Don't get me wrong: the new James Bond flick, "Quantum of Solace" (what
a classy name for a chase orgy), is the best of its kind, and if you
like da kine, you'll have a great time with it.  The script is as good
as you'd expect from Paul Haggis - of "Crash," "Letters from Iwo Jima,"
and a long time ago, "L.A. Law."

But: there is one extended scene in the film with a premise of
mind-boggling stupidity.  It's this: if you want to have a global summit
for an international conspiracy, where else to hold the meeting than
*during* a "Tosca" performance in Bregenz's Lake Constance Festspielhaus,
participants issued special earpieces to discuss the deal while seated
in the audience.  *During* the performance.  Two thousand audience members
and not one sushing the conspirators - typical Austrian opera fan behavior!

So, we have the Te Deum in the background while the discussion goes on,
Bond listening in, of course, then the shooting starts in and around the
audience, gun shots intermingled with the scene-ending church bells.
The shooting continues without a pause, but behold!  on stage it's already
Act II and most of the audience stays with the opera instead of ducking
the crossfire.

Otherwise, everything is realistic and plausible, especially the
car/rooftop/water/desert/aerial etc. chases.  Daniel Craig, Mathieu
Amalric (what a realistically creepy villain he is, regardless of the
role he plays), the divine Judi Dench, and Giancarlo Giannini are terrific.
The "Tosca" cast is pretty good, but with all those bullets flying around,
I didn't have a chance to figure out who they were...  not that it matters
much.

Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]

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