FoMoCo + 007

The opening scene’s riddled with automotive carnage. BTW, Doesn’t the Aston’s right rear tyre look particularly thin for a modern GT?

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via IMCDB

NEVER have I ever so badly wanted to see an Alfa Romeo get crushed.

Part ‘n parcel of what makes the latest two films in the Bond franchise so engaging (Casino Royale and the Quantum of Solace) is that the writers have cleverly managed to make us invested in wanting even the lowliest of evil henchmen get snuffed.

No longer are these extras merely faceless automatons that Bond has to kick through like chord wood to get to the boss villain at the end of the game. Each and every casting is deliberately vile and takes real effort to dispatch.

So, when in the notorious opening scene (the same one the blogosphere obsessively covered when a few stunt drivers got seriously hurt) a vicious, violently edited chase sequence occurs where a group of machine gun totting hitmen chase Bond’s Aston Martin DBS in a pair of Alfa Romeos, you couldn’t help but want to see each gorgeous Alfa crash spectacularly – which, of course, they did.

PAG ON DISPLAY

Interestingly enough, the Alfa Romeos are the last cars we really get to see that are outside the Ford family (except for a lone old school VW Bug).

Literally, every car onscreen, from a lowly Mazda taxi in Bolivia to Ford Edge Hydrogens (also in Bolivia) to the villain’s gorgeous predecessor gen. (X308) Daimler Super Eight in Austria (also known as the Jaguar Vanden Plas) is (or was) a Ford product.

This is the third recent Bond film in which Ford has pitched product; it’s reputed if not reported that Ford paid as much as $36 million for the Ford Ka Mk II cameo in the scenes shot in Haiti. Though, I’m sure that investment carried over into the other Ford models onscreen.

Considering that investment, one wonders if Ford will be so heavily committed again now that the FoMoCo’s Premier Auto Group (PAG) has been disolved and Dearborn finds itself in hot water along with the rest of Detroit (Ford’s shares are currently worth less than GM’s).

It’ll be interesting to know how Ford will fare in its return.

QUANTUM WORTH SEEING

As for the second Bond film starring Daniel Craig, it’s well worth watching – eventhough it fell short of Casino Royale and most film critics were quick to dismiss it. There’s been some debate online as to whether he has displaced Sean Connery as best Bond ever.

Roman style, Roger Ebert turned his thumb down on Quantum of Solace.

Still, I give it thumbs up. The spectacular vehicular carnage alone sells the movie!

[Linked: 007]