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Goldeneye vs. Casino Royale
I think everytime a new actor is established as 007 the series gets a reboot of sorts. Both The Living Daylights and Live and Let Die certainly felt like the series was taking a major turn but no 2 changes have been more impactful than Goldeneye and Casino Royale. Both brought James Bond back after either critical or financial failure postponed the series for longer than usual and both were attempts to start from scratch. CR much more than GE but GE did boast a new M and Moneypenny.
With that being said which one of these Campbell helmed films did you enjoy more? The choice for me is easily CR. The reasons being it's not afraid to deviate from the Bond formula where GE was, GE's horrid musical score, a lightweight performance by Pierce Brosnan vs. the best post Connery Bond performance in Craig (IMHO ofcourse), and naturally a much better script as it seems every time EON relies on Fleming they strike gold. I'll admit GE had a better villain but that's not enough for me.
With that being said which one of these Campbell helmed films did you enjoy more? The choice for me is easily CR. The reasons being it's not afraid to deviate from the Bond formula where GE was, GE's horrid musical score, a lightweight performance by Pierce Brosnan vs. the best post Connery Bond performance in Craig (IMHO ofcourse), and naturally a much better script as it seems every time EON relies on Fleming they strike gold. I'll admit GE had a better villain but that's not enough for me.
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Comments
I think that Brosnan gives a fairly good performance in GE - he's pretty restrained (which I credit to Campbell) and although he doesn't have the confidence and presence that came with each successive film he also doesn't have the smugness or smarm. He was also at his most believable in his fight scenes and his scenes with M are quite good.
I really liked that the film had some nice "throw-back" elements to it - the DB5, the big secret base, the bad model work when the plane crashed into the GE facility in Russia. Some beautiful cinematography too - it felt like the last "classic" Bond film like the ones from the 60s. But I found it marred by some weak humour and the weak score (although I loved the lonely sounding theme that recurs throughout the film, the one that plays as Bond pulls up to the casino). Campbell's stylish direction is a big plus but he would exceed himself with CR.
CR currently sits at the top of my list of best Bond films. Too many great elements to mention but as a friend said it took so many elements and did them even better - better action, better cinematography, better acting, better directing...all with less of the cheese and embarrassing bits. Bonus for the fans by incorporating a lot of Fleming. But for me the best part was Craig - I thought it was a bad joke when he was first announced (to be fair CNN put up the worst picture I've ever seen of him against a very glamourous pic of Brosnan) but he took a film character that had been played by five other actors over 45 years and made it his own. And as I've said before my favourite line from a review of CR was "For the first time since watching Connery as a kid I was watching a Bond film and thought hey, I want to be that guy". And I'm the same age as Craig!
Same here. Number 1 on my list followed by FRWL and OHMSS.
GE didn't have these problems.
(I also like the Eric Serra score - gives the film character).
HOWEVER of the two Royale is the better film IMO for two reasons. First is Daniel Craig who hits the ground running with his teriffic performance. Second is the cinematography. The film looks far more bright and elegant-in the same vain as a 60s Bond adventure.
I still maintain though that, character-wise, GE is superior.
I suspect Campbell looked at GE before starting Royale and saw what he could improve on.
Someone even says the same thing in the comments for this clip lol.
Another example of atmospheric music:
Haters can go and sit in their John Barry shrine ;)
It's funny. That argument doesn't apply to me as I belong to the generation that's often sneered at by most fans today.
I'm no fan of the GE score, but I think the problem is that its a weak score with some strong tracks, like the two above.
This is no different to any of the other one off composers who have done soundtracks in the series although I'd still say this was weaker than everyone bar TSWLM.
Barrys scores tended to be strong scores with some weak tracks.
Arnold can be a bit of both :)
The way I judge is how I listen to them on the ipod and which ones I'm more likely to hit the forward button.
GE does have an excellent title song though. One of my favourites. In fact if you take the title songs of the one off composers then they are all excellent listening.
LALD
TSWLM
FYEO - stretching my statement a bit.
LTK
GE
I must confess I'm starting to get a bit tired of GE too. Don't get me wrong I still love it but when you can quote pretty much all the dialogue and begin to notice the many errors in continuety (some of which I suspect were dileberate) you think maybe its time to put it to bed for a bit.
Nine times out of ten, I'd agree with that. For me, however, that one time seems to be Star Wars, because that hasn't diminished over time, nor has the act of quoting the films made me want to put the films to bed.
Same here, though slightly different order -
1/ OHMSS
2/CR
3/ FRWL
and to round off....
(4/ GF & 5/ DN)
I prefer CR, by far!
The truth has been spoken!
As for which is better, I really need to rewatch them to give my view.
GE and CR are essentially splendid Bond films in my book. They both reside in my top 5 ranking. But while CR did a fairly good job sobering up the Bond formula by dropping a few familiar elements, GE did it better without crippling the Bond formula. GE still offers us Q and MP scenes, and I dare say exquisite scenes at that. GE has the better villain, IMO at least, and the better score. But really I’m choosing between an A and an A+. CR gets an A for main titles, Bond girls and villains, cinematography and script. GE gets an A+ for all those.
Original way of putting the traditional elements in Bond films >>> cliched/rehashed/tired used of tradtional elements>>>> absence of these traditional elements.
Yes I much prefer to have a cliched box-ticking list of these Bond traditions in the films than not have them in the films... but I'd take originality above both of these options. Just put these elements in the films... but if you can also find originality for them, then by all means do it.
Craig's films are slowly doing this, by showing the new, recently promoted Bond grow into the professional Bond of the previous 20 films.
I'm not sure if it's meant to be funny, but I usually laugh my ass off when Bond lists off ingredients for his drink.
Whether it was his private jet or not it was clearly a high-class plane. You get what you pay for and with the amount I assumed they were paying they'd probably get top-notch service like that.
I would add TB and TLD(my 2 favorites) to that list. FYEO isn't one of my faves but I completely concede that it does use much Fleming source material.