Bond is Back!

I'm going to the 11:45 am show of Quantum of Solace at Green Hills 16 today. It's gotten mixed reviews from the critics but I've never been too concerned with reviewers' assessments of what is after all a series of popcorn flicks.

My parents took me to Bond films in the 1970s and I caught up with earlier installments on TV (ABC's Sunday Night Movie showed several of them back then). I've been hooked ever since.

To get in the right frame of mind I just watched the opening title credits to my favorite entry in the series (and arguably the best of them all). Goldfinger was the third Bond film, and it brought together all the elements we now expect in 007 features. It's also fun, and has some of the most memorable characters in the franchise's 46-year run - Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob and the "How did they get that past the censors in 1964?" Best-Named Bond Girl of All Time, Pussy Galore (played with tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek by the delightful Honor Blackman).

I know the Bond world now inhabited by Daniel Craig is very different from the one led by Sean Connery. Still, the excitement, the danger and the exotic locales all create some fantasy fun that continues to entertain through 22 "official" films and two spinoffs.

Here's the opening to Goldfinger. To borrow from another Bond movie, nobody does it better:



UPDATE: I really liked it. Dominic Greene is one of the best Bond villains in years and Craig has become my favorite 007 after Connery.

In Just 12 Days!

Bond Returns

Quantum of Solace opens October 31 in the UK and November 14 in the USA.

We Interrupt Our Election 2008 Coverage ...

... To bring you this video clip of the Alicia Keys/Jack White musical collaboration for the upcoming James Bond film Quantum of Solace scheduled to open in the US on November 14: