Re-watching James Bond

[Oil Baroness]

Point taken Anyway, I haven't gotten around to seeing CASINO ROYALE yet--shameful, huh?--but I'm about two years behind in my movie watching Thanks for doing this thread, though

Casino Royale is worth it. I wasn't sure that I would like Daniel Craig as Bond, but he is great. A pleasant surprise.

[Daphne]

Casino Royale is worth it. I wasn't sure that I would like Daniel Craig as Bond, but he is great. A pleasant surprise.

I enjoyed Casino Royale as well. I didn't think that I would enjoy a new James Bond-(because I am a little partial to one of the past actors who played James Bond, of course, but I think everyone has there favorites)-but overall I thought he did a good job as well.

[James from London]

Just for laughs, the Bond movies in order of preference:

1 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 From Russia with Love
3 Diamonds Are Forever
4 Casino Royale
5 The Spy Who Loved Me
6 Dr. No
7 You Only Live Twice
8 GoldenEye
9 Live and Let Die
10 Die Another Day
11 Goldfinger
12 The Man with the Golden Gun
13 Never Say Never Again
14 Thunderball
15 Tomorrow Never Dies
16 The Living Daylights
17 Moonraker
18 A View to a Kill
19 The World Is Not Enough
20 Octopussy
21 Licence to Kill
22 For Your Eyes Only

[James from London]

My Top 21 Bond Songs

1. Live And Let Die - Wings
2. Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me) - Carly Simon
3. Thunderball - Tom Jones
4. You Only Live Twice - Nancy Sinatra
5. Diamonds Are Forever - Shirley Bassey
6. Die Another Day - Madonna
7. A View To A Kill - Duran Duran
8. Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
9. We Have All The Time In The World (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) - Louis Armstrong
10. From Russia With Love - Matt Munro
11. The Living Daylights - A ha
12. Tomorrow Never Dies - Sheryl Crow
13. The World Is Not Enough - Garbage
14. You Know My Name (Casino Royale) - Chris Cornell
15. The Man With The Golden Gun - Lulu
16. Licence To Kill - Gladys Knight
17. Golden Eye - Tina Turner
18. All Time High (Octopussy) - Rita Coolidge
19. Moonraker - Shirley Bassey
20. For Your Eyes Only - Sheena Easton
21. Never Say Never Again - Lani Hall

[D & D Advertising]

Sad anniversary tomorrow....15 yrs since Michael Gothards suicide :

http://www.bondmovies.com/henchmen/locque.jpg

One of the most underrated Bond villains I'd say

[mztx71]

My Top 21 Bond Songs

1. Live And Let Die - Wings
2. Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me) - Carly Simon
3. Thunderball - Tom Jones
4. You Only Live Twice - Nancy Sinatra
5. Diamonds Are Forever - Shirley Bassey
6. Die Another Day - Madonna
7. A View To A Kill - Duran Duran
8. Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
9. We Have All The Time In The World (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) - Louis Armstrong
10. From Russia With Love - Matt Munro
11. The Living Daylights - A ha
12. Tomorrow Never Dies - Sheryl Crow
13. The World Is Not Enough - Garbage
14. You Know My Name (Casino Royale) - Chris Cornell
15. The Man With The Golden Gun - Lulu
16. Licence To Kill - Gladys Knight
17. Golden Eye - Tina Turner
18. All Time High (Octopussy) - Rita Coolidge
19. Moonraker - Shirley Bassey
20. For Your Eyes Only - Sheena Easton
21. Never Say Never Again - Lani Hall

My top 10 would be -

1. The Spy Who Loved Me - carly
2. A View To A Kill - Duran
3. Live & Let Die - Wings
4. We Have All The Time In The World - Louis Armstrong
5. Licence To Kill - Gladys Knight
6. Diamonds Are Forever - Shirl
7. For Your Eyes Only - Sheena
8. Thunderball - Tom Jones
9. Goldfinger - Shirl
10. The Man With The Golden Gun -Lulu

Fave movie - Moonraker

And PS. One loves Daniel as the new Meester Bond!

[Ray&Donna]

Finally got around to watching CASINO ROYALE. The locations look great, the action sequences are breathtaking, the score works--in other words, it feels like a Bond movie. Craig seems to fit in the role well, and clearly isn't afraid to show Bond as vulnerable to physical pain.

On the downside, I could've done without the naked torture scene, Eva Green looked better when not painted up so much, and the movie didn't seem to know when to end. However, the movie didn't feel as long as it really was, and even with multiple endings, nothing about them felt superfluous. Nice cliffhanger, too. Looking forward to the next film, even with its obscure Fleming title. But will Aston Martin let them destroy another car in such a manner?

...and their post-casino romance lush and tragic in an ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE sort of way.

Interesting that, prior to this one, OHMSS was the longest Bond flick.

My DVD also has "Bond Girls Are Forever" as a bonus, in which the blonde girl from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS visits several of the actresses, including Ursula Andress and Holly Harwood, who tells us that "women were burning their bras" when she did MOONRAKER. Jiggly Tanya Roberts is strangely forgotten, however.

[Bobby Blake Gioberti]

My DVD also has "Bond Girls Are Forever" as a bonus, in which the blonde girl from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS visits several of the actresses, including Ursula Andress and Holly Harwood, who tells us that "women were burning their bras" when she did MOONRAKER. Jiggly Tanya Roberts is strangely forgotten, however.

No Grace Jones either. Shame.

[Bobby Blake Gioberti]

Ranking the Bonds:

1. Craig. Totally nails it, and another film will only consolidate his position.

2. Moore. Yeah, he's more "Roger Moore - Movie Star" sauntering through his films, but come on he's a class act (nonchalantly smoking a cigar while hang-gliding in Live And Let Die, kicking the car over the cliff in For Your Eyes Only etc.) and always likeable.

3. Connery. Fantastic up until Goldfinger and thereafter is visibly bored. His performance in Diamonds Are Forever is considerably more relaxed.

4. Lazenby. Awkward in longer dialogue scenes but a highly impressive film debut. He should've done more. There's no way either Connery or Moore could've pulled off that last scene in OHMSS.

5. Dalton. I can appreciate what he's trying to do, I can appreciate he's more the Bond of the books, but I'm just not enthusiastic about Dalton's Bond. Way too earnest and overdone. All that seething intensity - thinks he's playing Shakespeare. And both his films are sub-par.

6. Brosnan - Back in the 1990's, he seemed the ideal synthesis of Sean and Roger. Now Craig's kicked him out of the ring. A bland Bond and his films haven't aged well either.

[Bobby Blake Gioberti]

***** = Top stuff

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Casino Royale
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger

**** = Highly enjoyable

You Only Live Twice
Moonraker
Diamonds Are Forever
Live And Let Die

*** = Good but not great

For Your Eyes Only
A View To A Kill
Tomorrow Never Dies
GoldenEye
Octopussy
Thunderball
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Living Daylights

** = Passes the time

The Man With The Golden Gun
Dr. No
Die Another Day
Licence To Kill

* = Not worth the effort

The World Is Not Enough

[emmalovesdallas]

Who's your favourite Bond actor, mine is Pierce Brosnan

[James from London]

My DVD also has "Bond Girls Are Forever" as a bonus, in which the blonde girl from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS visits several of the actresses, including Ursula Andress and Holly Harwood

I shall look forward to that. I'm working my way through the documentary extras on each of the DVDs. I've got as far as LIVE AND LET DIE. The alternate takes of Roger Moore's stuntman skipping - and slipping - over the crocodiles' heads are quite exciting.

[mztx71]

Who's your favourite Bond actor, mine is Pierce Brosnan

Love them all (particularly Rog) with the exception of Dalton!

[Mayor Gregory]

Who's your favourite Bond actor, mine is Pierce Brosnan

Indeed, "The World is Not Enough" - the opening scene with the Swiss bankers
- a great job by Pierce, showing the cold assassin side of Bond

[mztx71]

Daniel Craig is 40 today!


Happy Birthday Baby!

[Cliff Barnes]

I am a fan of most all James Bonds until the reboot and Craig, not a fan of that at all. I loved Sean Connery and the one Lazenby was good. Roger Moore had some very entertaining ones-personally I enjoyed most of them although he definitely had less range and took things in a different direction. I loved Timothy Dalton and especially License to Kill, and for Brosnan I loved his first and last one quite a bit.

[ChrisSumnerMatheson]

James! I'm doing my own rewatch and had to dig up this thread. What do you think of Quantum of Solace? I still haven't seen that film although I will at the end of my current re-viewing. I don't like the idea that it's a direct sequel to Casino Royale and now I hear the next one might continue that same plot even more. I do hope the next film is more of a traditional Bond film. We'll see.

[Garrison]

It is amazing how some people just, to use a phrase Marky is fond of, think "right"... I think I only have one or two major disagreements with you, James (Thunderball rules, Diamonds are Forever not so much), but we're mostly in lockstep. I'm in the middle of the infamous Bond war of 1983 at the moment and I have a feeling I'll have a lot to say on the subject tomorrow.

[Garrison]

The 1983 battle between Octopussy and Never Say Never Again was interesting not so much for the films themselves (I doubt either makes many top 10 lists) but for what each represented... it was Connery vs Moore, plot vs style and the lingering question of what it really meant to be a proper Bond film anyway. It was Casino Royale come to life, only this time it was the future of the Bond franchise itself up for grabs. When the topic comes up, the media is quick to anoint Octopussy the winner owing to it's marginally higher worldwide box office. The context, though, is often overlooked: Octopussy was released at the height of the summer blockbuster season to generally mixed reviews while NSNA came out in November to a largely favorable response, earning what was at the time the highest opening weekend gross of an 007 film. But these arguments are immaterial... even if Octopussy won the battle, the war went to NSNA in a route.

Never Say Never Again is a fascinating little oddity unto itself. It's status as the only serious non-Eon bond film to ever actually make it to production (though many other Thunderball remakes and Casino Royale adaptations came close over the years, including one in 2000 starring Timothy Dalton!) leaves it with a distinct feel; instead of the standard gun barrel opening we're treated to a screen composed entirely of 007's and instead of a pre-credit scene leading into a lavish opening sequence replete with silhouettes, we jump right into the action with the credits and (very poor) theme playing over scenes of Bond shooting his way through some sort of jungle complex. It's all very strange and one can only imagine what moviegoers at the time thought of all this. And the less that's said about Connery's horrible toupee the better.



Most importantly, though, is the way the NSNA attempts to re-ground the series. Since OHMSS, the Bond films had been on a mostly downward trajectory with each successive outing trying to out-camp the previous one while the plots were reduced to little more than flimsy excuses for trotting out the same old cliches in increasingly ridiculous fashions. Sometimes, namely Live and Let Die and The Spy Who Loved Me, this was totally fine... but by 1983, the series had clearly reached a point of diminishing returns. As a remake of Thunderball, NSNA had little choice but to adhere to the more plot dependent structure of the 60's films and as a non-EON production, it had little choice but to dispense with many of the cliches and formulas that had built up over the years, both facts which it uses to it's considerable advantage. Here we find an M and Q, freed from their usual roles as 007's nagging parents, grappling with the effects of Thatcherism in a touch of realism that the official series wouldn't have even attempted at this point. And, though I do sincerely love Desmond Llewelyn, isn't it nice to have a Q who is excited by the prospect of “sex and violence” as opposed to the same old “pay attention!” routine? Also absent are the gimmicky henchmen and convoluted gadgets... only Rowan Atkinson's Nigel Small-Fawcett (heh) reeks of the excesses of the EON films... in their place is a healthy dose of plot.

The other thing NSNA has going for it is, of course, it's cast. Connery's return to the role was a publicity stunt for both sides, but it leads to the truly inspired concept of James Bond as a middle aged man. While the official films were concerning themselves with how to hide Roger Moore's liverspots, NSNA embraces the concept wholeheartedly and it ends up being the films most compelling aspect. The first half hour of the film has been described as “a portrait of an over-the-hill superhero” which is very apt and the film pulls it off with aplomb, reveling in shots of Connery contemplating the words “they don't make them like that anymore” and in showing how age seems to have limited the effect of his charms (though, of course, he does get the girl eventually). Klaus Brandauer's Largo is the most compelling villain the series has had in years while Barbara Carrera and Kim Basinger prove to be the best Bond girls since Barbara Bach. James has spoken of the Brosnan and Craig eras ability to draw prestige actors, but here we have Max von Sydow in a ridiculously enjoyable cameo as Blofeld.

Starting with the Dalton era and continuing well into the present day, many of the concepts first explored in NSNA have become integral to the EON films as well. The attempts at toning down all the camp and injecting more humanity into Bond in the Dalton era, the attempts at contemporizing and realism in the Brosnan era (Dench's M in particular owes a great debt to Edward Fox) and even the idea of a black Felix Leiter... all of these speak to the impact of the film on the series as a whole, even as EON and their fanboys continually denigrate it.

As for Octopussy... it's a very entertaining film, isn't it? The plot is barely paper thin and Roger Moore is playing his Roger Moore persona to full effect but it's all just a bit fun. And India is a blast for a Bond location, definitely somewhere the series needs to return ASAP. General Orlov is a very interesting character in his own right, but he suffers any comparison to Largo. The other performances, including Maud Adams', are energetic if a little lifeless. The sad thing is, this could have been a great film had more attention been given to the plot. But such is life... it's definitely a top tier Moore film.