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He's better in that role than he did as Blofeld, to whom that idea of Charles Grey being cast as Blofeld came from should be put in Gulag and do pickle jams! 😅
I always wish that scene wound up a bit longer, or had an additional moment between Bond and Henderson. Gray's really great as him.
Perhaps controversial, but I love Gray as Blofeld. I mean, he's not a menacing villain, but he is really entertaining.
It’s a movie I’ve adored since I was a kid and is easily among my most watched Bond films.
Obviously, Connery looks considerably less engaged in the role and some plot elements are dodgy at best. But the gorgeous cinematography, coupled with Barry’s divine score, Adam’s magnificent sets and Pleasance’s terrifically creepy performance more than make up for this.
Along with GF, YOLT is the movie that immediately comes to my mind when I think of Bond magic.
Yes I always liked that one of those books (was it 'the Essential 007'?) had that down as a movie mistake! Some folks don't get gags I guess.
A classmate of mine had a hilarious theory on this. Henderson is secretly the real Blofeld (hence Gray's return in DAF) who signals his evilness to us, two films in advance, by messing with Bond's drink. They should have hired him as a screenwriter, I recall thinking.
And after Blofeld escaped from the "Baw-Haw" oil rig, he snuck his way into the Rocky Horror Picture Show as The Narrator. It's just a jump to the left.
Hahahaha, absolutely! :-D
In all seriousness, Gray has grown on me as Blofeld, whereas Donald is losing ground. I don't know why--something about Pleasence's performance, while good, simply fails to connect with me.
In the meantime, feel free to discuss our midtier selection:
20. Spectre
19. Tomorrow Never Dies
18. No Time to Die
17. Moonraker
16. You Only Live Twice
1. Tomorrow Never Dies (this could've been the spot of Moonraker, but TND beats Moonraker when it comes to the plot and of course, the film was made in 1997 and have an understandably better technical aspects like cinematography).
2. Moonraker
3. You Only Live Twice
4. SPECTRE
5. No Time To Die
It’s quite nice to know that different films in this series can appeal to different people. Just shows how eclectic the films of this franchise are (and indeed the different opinions fans have about them).
QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2008)
Directed by Marc Forster
"Well, Tosca isn't for everyone."
The only Craig entry that did not end up on top in any list does manage to come in 3rd best of his era nonetheless.
That's mostly because this one does have a considerable fanbase regardless: one silver medal, one 4th place, and five more top 10's were counted.
Additionally six other members ranked it between 11th and 15th.
Keeping it out of the top half, however, are four bottom 5's, out of which one penultimate finish was its lowest ranking.
All of this confirms though that QOS is considerably more appreciated by the Bond fan community than by general audiences.
A total of 114 points were awarded to QOS.
Agreed 100%! Couldn't have said it better myself.
Yet I ranked it 17th. Could have been higher on another day. It just happens that anything between 12th and 20th are somewhat interchangeable for me, but I love them all...
Concerning the Craig era, CR-QOS-SP is a superb trilogy imo.
But things eventually changed. QOS stunned me with its rewatchability, great atmosphere, excellent performances, lovely score and overall narrative denseness. Learning about the production history helped me to appreciate the final outcome even more.
QOS will always be little more to me than an appendix to CR, but it's now just outside my top 10. Even as an "appendix", it stands out as a solid actioner of a Bond film, with Craig's commanding presence elevating every scene. The QOS Bond is one of the coolest, most direct and no-nonsense iterations of the character I've ever seen. Greene, while less "remarkable" than some of the big villains, works very well for me, especially when Amalric goes after Bond with the axe like a madman.
The reason QOS isn't in my top 10 is the simple fact of devastating competition. But this is one of the biggest 180° turns I've ever made in my appreciation of any Bond film.
It's certainly made its way up my rankings in recent years. For a long time, this one languished toward the bottom. On reflection there's a lot of good going on here.
Daniel Craig is easily the best part of it all, which helps when you're the main character.
The story though un-exciting in a usual Bond style, does have a good array of characters and villains.
Dominic Greene is a new take on the main villain. He's not an evil madman with a huge army of henchmen or an over-the-top lair. He has a few henchmen that don't stand out and operates from wherever he finds useful.
Likewise, Camille is not really a Bond girl, she and Bond have no sexual encounter, nor is she portrayed as a sexual conquest of Bonds. This works really well in the context of the story.
The action is fast and to be honest quite inventive, though it does miss a signature Bond stunt, that the series is known for.
This is a good and solid Bond film, but there are 13 films that I put ahead of it.
I absolutely hated it upon release because I had extremely high expectations, and it was bottom tier next to DAD for many years. Since then it has grown on me a little bit, mostly because SP was even worse.
I like to see it as a little epilogue to CR, as it starts right away and runs short, makes a nice double feature watch. The Tosca scenes are cool. That’s about it.
I do think the action is more inventive than others Craig Bonds , sans maybe the Parkour chase from CR. The car chase has wonderful moments ( the police jeep rolling in front of Bonds car, losing the door!) Particularly the scaffolding fight, which has a great stunt of both men crashing into the glass ceiling, and tense final scene with who gets to their gun first? I have learned to appreciate the plane set piece more and I love the brief silent gunfight at Tosca! I don't think it needed a signature stunt as the action satisfies so much!
I must say I have warmed to it recently, and I think the script is really pretty good and has some actual themes and ideas which are pretty interesting. People tend to think it's about Bond going rogue and going after revenge, but he literally tells us right at the end that he never did that.
I do think it's lacking in the Bond feel though, and the direction really lets it down at times: for example some of the jokes are practically indecipherable. So for that reason it's pretty far down my list.
Oh, and another reason: Craig's worst haircut by far :D
Regarding lacking the Bond feel and Craigs worst haircut...that's SF for me 😅
Couldn't have said this better. I was the #4 ranker!
I agree, that's the one Bond entry that I feel lacks that typical Bond feeling, though I respect those who think otherwise. I suppose it's just a personal feeling...