Bond Performance - This week; Roger Moore as James Bond, 007 in A View To A Kill

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  • Posts: 11,189
    I think that's reasonable.

    I described Laz's performance a few years ago as "brave, occasionally brilliant but underwhelming".

    He has some very nice scenes and there's a tenderness that comes through in the second half (one can't help feel sorry for him at the end) but his inexperience does show on several occasions.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Unexpectedly serviceable! very good @chrisisall

    I once read a review in which Laz's performance was likened to an untrained musician stepping into John Lennon's shoes. Didn't help that Laz was succeeding an unbelievably charismatic man in Connery.

    Tell me @4EverBonded would OHMSS rank higher with you, if one of those three actors starred in it; would it trouble your top ten?

  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    No because of other issues I have with the film, but it may be quite close to top ten. I'd have to think that over. :)
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    @Royale65 wonderfully said and much agreed.
  • Posts: 1,146
    That fight he has in the hotel room with that huge thug is just awesome.
  • Posts: 1,146
    George was a great Bond but an idiot in his life choices.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 11,189
    Birdleson wrote: »
    I saw OHMSS on the big screen in San Francisco last night. It's probably at least the 20th time I've seen this movie. Having recently commented on this thread I decided to focus mainly on Lazenby's performance this time. Aside from a couple of fumbled lines, I think he did a very fine job. He wasn't Connery's Bond, it's a totally different take. Was he as good? No, but who was?

    I watched it last night too funnily enough. I still can't help but feel kind of mixed with him. Potential? Definitely! But at the same time he does deliver a fair few of his lines in the same flat way:

    "Why are they looking for you?"
    "Suspect they're trying to kill me"

    Really George? What made you think that? Was it when they were on ski's shooting at you ;)

    Having said that I did genuinely feel for him in the key scenes. The barn scene in particular is great. Also, one can't deny his superior physical skills.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    edited December 2014 Posts: 4,423
    Excellent discussion!

    Keep it coming ;-)

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    "Why are they looking for you?"
    "Suspect they're trying to kill me"
    I took that to be funny...
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited December 2014 Posts: 23,883
    George is all about lost opportunities IMO.

    Given his limited acting abilities, what he did in OHMSS is nothing short of remarkable, despite many flaws in his performance and delivery. He humanized Bond, and was fortunate to some degree that he was given the role in a Bond movie that was quite different from any other, thereby limiting direct comparisons with Connery.

    I'm sure he could have matured into the role very well, if given the chance by the public (this is a big 'if' however....I personally don't think he would have been given that chance, since he was following a very popular actor in the role. It appears that the only way to follow a popular Bond actor is to reinterpret the character, like Moore did, and like Craig has done. It's not clear that Lazenby would have been able to do that, given his limited acting range. He was fortunate that he didn't need to do it in OHMSS since the movie itself was so different to what had come before).

    I think ultimately his one Bond film is excellent because it was a one off in every sense of the word.
  • Posts: 11,189
    chrisisall wrote: »
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    "Why are they looking for you?"
    "Suspect they're trying to kill me"
    I took that to be funny...

    Yeah it probably was. I just...didn't find it very funny.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,800
    bondjames wrote: »
    He humanized Bond
    He did something an accomplished actor like Dalton worked hard at. That IS pretty remarkable IMO.
  • DoctorKaufmannDoctorKaufmann Can shoot you from Stuttgart and still make it look like suicide.
    Posts: 1,261
    Sean Connery in GF
    Roger Moore in TSWLM
    Timothy Dalton in TLD
    Pierce Brosnan in GE
    Daniel Craig in CR
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Yes, Laz is a more human and vulnerable Bond.

    Laz did have some issues with delivering a quip, tho. Apart from "You must give me the name of your oculist"
  • Posts: 11,189
    In the whole of that bull-fighting scene his line deliveries are poor. Rigg on the other hand is great.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Apart from when their alone in the car park. And Rigg is just all kinds of awesome ;-)
  • Posts: 1,146
    From Bond's escape from Pitz Gloria to the avalanche, it's just one big, awesome spectacle.
  • DoctorKaufmannDoctorKaufmann Can shoot you from Stuttgart and still make it look like suicide.
    Posts: 1,261
    For an untrained actors Lazenby made a good job. In the fust fights he was better than Connery or Moore. That the script actually demanded a vulnerable, more human and hurtable Bond, was not his fault, and he did that fairly well.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Right, time to start this up again methinks....

    Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever

    Sean Connery's presence is sorely needed in Diamonds Are Forever, who managed to find that missing “spark” that deserted him in You Only Live Twice. Tom Mankiewicz said about Connery, that he “has an old graces pro” about him, mirroring that Connery is maturing in the role. He can still knock the living hell out off someone, as exemplified by the lift fight, but Connery has the air of a veteran agent about him; calm, collected and authoritative, with just a hint of wryness, which is borne out of the fact that, Connery's Bond "has seen in, been there" ethos.
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    edited January 2015 Posts: 4,043
    He'd stopped playing James Bond and was just playing Sean Connery, his worst EON Bond performance, he might have been enjoying himself but he looked barely recognisable from the actor who'd appeared on screen in 1965 in TB.

    I remember thinking even as young boy the first time I saw it when I actually liked DAF that they'd changed the actor playing the part he looked so different and by that I mean he didn't look like Sean Connery. Quite possibly one of the worst of the series of one of the worst portrayals of the character, at least Pierce was trying.

    Moore was much better at playing Bond like this, Connery just comes across as smug and looked so unfit and not like James Bond 007 super spy.
  • Shardlake wrote: »
    he looked so different and by that I mean he didn't look like Sean Connery.
    This is because it was all part of Moore's dream from when Bond was Connery.
  • Posts: 1,146
    As mediocre as Connery is in this film, and he and the picture are clearly the worst up to that point, I'd still rather watch this film than any of the super-soft Moore films. The elevator fight is not even in Sean's top five Bond fights, but it's better than any fight in the Moore 'Bond' years.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited January 2015 Posts: 12,480
    This film feels like a lark. It has none of the gravitas, menace, or suspense that Sean's first 3, even 4, films had. Sean is out of shape and doesn't seem to care. Mind you, I adored this film at the theater when it first showed; it is my first Bond film. Everything about it was sparkling, dazzling, fun, fantastic theme song and score, and I wanted to be Jill St. John. Now, I only enjoy parts of it and don't watch it often. The only thing that lasted for me as still being superb is the great theme song and soundtrack.

    I think Connery was just going along for the ride and did not care at this point. So it is not a good performance for me, no. Just ... okay. He seemed to be enjoying himself at times and that was somewhat enjoyable for me. But was it a good Bond film? No. Good Bond performance? No, just meh.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    It was the weakest film yet, and still the second most fun of the 70s, after TSWLM:
  • edited January 2015 Posts: 11,189
    I have to confess last time I rewatched DAF Connery didn't leave much of an impression.

    He just didn't feel like Bond.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I have to confess last time I rewatched DAF Connery didn't leave much of an impression.

    He just didn't feel like Bond.

    I liked him, but then again I only watched him. I had no compulsion to feel him.
  • Posts: 11,189
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I have to confess last time I rewatched DAF Connery didn't leave much of an impression. v

    He just didn't feel like Bond.

    I liked him, but then again I only watched him. I had no compulsion to feel him.

    fair enough, but, as other people have said, he virtually unrecognisable to the character he played in DN.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I have to confess last time I rewatched DAF Connery didn't leave much of an impression. v

    He just didn't feel like Bond.

    I liked him, but then again I only watched him. I had no compulsion to feel him.

    fair enough, but, as other people have said, he virtually unrecognisable to the character he played in DN.

    That is true for all Bond actors with more than two films under their belts.
  • BAIN123 wrote: »
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I have to confess last time I rewatched DAF Connery didn't leave much of an impression. v

    He just didn't feel like Bond.

    I liked him, but then again I only watched him. I had no compulsion to feel him.

    fair enough, but, as other people have said, he virtually unrecognisable to the character he played in DN.
    For all you know, it might not have been Connery, it could have been someone else wearing the rubber mask from FRWL?
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