Power Cut

Twenty first century eh? We came back to the house to find we'd had a power cut! What a pain - all the stuff which should be able to cope simply didn't (alarm clock etc.) but fortunately the surge suppressors caught any spikes when the power came back on and so the computer kits didn't go fizz.. But come on!

Quantum of Solace

So I managed to get a day off (which makes up for some of the rather ridiculous overtime I have been working) and took my better half to the cinema to see the latest Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

Having really enjoyed Casino Royale, I had high expectations of this instalment. The film starts where Casino Royale left off and right in the action with a car chase. The film has its fair share of action sequences but some of them were rather spoiled for me as the editing made them a little frantic. I like the changes of point of view to keep the tension up but there were a couple during which I was rather losing track of what exactly was going on.

Daniel Craig turned in another solid performance as 007 and I continue to see him as the best Bond since Connery. I like my "heroes" to have a dark side. There is little in the way of humour but I happen to prefer that to the slightly camped up Moore incarnation.

As with all Bond films the story leads up to a climactic sequence and it manages to stay just this side of "over the top" which is good. Some elements work less well than others and a couple of the villains are pretty two dimensional but I suppose that's to be expected.

Olga Kurylenko turns in a nice performance as Camile, another of the more modern female roles. Gemma Arterton, as Agent Fields, is pretty much just eye candy though.

The film has a 12A certificate which is a rating I simply don't understand. Either a movie is suitable for 12 year olds and upwards or it isn't. The idea that something like this is OK for younger children if accompanied doesn't make sense to me. There are some pretty violent sequences in this film, albeit not gory, but certainly not suitable for smaller ones IMHO.

Obviously the film lacks the novelty of Casino Royale and focusses much more on action and chase sequences which give the characters less opportunity to develop. But overall it was an enjoyable 110 minutes. I do wonder whether it is an essential cinema watch or whether waiting for DVD would give an equally good viewing experience. There are a couple of larger scenes but nothing that wouldn't translate pretty well to a decent wide screen TV.