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For me, I would be more a fan of Mylod’s tv work than Wright’s (I was very surprised by ‘Baby Driver’ at the time) but I guess both would have the chops for a Bond 28/29 (I’d like to see both doing more movies before Bond).
Fair enough. I appreciate a lot of the one liners throughout Bond are essentially dad jokes in the context of chases or grisly deaths. They can be a bit groan inducing for sure, and in a way they’re meant to be so more than genuinely funny. It helps distance the audience from what’s just happened, helps them switch gears/stops things getting too dark. But I completely understand not enjoying being taken out of the film in some of those instances. My favourite ones are in GF/the bitter way he says ‘shocking’ as he glances at the girl (it helps give it both that cathartic humour and double meaning even if it’s not funny). I’m also a fan of Brosnan’s ‘sorry, forgot to knock’ moment in GE (I still think it’s a perfect intro to a new Bond and tells the audience exactly what kind of Bond he is. I personally find it genuinely funny too). Of course on the opposite end of that for me are the ‘he came to a dead end’ line in LTK (Dalton really doesn’t look like he wants to deliver it) and the ‘I showed them your watch, really blew their mind’ moment in NTTD (very much an ‘urgh’ moment).
Must admit I wasn’t sold on Baby Driver, and I’m not sure if Wright is the right director for Bond. But who knows. I do like a lot of Mylod’s tv work though, agreed.
It’s a line for the characters, not just the audience.
I was surprised by how funny the kids found some of the older movies - GF certainly got the best reaction overall but I wasn’t expecting so many ‘laugh out loud’ moments in the pre-Brosnan movies.
I assume the kids in question might have grown up with some of those movies forced on them but it was interesting to note the reception for the older movies, in the context of what might work going forward.
That’s interesting. I’ve never watched a pre-Craig Bond film in the cinema with an audience myself (although I’ve watched plenty of them with friends, but often that can devolve into laughing at some of the more outlandish/perhaps even dated things in the older films). Were there any particular moments/one liners that got big laughs?
It feels here that he knows there is a chance that he may not be coming back but still feels the need to make Q laugh. For me, it says everything about their relationship and as opposed to lightness the make the darkness more palatable, it has the opposite effect. I see his vulnerability and I bloody feel it.
On paper, this just reads like a dud quip but in the movie, I think it’s one of the high points of Daniel’s tenure.
I find the scene more moving / affecting than the ending.
In NTTD, I think there are some nice, punchy jokes from:
Who's the Blond/ Book of Mormons/he smiles too much..... To... That's not the first thing I thought you'd take off.... To.... Shouldn't we get to know each other first... To.... The physical comedy of blowing up a research lab and casually tossing away the detonator.... There are a lot of scrappy, fun, punches in NTTD, although we have one poster here who insists there isn't...
I love the golf game that @sandbagger1 brings up. The entire sequence is filled with beautifully written, and timed humour: oh bad luck, you're in the rough..... To standing on, and revealing Goldfinger's ball.... To..... Let's have a little fun with Mr. Goldfinger.... To..... The bloody twinkle in Connery's eye as he reels Goldfinger into his trap...
I do think the quips in the 90s/early 00s hurt the films and my only hope is we never go back down this path again. I think @meshypushy already mentioned that they come off as cheap and under cooked. That's exactly what they were. The writers can, and have done, better.
Broadly speaking, I noted that younger folk tended to be more engaged with the Connery movies than the Moore ones (which surprised me - I would’ve thought that younger folk might’ve found Connery too brutish).
I suspect there was an element of ‘I can’t believe he just said / did that’ to much of the laughs in the Connery ones but most of the classic lines got big laughs. GF and TSWLM both seemed to be very well received by younger folk.
I did note that many of Moore’s dad jokes got no reactions, as with some of Brosnan’s and Moneypenny’s in his movies. Maybe that was because folk were suppressing their natural reactions (either way) but who knows!
One thing I did notice was a lot of laughs, gasps and whoops whenever the more fantastical henchmen were on screen (OddJob, Wint & Kidd, Jaws etc). I guess that there may be parallels to comic book movies these days for the younger audience with some of these characters.
I'm all for that. The "deep water" bit in SF was a bizarre attempt at humor and injected into arguably the worst spot for it - and this is shortly after that unnecessary quip Bond says aloud, to nobody, before fleeing the home for a final time.
Not gonna lie, the 'SPECTRE Bunga Bunga' line makes me laugh too, although it's a very specific reference. I always say it's a bit like if a Bond film used dogging as the basis of a one liner - I'm sure quite a few wouldn't understand it, but it's amusing to those who do get it.
Nice. It's quite cool to hear some of those classic Bond films/characters get those reactions. Bond films, particularly from the 60s, do have a timeless quality, even if certain things don't always age well (it's the case with all films). Would love to see some the classic Bond films in a packed theatre some day.
And the Bunga Bunga line was great!!! And you’re right @007HallY , so specific I wasn’t even sure if I heard it correctly the first time I saw NTTD!! Great line. Witty reference…
@Peter It seems like the sort of line Waller-Bridge would have come up with, although I don't know for sure. It's the sort of thing that comedy quiz shows used to discuss and joke about in the UK back in the early 2010s.
I think the reason Boris works in the film is because of how slimy and sneering he is. It makes it all the better when we see the character get comeuppance in numerous way like Natalya attacking him in the Janus base, or his death scene. Even the people around Boris don't really seem to enjoy his company all that much. When he has an "I am invincible" moment in Severnaya, everyone around him just turns and gives him a look of annoyance or contempt. Obruchev has a similar "sneering" attitude to Boris but I personally don't think the character is "unlikable" enough. He lacks the "sliminess" that Boris has, and comes across more as a buffoon (even though he's one of the world's smartest scientists having developed the nanobots.)
Yes, I suppose there's something just a bit too comical about Obruchev. I always find they go a bit too hard later on trying to make him look horrible with his racist comments to Nomi. But yeah, that's a pretty good summery of why Boris works (it's a pretty delicate balance from a script perspective), and Cumming is a master at being that believable comic relief in otherwise straight-laced movies (ie. Eyes Wide Shut and to a lesser extent X Men 2).
The Brosnan era was great at seamlessly blending in those comic relief characters without making them feel out of place. Zukovsky, Wade, and Dr. Kauffman are other examples.
I always found that racist moment in NTTD a bit odd too, because the film never really portrayed Obruchev to be this deeply hateful/resentful man that comment would seem to suggest he is. Until that moment, he was one of the few characters in a Bond film that I hoped would either make it out alive, or make some sort of necessary sacrifice (i.e. May Day.) But I suppose they needed some sort of justification for killing him. Agreed about the Brosnan era side characters too; it helps that they had great actors playing those parts who had great chemistry with Brosnan. Even the Cuban sleeper agent in Die Another Day was quite memorable; shame he wasn’t in the film longer!
Zukovsky works better in TWINE.
Wade is OK, I guess.
That’s the whole point behind Boris; he’s supposed to be incredibly annoying. I wouldn’t want to be near 5 feet of that disgusting troll if he really existed in real life.
Yeah but he is not "funny".
Summed up exactly how I feel on it mate. I love the more dry/darker humour in the series.
"I think they were on their way to a funeral"
I watch Calvin Dyson's videos (I think he's great) and in his review of NTTD he talks about how the Cuba sequence is were he wants Bond. But for me it's got worse on every viewing for me, I love Paloma she is soley the reason I revist the sequence, but no character is in any danger at all and it's just too easy. If that was the tone of the next Bond I think it would wear thin quickly
https://screenrant.com/james-bond-26-copy-jason-bourne-john-wick-mistake/
If anything John Wick was the franchise that took inspiration from the later Craig Bond films (the sequels at least have their similarities, but regardless of how much was actually taken in practice they both have their stylistic and story similarities). I don't think John Wick and Bond are necessarily similar characters, and I don't think this is where EON will seek inspiration anyway. Screenrant have a habit of writing a lot without saying much of use/interest in their opinion pieces, and this is an example of that.
Obviously we don't seem to have a Bourne type series around at the moment. That said there are clues as to what might (emphasis on the might) happen with the next Bond film.
A well-written dark comedy featuring death, murder, assassination and an action movie with bolted-on dad jokes are poles apart.
I recently rewatched ‘Ripley’s Game’ - not the best movie ever made but a decent example of a very bleak subject matter (murder, assassination) that doesn’t resort to one-liners / jokes but is still bleakly comedic at heart (helped greatly by the performance of John Malkovich). ‘The Menu’, as mentioned earlier is another.
I would imagine that writing a movie like that is a hell of a lot more difficult than a generic Guy Ritchie / Jason Statham-type affair, with action and bolted-on gags.
I am not sure that an explicit dark comedy formula, as an overall direction for each and every Bond movie would be a smart strategy going forwards for EON, though (as much as I may like to see a once-off movie of that ilk).
As an idiot who has no experience of making movies, I would hope that any use of comedy (whether in the script or visual gags) would be carefully considered in the context of why it is being included and what it adds to the overall movie. The tone of the movies has clearly shifted through the years and (for me), there have been examples of comedy that have worked brilliantly and some of which I would prefer to not be there (specific Brosnan / Moore-era one-liners and visual gags). Many examples discussed here have given me inspiration to rewatch some of the movies with fresh eyes.
For movies such as Bond, I think comedy is an incredibly difficult balancing act to get right and I would hope that the filmmakers approach it without fear but with great consideration of its use going forwards.
His handle precedes his comments. What a pointless waste of space. Personally, I prefer reading comments that are assured (even if wrong). "I think" always sounds a bit apologetic. "Sorry, but this is how I feel....." We have a few professionals on this site who bring opinions informed by experience to these discussions. I am appreciative of those contributions on occasion. But they also inject opinion that is no more or less valuable than what the rest of us bring. So when I say something such as Connery is the best Bond of all, I don't need to qualify that statement with IMO. I said it. I believe it. No one is going to change my mind. If that makes me sound like an expert, oh well.