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The Questionable Stuff In Your Favorite Bond Movie and Why You Love It Anyway
chrisisall
Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
Take your favourite Bond movies and be all subjective as to why you actually enjoy the stuff other people commonly point out as flaws, mistakes or nonsense. Rationalize, I believe is the term.
The Living Daylights
Regarding Dalton being theatrical. In my world Bond is rather tightly wound. He's in strict control most of the time, but when he snaps (be it in a pleasant or non-pleasant way), it's not a small thing. I feel Dalton captured this perfectly.
Re: Kara was bland. Kara was a cellist. And she rose to the challenges to come pretty fast, considering. And her chemistry with Bond was more palpable than most. Give me more of such 'bland'.
Re: The Barry Manilow collection. Please. She doesn't even own a record of his. It was her idea of a funny come-on. And Bond did seem amused, so, mission accomplished.
RE: 'Salt corrosion'. Any old time fan will tell you that Bond and lasers go together like bacon and eggs, franks and beans, death and taxes, politics and corruption! I'm just amazed the laser missed the gas tank- that would have made a real mess.
Re: The infamous cello chase. I've used cardboard boxes smaller than that cello case to go sledding on, so do't tell me that it can't be done. Besides, it's OLD. Old stuff was made to LAST!
Re: Whitaker being a buffoon. So? My country has had freakin' PRESIDENTS just as goofy. No problem here.
Re: Necros being another Aryan henchman clone. A short, lean, milk bottle-tossing martial artist? Oh, yeah, but he was blond. Sorry, n/a IMO.
Re: Why Bond doesn't just shoot Whitaker in the knee. It's a movie. We see stuff because it's A MOVIE. In real life when the lights are out it's pretty dark, colour receptors in the eye don't have much to work with, things go black & gray. Bond couldn't have seen anything as well as the gleam off the shield. If he'd had a machine gun (like in the Brosnan movies) he could have just sprayed & prayed. It all worked out in the end, though.
Re: The warm & fuzzy pre-Taliban. The Mujahideen were only one in a very long line of questionable bedfellows the West has courted. Let me also remind you that their depiction is very much in keeping with the overall tone of Bond movies in general in the 20th Century, as well as the popularly accepted political view of the day. Bond was never 'real life', but a stranger version of it.
To conclude: TLD reaches the perfect balance of the real & the fantastic for me, with a dash of humor tossed in. It's basically a near perfect movie.
Now, defend your favourites if you will.
The Living Daylights
Regarding Dalton being theatrical. In my world Bond is rather tightly wound. He's in strict control most of the time, but when he snaps (be it in a pleasant or non-pleasant way), it's not a small thing. I feel Dalton captured this perfectly.
Re: Kara was bland. Kara was a cellist. And she rose to the challenges to come pretty fast, considering. And her chemistry with Bond was more palpable than most. Give me more of such 'bland'.
Re: The Barry Manilow collection. Please. She doesn't even own a record of his. It was her idea of a funny come-on. And Bond did seem amused, so, mission accomplished.
RE: 'Salt corrosion'. Any old time fan will tell you that Bond and lasers go together like bacon and eggs, franks and beans, death and taxes, politics and corruption! I'm just amazed the laser missed the gas tank- that would have made a real mess.
Re: The infamous cello chase. I've used cardboard boxes smaller than that cello case to go sledding on, so do't tell me that it can't be done. Besides, it's OLD. Old stuff was made to LAST!
Re: Whitaker being a buffoon. So? My country has had freakin' PRESIDENTS just as goofy. No problem here.
Re: Necros being another Aryan henchman clone. A short, lean, milk bottle-tossing martial artist? Oh, yeah, but he was blond. Sorry, n/a IMO.
Re: Why Bond doesn't just shoot Whitaker in the knee. It's a movie. We see stuff because it's A MOVIE. In real life when the lights are out it's pretty dark, colour receptors in the eye don't have much to work with, things go black & gray. Bond couldn't have seen anything as well as the gleam off the shield. If he'd had a machine gun (like in the Brosnan movies) he could have just sprayed & prayed. It all worked out in the end, though.
Re: The warm & fuzzy pre-Taliban. The Mujahideen were only one in a very long line of questionable bedfellows the West has courted. Let me also remind you that their depiction is very much in keeping with the overall tone of Bond movies in general in the 20th Century, as well as the popularly accepted political view of the day. Bond was never 'real life', but a stranger version of it.
To conclude: TLD reaches the perfect balance of the real & the fantastic for me, with a dash of humor tossed in. It's basically a near perfect movie.
Now, defend your favourites if you will.
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Comments
RE: The PTS Plane Dive rear projection. People tend to forget that most of the stunt was done for real. B.J. Worth's team arranged that stunt and dove a real plane and motorcycle off a cliff. One shot required Brosnan to climb into the plane. But you got to have that. Rear projection exists. It was bad in Dr. No but it's come a long way since then. You can't really have Brosnan tossed off a cliff to jump in a plane. He's an actor, not a dare devil. The effects shot lasts less than 5 seconds. It's nitpicking at it's worst.
RE: Brosnan was wooden. This one is a stretch because I don't see it. Bond has always been a calm and soft spoken individual. He doesn't engage in a social life like Bruce Wayne. I could never see how Brosnan was wooden. He's calm and collected any spy should be. The movie is about betrayal. He lost his best friend and once he discovers he's alive, he finds that he was a villain. A pretty big blow if you ask me. You could say Brosnan's Bond bottles up his emotions. I have on occasion and came off as soft spoken. Many people blame Brosnan for the "Badness" of his films. Pierce Brosnan didn't write, direct or produce his films. He acted in them. He was a fan of Bond like all of us, maybe not a purist but a fan none the less. He put his heart and soul into his performance. Playing Bond is no easy task. It's not his fault that EON hired Lee Tamahori. Yeah Dalton was a good Bond, but he left. Someone else had to follow him. Yeah Dalton should have done more films but it's not Pierce's fault that he didn't.
RE: Boris was campy and silly. As someone who's into computers and knows a lot of computer savvy people, most I know are rather silly but charming people. Boris is they way he is because he's egotistical. He hacked the FBI and made them look like idiots and was never caught, and doing this in front of his peers. He's a nerd with ego. Not too different from Skyfall's new Q.
RE: The Soundtrack. Here comes 1995, the world's taste in music is changing. Orchestral scores being integrated with techno elements. It was bound to happen sooner or later. John Barry experimented with it in TLD. Many fans dismiss the whole soundtrack because of "Ladies First." It is a crap song yes but the whole score isn't horrible because of it. There are a lot of good tracks to be found. "The GoldenEye Overture" "The Severnaya Suite" "Run, Shoot and Jump" "That's What Keeps you Alone" and "For Ever James" are great themes that convey the moods of those scenes. There is a lot more good than bad in this underrated score. It's an experiment. GoldenEye was a big test. Is James Bond still relevant in the 1990's? Things change with the times. Music, styles, dressing, personal tastes, lifestyles. Everything changes for better or for worse.
:)>-
Connery slapping bottoms and saying "Man Talk" :)) I know it's
Wrong ( different times) but it puts a smile on my face. ;)
Exactly!
In this spirit, can I submit one of my favourite Bond's THUNDERBALL and its often criticized underwater scenes. I can see, especially for modern audiences, how these could be considered a bit dull. I'm happy to admit some of these do go on a bit more than needed and could do with a tighter edit. These things should always be considered though in context and for the audiences of 1965/66 these scenes provided views of things they'd never seen before...in glorious panavision too. Remember, Jacque Cousteau and his 'undersea world' TV show was a huge hit back then so I'm sure audiences lapped it up.
So while these scenes do drag somewhat now, for me they don't get in the way of the sheer style and scope that makes TB the great movie it is.
"Spare the rod and spoil the child"
Totally with you on this. Saw it recently and the underwater scenes did not bother me at all. TB is a work of art IMO.
Goldfinger
1. Absolutely impossible to smash an entire sedan into a 24x24 cube (that's in inches): It's still fun to watch.
2. Neither Goldfinger nor Bond can putt to save their lives: Both have a bad case of the yips?
3. Jill jumps into bed with Bond just a little too quickly: Perhaps it is established but not clear enough that Jill is a "kept woman" and has been looking to be saved for a long time.
Thunderball
1. The facial reconstruction aspect of the plot is contrived; SPECTRE should have simply blackmailed Derval into doing what they wanted: I guess it shows the (ridiculous) lengths SPECTRE would go to get their way?
2. What is Paula's role, exactly?: To look pretty and be killed?
3. The final scene, with the speeded up action to make Largo's boat appear to travel faster (faster than the speed of sound! LOL): the "speeded up" action was a technique used in a lot of the films, even Goldfinger.
Casino Royale
1. Why in the hell would Bond chase/follow Mollaka (the bomb maker) to the top of a construction crane? Once up there, Mollaka had nowhere to go and was trapped: I have no idea, but it makes for good action.
2. Mathis was in on it/wasn't in on it/was in on it/wasn't in on it: When LeChiffre says "Your friend Mathis is really my friend Mathis," I think he meant in terms of being used as a means to get Vesper outside. This whole aspect of the plot has always troubled me. See #4.
3. Bond feels betrayed, yet tries to save Vesper, and then is upset by her death, but still (using the line from the book) says, "The bitch is dead": He's conflicted!
4. A side issue, related to #2 (picked up in QoS): Vesper was working for Quantum due to her boyfriend being kidnapped, but then why was killing herslef considered a way of saving Bond? If Quantum wanted him dead, he'd be dead, too, and Vesper dying wouldn't help him at all. Did LeChiffre know or not know she was an inside job? I don't think he did--which means she really was tortured; but if so, why go through the trouble of kidnapping her and torturing Bond if he knew she would still be able to get him the money? Maybe Mathis was working for him but Vesper was working for Quantum. Why place Vesper in the road if she was a mole and a key to getting the money? I have watched CR and QoS at least 50 times each and this whole aspect of the plot (the relationship between Vesper, Mathis, LeChiffre, and Quantum) has never been clear to me. (Help?)
Skyfall
1. Nodody would survive a fall from a bridge, at least 100 feet up, into the water, back first: Who cares? It's a Bond movie. Go with it.
2. Silva had the whole thing planned, for years, according to Q: I don't think so. Some have said this is a major plot hole, but I also think Q is guessing. I don't think Silva had a plan, until knowing Bond was on his trail.
But they have to get a lot of story across and I find J Barry's music
Helps to keep it moving, and as others have said the photography is
Stunning.
Quite so, unless of course Silva has some sort of precognition and knew years before the exact date and time that M would be called to an MP's enquiry
One of the greatest bits of Bondage ever. That whole scene is vintage hard Bond, portrayed best by Dalton IMO.
Lotus Turbo Esprit throw-away joke.
The submarine Lotus in TSWLM was the coolest car since Golf finger - maybe even cooler! So when we see the new Lotus in Eyes Only, we are expecting something even more fantastic.
Then the joke hits us. POW! I remember laughing so hard in the theater when I first saw it, and for me the gag still works. Rog throws away his keys; "we better take your car."
I know a lot of fanboys are disappointed that they didn't get a magical flying car or something, but for me it is a perfect 007 moment.
Why oh why did Hunt decide to dub Baker's voice over Laz? Doggone you Peter Hunt, but I still love your film despite this bad idea.
That's all I got.
:-??
Also, @chrisisall It's crazy that the same DOP did both Dalton films because, by and large, LTK looks awful. I've always seen it as one of the weakest Bond films visually speaking. The lighting isn't very good (in my opinion).
:-??
Why I love it:
Roger Moore is great in this one, on the top of his game. The production design is bloody amazing, and the score is perfect! Jaws is back, Drax is creepy and Holly is a hottie!
The questionable stuff:
Well... They're in space...
Just didn't like the way it was lit. That casino sequence is lit horribly and Dalton's hair doesn't help matters.
It isn't all awful, there are some good shots and some scenes look good, but overall I think it's the worst looking Bond movie.
Obviously I respect your opinion on it, just tossing in my two cents.
Have you seen it recently? On Blu Ray? Just curious.