Quantum of Solace 2008

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Not every director is well-suited to Bondland. "There's something horribly efficient about you," Kurylenko says to Craig at one point. The same goes for the film. Read more

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: While charm and a quick wit made Connery the best of the Bonds, it's Craig's brute force and Jackie Chan-style stunts that will come to define this latest reincarnation. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Forster is elbowing us to agree that the franchise in his reins is just another spectacle. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Quantum of Solace prompts the question: Is revenge the only possible motive for large-scale movie heroism these days? Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: If the staging were as witty as the plotting, Quantum of Solace might have been a corker like Casino Royale. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Quantum of Solace, the 22nd entry in the interminable franchise, is one of the most pointless, chaotic and forgettable of them all. It is also one of the dullest. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Quantum of Solace is a model of mediocrity, even though Daniel Craig gives his all to a production that doesn't deserve him. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: Marc Forster seems like a counterintuitive choice to direct an action spectacle. But any doubts I might have had flew out the window and splattered onto the hood of a parked car during an early, hellacious brawl. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Quantum is content merely to be the second episode in what's shaping up to be a viable series, good enough but disappointing for those expecting greatness. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Enjoy Quantum of Solace for what it is: a high-octane, winning installment of the Bond series that hits the ground running and never lets up. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Frankly, Quantum of Solace is just one exasperated dressing down away from being Lethal Weapon 9. Read more

Noah Berlatsky, Chicago Reader: A few years back, the easy sexism and narcissism of the James Bond series looked dated to the point of obsolescence, but Quantum of Solace proves that a revenge motive is just what's needed to rejuvenate all the Bond cliches. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: If you held up your thumb over Daniel Craig's face and took in the mayhem around him, you'd think you were watching The Bourne Simulation rather than the 22nd (and shortest-ever) ode to Ian Fleming's suave government killer. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's ironic: After all these years of surviving everything that has been thrown at him, James Bond is finally being undone by his own team. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: With [this] too-shaken sequel, the Bond market experiences a dip. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Forster is indeed a fine director, but he's hardly a specialist in action films, and it shows. He can't quite keep things moving fast enough to speed past the absurdity of the premise. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: I mean it as a cockeyed compliment to the reborn Bond franchise, then, when I say that Quantum of Solace is an unnecessarily cramped arena for such an interesting cat. Read more

Dre Rivas, Film.com: Go see Quantum of Solace. Not that you weren't going to anyway. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: The problems can be traced to a screenplay that is stuffed with internecine plot points and shades-of-gray complexities, but little else: no character-sharpening details and none of the wit and charm that buoyed Casino Royale. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Despite his innate intensity, Craig seems a bit... bored, maybe? Underutilized, despite appearing in nearly every frame of the film. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: All dressed up with no particular place to go, this 22nd Bond film tries hard but ends up an underachiever. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Quantum of Solace never really engages you in the mechanical but transporting way the best Bond movies do. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Mr. White ultimately leads Bond to one Mr. Slate, who in turn leads him to a Mr. Greene. That's right: The global conspiracy this time around isn't SPECTRE, but some rogue wing of the United Colors of Benetton. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The action and eye candy may be worth the ticket price, but this Bond needs to get back to business. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Quantum of Solace isn't frivolous or cheesy, but it isn't all that much fun either. Craig is still the right guy for the job, but for his boiling-on-the-inside performance to work, he needs more to play with. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Quantum of Solace is too savage for family entertainment, but, as a study in headlong desperation, it's easier to believe in than many more ponderous films. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: In the end it's all too fast and too furious -- and far too obsessed with exercising its license to thrill. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The result isn't bland, but it's not exactly Bond either. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Revenge is a dish best served with bullets, high explosives and giant rolling flameballs. In Quantum of Solace, James Bond orders the revenge buffet, deluxe. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It fairly races by, a sexy, sadistic, cruel and crackling thriller that is the shortest Bond film since Goldfinger, and certainly the most brisk. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Quantum -- the 22d 'official' Bond picture, 24th including the rogue Bonds -- is never less than engaging. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is the least satisfying production since The Living Daylights. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I repeat: James Bond is not an action hero! Leave the action to your Jason Bournes. This is a swampy old world. The deeper we sink in, the more we need James Bond to stand above it. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Quantum of Solace won't trust its own darker instincts. It delivers the popcorn goods, but it ignores the poison eating at Bond's insides. Killer mistake. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Quantum of Solace is best when director Marc Forster allows his star the latitude to explore emotions that, until Craig stepped into the shoes of the character, we didn't know Bond had. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Quantum of Solace benefits from imaginatively conceived action sequences and from a director, Marc Forster, who knows how to film them. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Forster, a director of upscale tearjerkers, has no feel for action sequences. The big chases, of which there are several, could all be replaced with a title card reading, 'Insert action here'. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film makes such headlong leaps of motivation and locale that it would take a master spy to decipher why Bond is going where he goes and doing what he does. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A silly spy may be laughable, but a sulking thug is just a bore. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: There isn't much plot between the action set pieces, and precious little character development beyond Craig's and Dench's continuing evolution. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Director Marc Forster turns out to be a natural as the helmer of a high-energy, high-gloss action film. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: A slightly disappointing, furiously-paced, hi-tech, slash-and-burn sequel to the more leisurely, luxurious first 'reboot', 'Casino Royale'. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Much has been made of the absence of Bond's signature quips, but there's something else that's absent: interest. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The stunts are as muscular and the film as handsome to look at as the hero who so ably pulls them off. But the story linking it all together is thin and weak. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Stripped of Royale's humor, elegance and reinvented old-school stylishness, Quantum has little left except its plot, which is rudimentary and slightly barmy, in the line of the Roger Moore pics of the '70s and '80s. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: If nothing else, there's no need to worry about where Quantum of Solace fits in the Bond pantheon -- it's easily one of the worst. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: The Quantum of Solace filmmakers have produced a super-serious, often visually incoherent travelogue of revenge and trumped-up angst. Read more

Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter: [An] all-out thriller with few Bond touches but plenty of high-octane action. Read more