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:)>-
Heh, I'm older than you, kid.
Nothing, i just replied to the title of the thread :)
Exactly. What's more, what has Godzilla got to do with a thread who's title is 'Last Bond Movie You Watched'?!
The movie's other main flaw is the sudden replacement of Aki by Kissy Suzuki, apparently because Roald Dahl felt it was an immutable fact of the Bond universe that his first girlfriend needs to die. At least seeing Kissy made me think of our dear departed SirHenry.
Its strengths are that it always keeps moving and stays generally on the right side of OTT, which is great for a Bond movie. Tiger Tanaka is great, as are Aki and Helga Brandt, and Donald Pleasence is usually on target as Blofeld, although some of his line readings are overly hammy. The movie also keeps a bit more suspense than TB, which is admittedly a pretty low bar.
All in all, it edges out Thunderball on the rankings so far, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it fall below The Living Daylights and Tomorrow Never Dies when the time comes.
1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr. No
4. You Only Live Twice
5. Thunderball
Good review mate.
Finally got around to watching this one. I remember being a child and absolutely loving this picture. Most fans my age learned of Bond through GoldenEye on the N64. I learned of Bond through the PS1 game, TWINE.
So, for this, this film will always have a soft spot in my heart. I think the biggest issues with TWINE is that it tries to do too much and to cater to too many people and it ends up being a confusing mess. Does it want to be an intelligent, low-key thriller or does it want to be a modern action film? For every good moment, there seems to be an equal bad moment. The score is improved from the previous film but that's not saying much. I do really want to enjoy this one, even more than Tomorrow Never Dies. Unlike Tomorrow, I think that there are large stretches of TWINE that are very good and that makes the weaker parts even more glaring as a result. Apted having his wife rewrite the script probably didn't do the production too many favors.
One of the coolest bits of writing in the series is here, however: had Bond not shot Valentin in the knee years before, he wouldn't have been able to save him from Electra's torture chair.
Ranking (from best to worst):
From Russia With Love
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Casino Royale '06
Dr. No
GoldenEye
Licence To Kill
The Living Daylights
The Spy Who Loved Me
Quantum Of Solace
Octopussy
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
For Your Eyes Only
The World Is Not Enough
Live And Let Die
A View To A Kill
The Man With The Golden Gun
Moonraker
Tomorrow Never Dies
Diamonds Are Forever
Sophie Marceau's performance as Electra is reason enough to elevate TWINE to it's current position in my ranking.
Most of the movie is excellent. Marc-Ange Draco is charismatic and lovable, Telly Savalas does a fine job as Blofeld, the score is phenomenal, the cinematography can be beautiful, the action is great (the glorious escape from Piz Gloria! the glorious attack on Piz Gloria!), the locations are exotic and lovely (hello, Piz Gloria) and Diana Rigg places George Lazenby on her back and carries him to a good romantic plot. The plot is good, although it's probably the second silliest so far ("I have taught you to love chickens".)*
All the same, I have three principal reservations: The first, of course, is Lazenby's acting. While he excels at the action scenes and somehow gives two of the finest performances the series has ever seen when he proposes and when Tracy is murdered, he's generally helpless elsewhere. His attempts at one-liners are just disastrous, and having to replace his voice with Hillary Bray's is a bit off-putting.
Second is some of the directing/shooting choices. Why the hell do they zoom in and out so much? What's with the quick cuts? QoS gets a lot of flak for the shaky cam, but this is just as difficult to follow at points. Again, there are times when it was beautiful, but sometimes it didn't make a lick of sense.
Third, and this will be controversial, the love story is clumsy for much of the movie. The use of the falling in love montage is cheap, although I'm willing to give it a pass because they had a lot on their plate, and Bond running into Tracy again in the village was pure happenstance, although I'm again willing to give them some credit because Tracy found out where Bond was staying from her father and went there directly. Finally, as has been much discussed, Bond goes from the falling in love montage to bed-hopping with the inmates to proposing to Tracy and marrying her without skipping a beat. I'm also still trying to figure out why she was crying after the talk at her father's birthday celebration (I only just figured out what was going on at the hotel, for what it's worth). Still, like I said earlier, Diana Rigg carries Lazenby through much of it, and Lazenby holds his own in some of the most crucial scenes.
There are some other flaws and debatable elements, like the fact that Bond and Blofeld don't seem to recognize each other despite having spent considerable amounts of time around each other. I'm also not sure about Savalasfeld vs. Pleasencefeld. Savalas is much more physical and less hammy, but I don't know why he has an American accent. On the other hand, Pleasence's look is vastly superior, and I enjoy his demented delivery.
Now, I do end up talking about the movies' problems more than the strengths quite often in these reviews, but I guess that's just because there's more to discuss and go back and forth on there than the obvious positives, and I try to take at least a slightly different angle. But again, the movie has plenty of them, and because of that it's one of the most enjoyable in the series. It can go from funny, to action-packed, to genuinely heartbreaking, and only very few Bond movies can boast that accomplishment.
*come to think of it, TB might have the best evil plot of them all: just the right mix of OTT and threatening.
1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia With Love
3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
4. You Only Live Twice
5. Thunderball
Wow, What a conker! Best Brosnan Bond. Great score. Awesome bond girl. The pace never slows and the action is explosive. All in all just a super fun bond adventure.
Not a lot to say. Still really enjoyed it but I can see where those who are critical of the film are coming from. The action is terrific as are the cast, but the plotting could be better.
Regarding Brosnan, for the most part I thought he was pretty good in the film. The intentions and potential are all there, even if is feeling his way into the role at this point.
Brosnan's biggest issue is that the cast around him are REALLY good, where he is just "good". That said I did enjoy him in the role and, as I've said before, actually think I prefer him here to DAD.
Highly entertaining film.
I gleefully made it through my TLD BD and as ever enjoyed the living daylights out of it, and then moved on to LTK and halfway through it my electric oven started an early fireworks show! I turned it off and IT WAS STILL HAPPENING! What would Bond do? Unplug the bloody thing, ya twit. So that ended the shooting sparks, but then came the clean up as I spilled over the coffee maker dragging the oven out to de-energize it. By the time all that was done, I had to call it a night because hey, work in the morning! Drat!
So I'll do LTK in its entirety a little later.
Next tonight: TND. And I'm drooling as I type.
(2+ hrs later...)
Well, TND remains my most FUN Bond, like a more perfect version of YOLT. Brosnan was awesome, and Yeoh was stunning... I'm so tempted to make this #1, but Dalton just rocks too hard for that...
The Bond-Grant confrontation, from the sequence when Grant has Bond at his mercy to the moment when 007 taunts the now dead Grant with the 'old man' line, is one of my favourites in the entire franchise, possibly my number one favourite.
It's as though everything falls into place perfectly with this film. The lone quibble is the theme song, but it doesn't play until the end credits, so I don't even mind it that much!
Yeah, everyone around him seems to be relishing to the utmost the opportunity to be in a Bond picture whereas he's kind of shy in some scenes. Still, I agree that he's good overall in the movie.
I agree completely. He certainly looked better in GE imho, and seemed far more Bond-like to me, but he was very uncertain & was presented as a sort of cardboard character (there was little depth or layering to his characterization, which is what made the Natalya beach scene seem so out of place), and the cast around him, as you correctly note imho, was absolutely OTT marvelous.
In DAD he is far more human and confident in the role, but there are all those Brosnan'isms that come in (emotional displays, accent, silly faces etc etc.) that sort of spoil the experience a little for me in comparison to GE, in addition to the atrociousness of the actual end product.
Not surprisingly perhaps, GE is is the one I'd watch again first if given the chance. I never tire of that film.
I believe the first non-Brosnan outing I watched was LTK on TV, in the summer of 2003. It was a very strange experience, but I vividly remember being sold on this guy (who turned out to be Timothy Dalton as my Bond knowledge increased) when he harpooned a bad guy on Krest's boat, and then water-skiing behind the plane and getting away with the whole load of cash.
Your continued support is much appreciated. Now can someone please tell me why Tracy was crying?!
Man, what a great movie. While it may be low on action, it still manages to keep me entertained all the way through. What i love about Dr No is the mystery plot, bond kinda operates as a detective finding out things as the film moves along and so do we.
From the introduction scene, to Mr Dent being killed, to Honey Ryder coming out of the sea, and last but not least the Dinner scene with Doctor No (which in my opinion is the best scene in the entire movie) it is all so classic and cool stuff.
Also Sean Connery in this movie, man that guy has charm. The way he delivers some of his lines is absolutely amazing. I absolutely love when he tries to put Dent under pressure by asking if the samples was from: "Crab Key perhaps". And when the receptionist at Dr No lair says he's dressed quite suitable and he says: "Suitable for what"?
4 years ago i had Dr No and You only live twice tied for first, but now sadly they have both fell a bit in my ranking especially Yolt which is now #18. Dr No i really want to put in my top 5 now, but i can't just do that based on a really satisfying viewing. But it will at least climb one place to #8 now.
If I could change one thing however, it would be the score.
For me, it's a work in process (inevitably, as the first) and not close to the great scores that Barry would come up with later, so I can't quite be as impressed with it (the music really impacts my enjoyment of films, which is one reason I'm not such a fan of Arnold's Brosnan films or FYEO). Apart from that, it is a perfect introduction to 007.