Quantum of Solace (2008) -

OK. I am so not the target audience for this franchise. In fact, I don't know that I've seen a Bond flick in the theatres since For Your Eyes Only. That said, I will try to talk about this one, which I did see. The scenario is fairly simple: Bond is still trying to catch the folks who killed his love interest in the previous film when the pursuit of her killer leads him to unveil a global corporate conspiracy led by a French environmentalist tycoon. (I must say that confabulation of villainy -- a French environmental megacorporation? -- is such a pristine distillation of the baroque political stylings of the late BushII era.) Bond, of course, is being set up (sorta like Batman was earlier this year) to be the bad guy, so he must go rogue in order to do his job and save the world. The spectacular set-pieces are fun enough. Judi Dench and Jeffrey Wright lend effective gravitas as they also cash their giant paychecks. Matthieu Amalric is at once supercilious, scary and skeevy, just the way Americans like their French villains. The story makes just enough sense to follow the core vengeance arc. And I love the name (and the oily demise) of Strawberry Fields. But the only truly redeeming feature of this installment in the franchise is just how good Daniel Craig is in the role: he's sexy, he's smart, he's got a sense of humor, he's got a non-distracting potential for dimension so "feeling" sections don't seem forced; he looks good both in and out of clothes. A perfect Bond. But, really, I am so not the target audience for this stuff. Good enough, if you like that sort of thing.