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@Lancaster007, I think many members have enjoyed at least one of Brosnan's films and probably could pick two they like a good deal. For me, TND was a step up, especially by Brosnan. I am glad to hear you enjoy TND, too.
Giancarlo as Mathis was excellent; very underrated by some. His death scene was well done too I thought - very emotional.
It's one of the greatest reboots ever made and a hell of a Bond movie. Very different and authentic, by the way. Takes a good Fleming idea and makes it better, or at least contemporary and cinematic. The cast is great: Craig, Giannini, Eva Green... The song is one of my favorites. The photography is amazing, especially those scenes around Lake Como.
It's a movie that feels really special.
I find it hard to find fault with Casino Royale - I really do think it is a great, great Bond film - and a daring departure for the series. Kudos to the way it was done; I do give the producers, director, and writers much respect for this film. And of course, the actor who stepped up to that plate and delivered, Daniel Craig. And the sublime supporting cast. I could go on and on.
I had read the novel and wondered how they would portray Vesper and especially her death. I think the film did a marvelous job with that, as well as many other aspects of the story. You are so right, it is one of the greatest reboots ever made (I cannot even think of a comparable one at this moment) - and the gorgeous photography, yes. It is indeed a special Bond movie.
And the theme song - even going with a more rock sound was a departure and very welcome. I love that song, too.
Although I think GE was made deliberately very different from the previous Bond film, LTK, I think it did try to revert back to the old tried and true formula of the Moore films, albeit not overly campy. They did try to do without the Bond theme in GE, which was a definite departure from previous form; but I hated that, and I'm glad it returned with TND.
With FRWL, TSWLM, FYEO, LTK, and CR I sensed a stronger deliberate change in tone for Bond films.
Even with FYEO - it did not seem to be just to be trying to be another TSWLM, it had some more serious scenes (forget about the PTS!), a bit grittier showing by Moore.
LTK did not seem to go for a grand, big film - but the much darker tone was a departure; more sadistic, violent, and nastier. Many on here love that film, but I do not like much of it because of those attributes; although I loved Dalton and Carey in it.
But that's to add to our list of topics. It's nice we have enough to keep going for a while.
I do have other favorite Bond films, but I was trying to limit our personal in depth mentions to three. So I won't talk about them in detail, but here is just a quick note of my other constant favorite Bond movies: FYEO, CR, TLD, GE, SF, and Dr No.
Goldfinger, as many others have mentioned, is THE iconic Bond film. The first to put all the classic elements together in one stylish package. The one with the brassy theme song right up front, followed by the golden girl, the laser beam, the Aston Martin, the memorable henchman, and the girl with the over-the-top suggestive name. What makes this film special for me, something that others may not have mentioned, are the changes made to the original Fleming story -- because unlike some later films, where the changes weaken the final product (at least in my opinion,) the changes made here measurably improve the film. In Fleming's original story, Goldfinger actually intends to steal the gold from Fort Knox. In the movie, Bond himself points out the major flaw in this plan, the time it would take to physically movie all that gold -- but our film-makers have thrown a curve into the plot here, as Goldfinger now intends to detonate a nuclear device inside the gold vault, rendering the US supply radioactive and therefore useless for decades, and increasing the value of his own stock considerably. Another smaller (but very important!) improvement in the movie from the Fleming original, has Pussy Galore switching sides earlier than is the case in the novel, actively helping Bond foil Goldfinger's plan and thereby earning her a strong measure of redemption. A much better resolution for the film than is the case in the novel, by my way of thinking. Connery, of course, is the definitive Bond, here as well as in my second favorite film...
From Russia With Love could have beaten out Goldfinger for the #1 spot with a stronger theme song placed at the beginning of the film rather than the end. It's a great espionage thriller, with a plot that actually resembles something a real-world spy might have experienced -- only amplified substantially by being placed into the world of Bond. The villainous threesome of Kronstein, Klebb, and Grant has never been equalled, Kerim Bey is easily one of Bond's most charming allies, and the film just charges along with the the relentless rhythm of a ride on the Orient Express. I think my favorite of all Bond's many gimmicks is the attache case used here, including a sniper rifle, an exploding tear gas canister, and a hidden knife. As has been mentioned before, Bond's climactic fight with Grant is not just one of the best fights in the entire 007 series, it is one of the most memorable fight scenes in movie history! I'd just like to point out that 3 elements of the attache case's many tricks -- the gold sovereigns, the tear gas explosion, and the hidden knife -- are used to give Bond his victory over Grant in their ruthless battle to the death.
Casino Royale is another film that actually improves on the Fleming original. Too many important elements of the novel take place off-stage and we are told about them afterwards. Le Chiffre's financial difficulties are explained by M when he assigns Bond to beat the villain at a high-stakes card game. Vesper commits suicide by taking a fatal overdose while Bond is asleep. The movie version makes Bond the reason for Le Chiffre's financial downturn...and Vesper's suicide occurs RIGHT IN FRONT OF BOND while he strives vainly to rescue her. As many others have stated, Craig is a surprising success as a revamped Bond. He may not have looked like our preconceived notions of Bond as described by Fleming, or portrayed by Connery, Lazenby, et cetera...but Craig's performance is absolutely masterful, and when he finally identifies himself to the mastermind behind Vesper's betrayal as "Bond...James Bond," the theatre erupts in applause. Many of us simply COULD NOT WAIT to see what happened next...and for me, that reaction still applies for Bond 24!
There are a few more members I'd still like to hear from ... please give us a glimpse of your favorite Bond films (1 to 3 films). You don't have to be lengthy, but all details are welcome. All members, as well as Originals. I would like to keep this topic for a couple of more days, probably finishing on Wed.
I also want to give a shout out and warm welcome back to @Kerim. :) Kerim is one of our original Originals and took part in our reviews early on. He had severe health difficulties (which he discusses on the Going Away/Coming Back thread) that kept him away for nearly a year. We are so glad to have you back, Kerim. You have plenty of reading to catch up on, especially on this thread. When you have time, I think you will enjoy reading the reviews you missed out on and the summary of our Originals group rankings (a few pages back now). I hope you can give us a brief list of three of your favorite Bond films, too, Kerim. Not in any particular order, any 3. Just when you have time.
Off to a great new week - thanks to everyone who is participating! You are the reason why this thread continues on.
Cheers, everyone!
:-bd
In honor of Greg, I will finish the reviews.
GOLDENEYE
A Great Day For Freedom
BOND: Pierce Brosnan debuts as the fifth Bond. EON really wanted him as the fourth Bond, but they got what they wanted in the end. Pierce was attempting to channel Timothy Dalton, but ended up channeling Roger Moore instead. He did pull off the spectacular stunts such as the bunji jump and the St Petersburg tank chase, but he also had the silly moments such as sharing the toilet stall. Pierce certainly pulled off the Bond look in the case of the Monaco casino. Needs to work in his fighting skills though. Pierce seemed a bit out of place in his debut, but had a solid enough cast surrounding him and the long break between films that it was overlooked in GE. (3)
WOMEN: Can really only count two women here. Let's start with Caroline. Pierce's films would have the tradition of having just one scene with a random woman, to shall we say, run his score up. Caroline did seque to Xenia (more on her later) though. The main woman is Natalya. Credit the GE makeup artist in making the very stunning Izabella Scorupco into a plain Jane. Natalya seemed to have been channeling Tiffany Case in the second half of DAF, but shook it off as she instead channeled Pam Bouvier as she became more involved with Bond's mission. Honestly, Natalya would have drove me nuts in the beginning, but soon discovered her inner strength to help Bond out. (4)
VILLIANS: A new concept in villians. First we have the former 006, Alec Trevlyan, portrayed rather well by Sean Bean. Having your main advesary as a former 00 can make for an interesting challenge, particularly when it comes to anticipating Bond's moves. Alec's entrance walking through the shadows of the Soviet graveyard was definitely memorable and surprising. Alec used his 00 training to its fullest extent in setting up Janus and in recruitment. Definitely one of the better main villians of the modern era. Orumov was an excellent co-villian played remarkedly well by Gottfried John. Ourumov was a holdover from the communist era who maintained power in Russia while in cohoots with Janus. John had excellent scenes in the PTS, interupting Dmitri's interrogation and the tank chase. Boris was more comic relief than anything else, but still did a great job betraying Natalya. Now to Xenia, The Orgasmic Killer. You could argue that the Xenia character was over the top, but Famke Janssen did it so brilliantly. Famke brought crazy chick to a whole new level. Great scenes with the Canadian captain, meeting Bond at the casino, the compound raid and the train. Xenia was probably the one person to get off on killing people...literally and such a memorable character. An outstanding trifecta of villians here. (5)
HUMOR: The dark humor from LTK was replaced with the innuendo humor of the Moore days, but more in your face than suttle. Boris and Zukovsky were the two main comedians in GE. Boris was solidly funny throughout as was Zukovsky in his club. The return of Q's lab also had it's shining humor as well as the sexual dialouge with Xenia. Some humor in GE didn't work (i.e. Wade), but most of it came through. (4)
ACTION: The opening scene set up the movie. I have mixed reviews on it. While bunji jumping off the dam was pretty good, motorcycling to the falling aircraft was actually pretty good...when compared to DAD parasailing. The tank chase through St. Petersburg was the highlight of the action in GE. If this actually happened, the Russians would have gone back to being our enemies for all of the destruction of the historic artifacts. Another solid action scene was the 006-007 fight on the satellite. Was actually very suspenseful with Bond nearly falling off a couple of times. Amazing that Alec survived the satellite fall after Bond was saying it was all about him. But Bond just couldn't let it go. When Bond jumped from the satellite to the helicopter, he managed to knock the big satellite off of it's base and crush poor Alec. Slightly less action than we saw in the past, but the length of the action for the three main scenes did not disappoint. (4)
SADISM: Insert pretty much anything Xenia did in here. Xenia got off on her sadism. No really, she did. Also the self-destruct missile launching of the Janus helicopter was pretty ruthless as well. (4)
MUSIC: While Tina Turner did a solid job with the MTS (despite it's "we won the Cold War" taunting), Eric Terra had a less than memorable soundtrack. May as well have inserted a bunch of fart noises when Pierce was beating that poor Russian up in the loo. Also, penalty point for getting U2 involved in the music. They were not at their best in the mid-90's. (2)
LOCATIONs: Mostly Russia, although the tank chase took place on Pinewood. Throw in Monaco, which is very ideallic for a Bond film and Cuba, which I actually wouldn't mind visiting one day. GE taught us that former and current communist countries are actually nice to visit. (4)
GADGETS: Good old Q is back in the lab and reminded us of great lab scenes of years gone by. The only problem was, that he forgot to modify the watches from 1986 as Alec remembered how they worked. Desmond is alive and well displaying his leg cast rocket launcher. The signature gadget from GE was the exploding pen. Not sure why that young whippersnapper Q dismissed the exploding pen, it was a good idea. Also, very suspenseful how fidgety Boris kept clicking the pen trying figuring out the launch sequence codes. Not any ridiculous gadgets in GE and they served their purpose. (4)
SUPPORTING CAST: The debut of Judi Dench as M. She clearly wasn't from the old boys club, although you pause to wonder how an accountant got the M gig. She held her own of M's past of Bernard Lee and Robert Brown. She still kept the bar her predecessors had, meaning she didn't entirely go politically correct. Hopefully Judi doesn't get too motherly in her M run. Then again Judi Dench could have made the Human Centipede look like Citizen Kane. Joe Don Baker should have stopped as Brad Whitaker. I wish they would have brought back John Rhys-Davies as the Russian defense minister, but still, nothing wrong with the Dmitri character. Samantha Bond debuted as Moneypenny. Samantha would prove to be a more direct and innuendo laden Moneypenny. I wish that Caroline Bliss was brought back as Moneypenny, she really didn't get a fair chance under the Dalton era. Was bringing in Minnie Driver really necessary? I hope Tanner has learned to look around the room before speaking. (4)
OVERALL SCORE AND RECOLLECTIONS: (38) A little lower than I thought it would be, but at this point we're happy to have Bond back. Pierce may not have been a better Bond than Timothy, but he was a better box office draw, which some feel is the more important thing. Pierce was a little shaky as Bond at some points and seemed like he crafted his Bond after Roger Moore. GE was more of a re-boot of Bond within the modern times of the mid-90s. More political correctness was involved, but Pierce still managed to keep the traits of the Bond we all knew and loved. Let's see how this Pierce chap develops as we go along.
We call CR and the Craig films a reboot but it was not the first time EON tried a reboot.
I submit the sixth film OHMSS--
after the outrageousness of YOLT they pulled back.
FYEO was an attempt to return to basics after the silliness of TSWLM and MR
I like to point out GE as well
finally CR...
Prior to CR the films that veered away from the formula were OHMSS and LTK
These films do contain some of the formulaic elements but they are missing quite a few. OHMSS in particular does not end with bond having a tender moment with the leading lady on or near a body of water...
LTK Bond is never actually captured by the main villain and has the grand scheme revealed
In both films Bond does not go to M's office to get his mission briefing
In both films Bond does not have a big fight with a buff henchman
I have not covered all the issues but just touched on a few.
@Kerim, I want to mention some of your points about Goldeneye. And I like that you are writing in the present tense for this, so we shall see how Pierce and Judi develop in your future reviews. ;)
1) You are right, in my opinion, that Pierce's Bond was not solid yet. (For me, he really was in TND.)
2) I was so surprised you had two differing feelings about Natalya! I loved her from the first moment through the end; she is one of my favorite Bond girls (as is Pam). But of course, I respect your opinion; it just surprised me.
3) Famke did bring 'crazy chick to a whole new level' - I love the way you phrased that.
4) The music: many of us are not huge fans of this soundtrack (but I think Murdock is, if I remember right); and I laughed out loud at this: 'May as well have inserted a bunch of fart noises when Pierce was beating that poor Russian up in the loo.' Oh, I will never view that scene again the same way, thanks to you - ha!
5) Q - I like the exploding pen and all the gadgets in Goldeneye, too; they were useful and not stupid. I want to mention (as I have in other posts) that I love Desmond and Pierce's chemistry. I think they had a warm and wonderful relationship in Pierce's films. I enjoy Q very much, he seemed to have more screen time with Pierce, and they were good ones.
Really looking forward to your review of Tomorrow Never Dies, Kerim, which is my favorite Pierce Brosnan Bond film!
Everyone else, please continue to join in and share 1, 2 or 3 of your favorite Bond films here on this thread with us. Thanks!
Controversial is for another thead. We're all about high regard & mutual respect over here.
;)
A glance back at my own list of Eon rankings shows that my bottom 3 Bond films are Die Another Day, the Man With the Golden Gun, and Moonraker. I can't quite bring myself to defend DAD at this point (maybe later) and I hope my review of MR left one with the feeling that I had finally managed to find some smidgen of charity in my heart for that poor red-haired rocket of a film..so here is my spirited recommendation for TMWTGG:
First of all, Christopher Lee is perfectly cast as Francisco Scaramanga. One of the greatest Movie Villains of all time, Lee's personal familial connection to Ian Fleming adds a poignant touch of irony to his personification of the titular Man With Etc Etc. Additionally, Herve Villachez is tremendous as the diminutive Nick Nack. While the audience has gotten used to most villains employing oversized brutes as their henchmen, Scaramanga's undersized butler inverts the stereotype nicely. He's still dangerous, and downright creepy in his own unique fashion -- but he's also amusing in a manner that no other henchman can manage. Finally, let us consider Scaramanga's island lair. "If you keel heem, all this becomes MINE!" The relationship between Scaramanga and Nick Nack is a highly original one -- and the beauty of the mushroom island in question is unsurpasable. In my mind, these three points establish TMWTGG as an entertaining, enjoyable film -- and a worthy entry in the exploits of the world's most famous secret agent!
@Murdock, if you'd care to share just one of your favorite Bond films, that would be enjoyable for me. You don't have to be lengthy. Pretty please. :D
And yes, I can find merit in all the Bond films, even my very least liked of the whole bunch.