Quantum

What are the critics smoking? Quantum of Solace was fantastic. While I'm not ready to concede the title of the best James Bond movie, which for me still goes to Casino Royale, Quantum gives it a run for its money.

Quantum is like Casino, but with more explosions and less talking. I can definitely see that the Bond franchise is taking a bit off of the Bourne series, which in reality has taken a bite from Ian Flemming's Bond. Casino Royale gets an edge in the pacing, though, since there is much more plot and character development. In Quantum's defense, this is probably, to my knowledge, the only Bond movie that is a direct sequel (it takes place right after Casino left off). So if you take this movie as a sequel to Casino, rather than a stand alone movie, you may enjoy it more. Either way, it's still a great movie.

Plus, Olga Kurylenko is so beautiful. She definitely pulls of the Latin looks well. Bond always gets the hotties, doesn't he? Oh, and there are gadgets, you're just not paying attention, but Bond and MI-6 is not underpowered.

As an aside, this is the type of movie that makes me wish I spoke other languages--just look at the locales and people! Yes, this semester I'm working on some sort of Spanish, and I may have to just learn it on my own when I start my second masters, but I wish I could just immerse myself and learn it already. I'm actually really jealous of anyone who is multi-lingual. I really don't count the Tagalog that I understand since, I can't communicate properly and most Filipinos speak some sort of English (just watch the frickin' The Filipino Channel and you might understand half the words they say). We're living in a global world that's more interconnected than ever, speaking more than one language can bring us closer.