Jesper Christensen

Corelli: Sonate a violino e violone o cimbalo, Op. 5
$9.98
An Austrian friend played this for me and I was knocked out by it. This is some of the most beautifully played small ensemble music you're likely to run across. They are playing on period baroque instruments, but the sound is full, crisp, and detailed. The harpsichord neither woefully underrecorded nor overly dominant. Corelli's music is in the same Italian Baroque vein as Scarlatti and Vivaldi. However, you may be less familiar with the pieces on this disc, and that can be a distinct advantage. Finally, it's ONLY $6.98! The best $7 you'll ever spend.

Quantum of Solace (Two-Disc Special Edition)
$34.98
Casino Royale was great and of course there was going to be a sequel. Unfortunately, we got this. It just doesn't feel like a Bond film. Sure there's a guy named James Bond who drives an Aston Martin and just happens to work for the British government and a woman named M but its just not the same. Whereas Casino Royale did feel like a Bond film, just not as much since they were exploring how Bond began. For the first part of the film, all Craig does is kill people left and right and there are action sequences one right after the other, which doesn't help much. About halfway through though the story does start to take shape with the introduction of the mysterious Quantum organization (reminiscent of SPECTRE) and Mr. White appears in the beginning and in the middle (a possible recurring villain like Blofeld?). I just don't think the producers put that much effort into this one, probably just thought people would see it because of how successful the previous film was. The acting though is excellent. Daniel Craig adds more emotional depth to Bond as recovers from the loss of Vesper. Olga Kurylenko is also an emotionally scarred character and will probably the one Bond girl 007 doesn't sleep with. Mathieu Almeric is pretty bad as the villain but that's not his fault as the Greene really isn't that interesting of a character. Dench continues to be the definitive M, conveying that she wants to trust Bond but wants him to control his emotions. This is David Arnold's worst score out of his five (I think its time for the producers to look elsewhere), sounding listless for the softer scenes and obnoxious for the action. And again, no James Bond Theme in this. Jack White and Alicia Keyes sing THE worst (yes, Madonna's is slightly better) Bond song, though the backing music sounds good, should've been an instrumental. Hopefully, with the traditional gun barrel used at the end, it will herald the return of a more traditional Bond film.

Minor Mishaps
$12.99
Excellent movie, fantastic actors describing everyday life with intelligent sense of humor and tenderly describing human mistakes and misunderstandings. It's like very little happening but suspecting something terrible is going to happen, and finally the authors seems to trust mankind, something quite exceptional by the way in the XXI century. Actors have the ability of describing life as it is, and apparently life is good.

Quantum of Solace [Blu-ray]
$39.99
Casino Royale was great and of course there was going to be a sequel. Unfortunately, we got this. It just doesn't feel like a Bond film. Sure there's a guy named James Bond who drives an Aston Martin and just happens to work for the British government and a woman named M but its just not the same. Whereas Casino Royale did feel like a Bond film, just not as much since they were exploring how Bond began. For the first part of the film, all Craig does is kill people left and right and there are action sequences one right after the other, which doesn't help much. About halfway through though the story does start to take shape with the introduction of the mysterious Quantum organization (reminiscent of SPECTRE) and Mr. White appears in the beginning and in the middle (a possible recurring villain like Blofeld?). I just don't think the producers put that much effort into this one, probably just thought people would see it because of how successful the previous film was. The acting though is excellent. Daniel Craig adds more emotional depth to Bond as recovers from the loss of Vesper. Olga Kurylenko is also an emotionally scarred character and will probably the one Bond girl 007 doesn't sleep with. Mathieu Almeric is pretty bad as the villain but that's not his fault as the Greene really isn't that interesting of a character. Dench continues to be the definitive M, conveying that she wants to trust Bond but wants him to control his emotions. This is David Arnold's worst score out of his five (I think its time for the producers to look elsewhere), sounding listless for the softer scenes and obnoxious for the action. And again, no James Bond Theme in this. Jack White and Alicia Keyes sing THE worst (yes, Madonna's is slightly better) Bond song, though the backing music sounds good, should've been an instrumental. Hopefully, with the traditional gun barrel used at the end, it will herald the return of a more traditional Bond film.