James Bond Movie: **** Quantum of Solace (2008)

 The Bond movies seem to get more gritty as we enter the millennium.  We are back to pretty women during the opening credits.  This is a continuation of Casino Royale as Bond (Daniel Craig) is still seeking who is behind the murder of his woman, Vesper.  At the same time he is trying to track down a new organization with international ambitions.  They have men everywhere, we are told.  M (Judi Dench) is much more involved in this movie, and is actually in harms way by a double agent in the organization.  At the time the secret agency are into Bolivia where it seems even the police have been infiltrated, as well as Britain's Prime Minister's office.  It is ordered that Bond be shot on sight when he kills a couple police officers who were trying to frame him for the murder of his friend,  Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini).  Bond saves Camille (Olga Kurylenko) on several occasions, and she him as well.  They have a mutual interest in Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), he as a point to lead him to the killer of Vesper and to uncover a secret organization, and she to get to General Meldrano (Joaquín Cosio), who killed her family and is supported by Greene to take over Bolivia.  Co-agent, and short term love of Bond, Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) is killed by Greene as she covers Bond's back.  Greene is taking over the water in Bolivia and is set to cause a draught.  His organization has done similar activities an many countries.  The CIA is also supporting Meldrano, more Agent Beam (David Harbour) than Agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).  

This show has lots of excitement.  There is a chase over roofs and into a bell tower.  The action goes up and down and ends with swinging on the bell tower ropes.  Who will get to a gun first?  We have Bond in an old plane facing a jet and a helicopter.  He is able to face Greene and his men in the desert.  Camille gets her revenge, and Bond leaves Greene in the desert after having gotten the information he was seeking.  The last scene has him confronting the next level up in the organization.

I enjoyed this Bond movie.

 

In Theaters: ****^Thunderbolts (2025)

I know Thunderbolts has not done as well at the box office as most Marvel movies, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The only part I didn't like was one of the characters being eliminated before the movie really even gets started.  But the others doe very well, each having particular strengths.  They have all been working for Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) who is under investigation and wants them to kill each other.  Only one is killed, Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko).  However the others are all in peril as they are trapped, and the room will soon be incinerated.  Yelena (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Star (Hannah John-Kamen) are all surprised to meet somebody new, Bob (Lewis Pullman).  They are eventually joined by two persons who were not trapped, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who is now a congressman and investigating Valentina and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) who is Yelena's father.

This movie deals a lot with personal regrets and the void.  Turns our Bob who seems to have woken up not knowing where he is, is in fact Sentry, a super super hero who has been developed by a research project of Valentina.  However the project was destroyed to hide evidence in light of the investigation.  

It is while Sentry is unconscious when things get really bad.  This releases a Sentry deep in depression which he calls the void.  everyone is sucked into the void and turns to shadow.  Each of the team members must face their worse memories.  

Lots of fun and lots of action.  Towards the end they are introduces as the New Avengers.

Movie Review: *****The Black Widow

 This movie is delightful.  It is able to take a look at the Romanoff family from a different point of view, and gives us the back story for the Back Widow and for her sister, Yelena.  The family--which was put together to train the girls to be widow fighters includes Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), Yelena (Florence Pugh), mother Melina (Rachel Weisz) and father Alexei (David Harbour).  They were part of the enhanced network created by Dreykov (Ray Winstone).  In fact Dreykov has created an army of widows, and controls them through chemicals.  This movie is a struggle for the two sisters to get their lives back; and to deal with their past.  The movie is very well done how they combine family issues, from the pseudo family  and the humor is very good.  It takes a different view of the Marvel Universe.