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Several weeks ago, I started to put together an EXCEL spreadsheet to assist, but since we can't attach documents here, I never completed it. It, seems, however, that you beat me to the punch in any case.
DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002)
Directed by Lee Tamahori
"What an amazing coincidence"
Unsurprisingly DAD catches the short end of the stick, by quite some distance too.
Pierce's last hoorah as 007 ended up in no-one's top 10, it's one of only two entries to suffer this fate. Even worse is that it also did not finish in any top 15.
It did receive at least one placement for every single ranking between 18th and 25th. Its highest ranking was 18th, which it obtained only once. Five members did rate it 19th though. A small consolation you might say, but at least not everyone dislikes DAD.
Less than impressive is however the no less than nine bottom finishes. By far the most of all the contestants, with the next highest number of last places being three.
DAD received a total of 52 points.
I don't think it's the worst Bond film though. But I can see why this was the film that helped spur a critical change in direction.
So, DAD finished last, huh? Not the biggest surprise, although I have been under the impression for some time now that the film was climbing a little higher on many lists. And considering the almost irrational hatred towards SP and NTTD that seems to be running rampant still, I was afraid one of those two would end last.
Anyway, I've never downright loathed DAD. It's got some really cool moments, a tremendously hot Bond girl in Miranda and Peaceful and, yes, Halle shines too. Arnold's score has good moments in it. The CGI isn't ageing as poorly as I'd feared (apart from some unfortunate bits), Brosnan is suave, and the underground Q and M meetings kinda rock. But most of all, this film is in on the joke (unlike its predecessor.) So not quite a deserved last place for me, but I'm not entirely sorry either.
I had the film at #23.
I really can't find anything going for it, and it's not just the bad cgi, and invisible car, it has many a cringey line, some poor characters ( even the usually great Michael Madsen looks like he wishes he were anywhere else but here!) lousy action,( the awful hovercraft chase,the big set piece Aston chase has horrible speeded up editing, and the less said about the plane finale the better). Ok, so the swordfight was a great idea, but they even ruined that with silly gags ( slicing the newspaper, Bond somersaulting and doing Errol Flynn like moves)
Daniel Kleinman does excellent work in the title sequence, but even that is blighted by that godawful Madonna dirge of a song!
Credit for including: professional surfers; North Korean military presence; hovercraft chase; Bond imprisoned; continuing the scene throughout the title sequence; the return of Philips products; bird field guide; Blades; near-swashbuckling sword fight; abandoned subway meet-up place; Bond at his desk with decanter and cleaning kit; MI6 HQ action scene; redesigned gadgetry; failed sniping attempt; theme remix.
Nonetheless, DAD has a lot of issues and I am not denying that. These issues have and will be documented here and elsewhere I'm sure, so let me just focus on what I do like: surfing scene, Bond's smirk to Van Bierk, hovercraft chase, title song + sequence, Hong Kong hotel scenes, Cuba scenes, sword fight, Frost, the ice palace, the Aston v Jag chase, title song remix.
Special shoutout to Emilio Echevarría's Raoul who is my favourite character here in this one, and who I also rate highly amongst the Bond allies in general.
All of the factors above combined with some nostalgic affection, makes me rank it 19th, which is its second highest amongst the participants here.
DAD came in at 19 for me, which sounds about right for the most part though I'll be interested to see what changes, if any, come out of my yearly Bondathon in November.
My first Bond film in theaters, I'll never forget the palpable excitement I felt riding in the near dark to the theater that opening night to see it. While it has plenty of objective flaws that bring it down, I've always said the film can never be considered boring, one of the biggest sins any installment in the series can commit in my opinion. I've always had a blast with it and am able to wholeheartedly love and celebrate its positives while ignoring as best I can its deep issues. There's no question there's a much stronger exit for Brosnan's tenure lurking deep within, and I think a removal of the sci-fi stuff and not relying on such heavy CGI alone would've gone a long way in improving it. No matter though, for I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for it.
Casino Royale '67 would be dead last for me. Some complement on it's craziness as a strength, I think they are confusing incoherence with craziness. The film was directed by 6 directors and it shows, there is no cohesive vision. It is a boring watch with almost all jokes falling flat. I guess some of the sets look cool, but that's about it. I also find the soundtrack torturous.
Casino Royale '54 is an interesting tv film, that doesn't quite work. It's low budget kind of becomes detrimental, the technical aspects are just subpar across the board, but it does have some strengths, such as Peter Lorre and the overall cast. It is an interesting blueprint of what a Bond film could be like if it had been more of a noir-thriller rather than a action thriller. Imagine it in the hands of Fritz Lang with a proper budget, that would have been interesting. Hope we will see a similar take on the novel in a few years time when the rights expire. Anyway, I would probably rank CR '54 over 5-6 EON films.
Never Say Never Again I find somewhat underrated. It does have some major drawbacks such as production value and soundtrack, the latter being worse than any EON film and the former being worse than any save Licence to Kill. However, the aspects that matter more to me, it delivers on. The casting, characters and the story/screenplay mostly delivers, with especially the villains being a major highlight. It feels very Bondian to me. I would watch Thunderball over it any day, but certainly prefer NSNA to Octopussy and most of the EON films of the 70s and 80s. I think it would rank 14th best Bond film.
And on to Die Another Day. Hardly surprising ranking. I put it in 23rd spot in my ranking. It actually climbed up two spots on my latest viewing, before it was dead last. But I appreciate most of the Cuba part, even Halle Berry's introduction scene, which I find sexy and fun. The sword fight is good and the car chase is the fun kind stupid. The rest is just the non-fun kind of stupid unfortunately, it's not entertaining in the least, but quite boring actually.
DAD belongs to a handful Bond films which are just bad films period, so well deserved last spot.
But it's unlikely to improve much higher in my rankings. Certainly a few films below it, that I'm sure will pop up in the next few ratings.
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999)
Directed by Michael Apted
"(...) the numbers are not on your side."
TWINE, though, at least has a handful of fans. It was included in three top 10's: one 8th and two 10th places. There was also one 12th place, and five other top 20 rankings.
Having said that, it also received thirteen bottom 5's, of which three were last places.
Suffice to say that TWINE does have its fans, but they are most certainly part of a minority.
TWINE ended up with a total of 74 points.
I guess people give more point for set-pieces and thrills than I do and less for drama and characters.
My ranking so far
10. The World is not Enough
23. Die Another Day
The drama in TWINE just isn't that good, IMO. Poorly written, unconvincingly acted, a little pathetic at times.
Now I must go and attend to my shoooooooulder!
I love the ideas in this film, and I think Bond shouldn’t be afraid to veer into a bit of darkness or fatalism as this movie is trying to do (the idea of a villain with essentially a terminal illness in the form of a bullet in his head, in theory, is a great idea. Same for a psychopathic oil heiress with a vendetta). But how it presents these ideas lets it down. Still though, it’s a sort of dry run for SF which is cool.
For what it’s worth this isn’t an unwatchable film (even a not very good Bond movie is a passable film, and I know this film has its fans). But for me personally it doesn’t give me the thrills or capture me as I like my Bond films to do.
I find it sets out its stall straight away: whereas even the weakest Bond films open their gunbarrel on something like Christopher Lee and Maud Adams sat on the most beautiful exotic sunny beach, or sweeping vista of Lake Como or something, here it opens on James Bond's face as he crosses a road in overcast Bilbao which is so boring they don't even show it to us. Then we see him sat in a dreary, cramped little ordinary office. The glamour and style of a Bond film is almost entirely missing.
Yes, none of them are bad and I still like this film to some extent, even if I regard it as one of the weakest Bonds.
Both are movies I only watched once in their entirety in the cinema and that was more than enough.
I quite like Garbage’s title song and DAD’s PTS is decent enough.
Other than that, I have absolutely no desire ever revisiting these movies again.
It’s definitely has its moments. I actually find the little moment when Bond reveals his name to Jones/shoots the canister and flies up the missile silo (or whatever it is) to the Bond theme unironically cool (I guess we also get two ‘Bond, James Bond’ lines in this movie). The PTS is a bit long and lacking in a bigger opening sequence or captivating locations, but I like the set up of King’s assassination and the end with the cigar girl blowing herself up (again, very Bondian with the villain being unnamed at this point but having this aura of menace to the extent a henchwoman would rather kill herself than risk him going after her). Renard has some nice moments and even bits of dialogue. I like the theme and titles a lot. Marceau is actually pretty good, as is Coltrane. The script isn’t even bad honestly in itself.
But yeah, it just lacks a bit of that style. It’s a bit of a misfire but oh well.
I just flat out disagree with you both, I think the drama works well. It is flawed, but the dynamic between Marceau and Brosnan has sufficient highlights to make it more interesting than any of the drama in the rest of the series, save 6-7 entries. Marceau, Brosnan, Dench, Carlyle and Coltrane all deliver good performances. Richards disappoint, but also is not as bad as people say either.
It's all been done better in other entries (the Dalton films come to mind), though this one does find the right balance here between amusing entertainment and an engaging story.
My positives definitely include Sophie Marceau, Robbie Coltrane, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, the pts, the action in general (I like it more than most it seems), the music, the title sequence, the mi6 scenes, the gadgets and Pierce himself.
One final thing that I like here, is that it's the entry that reminds me most of the Bond video games I used to play when I was a wee lad. I'm sure that's a con for many viewers, for me that's a pro however.