Quantum of Class

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2019)

A quantum is a small amount, this has more than that, but its not the best. the screenplay is all over the place and it looks like some scenes are missing. Daniel Craig is an excellent Bond, and his performance her is as good as any. Its a well made film good photography and scenery but again some locations are wrong, Italy, England and Austria are authentic, but the Russian scenes are not, nor the Haiti and Bolivian scenes, for Bolivia they chose Chile which is as near as dammit, but a bit sandy, and what confuses me is they use Panama and Mexico for Haiti, in an earlier film they used Mexico and Florida to replace Panama, but now they go to Panama to fake other locations!
This is a follow on to Casino Royale, a kind of part 2, the first time done in the franchise, maybe that is why its not as good as it could have been, its a bit slow in parts and its got a kind of anti-climax at the end.
The acting is all good, Judi Dench continues as a great M, Mathieu Amalric is a great evil bad guy, he certainly looks the part of a psychotic, the supporting cast are as usual very good led by Giancarlo Giannini and include the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, Oona. Still no 'Q' and Moneypenny again though, the character of Tanner returns, this time played by Rory Kinnear, and Jeffrey Wright is Felix Leiter, Wright is an excellent actor but as this is presented as a prequel (along with Casino Royale) to Dr. No, and which is supposed to be at the start of Bond's career, he is the wrong colour, it needed to be a white man for authenticity, but he is very good as Leiter.
Bond Themes:- Helicopters again, but not much else, they have continued to abandon most of the Bond themes as in Casino Royale and no Gadgets which worked well in Casino Royale which centered on Drama, Acting and straight action. No really identifiable henchmen, just a collection of different bad guys.
Cars:- a great Aston Martin DBS again, with a Ford GT and a few Alfa Romeos, and a Range Rover. Bond Girls:- Just one true one in this - No. 64 Agent (Strawberry) Fields played by Brit Gemma Arterton who is an assistant to Bond but after he shags her gets killed by oil in a copy of the painted gold death scene of Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger. The main Girl in the film is Camille played by gorgeous Olga Kurylenko (Ukraine) and is definitely the best looking, but I can't count her as there is no sex or sexual chemistry between her and Bond
Not the best, but all in all another good edition, can't wait for the next!