It took two men to kill James Bond: Austin Powers and Jason Bourne.

At least that's the way it looks in "Quantum of Solace," the newest and most joyless installment of one of cinema's most venerable franchises. In his breakout 2006 performance as 007 in "Casino Royale," Daniel Craig proved an able successor to the man who defined the role, Sean Connery. In its sequel, all the dash and elan of that film has been leached out, leaving Bond little more than a serial killer with Bombay Sapphire eyes and a good tux.

Gone are the lush locales, libidinous sex scenes and playful puns. Gone, indeed, is all the fun. Trying to banish the ghost of Mike Myers forever while imitating the hyperkinetic editing of the "Bourne" movies, the "Quantum of Solace" filmmakers have produced a super-serious, often visually incoherent travelogue of revenge and trumped-up angst. Adding insult to injury, they justify the whole enterprise in a ludicrous environmental cautionary tale about corporate control of water. Olga Kurylenko does her best in a regrettably glum role as Bond's sultry love interest; Mathieu Amalric plays the villain with the same catatonic stare he affected to far more engaging effect in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Thank heaven for Judi Dench, whose M provides "Quantum of Solace" its sole quantum of peppery brio.

-- Ann Hornaday (Nov. 14, 2008)

Contains intense sequences of violence and action, and sexual content.