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Good work on competing your Bondathon and great reviews too.
SF is getting a lot of flack on here recently but I still love it so it was nice to see someone else appreciate it too.
One of the most enjoyable Bond movies for me- there's a combination of both a very fluid pace and solid plot and character progression that makes FYEO a very satisfying adventure, and it sure is an adventure! The location work of moving from Spain to Italy and Greece makes for a thrilling experience, especially considering the action sequences that anchor each location so well; they are among some of the finest in the entire series, boasting as much flash as they do realistic restraint. Particular notice should go to the car chase in Spain and the raid on Locque's warehouse in Albania- stellar scenes that truly spice up the movie. I've read a lot about Bill Conti's score being sort of dated, but it almost seems like that's the intent. It probably isn't, but whatever- it sounds terrific! The best track is easily the one playing through the ski chase. Talk about making the scene!
Character-wise, FYEO lacks a little bit. Melina is decent, but is missing some life, in my opinion. She has some wooden moments that take her out of the movie, and I've never been particularly drawn to her character. The villains are pitiful in terms of being memorable, but Julian Glover does his best to play up an otherwise insignificant, dull role. I think he's pretty entertaining, especially in the first half when he is trying to convince Bond that Columbo is the enemy. However, the very nature of the Kristatos character itself demands multiple yawns; it's a shame that a brilliant actor like Glover had to be given such a bland role! Kristatos' cohorts are not much better off, though Locque should gain a few points at least for the whole "never hear him speak" thing he's got going on. Kriegler is, obviously, a Red Grant knock-off, and Apostis is no more than a hired gun. Even with all of this lackluster villainy, something works here. FYEO's desire for a more down to Earth approach following MR didn't damage it in the slightest. Yeah, the villains are rather seemingly unimportant, but they don't lose any bit of menace or threat to Bond and his allies. Speaking of allies, I've never understand the hype for Columbo. Sure, he's good-natured and a faithful, loyal-to-the-end ally for 007, but is he that great? He's in maybe four major scenes, one of which was a brief appearance at the casino and not very pivotal to his character. I don't dislike him, but I feel like he's overrated, perhaps.
I highly appreciate the simplistic plot that FYEO thrives on. Such a FRWL feel exists throughout the movie with the ATAC business, and it's interesting to watch as the Russians play through Kristatos and his band of middlemen for such a coveted prize that the British can't afford to lose. Fascinating stuff! FYEO will stand as a tried and true Top Ten favorite of mine.
2014/2015 Winter/Spring Bondathon
1. From Russia with Love
2. Tomorrow Never Dies
3. For Your Eyes Only
4. Diamonds Are Forever
5. The Man with the Golden Gun
6. Thunderball
7. Live and Let Die
8. The Living Daylights
9. The Spy Who Loved Me
10. You Only Live Twice
I've always liked LTK better but with this viewing, TLD/LTK both managed to squeeze their way past a couple more films. I think I rank LTK higher than TLD for a couple of reasons; Dalton's portrayal as Bond in LTK easily trumps his earlier performance, Robert Davi is one of the series' best villains, while I feel that TLD suffers from weaker villains.
Dalton was excellent as Bond. I always point out the scene where Kara drugs Bond and the interrogation scene with Puskin. I also love when Della throws him her garter and Dalton is visibly pained. He really was ahead of his time. I also love both films' scores. I think that Michael Kamen's score is easily the best "one-off" composer score.
Rankings (from best to worst):
From Russia With Love
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Casino Royale '06
Licence To Kill
Dr. No
The Living Daylights
The Spy Who Loved Me
Quantum Of Solace
Octopussy
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
For Your Eyes Only
Live And Let Die
A View To A Kill
Moonraker
The Man With The Golden Gun
Diamonds Are Forever
With the end of LTK, I think I can say that the first "era" of Bond films is now done...with the start of GoldenEye, the series definitely changed (for better or for worse).
I just don't think there is a "clear" winnner out of his performances. They're both good.
As far as Kamen's score, it's the only "one-off" soundtrack composed for the series where I don't ask, "Where's Barry when you need him?" I love the Latin flavor injected into the score, even if it sounds a little too Die Hard. Plus, his recording of the Bond Theme that's used at the end of the film is too awesome.
I do, however, love George's work for LALD. Hell, if I had to rank individual's work on the series:
1. Licence To Kill
2. Live And Let Die
3. Skyfall
4. GoldenEye
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Dr. No
...apart from the original recording of the James Bond Theme, the Dr. No soundtrack is rather bland, even if I like a few of the Jamaican songs that play throughout the film.
Indivdual scores;
Licence To Kill
Live And Let Die
Skyfall
Dr. No - EXCLUDING BARRY'S BOND THEME
For Your Eyes Only
GoldenEye - One word....S***T.
I'll join in:
1. GE (Two words.... not shit) / LALD
3. FYEO
4. SF
5. TSWLM
6. DN
7. LTK
2. LTK- Kamen's worst score (That's like saying Barry's worst (Game Of Death) or Goldsmith's worst (Damnation Alley)- still great).
3. GE- had it's moments.
4. TSWLM- see GE.
5. SF- bland but inoffensive.
6. DN- typical 50's thriller meh.
7. FYEO- you should be daaaaan-sin, yeahehehahh!
1. LALD - brilliant work by Martin
2. TSWLM - I really enjoyed the Egypt stuff & Bond 77. Overall, it hits the spot for me
3. LTK - hated it when I first saw the movie (it followed the legendary TLD) but love it now - really suits the movie
4. SF - agree with @chrisisall - bland but inoffensive, but I'll also add that it has its moments in places and goes with the movie
5. GE - don't mind it at all. Like @ThighsOfXenia, I only don't like the original tank music
6. FYEO - redeemed only by the gunbarrel and 'Submarine'. Rest is very dated, even in the 80's
7. DN - boring
1. Live and Let Die (10)
2. Licence to Kill (17)
3. Skyfall (19-23 in order)
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. For Your Eyes Only
6. GoldenEye
7. Dr. No
My list looks much the same, except I'd probably switch GE with FYEO and maybe TSWLM.
1. For Your Eyes Only
2. The Spy Who Loved Me
3. Live and Let Die
4. Goldeneye
5. Licence to Kill
6. Dr. No (saved by "jump up" and "underneath the mango tree")
7. Skyfall (I find everything utterly bland)
I liked it, Mr Mendes. Glad you brought Mr Newman back for SPECTRE:
Finally some validation.
I do apologise, I did for a moment think that we were just having a little fun with these rankings things. But, oh well, if you feel I need to explain my opinion...
IMO, there is not a memorable track or cue in the entire oeuvre of the Skyfall soundtrack, something that could have been avoided if Newman wasn't so liberal with incorporating Adele's theme song. Skyfall's soundtrack comes dead last in my soundtrack ranking overall, for the simple fact that each track is very samey, very familiar : it does nothing different, something I can't fault other Bond soundtracks for (perhaps apart from a few Arnold soundtracks). At least Dr. No's rather blaring soundtrack and Goldeneye's often derided soundtrack have something of a personality.
I also think that Newman's scoring of the action sequences is also bland and fails to produce any kind of tension, his inexperience scoring such scenes showing (I believe that Newman is not well aquainted with high energy action scenes), which questions his suitability for a Bond film in the first place.
'Bland', 'generic' and 'uninspired' are perhaps the three best words to describe the soundtrack.
I can only hope that Newman brings his A game when scoring SPECTRE (the music during the teaser trailer sounds promising).
1. GoldenEye
2. License to Kill
3. Live and Let Die
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. SkyFall
7. Dr. No
1. Live and Let Die
2. Skyfall
3.GoldenEye
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Dr. No
6. LTK- Certain scenes are ruined for me with a terrible score.
7. FYEO- Stick to Rocky, Bill Conti.
1. LTK
2. GE
3. LALD
4. FYEO
5. TSWLM
6. SF
7. DN
Unlike a lot of people my age, my interest in Bond didn't stem from the release of GoldenEye or the N64 game. The first Bond I watched was Goldfinger. I don't remember much of the experience, other than Connery walking into the nightclub wearing that iconic tuxedo...oddly enough, I became a Bond fan more because of The World Is Not Enough, rather than GoldenEye. I had the PS1 game and had very fond memories of playing it as a child. What I'm getting at is that nostalgia doesn't really play a factor into my thoughts here.
GoldenEye is easily the best of Brosnan's films, especially as it's really the only one of his that has something relevant to say about the character; it's really a film with two plots. On one hand, you have a rogue double-o agent hell bent on Revenge for something Britain had done decades before (I always loved how Brosnan looked at Coltrane and stated that the British betrayal wasn't their "finest hour.") On the other hand, the film asks the question, "Is Bond still relevant in a post-cold war world?"
The supporting cast is excellent; 006, Xenia, Natalia, Ourumov, Valentin, M, Moneypenny and Q are all on top-form. I love how Moneypenny is written here; it's a shame they would immediately revert to how she was written previously in the next few films.
So the negatives?
I discussed how I rather dislike the soundtrack...however, is it just me, or is the Blu-ray audio mixed differently from the Special/Ultimate Edition? The music sounded like it was mixed better than before, although that could possibly just be my surround set up. I may have to do some further testing on this.
I wish the fight between Bond and Xenia lasted slightly longer, if only to make her look even crazier! I love how she grabs the bit of wood from Natalya's hand and immediately head butts her.
I never really cared for the dialogue about the souped-up BMW, especially since we never see it in action. However, the tank chase makes up for that tenfold.
There are probably more but I really cannot fault the film too much - I really enjoyed my viewing last night. Anyways, rating:
From Best to Worst:
- From Russia With Love
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service
- Goldfinger
- Casino Royale '06
- GoldenEye
- Licence To Kill
- Dr. No
- The Living Daylights
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- Quantum Of Solace
- Octopussy
- Thunderball
- You Only Live Twice
- For Your Eyes Only
- Live And Let Die
- A View To A Kill
- Moonraker
- The Man With The Golden Gun
- Diamonds Are Forever
Manages to slip just above Licence To Kill, due to Campbell's slick and modern direction, the interesting set of villains (I really loved Davi as Sanchez! However, the rest of his crew doesn't really stick out too much; Dario is interesting but he doesn't get the screen-time he deserves to make a bigger impact).
Only four films left! It still saddens me that the rest of Brosnan's films never never built upon the success of GoldenEye.
After seeing this film at the bottom of several bond fan's lists on another thread I decided to rewatch it. All I can say is that it does not deserve it position in the bottom 5 club. That's not to say it is a good bond film, (it really isn't) but it's not painful to sit through like some other entries (MR, DAD, TND). It's just a bit naff. Moore is old but was very popular at the time, so the producers didn't think twice about bringing him back. Much of the criticism the film receives seems to focus solely on Moore's age and how it negatively affected the portrayal of the character onscreen (obvious stunt-doubles, unconvincing sex scenes, etc). I think the producers basically made sure they got their star back and then cranked out some Goldfinger rip-off plot (a bit like DAF).
What you end up with is something a bit tired and sagging acting in a not very good film. all the ideas feel very unoriginal and uninspired, the film as a whole feels formulaic. But it's inoffensive and decently watchable.
6/10
Woah! I read that as:
'along with the sheer weirdness of Old Man Roger F******* Grace Jones.'