It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
He was very skinny during the Remington Steel years.
There's no doubt that he looked younger and baby faced in the 80s. However, I still contend that he had an 'edge' to him despite his youthful visage. Just like Connery had an edge in the early 60's, Moore had an edge in the early 70's and Craig had an edge in the mid to late 00's. It's the 'edge' that comes with youth. A dynamic vigour. A confidence.
To me, he only exhibited that clearly in GE. By TND it was already starting to dissipate imho.
I did like him from the start, and I can see what you mean about his GE performance @bondjames. He does have a bit of a harder edge to him there which I think we have Campbell to thank for, and he seems more restrained than later on. But I do think he was a bit too skinny and didn't have the confidence he got later on, he wasn't really owning it at that point imo. Being opposite Sean Bean probably didn't help either because he's so commanding and charismatic himself. In a way though I think it works well for the story because Alec is sauntering around owning the place while Bond is pissed off at his betrayal and still unsettled that he's even alive. Might even have been intentional, Campbell might have told him to hold back for that reason, because Bond wouldn't be able to easily run rings around Alec in the same way he would your standard villain, it's a lot more complicated than that.
I agree that he had less 'acting' confidence in GE. No doubt. However, I think he had a certain presence onscreen due to his youth in that film which he didn't recapture in later entries. I also agree that there is no doubt Campbell brought out something great in him, although Bean perhaps outshone him on an acting front.
I'm more referring to the natural edge though. It's not something you can 'act'. It just is. It's the privilege of youth. It's dripping off Brosnan in The Fourth Protocol and The Noble House, even if on a pure acting level he may have been better elsewhere later, like in Ghost.
I think age changes all of us. I've noticed it in many actors, not least the incumbent Bond. That's why I sincerely hope that EON get the next guy soon and get him young (not 20s but definitely mid 30s).
Thing is, I could see him being Colonel Cantwell in Across The River and Into The Trees with this look. But, that's a few weeks old picture since he shaved his beard.
I have little more to add to this. "Adore" is a pretty strong word for me to use with DAD, but I've come a long way round in enjoying this outrageously fantastical film. Cheers, Pierce! You made many a new Bond fan and had a damn great run!
Agreed! Love all his Bond films.
It was my first Bond movie in theaters as well! I absolutely loved it back then and it was even my favorite Bond film at the time. Keep in mind that I was also in my early teens and I had only seen a handful of Bond films at the time. Now it's ranked much lower on my list, somewhere around the 17 spot I think. But I agree with everything you said. It has terrible CGI and bad dialogue, mostly from Jinx, but when you look past those it's actually a pretty fun Bond outing.
By that point I had watched all of the movies on VHS many, many times, so I was wildly excited (and 11 years old, so I'm sure my first viewing translated to me thinking it was one of the greatest films of all time).
I do rank it around the Bottom 5 or so, but I still really enjoy it. It may be objectively bad, but it's subjectively entertaining as hell.
There's much I love in DAD: the gunbarrel music, the PTS- Bond in Cuba, Miranda Frost, Zao is a pretty solid secondary villain, the Ice Palace brings nostalgic memories of Ken Adam, and David Arnold is, once again in top form.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Yeah it's pretty much made for a video game. Remember the level in Everything or Nothing where he jumps off the cliff freefalls down shooting bad guys and catches the girl in mid air? That would have been crap in a film but in a video game it was great. Same applies to the stuff like the tsunami surfing I think. Would have been great fun in a game, doesn't work in a film.
I genuinely think they got it the wrong way round that year. Change the finale, tone down the action and Nightfire could have been a great, if a bit generic, Bond film. While DAD is basically a video game already.