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
I had practically not seen a single moving frame of the film before my first watch. During that first viewing, I felt reality was heightened. Took me back to my exciting first viewings of certain Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton films, which was the intention all along.
The new era will make it impossible for me, I'm sure, but if it's a matter of waiting only a year (versus getting marketing for NTTD and having it delayed a couple years due to the pandemic), it might be more manageable. Time will tell. I'll try my hardest this next go around though.
I am very much a fan of the MI series. The stunts are far superior to the Bond films. Jaw dropping is not a term I associate with. Bond films. But I wonder if they are the same kinds of films. Bond has always seemed more character driven. As far as action scenes, the DC films did seem to go for lots of leaping and jumping and motorcycle riding. I hope the next Bond film feels fresh as CR felt.
I'd certainly have used that term to describe a lot of the stunts of the past, up to and even including some of the Brosnan era and even Craig's earlier films (that parkour sequence in CR is genuinely awe-inspiring to me).
I'll have similar hopes as you for the next one. I hope it knocks it out of the park and starts up a whole new conversation with Bond fans and action junkies alike. Hell, I'd even be fine with a more stripped back, spy-oriented, detective-type thriller, maybe with a really good fist fight or a large scale setpiece or two to shake things up, moments that truly wow audiences.
It's a matter of maximizing enjoyment. For me, sometimes that entails staying away from the film while it's not out, and other times it entails getting a feel for it, and getting used to it, before it comes out. Given this is a new era, the latter might be preferable, but as I said, we'll see.
I thought it would be funnier but still worth watching.
And here's the German poster of the movie :
And the duck version :
Rewatching this before seeing the new Flash movie, this animated film is epic one of the best comic book adaptions ever made. The voice cast and score is phenomenal, pulls no punches I forgot how dark this was.
Correct! And the final moments of this film never fail to make me cry.
Likewise my eyes welled up during that scene, even more so than before because of
A runtime nowhere near 3 hrs? Check. Old skool action done for real? Check, Strong female leads? Check and Check.
Impressive, considering this was Michelle Yeoh's first starring role, and Cynthia Rothrock's movie debut. Though I do wish the film more was straight faced, the slapstick humour that bubbles to the surface, makes the film tonally uneven. Removing the goofy guy in glasses, from the final fight, would have made said fight even better. And the use of the Halloween '78 soundtrack, is really distracting here.
Female mullets, Yeoh racking a shotgun with style, and that finale make up for any issues the film may have for me. I had a blast with this one.
Playing Russian Roulette with the Shotgun. She warned him, she did warn him.
I can't speak much for Yeoh, as beside Bond, this is the only other film of hers i've seen. But for Rothrock, of her early HK films, I think Righting Wrongs is her best (at the very least, the serious tone was consistent throughout). Another early Rothrock HK film, Lady Reporter, is getting released on BR later this month (the 26th).
I have seen 10 films so far, and I think it's fair to say that for the most part, her earlier films are better. When she returned to the US, I think directors there struggled to figure out what to do with her. She is one of the most accomplished martial artists, so how come she ended up in low budget b movies, where fight sequences were dreamed up on the page, but then cut dramatically due to budgetary reasons when it came time to film them? Unlike her male counterparts, she didn't really had a golden period in the west. And that's a big shame.
That's not to say that Rothrock didn't make good films in the US, I enjoyed Rage And Honor 2 (judging by her look in this film, she would have made a perfect Black Widow if the MCU had been around at the time*), and at least the first China O'Brien stand out.
* A Black Widow film, with Rothrock in the lead, with a HK crew.... oh my lawd.
Just Visiting: This remake of Les visiteurs is pretty good, almost on par with the original! I don't like the fact Christian Clavier's teeth are clean in this one, but the presence of Christina Applegate and Malcolm McDowell makes up for it. The film feels stylistically quite close to the original-- no surprise, considering the director is the same. It's set in the US but it doesn't quite feel like an American film.
Les couloirs du temps: Les visiteurs II: I started watching this one about two years ago, and I only made it 30 minutes in. It's very rare for me not to finish watching a movie, but this one was too hyper for me. I decided to give it another chance and I had a lot of fun with it. I missed Valérie Lemercier but her replacement, Muriel Robin, was really quite good in the role herself. I loved seeing more of the period setting this time around, especially the scenes with the Inquisition.
Les visiteurs: La révolution: This one didn't get great reviews. I read an article on it which discussed the making of the film and the fact it's got less gags than its predecessors. This is true, and something I missed seeing. I also feel Jean Reno and Christian Clavier are sidelined for too long, and their story is not linked closely enough with the story of the family they're staying with. Sure, the characters are related, but considering their respective goals, our heroes and the family they stay with could almost be separate from each other. Still, the family subplot is pretty cool, with some self-interested, sometimes vapid characters which are used to provide some satirical commentary. Also, Robespierre shows up in one scene, and the guy who plays him, Nicolas Vaude, completely slays it in the role (I believe he had played Robespierre before, on stage). Despite its shortcomings and not enough of a Visiteurs feel, this is a fun watch, but not on the level of the previous films.
Molière (2007): This is breezy fun. A rich merchant brings Molière to his house and has him pretend to be a priest, so that Molière can teach the merchant how to act without raising suspicions. All this so that the merchant can perform a play and seduce an aristocrat. Oh yes, and the merchant is married. As you can probably tell by now, a bunch of romantic shenanigans unfold, which use scenes of Molière's plays, making it seem as if Molière had really experienced some of the situations which he later wrote into his plays. I like how all the characters in this film are humanized to some extent, even while some of them are presented in a shallow, even farcical way at first. This is no more apparent than when the merchant, played by Fabrice Luchini, is in disguise at the aristocrat's house. Oh, and that lady, Laura Morante... bella donna!
Murphy's War: Nothing like the drama and potential tragedy of a man who is determined to climb a metaphorical mountain that leads nowhere. O'Toole is just the man for this role. Nice seeing him with his Night of the Generals co-star Philippe Noiret.
Molière (1978): At 4 hours and 20 minutes, this is the longest film I've seen. Unlike the 2007 film, this one is a fairly straightforward retelling of Molière's life. You know what it reminded me of? Barry Lyndon. In both films, while watching each scene, you're expected to enter a kind of deep contemplative state. Molière is not as successful at this as the Kubrick film, because some scenes run too long, but it still works. Despite the fact Molière is the central character, the first half of the film almost uses his life as an excuse to show us a series of vignettes of 17th century France, which elicit a strong feeling of authenticity. Some are quite fascinating, like when Molière's troupe is traveling across the country, and they run into a starving bunch of people who kill and eat the horses pulling their carriage. The carnival scene is another highlight. It's like watching a river flow. The texture of a river is in constant change and motion, but what you're seeing all the time is fundamentally the same thing. That scene is just like that. It could also be compared with the roller rink scene in Heaven's Gate. The second half of the film is much more closely focused on Molière's life and work. Despite that, the character remains distant. I don't even know if I would say this is a problem. The film seems to be strangely holistic-- it's about him and yet it's not particularly about him. It's about everything and nothing. A memorable film, for sure. It was directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, who funded the Théâtre du Soleil with Philippe Léotard. Actors from that ensemble appear in the movie.
The Thomas Crown Affair: Not much to say here. My man Pierce at his best, with Lady Rene matching him every step of the way. Denis Leary was also fantastic here. Very cool plot and ingenious heists. Oh, and the music is delicious!
Uppdraget: This Swedish movie was aired here in Chile a bunch of times in the 90's. Given it's about a coup d'état in a South American country, I'm sure nobody in this country got to see it in the seventies and eighties. But I watched parts of it in the 90's, and have wanted to see the whole thing since. I thought about importing the DVD from Sweden (the only official way to watch it today, afaik), but that has no Spanish subtitles, and I wanted someone else to watch this. And of course, it's expensive. So I went for plan B, and paid someone I found on the 'net for a digitized VHS copy with Spanish subtitles. A trip back in time to a 4:3 aspect ratio and poor image quality. No complaints from me, though; it was strangely nostalgic (the film probably looked like this on TV anyway) and I was happy to watch it at all. The film, shot mostly in Portugal (quite picturesque, I must say) stars Thomas Hellberg (Swedish), accompanied by Christopher Plummer (Canadian), Carolyn Seymour (British), Fernando Rey (Spanish), Walter Gotell (German) and Per Oscarsson (Swedish). Quite the international cast. It's a bleak and gripping political thriller based on a Per Wahlöö novel. I found the ending scene, consisting mostly of Plummer talking to Hellberg, to be particularly memorable-- there is something fascinating about Plummer discussing his own dehumanization in such a candid, empathetic way with Hellberg. Both actors are terrific in their roles. Despite a relatively low IMDb score, I thought this movie was really good; I'm happy the film was worth the effort to get my hands on it.
I suppose I tend to prefer his Hong Kong works better, but it's been a long while since I last saw Hard Target. I finally saw Face/Off last year, didn't really love it like others seem to.
Surprised to see Sean Connery there too, playing a painter:
---
Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock action flicks-- more stuff for me to watch!
I definitely want to see those Molière films and Uppdraget looks very intriguing as well.
As for The Thomas Crown Affair, it's probably my favourite Pierce film, he's fantastic in it.
You know, I'm thinking David de Keyser (familiar to us Bond fans) dubbed Fernando Rey in Uppdraget. Because that's not Fernando Rey's voice. At least it's not the voice that is heard in those French Connection movies.
Here's the trailer. The voice can be heard at 0:29.
Same voice that dubbed Lino Ventura in The Medusa Touch, right? There's a good scene to hear the voice at 13:35.
And of course, De Keyser was the voice of Draco in OHMSS. And appeared as Blofeld's plastic surgeon in DAF.
The Three Musketeers 1973 4K Restoration.
This is one of my favorite films of all time, the restoration is far superior to the recent Bluray. I had the biggest grin whilst watching this film, its genius, hilarious and nails the serious points when it needs to.
The sequel is even better, which I am going to watch now.