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DIE-monds . Are . FOR-EVER!
When she blows those pipes wide open on MR too, "Wheeere aaare you?", I can feel the energy build up inside me.
That's also one of the reasons I have a particular fondness for Lulu's TMWTGG. Lulu just gives it her all. Some say she's shouting her way through the song, I'd say she's just taking off like a rocket and won't stop building vocal momentum until the songs has reached its pinal note.
I think that with different lyrics, TMWTGG would be remembered as a very decent title song. Unfortunately they let a group of kindergarten kids on a sugar high write it...
That made me laugh, @jobo. But you are absolutely right! I guess since DAD, I stopped caring about lyrics. It's a road that can easily lead to darkness in the Bond realm. ;-)
Apart from the low plausibility factor (which is a problem in my opinion) MR is brilliant! From a technical standpoint, the set design, cinematography, special effects and of course Barry's score are great. Hugo Drax is a great villain too and Moore is in his prime.
I have it 1 place below Spy at the moment
I think it's an issue with both films. It's all spectacle but no suspense. The tanker climax in Spy drags and so does the slightly ridiculous lazer action in MR. And it's very hard to take Jaws seriously when he is a clumsy buffoon. From a globetrotter standpoint I prefer MR. Venice, Rio, Iguazo falls, the Amazonas. They are superb locations and it's fun watching and knowing I've been to all those places. Drax is also the better villain, so MR takes it for me.
Edit: Oh, and the score is also massively in Moonraker's favor! Hamlich's score is frankly horrible, meanwhile MR is one of Barry's best.
They're sketchy, but I like them more than Goldfinger's lyrics because they at least accurately describe the character they're meant to be describing. Goldfinger's song doesn't sound like it's actually about Auric Goldfinger....
I cannot agree with that. Especially with how the hands of the clock fall perfectly in sync with the music while the camera zooms out... I absolutely love that. I think the lack of vocals is furthermore a cool hint at something "new", a soft reboot perhaps, winking at the instrumental opener of DN. I honestly love OHMSS as the Theme "song" of the movie.
Personally I really really like the TMWTGG theme too.
Not a single one of the modern songs works for me. Hate to say it but I haven’t heard a theme that’s clicked with me since MR.
Because of having the cross-promotional marketing appeal of having a hot artist doing the title song so it can reach a broader audience, there's no chance we'll ever get another instrumental. They were 3-for-3 with the classics they did come up with, though.
The music for the GF title song is great but I agree the lyrics are kind of lazy. They make Goldfinger sound like Ted Bundy more than a man obsessed with gold. Also not a fan of Bassey's shouting at the end although I don't mind it in DAF.
What could've been really different and energetic is if they'd used the GF instrumental from the album as the title song. That's a really underrated song. I also like the energy of TMWTGG, always have.
Big difference here is GF is a beloved classic and the song was a hit, while TMWTGG is considered one of the less-loved films and the song wasn't a hit.
MR's theme lyrics are also a mess. Who is she singing about in the song, Bond? Why is the Moonraker referred to as a person? Two of those lyrics about dream of gold and his dream will come true someday sound like they're actually describing Goldfinger. Besides, MR is one of the least romantic films of the series. These lyrics could've been more appropriate for TSWLM.
Christopher Lee
John Barry
The quirky stuff
Rog looked GREAT
Goodnight rocked that bikini
Killer song (intro/outro)
Plus the other films had some egregious mis-steps...
In LALD Mr. Big pops like the balloon that doubled for him. What a cheesy let down...
TSWLM had the character of JAWS in it. So badly comic-book-y....
MR had, well, more nonsense messing it up than just JAWS....
FYEO would actually be my favourite except for the stupid fake underwater bubbles in close ups, & the terrible disco score. *Can we remaster & fix this one, please??? It was almost perfect!!!*
OP was a great & entertaining Bond except for the endless jokey BS & the somewhat cheap-looking In Like Flint style commando raid at the end. I could overlook the Tarzan yell...
AVTAK is just where Rog looked a bit done with it all.
Re: the TMWTGG stuff-
Slide whistle. A sound effect. It can easily be muted.
Getting rough with Andrea/lack of tears over her death. An unfortunate hold over from the Connery era. Not a nonsensical narrative deal breaker for me, though. Bond isn't supposed to be a swell guy....
The Kung Fu craze was briefly exploited here. Yeah, and so what?
The fact that the Solex Agitator didn't change the world as we know it. So sue me.
That's MY controversial opinion. ;)
"It's all a matter of perspective"
I could do the same for my favourite Moore entry Octopussy. It is the best entry because:
- Mad Russian general excellently overplayed by BerKOFF!
- Slimy charismatic villain, and a great villain ensemble
- Fantastic Barry score
- Solid, tense action
- Moore plays it deadly serious for the most part ("Double sixes. Fancy that.")
- The auction scene
LALD - flat cinematography and questionable inclusion of Pepper
TMWTGG - Tonally doesn't know what it is - the Solex, the world's greatest hitman, kungfu??
TSWLM - Bad B-grade horror movie score
MR - Jaws
FYEO - Bad B-grade disco 80's score
AVTAK - A tired effort from all involved.
Not having a go at anyone, I find the variety in opinions fascinating and how one's tastes overlook flaws in favourites and magnify them in others. Or maybe supposed flaws aren't flaws in one's eye. I don't find any part of Octopussy offensive.
This is the only part I didn't like. It didn't pull it off well. But you could say the same for a lot of the bandwagon jumping the series does.
Excellent post sir, and a grand example of why we have different takes on the same series of films we basically love so much! The 'clown scene' in OP is one of the best in any Bond movie ever IMHO.
I always say the clown costume is an excellent disguide for, you know, a circus...
The perfect make up etc is a valid criticism but most detractors overlook the tension in the scene, and the fact Moore plays it deadly serious
I think The Man with the Golden Gun is a little underrated.
I have it my #3 Roger Moore movie. I love the way he plays Bond in this one. There are a couple of parts I think could have been changed or cut, but those scenes in Beirut and Macau are amazing and give off that spy feeling.
Fully agree with both of these comments.
"Beirut" feels like a car park in Leeds!
Yeah that's a bit that feels like it's from an episode of The Saint: just saying you're in Beirut doesn't make me believe you! :D
I still feel like the plot doesn't really hold up: Scaramanga is an assassin so Bond should be stopping him from assassinating someone. Also Bond and MI6's attitude seems to be that if a guy is bad enough they can just steal what they like from them, which is admittedly probably quite realistic, but not terribly heroic :)
Exactly. That is what the plot should have been...an assassination, or series of assassinations.
The Solex subplot seems merely to be designed so Scaramanga can say the line about truly being the man with the golden gun.
Which might have been okay if he'd planned to use that gun, to blow up the moon or shoot down the space shuttle or something (I know there weren't shuttles then, but you know), but it's a pointless gun with no purpose and nothing to shoot at, and it turns out he wants to get out of the assassination business anyway and get into franchised power plants, which is a bit dull. He's not trying to destroy the world, he's a businessman looking to exploit a perfectly legal project which he has legitimately invested in (admittedly he murdered his business partner which makes him quite a git, but it's not really any of Bond's business). As evil plans go, it's not quite evil enough.
In a way, it's like QoS--the plan just doesn't feel big or villainous enough. And QoS had the same problem with the double meaning of the title, and it doesn't quite work there, either.