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
Dalton is my favourite Bond, but I think GE is a slightly stronger film overall.
The Living Daylights
Casino Royale (yes, it’s a masterpiece)
1) A bruised and bloodied Bond, tortured, recovering in hospital. Craig delivered, giving us the perfect combination of Dalton's Flemingesque performance, with Connery's 60's macho swagger and panther-like walk.
2) A film that relied mainly on the Fleming novel written in 1952, and surprisingly didn't deviate that much away from it, even for updating to modern times.
3) Gritty, realistic, violent direction. The last time we saw this was in 1989.
4) John Barry Mk2 - this was where Arnold really hit his stride, giving us the best soundtrack since 1987, and sounding every bit like it was composed and conducted by the maestro himself.
5) YKMN - the best Bond song since 1987's TLD, and one of the very best in the franchise.
For me the franchise ended after 1989, and began again in 2006, delivering exactly what I would expect from a Bond film. That ghastly period in-between didn't really happen. It just felt like a long hiatus between Dalton and Craig.
Unfortunately, I never realised it at that time, but CR was to be a one hit wonder. It would never get better than that again.
OHMSS
TLD
OHMSS
CR
SF
OHMSS which would be the closest isn't perfect. I love CR but masterpiece, I don't think so.
Completely agree @jetsetwilly
For me it was the best Bond film since TLD. I couldn't believe just how right they got it and how bloody good Craig was. It was also a faithful and beautifully updated adaptation of the novel.
Alas, i think it raised the bar so high that nothing will ever get close to it again. Although i hope i'm wrong.
TLD
OHMSS
CR!
Can watch those three on a loop forever!
I was skeptical of Eva Green initially. She wasn't a typically glamorous or well-known choice. She seems a little too hip and her filmography was limited and not known to me. However, I couldn't have had my faith more misplaced. Her casting was really edgy and cool. She has a evocative, urbane, chicness to her. But more importantly, Eva had an air of mystery. Something unknowing and enigmatic about her.......
She has beautiful high cheek-bones, great hair and something slightly forbidden about her.....almost haunting.
I loved that one.
+1
I'd add the three in as runner up's
I love Bond putting on the tux for the first time, checking himself out. As Vesper is amused looking on.
Also the scene after Bond has killed Obanno. The look of what he has become. The world he's entered, a paid assassin.
And finally the end with the introduction. It's a classic line, finally uttered at the end of the movie. Great ending.
I think his entrance to the casino is really cool!
And the shot of him examing the gun in the Aston, much better than a similar shot in SF, just before he follows Patrice!
Yeah, i love that bit in CR when he checks the gun in the Aston. He looks so cool and professional!
Yes I was wondering that too.
Campbell has a penchant for close-ups of things that don't need them. The entire embassy sequence is horrible and looks like something out of MacGyver:
1. The pull back to reveal the embassy sign, coupled with a suddent change in style and tone of Arnold;s music. It's bad.
2. Bond's somersault*, and then Campbell closes in on Bond's face. Followed by...
3. An unnecessary close up of a closed circult camera on a wall. Why?
4. The close-up of Mollaka's face, as he goes to the ground, with a grunbt. Unnecessary.
5. A quick close-up of a gun in the drawer.
6. Another quick close-up: the small metal bust on the desk as the embassy official's head hits it.
7. The close up of the button being pushed and...
8. The close-up of the siren. In fact, Campbell zooms in on this. It's laughable. Why, oh, why? Does he think we don't know that sirens come from speakers such as this one?
9. Inexcusably bad art direction in the scene outside the embassy, with a painted background that doesn't come close to matching what we saw outside the embassy the first time.
10. Another lame close up of a face, this time a coughing guard.
Then there's the Miami Airport sequence, with fewer issues, but it's still a bad action chase sequence, with ill-advised close-ups:
1. The key into the sprinkler system
2. The sprinklers themselves (we need a close-up of this?)
3. The slipping and falling woman, who undercuts M's urgent message about the Skyfleet prototype. I have never been able to figure out why Campbell decided that we needed to see this women fall, hearing her thighs slapping the floor.
4. Then comes the cherry on top: the horrendous pan reveal of the SkyFleet jet, with the hangar doors opening and Arnold's ridiculous bombastic music, as though we're seeing a reveal of King King. It is truly horrible filmmaking, embarrasingly bad.
Add to this: the Ford Fusion commercial shot in the Bahamas and Bond's hilarious "whirl around" at nearly getting hit by a car during the posisoning sequence.
BUT...
Despite al of this, CR is still solid in my Top 4. Overall, Campbell finds his footing when we're in Montenegro. The film is more confidently directed and edited, and Arnold's score is stronger. Notice that most of the images posted from the film are from that latter half.
Just don't ask me to call it a masterpiece. It's not. LOL
* Compare Campbell's direction of the somersault (at the embassy) with Mendes's (at the Rome meeting). Notice how Mendes's subtle camera movement, downward as Bond hits the ground, adds weight to Bond's fall. You can tell which director is a master of his craft.
I appreciate your taking the time to break it down and respect the view. I don't often see Campbell get treated with anything but reverence.
+1
Same here. In a way he reminds me of John Glen and his work on TLD and LTK. Also very workmanlike. No frills, but for a Bond film I don't want anything too arty or pretentious.