James Bond is back for 22nd mission.  But does Quantum of Solace pack a license to thrill or a license to bore?

Quantum of Solace
Directed by Marc Forster
Starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench
**1/2

There’s one sequence in the new James Bond adventure Quantum of Solace that ranks amongst the very best moments in the franchise’s four-decade history.  In it, our favorite “00″ secret agent (played, once again, by Daniel Craig in his sophomore outing in Bond’s impeccably-tailored suits) has followed his latest target Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric)-an environmentalist, business tycoon and, of course, member of a top-secret organization bent on world domination-to a lavish opera house in Austria to attend a performance of the Verdi classic Tosca.  Slipping unnoticed into the crowd, Bond spots Greene picking up a specially marked gift bag and uses his stealth (as well as his fists) to secure one of these bags for himself.  Inside, he finds an earpiece, which he pops into his ear as he makes his way into the catwalks that hover above the audience.

Adjusting the frequency, he finds himself listening in on a meeting between Greene and his partners-in-global-conspiracy as they discuss their latest plot-overthrowing the government of Bolivia and handing the country over to a puppet dictator they can exploit for their purposes.  But this meeting isn’t being conducted in some opera box or secret room; instead, all of the conspirators are sitting comfortably in the audience, watching the opera while planning the conquest of a sovereign nation.  It’s a terrific, suspenseful scene that confirms what Bond has been told about this organization early on in the film from one of its members: “We have people everywhere.”

The reason this sequence clicks is that it’s really the only part of the movie where Quantum‘s director Marc Forster is able to successfully integrate his own style and interests with the rigid James Bond formula.  And make no mistake, the 007 movies are all about formula.  The producers have been able to churn out 22 of these things because audiences come back again and again expecting to see certain things: great action, hot girls, cool gadgets and witty quips.

Granted, Quantum‘s predecessor, Casino Royale, did away with some of the traditional elements, but director Martin Campbell otherwise provided a nearly flawless execution of the Bond formula, just as he did a decade ago with Goldeneye, the movie that got the series back on his feet after the ’80s dog days of late-period Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.  Forster, on the other hand, seems largely uninterested in sticking to the producers’ carefully designed playbook.  He goes through the motions like a professional, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that he has another kind of movie in mind than the one he was hired to make.

Best known for small-scale dramas like Finding Neverland and Monster’s Ball, Forster has never made an action movie before and it shows in Quantum‘s near-incomprehensible chase sequences, gun battles and fistfights.  One of the great joys of Casino Royale was the way Campbell and his crew designed each of the film’s big set-pieces with an eye towards practical stunts that required a bare minimum of CGI-assists.  Think back to that awesome parkour chase through a construction site, the airport scene and that final shoot-out in Venice; all of the action was choreographed and edited with tight precision.  Now look at the opening car chase in Quantum, which is shot and cut like an over-caffeinated outtake from The Bourne Ultimatum.  Or check out an aerial dogfight between Bond and the bad guys that’s filled with so much CGI, it could have been made by Pixar.

I don’t doubt that Forster tried his best to master the language of action filmmaking, but he’s been thrown headfirst into a franchise that demands a skill set he just doesn’t possess yet.  There’s a reason why many of the best Bond pictures have been made by directors with extensive backgrounds in second-unit and stunt work rather than dramatic features.  They come in with the innate knowledge of how to satisfy the prime directive of any 007 adventure, namely dreaming up creative, memorable (and sometimes improbable) action sequences that leave audiences breathless.

Forster’s talents lie in an entirely different arena and it’s worth noting that, dramatically, Quantum of Solace is quite good.  The director is genuinely interested in Bond as an individual and he gives Craig the opportunity to play a range of emotions his predecessors could only dream about.  Picking up almost immediately after Casino Royale ended, Quantum shows as a bitter, furious, vengeful Bond who is more than happy to use his professional resources as means to settle personal scores against the men that killed his one true love, Vesper Lynd, who perished in Royale‘s final moments.

But 007 isn’t the only one who desires bloody revenge; Forster introduces a Bond Girl who finally has more on her mind than bedding England’s best-looking secret agent.  Her name is Camille (played by Ukrainian stunner Olga Kurylenko) and she’s the daughter of a high-ranking Bolivian official and his Russian wife (hence the accent) who were murdered many years ago by the general that Greene plans to put in power.  Save for a brief kiss in the film’s closing moments, Bond and Camille display little carnal interest in each other, which gives their relationship a completely different dynamic than what we’re used to seeing in a 007 movie.  (Because the Bond formula dictates that the spy has to do the nasty at least once in every movie, he does get it on with a fellow MI6 agent tasked with dispatching him back to headquarters.  But this character is a complete waste of screen time-her only function in the movie is to spread her legs for Bond and then meet an untimely end.)

Ultimately, all of Quantum‘s strengths and weaknesses stem from a common source-Forster wanted to make one movie, while the producers wanted another movie that was different…but not too different from every other Bond adventure.  Given that impasse, the only way the film could have been a rousing success is if they had given Forster free reign to do whatever he wanted with Bond or just brought back Martin Campbell for a second go-around.  Because what we’ve ended up with is a movie divided against itself; as a James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace disappoints, but as a drama about an angry, angst-ridden spy, it’s pretty solid.  The one thing that unites these two very different films is Daniel Craig, who has officially become-and I’m being absolutely serious here-the best Bond ever.  He’s not as effortlessly suave as Connery, nor as affable as Moore, nor as charming as Brosnan, but he accomplishes something even more difficult: he makes this superhuman…well, human.

Verdict: Rent It

Before you see the new James Bond flick, check out 007′s previous adventures; Beastie Boy-turned-director Adam Yauch captures great b-ball action in Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot; Ed Norton gets  in touch with his inner green monster The Incredible Hulk; and the landmark indie film Kiss of the Spider Woman finally gets a DVD release.

Bond on DVD

Daniel Craig renews his license to kill in the 22nd James Bond feature Quantum of Solace, which blasts its way into theaters on November 14.  But if you need your 007 fix before then, the good folks at MGM, Fox and Sony’s DVD divisions have got you covered.  Completists, of course, will want to make a beeline for The James Bond Ultimate Collector’s Set (MGM, $290).  This 42-disc behemoth packages remastered versions of all 21 of the super-spy’s previous adventures—plus hours and hours of bonus features ranging from commentary tracks and vintage featurettes to retrospective documentaries and trailers—in one ginormous box.

But one DVD you won’t find there is Casino Royale: Collector’s Edition (MGM, $20).  Not to be confused with the 2006 film that introduced Craig to the franchise, this 1967 curiosity was intended as a spoof of the Bond pictures, but wound up becoming one of the most expensive and disastrous productions in movie history.  Surviving cast and crewmembers dish about the many on-set battles in an entertaining 40-minute making-of documentary, which is the main bonus feature on the single-disc release. (MIA from this version, sadly, is the hour-long live TV adaptation of Casino Royale that aired on American TV in the late ’50s that was included on the first DVD edition of the ’67 Royale.)

The Craig version of Casino Royale also scores an extras-laden Collector’s Edition (Sony, $30) this month; available in both standard and Blu-ray versions, the 3-disc set comes with deleted and extended scenes and eight documentaries, the best of which focus on Bond’s enigmatic creator Ian Fleming and the long road Casino Royale traveled to a faithful screen adaptation.

Speaking of Blu-ray, MGM and Fox are reissuing six classic Bond flicks in the next-gen format as single editions ($35 each) or in two 3-pack collections ($90 each).  Among the titles in this first-wave rollout are Live and Let Die, From Russia With Love, Die Another Day and the one that started it all, Dr. No. There’s no doubt about it—whether in theaters or at home, James Bond is as big today as he was when hen first hit screens over 40 years ago.

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Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot
Oscillscope
$29.99

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch proves he’s got game with this lively basketball documentary about the 2006 Elite 24 Hoops Classic, which brought together America’s top 24 high-school players for one memorable game at Harlem’s legendary Rucker Park.  The first half of the movie profiles eight of the future Kobe’s and LeBron’s that make up this squad, including then Lake Oswego High School star Kevin Love (now playing center with the Minnesota Timberwolves) and St. Mary’s High School-turned-Portland Trail Blazers guard Jerryd Bayless, as they show off their on-court skills in practice while pondering their NBA futures.

Although this section of the film gets a little repetitive, when the game finally begins, Gunnin’ takes off like a bullet, fueled by a great soundtrack and SportsCenter-ready hoops action.  Making great use of such cinematic tricks as slow-mo, instant replays and how’d-they-get-that? camera angles, Yauch manages to pull even basketball novices into the game.  A surprise flop in theaters this past summer (chalk that up to the perils of being released by a still-young distribution company, which couldn’t get the movie on enough screens to make much of a box-office dent), the film should do strong business on DVD, where young b-ballers can check it out in between marathon NBA Live tourneys.

Extras: The two-disc edition comes with a commentary track from Yauch, plus extended gameplay, deleted scenes and video diaries recorded by the players during their time in the Big Apple.  There’s also hilarious footage of the director playing two-on-two opposite one his much younger subjects.  As if that’s not enough, Gunnin’ boasts all-green packaging that’s completely recyclable.  So do something good for the planet and pick up this DVD.

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The Incredible Hulk
Universal
$34.98

Much as I enjoyed Ang Lee’s interpretation of Marvel Comics’ resident big green giant in his much-maligned 2003 blockbuster, I can’t really blame Universal for wanting to do a hard reset for the follow-up film.  After all, with its ultra-dark, ultra-weird father/son melodrama, the first Hulk wasn’t exactly the kind of franchise-starter the studio was obviously hoping for.  Rather than take a risk on another wild card like Lee, Universal entrusted Hulk 2.0 to the solidly mainstream sensibilities of Louis Leterrier, director of lively action flicks like Transporter 2 and Unleashed.  Ed Norton was subsequently brought in to replace Eric Bana and Tim Roth landed the role of the Abomination, an orange version of the Hulk who has all of his strength and speed, but none of his navel-gazing guilt.  The result is more or less what Universal was looking for: a more conventional–but far less interesting–summer movie to placate the masses left confused and angry by Lee’s movie.  The irony is that the movie wound up besting its predecessor by only a measly $2 million at the box office (the 2003 film grossed $132 million, this one banked $124), suggesting that moviegoers just aren’t that into the Hulk no matter who is behind the camera.

Extras: Prior to the film’s release in June, rumors flew that the studio insisted that Leterrier and Norton’s pare their preferred nearly three-hour cut down to a more multiplex-friendly two hours.  (Norton allegedly balked at doing any press to support the film following the studio’s decision, although he wound up walking the red carpet anyway.)  While this DVD doesn’t house an extended cut–expect to see that turn up on disc in a year or so depending on how well this version sells–it does contain about 40 minutes worth of deleted scenes that contain a major subplot dropped from the theatrical cut.  I’m not sure that the excised material redeems the movie, but it does smooth out some of the plot’s rougher edges.  Despite my overall negative feelings about this verision of the Hulk, I’d be willing to check out the longer version to see if editing room tinkering was the reason it fell so flat for me the first time around.  Also included here are several making-of featurettes, a commentary track from Leterrier and Roth and a digital copy of the film for your iPod.  Not included in the set, but a pretty good bonus feature too (provided you’ve got the cash to spare) is The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series (Universal, $149.98), a box set containing all five seasons of the old Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno show.

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Kiss of the Spider Woman
City Lights
$34.98

Growing up, I remember seeing the VHS box (gee…remember those?) for Kiss of the Spider Woman on the shelf at my local video store and wondering whether it was some kind of Spider-Man spin-off.  I never rented it to find out for certain, but now that I’ve finally seen the film on its new two-disc DVD, I can confirm that it has absolutely nothing to do with our favorite friendly neighborhood wall-crawler.  Instead, this 1985 film, which was the first independently-financed feature to receive an Oscar nod for Best Picture, follows the relationship of two prisoners sharing a tiny cell in a Latin American jail.  Valentin (the late Raul Julia in his breakthrough performance) is a journalist locked up for his involvement with a rebel political group, while Luis (William Hurt, who won an Oscar for this role) is a gay man arrested for attempting to bed a minor.  Initially wary of each other, Valentin and Luis eventually start to share their life stories and develop a genuine friendship.  Then halfway through the film, we learn something about one of them that completely changes our understanding of the story and transforms the film from a chamber-room drama to a low-key political thriller.  A landmark film at the time of its release for its honest, emotional portrayal of a gay character, Kiss of the Spider Woman holds up quite nicely today.  Hurt’s performance is a little too theatrical at times, but Julia is fantastic and Leonard Schrader’s script is filled with rich monologues that give both actors the chance to strut their stuff.  Oh and in case you’re still curious about the identity of the titular Spider Woman, she’s a character in an old movie that Luis re-enacts for Valentin.  Another childhood mystery solved!

Extras: In lieu of a commentary track, the first disc offers a subtitled trivia track that accompanies the feature.  Disc 2 houses a feature-length retrospective documentary about the film’s production featuring new interviews with the cast and crew, as well as shorter featurettes that explore the stage musical and the changes the story went during its journey from the page to the screen.

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Also on DVD

Released in an otherwise superhero-heavy summer, the low-budget horror movie The Strangers (Universal, $29.98) still managed to scare up more than $50 million at the box office.  Credit its success to its creepy-as-hell trailer, which freaked me out each time I saw it.  The movie itself has some genuinely scary moments, but runs out of steam after the first half-hour.  The DVD comes with both a theatrical and unrated cut as well as deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.  Once on the fast track to stardom, Paul Walker is now headlining direct-to-DVD fare like The Lazarus Project (Sony, $24.96), in which the once and future Fast and the Furious star (the fourth installment in that franchise comes out next summer, re-teaming Walker and Vin Diesel) plays a devoted husband and father who gets locked up after foolishly joining his criminal brother for a failed robbery.  Sentenced to die, Walker instead finds himself entering a parallel universe where he leads an entirely different life as a janitor in an asylum.  So which reality is the “real” reality?  If you actually make it to the end of the movie, let me know.

Just in time for Kevin Smith’s latest film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, here comes Sold Out: A Threevning with Kevin Smith (Genius Products, $19.98) the third entry in an ongoing DVD-only franchise that collects several of Smith’s infamous post-screening Q&A’s at colleges and special film events around the country.  It’s not uncommon for these sessions to last all night as Smith brings out numerous special guests and mouths off about everyone from Tim Burton to his boy Ben Affleck. If you’ve been a little disappointed by Eric Cartman’s antics in South Park‘s current season, you can revisit several classic Cartman-themed episodes in the new anthology The Cult of Cartman: Revelations (Comedy Central, $26.98). Among the installments included on this two-disc set are the brilliant Scott Tenorman Must Die and Cartoon Wars Parts 1 and 2 as well as the not so brilliant Up the Down Steroid. Finally, Lionsgate continues their special Meridian Collection with the 2002 Spanish drama Mondays in the Sun (Lionsgate, $29.98) starring Javier Bardem as the leader of a small group of unemployed shipyard workers who drown their sorrows day in and day out in a local bar.  Bardem and director Fernando Leon de Aranoa contibute a commentary track and deleted scenes and a making-of featurette round out the disc.