Controversial opinions about Bond films

002

here is another one for Skyfall:

The biggest mistake is casting Naomi Harris as Moneypenny she is just wrong for the role why because she has no chemestary with Craig not like what Sean/George/Roger had with Lois Maxwell or even Samantha Bond and Pierce besides compared to the other moneypennys she doesnt look at all similar to the charater- she has frizzy hair all the other MP had either short hair or blonde hair but no it just doesnt sit well with me but The New M is a good choice and The new Q (as long as he isnt Major Boothryd than ill be alright)

Risico007

not a fan of the Brosnan Films in fact Richard Gere in the Jackal is a more believable Bondesque character then Brosnan's Bond.

MrArlingtonBeach

After 'Skyfall', Daniel Craig is now my favorite Bond actor.

SJK91

MrArlingtonBeach wrote:

After 'Skyfall', Daniel Craig is now my favorite Bond actor.

I agree with you on this, so put me on the controversial shelf, too!

Murdock

Blofeld doesn't need to return in future Bond films.

doubleoego

M's reading of the poem as Bond runs through the streets of London to the hearing and engages in a shootout is better than the Tosca shootout in QoS.

The kitted out DB5 in SF is in no way shape or form an adverse issue.

Every subsequent Bond actor to some degree by default has to try and live up to Young/Connery's creation of the character wether they know it or not.

Solange is still the hottest-looking Bond girl in well over 30 years.

thelivingroyale

002 wrote:

here is another one for Skyfall:

The biggest mistake is casting Naomi Harris as Moneypenny she is just wrong for the role why because she has no chemestary with Craig not like what Sean/George/Roger had with Lois Maxwell or even Samantha Bond and Pierce besides compared to the other moneypennys she doesnt look at all similar to the charater- she has frizzy hair all the other MP had either short hair or blonde hair but no it just doesnt sit well with me but The New M is a good choice and The new Q (as long as he isnt Major Boothryd than ill be alright)

I agree, but for different reasons.

I have no problem with how she looks, but I don't think her chemistry with Craig was great and Moneypenny is a SECRETARY, I didn't need a stupid backstory about how she shot Bond.

marymoss

Here's one I think of often when I see rankings or read reviews--

Thunderball is overrated. Everyone else says it's one of the best Bond films and yet, I don't like it. It's near the bottom of my ranking list.

Getafix

marymoss wrote:

Here's one I think of often when I see rankings or read reviews--

Thunderball is overrated. Everyone else says it's one of the best Bond films and yet, I don't like it. It's near the bottom of my ranking list.

I'll second that. Have never been a big fan of TB. Give me YOLT any day.

fire_and_ice

After DAD i thought maybe its time to stop making bond movies. Then they pulled one hell of a rabbit out of a hat in the form of CR.

Sandy

Getafix wrote:

marymoss wrote:

Here's one I think of often when I see rankings or read reviews--

Thunderball is overrated. Everyone else says it's one of the best Bond films and yet, I don't like it. It's near the bottom of my ranking list.

I'll second that. Have never been a big fan of TB. Give me YOLT any day.

For once we are in complete agreement.

thelivingroyale

I think TB is Connerys best film. YOLT is cool too but I think TB is just better, it doesn't have japanese Bond for one thing.

Here's one: TWINE is one of the most underrated films in the series and gets lots of unfair flack.

PrinceKamalKhan

CharlesDreyfus wrote:

I think FYEO is vastly overrated. Most people seem to feel it's a great spy film, taking Bond back to his espionage roots. In reality, the plot is as stupid as any in the series' history. Think about it: MI6 knows the basic area where the St. Georges went down. The Havelocks had pretty much located it when they were killed. But Bond wastes days fumbling around in Spain and Cortina, doing an unnecessary raid on an opium-smuggling operation, shuttling a 17-year-old ice skater around; when in reality all he had to do was GO TO THE SPOT WHERE THE BOAT SANK, check the Havelocks' logs, and poke around underwater a bit (which he FINALLY does an hour and a half into the film). What a waste of time, when national security is at stake.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the fact that the film uses material from Fleming (especially the terrific keelhauling sequence), and Gogol has probably his most effective appearance in the series (I love that he doesn't even speak a full sentence in that confrontation with Bond - I think all he says is "No!"). But overall, FYEO lacks the spectacle of the "fun" Bonds and the intelligence of the truly great ones.

Well put, CharlesDreyfus(cool screen name BTW). I've always thought that FYEO, while certainly a decently made film, lacks that something special to make it one of the best Bond films. A great episode of The Saint perhaps but not a great Bond film. I think TLD and CR did FYEO's "back to Fleming" approach a lot better IMHO.

Brendoge

thelivingroyale wrote:

Here's one: TWINE is one of the most underrated films in the series and gets lots of unfair flack.

I completely agree with this, next to Octopussy, this is indeed one of the most underated of Bond films. The World is Not Enough was one of my favourites to watch growing up, and I still love it. So what if it didn't have the 'traditional' Bond villain, or story structure. It had some of the series' most exciting scenes and character drama. Brosnan is in good form, and it remains quite serious in tone throughout.

I think those few supposed 'misteps' in the form of Christmas Jones and a different storytelling direction, shouldn't be the only reasons people judge TWINE unfairly. People don't always adapt to change, and are often quite thrown by it - as we learnt with Dalton's two outings as Bond. But despite the changes TLD & LTK are brilliant James Bond films. TWINE is no different; it experiments with the formula and while not too well-recieved by the critics, remains one of the series' most entertaining IMO.

002

Brendoge wrote:

thelivingroyale wrote:

Here's one: TWINE is one of the most underrated films in the series and gets lots of unfair flack.

I completely agree with this, next to Octopussy, this is indeed one of the most underated of Bond films. The World is Not Enough was one of my favourites to watch growing up, and I still love it. So what if it didn't have the 'traditional' Bond villain, or story structure. It had some of the series' most exciting scenes and character drama. Brosnan is in good form, and it remains quite serious in tone throughout.

I think those few supposed 'misteps' in the form of Christmas Jones and a different storytelling direction, shouldn't be the only reasons people judge TWINE unfairly. People don't always adapt to change, and are often quite thrown by it - as we learnt with Dalton's two outings as Bond. But despite the changes TLD & LTK are brilliant James Bond films. TWINE is no different; it experiments with the formula and while not too well-recieved by the critics, remains one of the series' most entertaining IMO.

actually Octopussy is one of my favourite bond films and TWINE is highly regarded in my view

royale65

thelivingroyale wrote:

Here's one: TWINE is one of the most underrated films in the series and gets lots of unfair flack.

True dat :D

I don't really have any controversial opinions about Bond, well apart from this -

The World Is Not Enough

I just don't get why this film has such a bad reputation round these parts. Surely my sentimental feeling towards this film (it was my first time seeing Bond on the big screen), has blinded me to the obvious?

Sophie Marceau is sexy and seductive, Robert Carlyle evokes genuine pity, and The Brozz turns in a supremely elegant and dangerous performance as Bond, plus the overall premise is inspired, and all the Bondian attributes abound, and in novel fashion.

Now in light of objectivity, I shall point out some of the film's flaws...

The more emotional nature of the script allows for some unintentional melodrama. (Primarily the scene between Bond and M in Scotland and the scene where Bond confronts Elektra.). I always imagined Bond being more still, in the two aforementioned scenes. Brosnan is too animated in those particular scenes. Fleming wrote that Bond is precise in his movements, decisive and economical. He wouldn’t have acted like that. Just my two cents worth.

It sounds like I'm being too hard on The Brozz, but he's my childhood Bond, and he carries a special place in my heart.

To balance out, then, here are some moments in which Pierce Bronsan is just so smegging cool;

The ways he takes out the goons in the Banker's office
Sorting out the heavy, gaining access to Zukovsky's office
During the buzz-saw helicopter attack, Bond opens a trap-door, pushes a goon away, and fires straight up, through the floor, to a second goon.
Human shield in the sub.

Lancaster007

Here's one. The PTS to Moonraker isn't very good! Okay so it's a great piece of stunt work, freefalling and wrestling a parachute off of the pilot, but as a sequence it makes no sense. Bond's in a plane with a girl and a pilot, said pilot shoots the controls, they fight fall out of the plane, the girl morphs into Jaws (groan) and he fights Bond in free fall, Bond gets away, Jaws the ham-fisted moron rips his rip-cord out and the flapping like a bird falls into a BigTop in the middle of nowhere!
Awful.
But then what follows is a complete load of …

echo

Getafix wrote:

marymoss wrote:

Here's one I think of often when I see rankings or read reviews--

Thunderball is overrated. Everyone else says it's one of the best Bond films and yet, I don't like it. It's near the bottom of my ranking list.

I'll second that. Have never been a big fan of TB. Give me YOLT any day.

Agree. YOLT is one of the best-paced Bond films. A tip of the hat to Maestro for his score.

thelivingroyale wrote:

002 wrote:

here is another one for Skyfall:

The biggest mistake is casting Naomi Harris as Moneypenny she is just wrong for the role why because she has no chemestary with Craig not like what Sean/George/Roger had with Lois Maxwell or even Samantha Bond and Pierce besides compared to the other moneypennys she doesnt look at all similar to the charater- she has frizzy hair all the other MP had either short hair or blonde hair but no it just doesnt sit well with me but The New M is a good choice and The new Q (as long as he isnt Major Boothryd than ill be alright)

I agree, but for different reasons.

I have no problem with how she looks, but I don't think her chemistry with Craig was great and Moneypenny is a SECRETARY, I didn't need a stupid backstory about how she shot Bond

I needed to see a bit more why Moneypenny retired from active duty and ended up in the office--more guilt over shooting Bond, or maybe Moneypenny herself being injured. Instead we got the flirtatious casino sequence which, don't get me wrong, worked, but didn't help Moneypenny's "retirement/demotion" arc.

echo

Here's another: the original version of the Bond theme feels very dated in 2012.

TheWizardOfIce

Sandy wrote:

Getafix wrote:

marymoss wrote:

Here's one I think of often when I see rankings or read reviews--

Thunderball is overrated. Everyone else says it's one of the best Bond films and yet, I don't like it. It's near the bottom of my ranking list.

I'll second that. Have never been a big fan of TB. Give me YOLT any day.

For once we are in complete agreement.

Totally agree. I know there a lot on here who rate it top 5 but it just seems to me to be a lot less than the sum of its parts. I would even say I 'enjoy' watching DAD more in terms of switch you brain off entertainment (and all the obvious flaws notwithstanding) although obviously it is a 'better' film than DAD. Its just often I find watching it a bit of a chore.

SJK91

Skyfall is not only the best Bond movie ever, but one of the greatest action films of all time.

I didn't think that was too controversial until I visited these forums.... :D

Mallory

John Barry's soundtrack for 'The Living Daylights' is monumental cack, lacking in any good action or suspense cues. Its boring, uninteresting, and Barry's lack of enthusiasm shows all the way through it.

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7

Mallory wrote:

John Barry's soundtrack for 'The Living Daylights' is monumental cack, lacking in any good action or suspense cues. Its boring, uninteresting, and Barry's lack of enthusiasm shows all the way through it.

Since I think you're a good bloke, I will make an extra effort to cut you from the post when some members here try to burn you at the stake. :)

Murdock

Mallory wrote:

John Barry's soundtrack for 'The Living Daylights' is monumental cack, lacking in any good action or suspense cues. Its boring, uninteresting, and Barry's lack of enthusiasm shows all the way through it.

I accept your opinion, but the Music of The Living Daylights was about atmosphere not action. :)

SJK91

Mallory wrote:

John Barry's soundtrack for 'The Living Daylights' is monumental cack, lacking in any good action or suspense cues. Its boring, uninteresting, and Barry's lack of enthusiasm shows all the way through it.

I once remember some people thinking this on the old Mi6 Forums...

Anyway, whether or not Barry's enthusiasm was high, I still loved TLD's soundtrack.

Aziz_Fekkesh

Wow that is pretty controversial. Suffice to say that I disagree completely, this and AVTAK are two fantastic scores to leave the series on.

Grinderman

I've been reading all the Flemming Bond books, in order, for the first time. Although I'm not yet done with the entire series. So here's one opinion, although I'm not sure how controversial it is:

Taken as a whole, the movie Bonds are better than Flemming's original works.

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7

Grinderman wrote:

I've been reading all the Flemming Bond books, in order, for the first time. Although I'm not yet done with the entire series. So here's one opinion, although I'm not sure how controversial it is:

Taken as a whole, the movie Bonds are better than Flemming's original works.

HEAD FOR THE BUNKERS, EVERYONE!

echo

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote:

Grinderman wrote:

I've been reading all the Flemming Bond books, in order, for the first time. Although I'm not yet done with the entire series. So here's one opinion, although I'm not sure how controversial it is:

Taken as a whole, the movie Bonds are better than Flemming's original works.

HEAD FOR THE BUNKERS, EVERYONE!

End of thread. :)

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7

echo wrote:

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote:

Grinderman wrote:

I've been reading all the Flemming Bond books, in order, for the first time. Although I'm not yet done with the entire series. So here's one opinion, although I'm not sure how controversial it is:

Taken as a whole, the movie Bonds are better than Flemming's original works.

HEAD FOR THE BUNKERS, EVERYONE!

End of thread. :)

But seriously, @Grinderman. At least spell his name correctly.