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Comments
- George Lazenby in a good revenge-driven DAF
- less camp in TMWTGG and MR
- Dalton from OP onwards reducing the humour
- giving DAD a good second half
And I've always wondered how Jan Werich's Blofeld would have been in YOLT.
2. I wish they had made the Blofeld Trilogy novels in order (TB, OHMSS, & YOLT). Part of the reason Connery gave for leaving was the space stuff. Sounds like he wanted a more grounded adventure and OHMSS would have given him just that. Just end the film with Bond and Tracy riding off in the sunset. The YOLT PTS could have been what follows and instead of the line
(Note: If 2 happened, I'd want a different PTS for Dalton's in FYEO.)
3. The producers originally wanted Lee Van Cleef to play Brad Whitaker in TLD and that change alone would have made the film a top 10 Bond for me. The character is written well enough but Joe Don Baker is just horribly miscast as a villain in my opinion. Whitaker is an extremist. When he responds to Pushkin's statement that the statues he has around his home are of "butchers" with "Surgeons. They cut away society's dead flesh" I don't buy it. I don't buy his convictions. Lee Van Cleef could have been incredible in this role.
4. Also, there was a foot chase through the streets and over the rooftops of London leading to a confrontation with a spy in a London underground train station that was planned to take place right before Bond leaves the office of Sir Hillary Bray in OHMSS and before Bond goes to Switzerland. The scene was never finished but stills of it exist so it was at least partially shot. Right at this point, regardless of who starred in the movie, I think it could have benefited from a bit of action and intrigue right before Bond goes to Piz Gloria and I wish they had had the time to film the sequence especially since Lazenby excelled in his action scenes.
5. Roger Moore steps into the role in '71 for Diamonds Are Forever, taking over for Connery and later ending his tenure as the Bond of the 70s after 1979's Moonraker with a run of 5 films.
Lazenby in DAF.
Those are the top misses for me.
2. Quantum of Solace - while in some ways, this isn't as bad as many critics made out. It should have been so much better. Martin Campbell should have directed, and this should have been the second half of a 2 parter with CR. Mr. White should have been the main villain and it should have been a revenge thriller. Also, Daniel Kleinman should have done the credits, Jack White should NOT have done the theme, and do away with the terrible Goldfinger homage - it's the little things that count.
3. Spectre - like QOS, not as bad as some make out. Overall quality it in no way stoops to DAD level of drivel. It's quite the opposite in fact. SP has so much going for it, but falls flat on it's face with a shoddy and undercooked (or overcooked?) 3rd act. This should have been the best film of the Craig era. A complete missed opportunity, which in some ways is worse than simply having an obviously bad movie like DAD.
Post of the day.
^ +2.
I'm sure Campbell was offered it, like he was with all the Brosnans but too bad he turned it down. Would've been in my top films for sure instead of the bottom.
I agree with 3. At least DAD doesn't try to be a good movie. But SP has so much potential. A few tweaks and and a third act rewrite and it could easily be the best Bond film.
YOLT - Most of my problems with this movie stems with that it's pretty boring. Not too much happens. Blofeld is introduced too late into the movie and not much is done with him. Also the stuff with outerspace and the Ship that swallows other ships is just too absurd and have dated horribly. If Blofeld had been introduced sooner and allowed more time to really develop as a character he would have been better.
DAF - The biggest missed opportunity for this is just completely ignoring OHMSS and turning Blofeld into a joke. The budget would have probably been lower but they should have brought Telly Savalas back and have one final battle. I could have bought the stupid space laser but having Blofeld recast so frequently in a short amount of time just diluted the character so bad. In my head canon, DAF is a Sequel to YOLT and Henderson is posing as Blofeld to throw Bond off with OHMSS being the true sequel.
TMWTGG - This movie just needed a good rewrite and to turn Goodnight into a well written character instead of the Clumsy idiot she was.
TLD - The humor and villains in this movie are just dumb and cartoonish. Stronger villains would have really benefited this film a lot.
DAD - Just needed a good rewrite of the second half and a better director to helm the film and it could have been much better.
SF/SP - Biggest missed opportunity for these films was not bringing David Arnold back. Newman wrecked the ship on these two.
I feel so deflated listening to the scores of these two. I find joy in the less received films due to Barry's scores even if the scene is the worst in the series (ie missile place blowing up in asia in DAF)
'007 and counting'. Probably my favourite Barry cue of all time. It's part of why I love the film. The score is sublime.
Agreed. Barry could just elevate a mediocre film into something pretty decent with his score alone. Newman? Well...zzzzz
I miss Barry
:(( :(( :((
Him and Adam are sorely missing from the the recent films.
The other reason why this is a missed opportunity is that Feldman had already commissioned Ben Hecht to write the script back in the early 60's. Hecht had written 1935's Scarface (considered the template for modern gangster films) and collaborated with Hitchcock on Spellbound and Notorious. In fact, Hecht produced five screenplays for Casino Royale. That's five!!
One dry cynical exchange between a former lover of Bond and femme fatale, trying to seduce Bond by breaking into his bedroom, is unashamedly in keeping with Connery's version of Bond than it is Fleming's.
An excerpt goes like this...
Bond becomes alert in the shadows. He listens intently. He hears a faint sound in the adjoining bedroom.
Gun in hand, Bond moves cautiously to the bedroom. He switches on the bedroom light, and stands with his gun aimed at the lovely occupant of his bed. It is Giovanna. She is in a transparent nightie.
BOND (politely) Good evening, Giovanna.
GIOVANNA You are not surprised?
BOND No. (he starts undressing) How much did you pay the concierge to get in?
GIOVANNA Twenty francs. A bargain. May I have a cigarette?
BOND (handing her one) Here. Don't set the bed on fire.
GIOVANNA I don't need a cigarette for that.
(smoking)
GIOVANNA You remind me of my first lover. No kissing. No hugging. Boom! - his clothes off and into bed. (she pats his naked belly) Darling, you're adorable.
BOND In what way?
GIOVANNA You know I am employed by Colonel Chiffre. And you say nothing.
BOND It would only spoil an interesting night for both of us.
Okay, that's a little example of how Hecht's dialogue sounds in one of his screenplays. But as you can clearly see, it's not a spoof. It's written with an adult sense of humour and with very much Connery in mind as Bond. For me, there can be no more of a bigger missed opportunity than having narrowly missed out on seeing Connery in another 60's Bond movie than this one. Forget that nonsense about Connery making OHMSS instead of Lazenby. This was the one Bond movie that Connery came within a cat's whisker of making after YOLT, not the other one.
Also, not so much of a missed opportunity, but more of a regret is what has happened to the Ian Fleming screenplays of Moonraker and The Diamond Smugglers? For the latter, we know that the Rank Organisation paid Fleming £12,500 for the film rights to his non-fiction book and a further £1000 for a basic story that had very little in common with the articles that had featured in his smuggling book - but what we don't know is what happened to this script and new story?
Maybe one day it will come to light, very much like the Ben Hecht screenplays for Casino Royale, and then we will have a new Fleming story outline that can be used for a future Bond movie?
Short stories for the tv screen.
That would mean remakes which most here are opposed to, myself included. Unless you're suggesting Live & Let Die then Moonraker should have been the first two Bond pictures rather than Dr No and From Russia With Love, as Casino Royale nor Thunderball were EON properties at the time?
Them not being EON property is a huge missed opportunity.
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/3183/fun-with-bond-puns
Lazenby quits after one tremendous effort. Go figure.
I concur. The 80's title sequences were largely bland and generic and uninspired. They're not completely insipid, but the only one I think that's actually any good is A View To A Kill, just because we've never had anything quite like the weird psychedelic effects in that one.
The title sequence of Licence to Kill is basically recycled bits from various title sequences of the past mashed together in an unseemly fashion. The bits have very little synchronicity, kind of like the film itself, and it seems like I'm one of the few who isn't too appreciative of Gladys Knight's attempt to replicate Goldfinger. The weird, jazzy horns just don't provide the effect required for LTK, and the way she sings (and probably the song as a whole) is probably more fitting for Brosnan or Craig.
In fact, neither of the two theme songs for Dalton's entries have any relevance to the style of Bond he played. I mean, Connery had Thunderball and Moore had Nobody Does It Better. At least give Dalton some sort of darker, heavier or more brutal type of theme. Instead, we get some typical 80's jazz & rock that doesn't have any relevance to Dalton's Bond.
Yes it attempts to follow Goldfinger, but so would the next three songs, more or less: GoldenEye, Surrender and The World Is Not Enough (none are criticised on the same basis by the way... in fact everyone loves Surrender).
But yes the 80s title sequences are collectively awful (Dalton deserved better!!!), they're literally just guns and women used in the most unoriginal way possible. I except AVTAK only.
I don't downright hate LTK as a song, I just don't think too much of it. As for TMWTGG and FYEO, well, plenty of people hate the former and it's widely considered one of the worst Bond themes. FYEO is liked by some, but generally hated by quite a few too.
I'm only lamenting the fact that Dalton never got the chance to get an appropriate Bond theme. In fairness, though, he only had two films - it took longer for Connery and Moore to get TB and NDIB, but at least we got GF and LALD beforehand.
A fair point, though only GE is so unveiled in how it attempts to mimic GF as LTK is.
Yeah, we were mostly discussing the title sequence as opposed to the song. FYEO is somewhat passable in terms of uniqueness, but it's still fairly bland, IMO. OP is basically a dichromatic version of TSWLM with a worse theme playing in the background (and worse visuals). TLD I seem to have a soft spot for but it's really nothing special. And I've already lamented LTK's unoriginal & unimpressive title sequence.
AVTAK is definitely the highlight title sequence of the 80's. It's easily the most unique one from the decade and probably the reason I tolerated Maurice Binder staying (his last three title sequences weren't very original and just weren't very good, IMO).
If the 'opportunity' that was missed was to sink the franchise.