Bournd. James Bournd.

Saw Quantum of Solace Sunday. Also saw it the Sunday before that, but that's neither here nor there. What is here is that this movie has exactly one good viewing in it. There's not two, so don't try to watch it again and expect it to still be palatable. The vaguely ridiculous things that you excuse the first time because, what the hell, it's Bond, become extraordinarily grating the second time around. You see that these scenes are not Bond at all. It's the obvious comparison, but suffice it to say I enjoyed the fights a lot more when Matt Damon was in them. And that hotel at the end, really? A fire that produces no smoke and no heat and consumes no oxygen? I know it's a movie but COME ON. Maybe it's just the dissonance between hyper-realistic fights and things that could only happen in a writers' room that irks me. Pick an end of the scale and commit. P.S.: You're Bond. You know which end you need to be on.

In fact, the classic Bond moments are the only things that still work well - the lottery quip was worthy of Connery, and Craig hits it as well as you can hit a line in a foreign language. The Goldfinger shout-out was pretty gratuitous, but at least they attempted to justify it. I really hope they continue to move in this direction. Angsty Bond is over for me. It worked for the storyline, but I miss seeing him just having fun out there.