Richard's Online Journal

If I can get over the motion sickness caused by your last post, I’m going to see it on Saturday.  I’ll let you know what I think after that.

By the way, I was at a tapas bar in Knaresborough last night when a rumour was going around that Daniel Craig had been seen in (the nearby village of) Scotton and might be dropping in.  He didn’t!

Posted by Scylla on Wednesday 5th November

While I do think QoS squandered a lot of the potential that Casino Royale set up (especially with Quantum’s nefarious scheme to, um… steal some water from Bolivia and sell it back at an inflated price. You can topple governments, but you’d rather run Evian?), but I don’t think it’s really as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be.

That shakycam-as-choreography bullshit needs to go the hell away, though.

Posted by Paul Cosgrove on Wednesday 5th November

I think there’s plenty of reason to deeply dislike it. The narrative is piss-weak. The villain couldn’t be less interesting. The action sequences don’t have any punch to them. It’s not remotely exciting. It’s a film with no moments. It’s just Stuff. Empty, uninspired Stuff that only exists because Bond films can pull in lots of money for minimal creative effort. There’s not the slightest flicker of anything beyond that in its monochrome DNA.

Posted by Richard on Wednesday 5th November

Did your visitor numbers rise?

I got the feeling that the comment… ehh I mean discussion participation considerably grew with the last few entries.

If thats true it probably means that you have become *spitting on the ground* mainstream and I will have to search elsewhere for a gaming blog.
Gaming blog?  Yes gaming blog. Such posts as this one are only satire, perhaps a retro ride.
People dont really visit to the cinema anymore, do they?

Posted by Therlun on Wednesday 5th November

Nope. Actually visits are seriously down ATM, mostly I think because I haven’t been posting much. I’m just lucky enough to have a larger than normal percentage of people posting comments.

And of course, I try to reply to people, which boosts the numbers.

Posted by Richard on Wednesday 5th November

I enjoyed it at the time, but thinking back, I can’t really remember anything that really wowed me outside of Daniel Craig himself. The most stand out moment was the creepier version of the Goldfinger thing.

Oh, and wassername, the girl who wasn’t Gemma Artherton, - by the way Gemma, if you’re reading this, I’m free this Friday - was completely crap.

Posted by Cradok on Wednesday 5th November

I didn’t find that bit creepy to be honest. I think I was too busy wondering when she found the time to write a note saying RUN! and hand it into the desk along with the instructions for the clerk.

Posted by Richard on Wednesday 5th November

I’ve never seen a Bond film…

Posted by Therlun on Thursday 6th November

The note thing didn’t make sense even before you found out she’d been oiled up, so I’d stopped thinking about it by then.

Posted by Cradok on Thursday 6th November

It makes much less sense afterwards though.

Actually, the oil scene was pretty damn stupid as well. Ignoring the fact that it’s thoroughly pointless, since they know that Bond is well aware that there’s no oil involved in the big plan (although admittedly, too stupid to just say so, and thus instantly exonerate himself and get two of the three main forces out to get him back on side), did they bring a big barrel of oil through the hotel, or did they kidnap her, drown her, then casually saunter back? How did they manage to be so tidy about the whole thing?

Very clean room, given the circumstances…

Posted by Richard on Thursday 6th November

I’ve never seen a Bond film…

Don’t make this one your first.

Posted by Richard on Thursday 6th November

I was really aggravated by Gemma Arteton’s death. Bond films have always had the women in refrigerators syndrom down to a tee, but it’s about time they grew out of it. She turned up in a ludicrous raincoat that suggested she was naked, said about three lines, had sex and got murdered. It was particularly pointless given the Bond was already on a revenge trip, so killing her wasn’t even a serviceable plot point. It was just so they could do a lousy Goldfinger homage.

But yes, it was all pretty insipid and the action sequences were directly very poorly.

Posted by Dan on Thursday 6th November

Did she have that annoying grating voice she used in Tess?

“Bond, sir, Jame’s Bond, sir? Well i’all hav none of you sir! You won’t get your wick’d way on me, sir.”

Bond: “Oh good.”

Posted by William Main on Thursday 6th November

I couldn’t even figure out who was chasing who in the opening car chase until the very end of it. Marc Forster can’t direct action sequences to save his life, and the rooftop scene just served to remind you how much he’s not Paul Greengrass, and how much the Bourne movies raised the bar in the spy genre.

Daniel Craig is still the best Bond though, despite this being such an underwhelming followup to Casino Royale.

Posted by Sören Höglund on Friday 7th November

I’ve just seen the film and couldn’t make head or tail of the story, if any, linking all the chases and explosions. I still like Daniel Craig’s Bond, though, and Judy Dench’s ‘M’.

Posted by Scylla on Saturday 8th November

I saw QoS over the weekend, and thought it was better than most reviews (including Richard’s) suggested.  Chalk it up to lowered expectations, I guess.  As a ‘chase baddies around the world’ film, it works, but it’s best not to think too hard about the plot.

Too late: So what was that master plan about?  Steal the Bolivian water?  Why would water supply matter if the French creep had already forced General Facelicker to sign over a utilities monopoly? 

Still, it’s not the worst Bond movie by a long shot.  No Invisible Car, for one.

Posted by Enduro Man on Monday 10th November