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Speaking of bottled up grudge; were you by any means the russian guy Brosnan knocked down in that toilet? ;)
Er...njet.
He's now owed Moore that delicatessen for 34 years.
Only Moore I think. Still a hilarious line given the whispered delivery and the context. Connery perhaps could have if he had deadpanned it.
AVTAK. I now don't believe Moore was the problem. Maybe I am getting older but he didn't seem to look too bad, my issue was the way Bond was written. In the first half, especially during the sequence at the Zorin estates, Bond seems completely helpless, and this is the only time in the franchise I was genuinely scared for Bond. Him and Tibbet were totally alone on the field, no backup. Not that I prefer superhero Bond, but I like to feel that Bond is on the top of his game. The 2nd half in LA is better, although it was annoying to see Bond back again in the states. I also thought Sutton was far less annoying than Jinx and Christmas.
TLD I had seen recently, it remains unchanged. Dalton is a legend and was a welcomed breathe of fresh air after 7 Moore films (and I do love Rog as Bond). Only problem would be the lack of charismatic villains. And IMO for me the film stays strong in the 2nd half, including the Afghanistan sequence, thanks to an epic soundtrack by Barry and mesmerising acting by Dalton.
LTK is now my favorite of the Dalton outings. It is pure late 80's, it is pure Miami Vice, but I love it. Dalton is pure badass in this, even with his Dracula hair. The end sequence with the trucks is very impressive. Davi was great as Sanchez, a very charismatic villain. I am always struck by how smart Bond is in this one, being able to turn Sanchez against his own people. A big shame this was the last Dalton flick, he would have hit his stride with a 3rd outing.
I won't go over GE again, as I have seen it recently before today. The first Bond film I ever watched, so it will always have a special place in my heart. But it is becoming more and more apparent to me that Brosnan was not fully in character with his first outing like the other Bond's. Mind you, I still love Brozza but I think he hit his marks at the end of the tenure.
TND: Very good film, and I dare say I was more entertained by this one then GE tonight. Brosnan looks more mature, confident in the role, plenty of bad-ass action, cool soundtrack by Arnold although he plays the Bond theme way too much. Only bad points for me was Eliott Carver, who is kind of bland, and Paris, who was annoying. Rest of the film is pure epicness, and it was a modern take on the OTT Bond of YOLT and TSWLM, and I really like this kind of Bond film :)
These 2 films get a lot of complaints on the Bond community. Well I must say I enjoyed them both!
TWINE is a film I just love. It may look bland and Brosnan may over-act in it, but there's just something I really like about this outing. Brosnan looks the most Bondian, the sountrack is superb, I am still shocked to see the scene where MI6 got bombed, wondering what would happen next, the boat chase on the Thames is thrilling. Also, it features the saddest scene in the franchise - Desmond's farewell. Marceau is very beautiful and compensates for Denise Richards. I prefer GE and TND to it, but it's still a very pleasant outing for me. It was the start of the melodrama in the franchise, but it was bound to happen that after almost 40 years EON would add more substance to the films. And after watching Dench in other non-Bond film, I appreciate her more now.
DAD is just plain silly, but boy is it entertaining. The first half is absolutly brilliant, very old-school Bond with Brozza visibly enjoying himself. Jinx is annoying but I liked her better this time 'round. The 2nd half is completly bonkers but it moves at 300km/h and doesn't give you time to breath or to realise the OTT stuff you've just seen, so maybe that's why it works for me. The soundrack is also awesome, Arnold really must have had a lot of fun scoring this film. Contrary to many, I enjoy Stephens as Graves, he hams it up so much he becomes fun and hilarious. It wasn't the best send-off to Brosnan or the original timeline, but I still can turn off my brain completely and enjoy the thrill ride.
CR is brilliant as always, Craig is just pure badass and fully in character straight from the first scene. The film is beautiful to look at, Mikkelsen is a sinister villain, the first hour really flies by, and the scenes in the casino are just wonderful. Just the end battle in Venise doesn't fit with the rest of the film but it's easily forgiven given the 2 hours of film that came before.
QOS keeps improving for me, and I'd rank it pretty close to CR. Craig gives an excellent performance, Arnold's best soundtrack is this one, the film looks very expensive when you look at the lush locations. I never minded the action scenes, I think they really fit with the mood of a 'faster-than-a-bullet' running time. Greene is not my favorite villain but there's somehing about him that males me rank him above several other villains. Everytime I watch his film, I like it much more. The sequence is Bregenz is simply breathtaking.
With SF, I never manage to replicate the excitement of leaving the cinema in October 2012. The film is very good, but there's just something about it that makes it seem less exciting after each rewatch. Craig is great, more relaxed, but I prefered the more rugged approach of CR and QOS. I also didn't like the fight scenes in this one, which were nowhere near to the level of the 2 previous outings. The soundtrack is also quite good, but there is something missing about it. I hope Newman improves for SPECTRE. M does get annoying at the end, and even if I liked her in GE-QOS, I was happy she got disposed of in this one.
The feeling of the time Fleming was writing about. =D>
Ditto!
CR, QOS, DN, FRWL, GF, LALD, TB, YOLT, DAF, TMWTGG, OHMSS, FYEO, TSWLM, MR, OP, AVTAK, TLD, LTK, GE, TND, TWINE, DAD, SF.
The Bond series hasn't ever really been big on continuity. Especially now that the new Bond films are supposed to be in a different timeline, etc. I understand and appreciate what they are doing. This is just an experiment...let's try to get them to connect as much as possible.
Disregarding the obvious time period changes, watching them so far in this order has been a joy. Watching Bond become a 00, only to be betrayed. Bond definitely learned his most important lesson: "Trust no one." The next film has to be QOS for obvious reasons. Not only is it a follow up to Casino Royale, it completes the Bond/Vesper arc perfectly. Now this is where I started changing stuff up...
I originally wanted to put Skyfall here because the ending would set up Dr. No so perfectly. However, in the light of this being the newest film (and I would rather wait to have Dench's arc completed until after her other pictures), I put it at the end. Plus, if viewed after Goldfinger, we can do away with the DB5 error! ;) However, this creates an error with Moneypenny as she hasn't been introduced yet...the marvel at the Bond series' continuity haha.
Dr. No was next. Connery has always been my favorite Bond. His first three films make him untouchable. I watched a Terrance Young interview not long ago and he said the three ingredients that made Dr. No a success was "Sean Connery, Sean Connery and Sean Connery..." Watching the films in this order, I began making mind notes of back stories and such.
For example, Honey asks Bond if he has a woman of his own and Bond pauses. I connected that to Vesper for whatever reason.
Anyways, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger which you have to watch them in this order for continuity sake. Dr. No is referenced in From Russia With Love and From Russia With Love is referenced in Goldfinger. From Russia With Love is my favorite Bond film. Hands down. Everything is perfect.
Goldfinger was always a great Bond film in my opinion. However, this time, everything was just so perfect. The reason Goldfinger works as a film so well is because the film premise is crazy but it's played with a straight face the entire time. Guy Hamilton crafted his best Bond film here.
Next one in line was Live and Let Die. Why this one next? I put this one here for one reason. I always felt the Rosie Carver/Mrs. Bond angle was distasteful after OHMSS, as it's clear any other time in the series that the mention of a loved one makes Bond visibly hurt. Therefore, it happens before he meets Tracy! Guy Hamilton is back again in what I consider his second best Bond. I only wished that he had Peter Hunt behind him editing again. The series really did lose something special after Hunt's editing techniques left the series in '69.
As far as my rankings go so far:
1. From Russia With Love
2. Goldfinger
3. Casino Royale '06
4. Dr. No
5. Quantum of Solace
6. Live and Let Die
SF has a lot of themes suggesting countless missions and I think going in with the assumption that Bond has completed the missions of the films helps to justify that.
As I said above, I actually took a moment to sit down and try to fit them all in chronologically into one timeline, especially with Skyfall blending the lines between reboot and pre-reboot even more.
Watching CR and QOS before Dr. No was actually really interesting. By the end of Quantum of Solace, it really does appear that Bond is the more complete article that appears in Dr. No.
Similarly, the second transition from Goldfinger to Live and Let Die was actually really seamless, despite the actor change. You have Guy Hamilton behind the camera injecting the same bizarre elements into the Bond formula (the old lady with the machine gun in Goldfinger and Baron Samedi and the voodoo elements in Live and Let Die).
Although it contains possibly the least action in the series, FRWL is still able to hold my interest from start to finish. Its strength rests in its dialogue scenes, which are never wasted; most all of them propel the plot forward in such a captivating way that you don't seem to remember how much action you aren't getting to see. Besides, the true payoff comes in the last thirty minutes or so- beginning with Bond's tussle on the train with Red Grant, the remainder of the movie shoots along at a lightning-quick pace. I was watching it in my dorm room last night while one of my buddies was playing a game on the Playstation, and once I had finished it, he turned to me and goes, "Is it already over?" I thought to myself, wow, that really did fly by! I suppose even without much action to its name, FRWL still succeeds in being tremendously entertaining. Given its colorful characters and quote-worthy dialogue, all interwoven into a simplistic yet rich plot, it would be hard not to be entertained! After several years of watching Bond movies, it still remains a definite favorite of mine.
2014/2015 Winter Bondathon
1. From Russia with Love
2. Tomorrow Never Dies
3. Thunderball
4. You Only Live Twice
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
But QOS is literally a darker film, as Bond spends half the run time covered head to toe in dirt. No wonder he's always brooding.