Quantum of Solace starts where the last Bond film, Casino Royale, left off.

This 007 thriller still has all the stunts involving motor bikes, jet fighters, fast cars, and lots of hand-to-hand combat.

I did miss the fun and crazy toys, but there are still lots of good new stuff that can deliver the punch we are all used to watching.

Although the style is changing a bit, the dead-pan humor is still there, and I'm thinking Daniel Craig should be the most popular 007 for many, many sequels to come -- and the kids love him too.

Bond is back and as icy as ever.

The action picks up not an hour after Casino Royale ends, along the treacherous roads of Monte Carlo -- but the director's quick cuts nearly destroy this and other action sequences.

More action hero than spy, he avoids all the cliches once associated with his license to kill: no one-liners, no "Bond, James Bond," and the gadgets are kept to a minimum.

And what's up with all the stairs?

Still, it's an exciting tale in exotic locales and the current state of the world.

Agent 007 is a very enraged, angry man and needs cheering up in Quantum of Solace, a cold and vengeful chapter in the James Bond saga with little interest in holding the tale together and even less in the kind of sensual pleasures and high-life thrills once anticipated from movies about Her Majesty's best-dressed secret service agent.

The world Bond lives in in this film is a serious mess, where everything he thought was good turns out to be bad, and everything is upside down.

Nobody knows whom to trust.

The thriller is filled with over-the-top action and a story that's impossible to follow, but that's no bother in a Bond flick, in my opinion.