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...Seriously though, I admit I enjoyed the experience of DAD in the theatre at the time when it came out. It was my first Bond on the big screen--the gunbarrel, the PTS, Judi Dench (I've always enjoyed her performances--though now it's due time for a change), the 'color' of the film, it was explosive and over the top, even Brosnan--at the time he WAS Bond. Seeing what we've had since with DC in CR, makes DAD look abysmal in hindsight, but at the time, I was just excited to see a new Bond, and it wasn't that far of a diversion from TWINE and TND that came before. Sure, those films didn't come close to the early Connery films, but it was still exciting to have a new Bond film. It's about context. Brosnan looked and acted the part for Bond in DAD. So at least we have a convincing Bond despite all the other crap going on around him (mind the glacier surfing, etc). I think the same argument could be leant to MR.
Nice posts above too Dimi and Haserot. I actually love the diversiy of opinion and the incredible depth of encyclopedic knowledge of all things Bond on this site. Also hearing praise for Bond films that aren't particulary my favorites (FYEO or GE for example), peaks my curiosity to revisit those films.
I agree with those who say Brozza puts in a pretty good performance (with the material given to him) and up until Jinx turns up its going quite well and theres no reason to think it will be any better or worse than TND or TWINE. The North Korea scenes are pretty good, the whole capture/torture thing is a novel idea. The ice driving scene has to be admired technically and I adore Arnolds trumpets as the cars speed out onto the ice.
BUT
Jinx is an absymal cardboard cutout of a character (far worse than Goodnight or Stacey), Zaos not far behind - dismal acting and a feeble threat to Bond. Nothing new needs to be said about the CGI abominations, Madonna or the laughable Mr Kil and to those of you offering a defence for the film can I just point out this fact that would make even a thousand pigeon double takes seem like the TSWLM parachute jump or the GE bungy jump: they put Bond in an invisible car!!!
I'll say that again just in case in all your frenzy to heap praise on DAD you may have overlooked it - someone decided it would be a good idea to put James Bond in an invisible car.
Even without anything else that would be enough to rank DAD rock bottom.
Now say what you like about the pigeon, the elephant pushing JW into the canal or the Tarzan yell those moments come and go in a second and are entirely superfluous and it is possible to overlook them and not have them ruin the film. This monstrosity (which is such a disgrace I feel it tarnishes the Vanquish as a beautiful car) gets about 15 minutes of screen time and has several moments where it is integral to the plot. And before someone mentions the laser battle, I'll admit it is equally implausible but the mixture of the space shuttles being grounded in science fact and the brillaince of Derek Meddings work is enough for you to suspend your disbelief. I dont know anyone who greeted the invisible car in DAD with anything other than snorts of laughter and disgust.
Despite Jinx the film was still steaming along at a reasonable rate of knots but the moment John Cleese's leg is visible through the car and people in the cinema next to you are laughing with derision you know that DAD is holed below the waterline and will go down with all hands.
And I'm not buying all this 'its thanks to DAD that we got CR' that some people are peddling. Try going to a Japanese fisherman 'well the tsunami wiped out your entire family, town and livelihood but theyre going to build a brand new town so its turned out to be a blessing really.'
I can enjoy quite a lot of DAD and go along with the ride a la YOLT and MR but I cannot forgive or ignore the travesties to the series that EON allowed to happen and no matter if they remake each Fleming novel faithfully as a period piece Babs and MGW can never remove this stain on their CV.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion etc etc but use caution when you are praising DAD because there are some things about it that are indefensible. It crossed a line that YOLT and MR come close to but never actually step over and thats the fundamental difference.
When people are listing the fact that it is colourful as being one of its strengths you know youre dealing with the runt of the litter. Well done Tamahori for managing to film it in black and white. Hilarious.
Before everyone jumps down my throat I'm not comparing DAD with GF or TB in terms of quality. It's just that there was an air of excitement in the theatre that I've never experienced before. Although all Bonds films are to a degree "event films" there was something special in the air the opening night of DAD. The audience was on fire (there were a few guys in tuxedos and women in evening dresses - this wasn't an official premiere, they were just huge fans) and the atmosphere was positively electric. The audience enjoyed the film as much as any I'd ever seen and the sense of fun was incredible and enjoyable. In that way it was the "biggest" Bond film I've ever seen and an amazing experience.
Sure, there were things that were bad and I'm sure the film doesn't hold up well, but what an experience for a Bond fan.
It really is nothing compared to this:
This is where the film looses any sense of reality or credibility. The ONLY redeeming feature of that clip is (perhaps) the music.
2. YOLT
3. DAD
Can the mods add a poll to this please?
As for DAD it's still a hard film to watch, but I must confess to appreciating it the more I watch it. If I overlook all of the surfing, the invisible car, the plane on fire, Jinx, the dna stuff...it's not too bad. Again I put this down to age. Just didn't gel as a Bond film for me. To techno, poor effects, lack of any real stunts especially a Bond signature stunt. Every film has a stunt that makes you go wow. Well maybe not some of the early ones, but Bond is famous for his stunts. DAD was devoid of anything like this. Replaced with a pixelated stick man surfing ice waves. Oh dear.
Ok...that's enough--before I get too carried away it will sound like I don't like MR; which I do. It's just that it doesn't work as well as others for me
:-S
YOLT - Connery on form, too bad the story left the Fleming tale somewhere behind
DAD - Brosnan in his best 007 performance, too bad that CGI and loud noises where considered a great ending. Poor decesionmaking on the part of EON.
2) MR
3) DAD
DAD
YOLT
MR
Those first two are a close call for me. Donald pleasance elevates YOLT for me. MR has my favorite Roger Moore PTS and I have to say that Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax has really grown on me over the years. YOLT and MR are both a lot of fun IMO but I really do prefer Connery as Bond even on a subpar day so I have to go with YOLT. YOLT and MR set out to be pure comic book-style adventures & succeed immensely at being just that IMO. DAD frustrates me because I feel like it can't make up its mind whether it wants to be gritty or outlandish and consequently I don't know how I should be viewing it--whether I should pay close attention to the plot or whether I should kick back, relax, & suspend disbelief so when things get really out there plotwise I am super focused on the plot and expecting something in the realm of the more plausible. In my opinion neither YOLT or MR have this problem.
I like the polish of MR. Superb special effects and great humour. Drax is an interesting villain, and I also like the space bit at the end (I may be the only one I realize). My only complaints are the ridiculous way all action sequences are spoiled by some stupid gadget, so that all the tension is taken out of the film. It's played too much for laughs.
I really enjoy YOLT up to Aki's death. Then it tanks for me. It's close between MR/YOLT for me as a result (YOLT>MR for the first half and MR>YOLT for the second half).
DAD is just too overblown with less interesting characters. I enjoy it, but YOLT/MR are much better imho.
@bondjames, I can see why it tanks there for you, but you can't appreciate Young's cinematography or Adams' legendary set?
I love MR and probably rank it much higher than all but a small handful on these boards. I'm sure I've said several times why. Just pure escapist spectacle. Gorgeous movie, and the humor mostly works for me. Sure, there is ZERO Fleming here, but I don't require the Fleming quotient for a Bond movie to "click" for me.
It's very close between MR/YOLT for me. MR just wins it because I much prefer the MR space set and the altercations that take place there over the YOLT finale.