It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I agree with @delfloria about the need of fresh blood to shake things up, but, like after Licence To Kill, I think it should come from the director and the screenwriter teams rather than from Eon themselves.
The only department where I would see Amazon getting more involved would be the marketing one. Bond 26 will need a strong marketing campaign, both to introduce the new Bond actor and make the series attractive to the public after so many years without a movie released. Amazon would definitively bring something new to the table.
I hope they insist on a regular schedule, or have asked EON to submit their projected releases for the coming years.
So I am on the Amazon involved side, but not in the production per se.
Same here. I think both sides don’t want to repeat the same mistakes that Disney did with the last 5 Star Wars movies: no long term plan, and too much, too fast. I also think that Amazon might kick certain people off the series, if they are truly in charge. They also want old classic famous characters back. I imagine that EON and Amazon want Blofeld to be a better planned, recurring character.
IIRC it was 50-50 share, EON owning the Broccoli-part, and the Saltzman-part beeing now owned by Amazon.
For this next one lets pit two movies against each other that bear some similarities. In one an evil mastermind is using a rocket ship that is capturing US and Russian craft. The other an evil mastermind is using an oil tanker that is capturing US, Russian and British craft. We have two different actors playing Bond, one in his fifth and the other in his third. We have the same director and for both films, and a couple of new screenwriters to the series.
That's right, it's time to have a battle of YOLT and TSWLM.
YOLT, with it's hollowed out volcano, ninjas, exotic location of Japan. This movie had a "kitchen sink" element as Broccoli and Salzman threw everything at it. The advertising proudly proclaiming "Sean Connery IS James Bond". We have Bond getting married, dying, though not in that order. We have the first appearance of Blofeld and we have a crazy melee battle in the volcano! Finally the appearance of Little Nellie which is a highlight of the film.
Spy, with it's oil tanker with the ability to hold three nuclear submarines. A Russian spy helps our man figure out who is capturing submarines with ease. Unlike YOLT this one has a few locations. Bond meets an imposing henchman named Jaws. We have a beautiful theme song that proudly proclaims that "Nobody Does it Better". We have an amazing ski jump to take away the breath of the audience. Finally a "wet" Nellie, a car that can become submersible, the Lotus Esprit!
Would you rather watch YOLT OR TSWLM?
I love the 60s era.
Connery.
That set design.
Japan.
And that's not taking anything away from the greatness of TSWLM, nor the enjoyment I get watching Moore carry the film....
YOLT has always been a Bond movie I find… well, boring. Connery’s performance is boring, Pleasance as Blofeld is boring, the Bond girls are boring, the entire premise of Bond faking his death (for reasons I’ve never fully worked out) is boring. It’s a film with iconic imagery and rather beautiful cinematography and sets, and yet little about it interests me. It just doesn’t have that same invigorated energy that TSWLM has.
Not that TSWLM is without its strengths. The underwater Lotus plus the opening Union Jack ski jump. Commander Carter and especially the gorgeous Naomi are 2 of my favorite characters from the Moore era.
However I do think TSWLM while fun is slightly overrated, especially since it pilfers so much from YOLT which I consider slightly underrated so YOLT for me.
The film that lived twice:
TSWLM I ave always found quite overrated, but it is entertaining, so its really toss of a coin! In my ratings 'Spy' is hogher so probably it, though neither film is approaching Connery or Moores best!
In my most recent ranking, I had TSWLM at #7, while YOLT pulled in at #9, so clearly, I love them both.
That said, on a nice quite evening over dinner, I’m going to pull out my YOLT DVD almost every time. Over the years, I've concluded that while TSWLM is a better “film”, YOLT is a better viewing experience. The lushness of Barry’s score, seeing the Japanese locates, Blofeld’s reveal and the iconic volcano lair, all make it more ‘re-watchable’ IMO.
TSWLM reminds me of Jaws at the Pyramids, Bond having to explain he killed Anya's lover, and Bond killing Stromberg through the shooting pipe stromberg wanted to use against Bond.
To me it comes down to basically a bad performance of COnnery VS a very good one of Roger Moore. Roger Moore wins.
The only thing I didn't liked in YOLT is Connery phoning it in and the Japanese disguise, the Kissy Suzuki scenes were still bearable to watch, but the pacing of it was a lot better than TSWLM, where the pacing really lost its way too early in the middle act right after the Egyptian scenes, it became somewhat boring in the middle act where I barely remember some of the scenes happened in that duration, despite of me seeing the film a numerous times, and it stayed consistent until the finale, the pacing only went back in the Car Chase, but lost its way again, it's inconsistent.
The characters in YOLT were a lot better, Aki, Tiger Tanaka, Dikko Henderson, they're great and memorable, Blofeld is okay, but still a lot better than the wooden Stromberg, Kissy Suzuki is okay, but I do liked how she's engaged in the climax fight in the Volcano, at least she did something, unlike Anya who's just there because for the sole reason that she's a Russian gal who's boyfriend got killed and it did never got paid off, and also did nothing helpful as an individual character.
I don't remember any great or memorable characters in TSWLM especially in the allies department, except Jaws, all of them barely made an impression on me, they all felt like minor characters, Jaws is the only one memorable in there and the only good one.
Little Nellie is also cool and I liked how we've got to see it fought the enemy gyrocopters in the air, Lotus Esprit is okay, but no thrill really, although memorable.
And yes, this is John Barry at one of his greatest moments, the only thing TSWLM has going for it are the title track by Carly Simon and the title sequence by Maurice Binder, but nothing else, I'm afraid.
And I've felt that Bond was in a real, serious danger at some scenes in YOLT, something that I couldn't see in TSWLM because most of the time, it's Bond who's in full control of the situation, no thrill at all, no tension.
I will go with Spy!
Lets move on to another one that is a bit of two similar films around a similar subject.
Would you rather watch OHMSS OR CR?
Lets pair off a couple of films that feature our man falling in love. In one film he marries the lady in question, the other sees him lose the lady in question after a double cross.
For both films we have the debut of a new actor in the role. George would only stick around for this film, Daniel stayed on for another 4 films. Both were meant to feature harder hit action. But both were a chance for us to see the human and not super human side of Bond.
We had a first time director for Majesty and a returning director for Royale. Finally we had 2 fairly faithful book adaptations.
So which one are you streaming or throwing into the Blu Ray player?
OHMSS, on the other hand, is a movie I will revisit dozens of times, eventually becoming one of my 3 or 4 most watched Bond films.
Sorry @JWPepper after all my typing I realized we had done that one before. So I have re-edited to another couple of films.