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The Spy Who Loved Me - Overated?

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  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    It's dropped to #11 for me but I think it will get back into the top 10 on the next viewing.
  • identigraphidentigraph
    Posts: 1,052
    I don' think it is overrated, the action is good, humour is just right and some nice touches of drama between Bond and XXX. The iconic moments that people remember are actually good as well which helps.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    identigraph wrote: »
    I don' think it is overrated, the action is good, humour is just right and some nice touches of drama between Bond and XXX. The iconic moments that people remember are actually good as well which helps.

    Humour is just right? Jaws dropping a rock on his foot, the music as the smashed up van drives away, Jaws catching a bullitt with his teeth....Im sorry but its a tad parody and detracts from an otherwise good film.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    suavejmf wrote: »
    ...the music as the smashed up van drives away,
    I'm sorry, but I absolutely love that bit. It's a tension diffuser after the suspense of the earlier Karnak Temple sequence.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Its too comic for me.....Barry would have never made such a choice.
  • Major_BoothroydMajor_Boothroyd Republic of Isthmus
    Posts: 2,722
    suavejmf wrote: »
    Its too comic for me.....Barry would have never made such a choice.

    Didn't he do exactly that the film before with the slide whistle in MWTGG?

  • vzokvzok
    Posts: 4,044
    Major_Boothroyd wrote: »
    suavejmf wrote: »
    Its too comic for me.....Barry would have never made such a choice.

    Didn't he do exactly that the film before with the slide whistle in MWTGG?

    Now that was overrated.
  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,917
    The day I was supposed to go to the cinema to see TSWLM I got an offer to go to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. They were defending world champs then and was told I could see the movie at a later time.

    Two years later I saw MR and it turned me into the Bond fan I am today and I never saw TSWLM until it premiered on the ABC network in 1980. Although I'd heard a lot of good things about it, it never did live up to it for me and it still hasn't to this day.

    I can't remember who won that ballgame, but I often ponder whether if I'd have gone to see TSWLM that day how it would've changed some of my feelings on it and the series.
  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    vzok wrote: »
    Major_Boothroyd wrote: »
    suavejmf wrote: »
    Its too comic for me.....Barry would have never made such a choice.

    Didn't he do exactly that the film before with the slide whistle in MWTGG?

    Now that was overrated.

    But the car stunt is still brilliant and makes the whole F&tF movie franchises look like CGI fakes.

  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited April 2017 Posts: 23,883
    BT3366 wrote: »
    The day I was supposed to go to the cinema to see TSWLM I got an offer to go to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. They were defending world champs then and was told I could see the movie at a later time.

    Two years later I saw MR and it turned me into the Bond fan I am today and I never saw TSWLM until it premiered on the ABC network in 1980. Although I'd heard a lot of good things about it, it never did live up to it for me and it still hasn't to this day.

    I can't remember who won that ballgame, but I often ponder whether if I'd have gone to see TSWLM that day how it would've changed some of my feelings on it and the series.
    I can understand TSWLM not being as impressive if you watched it after MR. Essentially, they are the same plot, although one is more serious than the other. Jaws won't have the same impact in TSWLM if one is first introduced to him being an ineffective goof in MR (I can't recall him killing anyone in the latter film). His menace is a key element in the earlier film.
    SaintMark wrote: »
    vzok wrote: »
    Major_Boothroyd wrote: »
    suavejmf wrote: »
    Its too comic for me.....Barry would have never made such a choice.

    Didn't he do exactly that the film before with the slide whistle in MWTGG?

    Now that was overrated.

    But the car stunt is still brilliant and makes the whole F&tF movie franchises look like CGI fakes.
    Absolutely. I love that car chase in TMWTGG and don't mind the slide whistle either. Criticism of it is overrated imho.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Major_Boothroyd wrote: »
    suavejmf wrote: »
    Its too comic for me.....Barry would have never made such a choice.

    Didn't he do exactly that the film before with the slide whistle in MWTGG?

    A minor moment that is excusable and amusing.
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 4,043
    SWLM is my favourite Rog film and yes the best Bond film of the 70's, it just missing a Barry score really.

    Possibly the fact it's my very first film I ever saw on the big screen when I was 5 years old and kicked off my love of Bond from a cinematic position, I'd already heard a number of the Barry scores previously.

    I don't really think it was to TLD that Bond got this good again. Yes it's essentially YOLT but Rog really hits his stride here.

    No I'm not the biggest fan of his suave playboy routine version of Bond and much prefer Connery & Craig's take on the character but after feeling rather awkward in LALD & MWTGG trying to get his take on Bond he really arrives from the PTS onwards.

    If you want suave playboy Bond with an ease with one liners, ticking the boxes in all the right ways, I don't think he was ever better, maybe his portrayal in MR is on a par but it all started here and after MR he's starting to look too old and awkward for me.

    If only it had been blessed with a Barry score it might have been higher on my rankings, although it still has one of the best title themes of the series and some great Hamlisch cues, Bond 77 is dated but still a toe tapper and the Tanker theme is great.

    If it had faults and as much as I don't rate MR, Jurgens Stromberg might be replicated by Lonsdale in MR but his Drax is undoubtedly more memorable and charismatic.

    MR also has Barry's sublime score, his best of the 70's Bond era, I just don't find MR has memorable and have always preferred SWLM.

    Yep it's up near the top for me so not overrated in my view, can see why it's Sir Rog's favourite as well.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Bond is chased by a motorbike with a bomb,a car,helicopter,divers and a micro-sub,...Stromberg isnt pissing around,he wants Bond dead...brilliant stuff
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Let them get a shore.....and then kill them.
  • barryt007barryt007
    edited April 2017 Posts: 19,339
    yep....brilliant..while eating the fish food flakes.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,216
    The Spy Who Loved Me is in my top 5 and coming off of coolly received The Man with the Golden Gun was exactly what the franchise needed . It is a lush, fun entertaining film that finds every element, including Moore in top form. Even though I've lamented the absence of Barry, Marvin Hamlish delivers a score that works well for the time period.
    With that said it is possible look back on most of the films and play could have, would have or should have but to answer question, no it is not overrated at all.
  • MooresflaresMooresflares Manchester
    Posts: 14
    Yes
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