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TWINE - the good, the average, the bad
M16_Cart
Craig fanboy?
I saw a similar post for NTTD. With TWINE, there's a multitude of different things going on in that film, and people have differences of their opinions, so I think this film is good one to dissect.
Good
Average
Bad
Good
- Complex plot with twists
- Willingness to be a unique and have its own identity
- Swiss bank opening
- Brosnan's performance, darker and more serious than usual, but also with some charm, and the love scenes are convincing.
- Zukovsky
- Q's great finale
- Gadgets are a nice addition, while not being overdone (as they would be in the next film)
Average
- Renard as a concept is good, but the execution neither makes him seem fearsome, nor able to be sympathized with.
- M gets more screentime, though her portrayal is gullible and less professional.
- Theme song. Having Garbage do it was a progressive decision, but this theme song itself was divisive.
- Bullion
Bad
- Last 20 mins/submarine fight feel anti-climactic
- Opening boat chase and the ski scenes were choppily edited snoozefests
- Chainsaw helicopters/caviar factory scenes
- The aesthetics in this film look very plain and unappealing
- Subpar directing
- Denise Richards (that being said, she gets too much blame; it's not all on her)
- Corny jokes, including the Christmas jokes and ending
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Comments
I'm glad that they didn't go overboard with the "villain who feels no pain angle." When they first said it in the movie I groaned because I thought he was going to be some sort of unstoppable hulk-like villain, but they kept it within the realm of plausibility, focusing more on the psychological damage it's done to him. Besides, feeling no pain isn't exactly a strength, since pain is there to alert the body of the damage it's taking.
However, I do think Carlysle was too understated in his performance. He didn't need to ham it up like Pryce or Stephens but a bit more animation in his acting would have pepped up some of the scenes a bit more.
Bad: the fans wanting it to be more what they expected of a Bond movie (I was one of them back then. Later on I saw the brilliance of it).
A villain with severe depression, knowledge that he'll die and feeling of hopelessness and futility could've been a really relatable character to many people if that were emphasized more.
I feel like his character could've benefited from more dialogue and less hand-to-hand combat in a submarine.
My thoughts exactly. TWINE is a heavily underrated gem.
One sex joke too many is an oxymoron.
"Attempting re-entry" saw to that.
My fist doth bumpest!
***Returns fist bump***
Here’s where I have an issue with the humour in Brosnan’s 90s ‘Britpop’ Bond movies. It is often forced and overdone, and unnecessarily calls attention to itself
The ‘Attemping re-entry’ is genius because it’s a visual gag, and because Q says it innocently whilst looking at another monitor.
The ‘Christmas comes once a year’ gag in comparison is unsavoury and lessened by the fact that it’s said knowingly.
All that said, this is definitely Brosnan’s most interesting film. It’s got a lot of fascinating ideas but is let down in the execution.
The most glaring misstep being Christmas Jones.
I don’t blame Denise Richards at all. The fact is though that her character’s mere existence in the film only serves to undermine the Bond/Elektra arc.
Jones turns up and the film is telling the viewer that Elektra isn’t going to be the main Bond girl, and then you join the dots….
The film is a bit shabby looking. Partly that is down to the Causcuses oil fields location. It’s an interesting location for sure, but doesn’t really seem to fit the Bond aesthetic. Zukovsky’s casino must be the least glamorous one in the franchise?
And i agree the direction is a bit flat, especially in the action scenes.
Still, a vast improvement on TND for me
It’s something I hadn’t considered before. Can anyone give some context to that?
Off the top of my head, the only things I can think of are that Bond has a relationship with a troubled and damaged rich girl with daddy issues who ends up getting shot in the head, and there is a ski sequence with an avalanche.
I’m probably being dense here, but I can’t think of any other connections apart from the title of the movie
As you said, the proximity between Tracy and Elektra can be found in their common dangerous behavior used to hide vulnerability (or at least in Elektra's public behavior when she goes to the casino and skies with Bond, seemingly flirting with danger). Another proximity could be the fact that both characters are heiresses with respective fathers playing a role in the plot. Elektra's public identity seems to be written as a way to reflect Tracy, both to Bond and to the audience.
Thank you Herr_Stockmann.
I had not heard that P&W idea expressed before regarding Tracy / Blofeld.
I suppose the Brosnan films (unlike Craig’s) are still considered to be a continuation of the previous continuity, and so Bond of TWINE has loved and lost Tracy.
I did immediately after my previous post think of the respective scenes of Tracy / Elektra in the casino, and their seemingly reckless and self destructive behaviours. The similarities are actually quite glaring.
It’s a shame that the film didn’t have the guts to focus on its ideas and ultimately felt the need to dilute things with the introduction of a completely separate Bond girl in Christmas Jones. This, in my opinion, is a disastrous decision that undermines the drama and left the Bond / Elektra arc neutered.
I wonder, was Jones originally written in by P&W, or did the studios/producers insist on putting in another Bond girl - one that that Bond doesn’t execute - to adhere to ‘formula’?
Maybe a Logan or Harris would have helped focus the ideas and cut out Christmas Jones.
Or maybe it would have worked better if she’d been introduced earlier in the movie, maybe before Bond and Elektra get involved. As it is, she turns up at an inopportune moment just to alert the viewer that there is now another Bond girl around and so Elektra might be something else….
This. There's no irony in the joke if you name the character something ridiculous like Christmas. You can name a character anything you want to force a joke.
TWINE had a unique serious drama/thriller thing going on. But ultimately it decided to add in corny Bond tropes just for the sake of checking boxes.
It would've been a better script, but there's the "Bond always gets the girl in the end" trope. Craig's films proved that non-formulaic endings could work, but the mindset in the 90's, Bond is supposed to the coolest man in the world.
So in that climate, it would've been better to just hire a more convincing actor for the role and name her something more believable.
And with the whole thing about using Elektra as a pawn to get to Renard; it very well could've been Elektra King as the "dead mistress trope" instead of the villain.