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2) Hunt - 4/5
3) Mendes - 4/5
4) Young - 3.3/5
5) Gilbert - 3.3/5
6) Apted - 3/5
7) Forster 3/5
8) Glen - 2.6/5
9) Hamilton - 2.5/5
10) Spottiswoode - 2/5
11) Tamahori - 1/5
You must be joking? Thats well over the border and away into Mexico.
Guy Hamilton > 4/5 (4 just for LALD)
Peter Hunt > 3/5
Lewis Gilbert > 5/5
John Glenn > 5/5
Martin Campbell > 5/5
Roger Spottiswood > 2/5
Michael Apted > 4/5
Lee Tamahori > 0/0 (Die Another Day? what is that?)
Marc Forster > 1/5
Sam Mendas > 4/5
What? No, I mean it has to be said that it is indeed blasphemous to rate Hunt that low. Can you remove the red dots from my chest now, please?...That's it, yes, thank you. Much better.
Campbell (4.5/5)
Hunt (4.5/5)
Young (4/5)
Gilbert (4/5)
Mendes (3.5/5)
Apted 3/5)
Spottiswood (3/5)
Forster (2/5)
Tamahori (1/5)
Sam Mendes 4.5/5
Terence Young 4/5
Martin Campbell 4/5
Lewis Gilbert 3/5
John Glen 3/5
Forster 3/5
Guy Hamilton 2.5/5
Roger Spottiswoode 2/5
Michael Apted 2/5
Tamahori 0/5
Peter Hunt 5/5
Martin Campbell 5/5
Sam Mendes 4/5
Guy Hamilton 3.5/5
John Glen 3.5/5
Michael Apted 3/5
Marc Forster 3/5
Lewis Gilbert 2.5/5
Roger Spottiswoode 2/5
Lee Tamahori 0/5
1. Terrence Young - The old Hollywood legend is that Young gave Sean Connery lessons in sophistication, and that Connery's Bond was basically a Terrence Young impersonation. If that's true, then it certainly paid off.
2. Guy Hamilton - Goldfinger was perfect. Diamonds Are Forever and Live and Let Die, not so much. But for Goldfinger, I'll put Hamilton here.
3. John Glen - He had his high points and low points, but his nearly-a-decade-long stint was solid, particularly both times directing Timothy Dalton.
4. Lewis Gilbert - YOLT and TSWLM were great. Moonraker was lousy.
5. Sam Mendes - Had to give the old-school directors who helmed multiple Bond films the top spots, but of all the one-off directors, Mendes is tops. Skyfall was awesome, and, like many, I'm disappointed he's not doing Bond 24, and have fingers crossed he'll come back for 25.
6. Michael Apted - Apted's direction, and TWINE itself, are both, IMHO, incredibly underrated.
7. Marc Forster - Also underrated. His biggest mistake, since he didn't have experience with action scenes, was putting too much faith in his stunt director, resulting in ridiculous Bourne-inspired shaky cam. But the dramatic scenes in QoS speak volumes.
8. Martin Campbell - Slightly overrated. Casino Royale and GoldenEye are both solid, but I don't hold them in nearly as high esteem as most. Not to mention how hit-and-miss his non-Bond films have been.
9. Peter Hunt - It's largely George Lazenby's fault I'm not a huge fan of OHMSS, but I'm not really surprised that this was the point both exited the series.
10. Roger Spottiswoode - Not terrible, but certainly mediocre.
11. Lee Tamahori - His directing style, and Die Another Day, were both too flamboyant.
You're supposed to be rating the directors yet this is your criticism of Hunt:
Yet Forster gets absolved by you blaming it on the second unit. Got some news for you - it's the director who decides on how the film is edited so dont blame the second unit who deliver some really good shots (particularly the PTS) if you use your freeze frame to spot them amid Marc's Edward Scissorhands attempt at editing.
Are you Forsters agent or something?
Nope. Who are you? Peter Hunt's son or something, getting upset over who made my bottom 5 Bond directors and why? I prefer Apted's dramatic approach and Forster's art-house approach to Hunt's blander-than-bland.
And for the record, none of them hold a candle to Young, Hamilton, Glen, or Gilbert.
1. Terrence Young - 5/5
2. Guy Hamilton - 5/5
3. John Glen - 5/5
4. Lewis Gilbert - 5/5
5. Sam Mendes - 5/5
6. Michael Apted - 4.5/5
7. Marc Forster - 4/5
8. Martin Campbell - 3.5/5
9. Peter Hunt - 3/5
10. Roger Spottiswoode - 3/5
11. Lee Tamahori - 2/5
i can understand your logic towards rating Hunt where you did.. personally i dont agree with it, but thats my opinion... however, one thing does intrigue me though - and thats how Glen somehow gets mentioned in the same breath as Young, Hamilton and Gilbert?..... are you basing that on the films as a whole? or from purely a style standpoint..... because Glen's style, was that he had none, and the look of his films were rather dull in comparison to the other 3 names surrounding him there..
and how does Tamahori get even a 2 on your rating?????????? lol
Fair points on Glen bu in all honesty apart from GF what is there about Hamilton to get excited about? DAF, LALD and TMWTGG have the production values of an episode of the Fall Guy.
Nowhere near as good as last of the summer wine then!.
Be fair. Even TMWTGG is not quite that pedestrian and uninspired. That said have you never seen the one where Compo does a 360 degree roll in a bathtub with wheels over a canal?
'By eck. I've never done that before.'
there isn't much lol.. but in comparison to Glen - camera work is a tad more stylized than Glen's.. more range of color
Michael Apted 5/5
Roger Spotiswode 5/5
Terence Young 4.5/5
Marc Forster 4.5/5
Guy Hamilton 4.5/5
John Glen 4/5
Lee Tamahori 4/5
Lewis Gilbert 3.5/5
Sam Mendes 0.5/5
--> 4.0/5.0: 'Doctor No'
--> 5.0/5.0: 'From Russia With Love'
--> 5.0/5.0: 'Thunderball'
Guy Hamilton: 4.0/5.0 [average of 4 movies]
--> 5.0/5.0: 'Goldfinger'
--> 4.0/5.0: 'Diamonds Are Forever'
--> 4.5/5.0: 'Live And Let Die'
--> 2.5/5.0: 'The Man With The Golden Gun'
Lewis Gilbert: 3.5/5.0 [average of 3 movies]
--> 3.0/5.0: 'You Only Live Twice'
--> 3.5/5.0: 'The Spy Who Loved Me'
--> 4.0/5.0: 'Moonraker'
Peter Hunt: 4.5/5.0
John Glen: 3.6/5.9 [average of 5 movies]
--> 4.5/5.0: 'For Your Eyes Only'
--> 4.0/5.0: 'Octopussy'
--> 2.0/5.0: 'A View To A Kill'
--> 4.5/5.0: 'The Living Daylights'
--> 3.0/5.0: 'Licence To Kill'
Martin Campbell: 4.3/5.0 [average of 2 movies]
--> 3.5/5.0: 'GoldenEye'
--> 5.0/5.0: 'Casino Royale'
Roger Spottiswoode: 2.5/5.0
Michael Apted: 4.0/5.0
Lee Tamahori: 2.0/5.0
Marc Forster: 3.0/5.0
Sam Mendes: 5.0/5.0
So the final ranking will be:
01) 5.0/5.0: Sam Mendes
02) 4.7/5.0: Terence Young
03) 4.5/5.0: Peter Hunt
04) 4.3/5.0: Martin Campbell
05) 4.0/5.0: Guy Hamilton
06) 4.0/5.0: Michael Apted
07) 3.6/5.0: John Glen
08) 3.5/5.0: Lewis Gilbert
09) 3.0/5.0: Marc Forster
10) 2.5/5.0: Roger Spottiswoode
11) 2.0/5.0: Lee Tamahori
@haserot - I always feel reassured when I see John Glen's name in the opening credits. Only TLD makes it into my Top 10 Bond movies, but he knew the series, stayed true to the style established by the others, still made the movies feel modern (for their time), and miraculously suited both Roger Moore's comical approach and Dalton's Shakespearian approach.
As for giving Tamahori a 2, I have to reserve 1 and 0 for some nightmare worst case scenario in which someone like a Uwe Boll or a Tommy Wiseau directs. At least Tamahori managed to helm a series of action scenes and past movie references that I found entertaining the first time I watched it, even if DAD does get worse and worse every repeated viewing.
@TheWizardOfIce - He's always got Goldfinger. Besides that, Hamilton admitted, I believe it was during DAF, that his goal was to "go for fun." His Bond films, even GF to an extent, have a certain amount of camp without turning into Moonraker, Gilbert's only misstep. A very fine line to walk.
Lee Tammahori- foreign tallent EON brught in for die another day- WOW! those ice shots
those are my two favoriites if i had to pick
sent from my verizon 3g
verizon - helping the nation into a new tomorrow
While everyone is entitled to their opinion (and I get the idea that you don't rate SF very highly) I simply can't take seriously a list that puts Sam Mendes last. You rate Apted with a 5 - yet I believe his direction was one of the dullest of the enitre series. Tamahori as a director of Bond is just a joke.
There are individual scenes in SF that have a better understanding of direction than the whole of TWINE and DAD.
And Mendes actually understands the character while Tamahori wouldn't know Bond if he came up and slapped him in the face. A man who is a proponent of the codename theory and who almost made that idea fit into DAD gets a 4 while Mendes gets 0.5? Well, have it your way then, but don't expect me to save you when the mobs storm your place of residence.
But I beg for youto take a second and listen to what I have to say ,
Of course this is a matter of opinion and its naturally subjective.
Mendes in my opinion is the worst director the Bond franchise has ever seen , not because he's a bad 'director',But because he's a bad 'Bond director'.
Let me give you a hypothetical example over here,
Just imagine you,
You want to be employed as a surgeon . Imagine during highschool you fantasised of being one of the best surgeons in the best hospital in your country ,you are commited ,you are willing to do everything to achieve your dream .You're the kind of person who spends years and years trying to acquire a degree. You're also the kind of person who would stay late at night cramming notes to make sure you attain your goal. Finally when the moment has come and you are done with you're studies, you approach the hospital to get the job , you find out that someone who has little experience and not a qualification gets the job. Because he had connections with important people of the hospital .
Despite all your efforts , despite all your hard work, you loose to someone who has not put in the time and who is not as talented as you. The person who you loose to just smirks at you astounded by his dumb luck,
That ,that person to me is Sam Mendes. You see if you take Marc Forster for example, he has never made movies which were actioned packed, he was acclaimed for his work on Kite Runner. But when he got the call to direct Bond he openly said that he may not be able to do it,he himself felt that he didn't want to damage the series or turn it into a drama based movie. He took it ,He did his level best. Inspite saying he couldn't he bumped up the level of action and maintained the level of class, and what did he get ?
all the critics butchering him . Fans cursing him . I hold a lot of respect for Mr. Forster and I am prowd to say I don't follow the herd when it comes to this
Now Sam Mendes, He took Bond because his career was not exactly in the best of shape,He knows that emotional work generally resonates well with the critics. So he did what was easiest to him turning it into another drama movie. Instead of taking the time and understaing as to why the franchise has lasted 50 years and making a movie for the fans he made a movie for the critics, so he could be lauded.He did not adopt his style to tailor Bond and he has treated elements of Bond's past as checkboxes. Ultimately his planned worked Despitehis laziness and his inability to adapt to Bond, The critics praised him,the media hyped it.Ticketsales went skyrocketing.I am very particular about fight scenes and Forster and Campbell captured the best ,I can see right through Sam Mendes web of deceit,The fight scenes of Skyfall is an insult to the franchise's good name. Because he is absolutly incapable of it.
If you watch as much action movies as I you will understand why his fight scenes are not up to standards.
Gentleman ,I said that with all my heart and soul
You may not agree with me right now since the hype of Skyfall,
I just hope years from now when people lookback at Skyfall you they will get what I am talking about
:)>-
I remember his code name theory and so long as he doesn't use it in the film, there isn't a problem
and for you to say I am not sane because mine and your views differ, is a bit harsh.
I hope you atleast read what I had to say
Cheers ;)
Of course I read what you had to say, in fact I read it a few times to see if I was understanding it correctly. Unfortunately I was.
God. It's like the return of DC007.
I would have to agree with him there. The fights in SF have none of the visceral brutality of the CR PTS and Obanno or QOS with Slate.
And he may or may not be right that Mendes did it because his career was struggling. I think he was doing pretty well in the theatre so not sure I subscribe to that.
But in all other respects he nailed it (although for me we were missing a stunt laden set piece in the second act) and some of the shots like the rain on Ms window or Bond and M looking over the glen are sumptuous and there are some tremendous dialogue scenes such as M and Bond in her flat and at Skyfall, Silvas entrance and Bond with the psychologist.
It's nice for a Bond film to have a bit of dramatic weight and given the choice between Skyfails preferred option of Tamahori or Mendes I'd rather have a superbly acted, dramatic piece that is a little light on action than a film chock full of stunts but even more full of embarrassing ham acting and cringeworthy dialogue.
To say the guy is a bad director because he's not that good at directing fights shows a pretty childish grasp of the subject. How many great fights did Hitchcock direct? I suggest you stick to watching Police Story and The Raid.
Fair play though as even though you're plainly wrong you have at least tried to explain your reasoning which is better than most who voice a controversial opinion and can sort of see where you're coming from.
Touchmybuttons back yet again perchance?
Yes! you get exactly what I speak of !
Allow me to demonstrate sir,
The last film Mendes did was "Away we Go' , Forget about record sales, That film hadn't even managed to reach the budget. You could check the link if you like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_We_Go
That's subjective my friend, when I watch a dramatic movie that's what I want an immersive story which gets me emotionaly involved but when I watch a Bond movie I am looking for some fun with well directed action . Which Sam Mendes got away with.
I see you don't mind emotional context substituted for jaw droping action . That's perfectly understandable ;)
Ideally there should be both and apart from the PTS SF didn't have the latter.
And that's why Peter Hunts still the guvnor.