But Casino Royale swept all that aside, and suddenly Bond was plunged into a world that was far grittier, far more in-your-face, and much more contemporary. Perhaps it took Daniel Craig to make the tracking of terrorist finances into something sexy, but it also took a new breed of screenwriters who created byzantine plots so twisted that they made the previous Bond flicks look like lightweight candy. Those writers continue to push the envelope with Quantum of Solace, which is the first direct sequel to occur in the Bond franchise (there’s another first, but you have to wait to the end to see what it is).  The dialogue is relentlessly clever/funny, and the fight-scenes continue to be low on gadgets and high on interesting topography.  And as with Casino Royale, there’s even a bit of (gasp) character development for Bond….

In fact—and this is going to seem really fucking petty—the only problem I had with the movie were the titles used to identify locales; each location-signature was plastered obstentatiously on the center of the screen in various loud fonts, and it really got on my nerves. Give me a quick digital read-out in the lower left-hand corner and just get on with it, okay?  Thanks guys.  And thanks for kicking butt with everything else.