books, then they’ll definitely dig this one! I am neither of the above but still I’d say that this was one of the better Bond movies.

Anyone would think that it would be hard keeping up the Bond tradition specially following up after actors like Connery, Moore and Brosnan. More so Brosnan since the last four movies were fresh in movie-goers’ memory. Does the new Bond -Daniel Craig – matches upto the task? IMO, he sure does. One of the things in his advantage is that the move sketches the ‘Starting’ of Bond as 007 and thus is not technically ‘following’ DAD!

Storywise, Casino Royale is kinda short but ably stretched into a 2 Hr long movie where Bond – the person is given more prominence than Bond – the spy. There’s not much of a story to tell….just that after two killings Bond is promoted to 007 status and is on the trail of Terrorist Banker Le Chiffre and must stop him from winning a multi-billion game of poker at Casino Royale.

Daniel Craig as James Bond Performance-wise, Daniel Craig delivers promisingly as the Novice-spy at the beginning, slowly maturing as he goes along his job and finally attaining the ‘Cold’ streak that a Double-Oh ought to have. I could not help remembering the dialogue “How can you be so Cold? – Itz what keeps me alive” from GoldenEye and Casino Royale’s climax sure stands as a precursor of that! Craig also displays some cockiness and over-confidence in himself- something which is referred to as the bloated-Ego- and nearly ends up bein Dead! In the second-half of the movie, Bond falls in love and tenders his resignation only to be separated by fate! Craig also manages to mock at Bond’s favorite drink when, on a question from a waiter whether he would like his Vodka martini shaken or stirred, replies “Does it look like I care a damn!”

This movie has next-to-nil gadgets and Q is completely absent…and so is Moneypenny. That sure comes as a shock to the gadget-loving fans but in wake of criticism that the disappearing-car has ahd in Die Another Day, maybe thatz a good idea! There are only one-and-a-half heroines and Eva Green is lacklustre as Vesper Lynd! There are two scenes full of dialogues between them (one on a train and another at dinner) wherein they say much more than they actually do. It also has considerably less action! I can count three scenarios – a breathtaking edge-of-the-seat chase at the start, a crunching car-chase in the middle and the climax shootout – and none of them are as elaborate as in earlier Bond movies. Evidently, the game occupies much of the latter-half but owing to my lack of knowhow on Texas hold’em Up, I coulnd’t fathom much of it. Mads Mikkelsen as the glass-eyed villian banker Le Chiffre is OK and in the torture scene with Bond is in his element. And also takes a snide dig at earlier movies with a curt “I never understood all these elaborate tortures. Its the simplest thing to cause more pain than a man can enjoy” !!!

All in all, I guess this movie portrays Bond as Ian Fleming wanted him to be and not as a gadget-toting innuendo-laden Spy that we had come to see in the past. And that can only be good for the Bond Franchise.

Rating: **** out of 5

Posted in Daily Rants, Hyderabad, Info, Moviez

No Casino Royale in Hyderabad!

While the whole world and most of the cities in India are welcoming the return of the cocky spy James Bond in his 21’st movie Casino Royale, movie-lovers in Hyderabad (and other cities in AP) have to be content with Prapanchaniki Okkadu. Thatz the telugu dubbed version of the movie which literally means One-for-the-world!!! In most of the cities across India, both the English version and the local-language versions were released simultaneously. But only in AP, the Telugu version was released. The distributors’ guild says that the move was taken so that the movie can be watched by as many people as possible and get the feel of the Spy thriller first-hand in their own language! I’d say the decision was rubbish. In holding off the release of the english version, they are forcing the die-hard-bond-fanatics to watch the movie in telugu. What they do not understand that they are presenting an adulterated product into the market and that will only diminish the saleability of the original product,a s and when it is released. This kind of flawed judgements is seriously harming movie-goers interest in watching the most-awaited flick of the year.

I, for one, had the chance of catching up with the movie on the first-day-first show! What with tickets being available aplenty all over…after all it was released in 20+ theatres all over Hyderabad! But I didn’t want to hear Daniel Craig mouthing his lines in Telugu!!! Me gonna wait for the english version to arrive or scoot off to Bangalore to see it. Fie!!!