Looks like you can add Daniel Craig to the list of people who thought Quantum of Solace sucked, meaning he must’ve seen it.

From a recent interview in Time Out London:

It seems that the script is sometimes an after-thought on huge productions.

‘Yes and you swear that you’ll never get involved with sh*t like that, and it happens. On “Quantum”, we were f*cked. We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers’ strike and there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t employ a writer to finish it. I say to myself, “Never again”, but who knows? There was me trying to rewrite scenes – and a writer I am not.’

You had to rewrite scenes yourself?

‘Me and the director [Marc Forster] were the ones allowed to do it. The rules were that you couldn’t employ anyone as a writer, but the actor and director could work on scenes together. We were stuffed. We got away with it, but only just. It was never meant to be as much of a sequel as it was, but it ended up being a sequel, starting where the last one finished.’

I tend to find it refreshing when actors admit certain movies they were in sucked, but the last time someone blamed the writer’s strike for a movie sucking it was Michael Bay on Transformers 2, and then he followed it up Transformers 3, which was just as sucky except for one scene with wingsuits, which doesn’t exactly seem like something you need Charlie Kaufman for. But it’s a lot easier to believe a movie will be better than its predecessor when the director is Oscar-winner Sam Mendes than it is when it’s Michael Bay, who won’t eat pancakes unless his personal chef makes them in the shape of explosions.

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Due to its awful shaky cam action sequences, Quantum of Solace has often been compared to the Bourne movies, a comparison which Matt Damon apparently doesn’t take too kindly to.  From a recent US Weekly interview:

“They could never make a James Bond movie like any of the Bourne films,” Damon said. “Because Bond is an imperialist, misogynist sociopath who goes around bedding women and swilling martinis and killing people. He’s repulsive.”

Whoa, whoa, settle down, dude.  We wouldn’t have brought it up if we’d known you were gonna get all Women’s-Studies-Professor on us, put your tampon back in.  I mean, Bond may like to drink and have casual sex and kill foreigners, but… wait, what was that other thing you said?

Universal recently made a deal with author Robert Ludlum’s estate for the exclusive rights to the Jason Bourne character and first look rights for any other Ludlum novels.

After the first three films grossed a total of more than $1 billion worldwide, U signed Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass for a fourth Bourne film that George Nolfi is penning.  …The film will be readied for a summer 2010 release. [Variety]

Flame me all you want, but I saw Quantum of Solace over the weekend, and it was exactly what I was afraid of when they hired the stunt coordinator from Bourne: a bunch of blurry, shakey, incomprehensible action sequences.  GARBAGE.  This is THE WORST trend in movies out there right now.  It doesn’t make it exciting to cut together a bunch of blurry whatsits like a hand shifting gears or a foot on the gas pedal.  Action movies are in the details.  If you just cut together a bunch of crazy closeups super fast and then end on a slow-mo of the good guy getting away or the bad guy dying, it’s insulting to the audience.  It’s like telling us we’re on a need-to-know basis with the movie we’re watching.  If you’re going to make it totally ambiguous as to how things happen, you might as well just cut to black and put up a title card that says “he got away.”  Also, it’s half-assed.  F-cking choreograph that shit you lazy motherf-ckers.

It’s not “gritty realism” either.  The action in, say, Michael Mann movies or Training Day is infinitely more effective because it impresses upon you the gravity of violence by actually making you watch it.  Kooky idea, right?  It doesn’t create fake tension through cheesy editing and spastic camera work.  F-CK SHAKEY CAM BULLSHIT.  …In conclusion, I will be switching to decaf from here on out.

^{I’ll teach you to ridicule my underbite, you jerks.}

Quantum of Solace took number one at the box office over the weekend, which wasn’t surprising considering it was the only film opening in wide release.  Even so, the $70 million start outperformed expectations and was the biggest opening Bond of all time (insert “Pussy Galore” joke here).

“Quantum of Solace,” with Daniel Craig returning as Bond for the first direct sequel in the spy franchise, pulled in nearly $30 million more over opening weekend than its predecessor, 2006′s “Casino Royale,” according to studio estimates Sunday.  The debut also topped the previous opening-weekend record for a Bond flick, $47 million for 2002′s “Die Another Day.” [CNN - full top ten after the jump]

Unfortunately, as is common for sequels, the reviews haven’t been all that great.  I still haven’t had the chance to see it, people have been emailing me all weekend just to tell me how much they hate it. Look people, I value your opinions, but not nearly as much as I value pictures of your pets wearing costumes.  In fact, if you want me to care about your movie review, you should probably just get a picture of a cat that looks like Hitler and type your review into his thought bubble, with the subject line, “Banjo thought The Changeling was preachy!”.

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As you can see, the new Coraline poster is out.  If this movie were about me, the room with all the light spilling out would be full of hot chicks peeing.  What?  It’s erotic.

Biggest Bond ever – Quantum of Solace makes $27 mil on Friday.  In related news, I got a free drink when someone thought I was someone else.   [RopeofSilicon]

Burn E, the short attached to Wall E, is now available for free online.  If robots were this cute in real life, the Japanese might not be so GD weird. [TrailerAddict]

Fake Joaquin Phoenix explains his retirement from acting. [ScreenJunkies]

The Spirit has a Christmas trailer set to that one Christmas song.  Thisisgonnasuck thisisgonnasuck thisisgonnasuck… [Filmonic]

The Dark Knight’s musical score has been ruled ineligible for an Oscar. It is, however, still eligible for a dismissive wanking motion.  Hooray, it won! [NYTimes]

New poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still looks a lot like old poster for Independence Day.  Welcome da Still Earff! [Empire]

ET visits the set of Prince of Persia.  Is it just me, and I’m not just saying this because his movies suck, but does Jerry Bruckheimer kinda look like a little kid with Down Syndrome?  Or maybe it’s that he gets his hair cut by a little kid with Down Syndrome?  [ET]

Pictures of “LARPers” – that’s Live Action Role Players.  They’re as sexy as you’d imagine.  [holytaco]

That dude from Will & Grace wants to eat vagina.  It’s funny because I thought he was queer.  [Atom]

Gary Busey is still delightfully insane. “Hear that dog barking?  That is not my dog.”  [CollegeHumor]