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Comments
I know it's usually towards the bottom of people's rankings and it was on mine as well. Having not watched it in awhile i gave it a go and I found myself really enjoying it. I did see the comparable aspects of that and skyfall. One thing I never noticed until last night, when Zukovsky shoots the cuff and frees Bond, the idea wasn't to hit him, but it was to miss the rest of him, hence the wink.
Never thought about this until now!
BB doesn't feature a lot on the CR commentary. She does gush a lot and does just says how great everything is. But she still is very entertaining to listen to. I thought she was much better on the SF commentary with MGW and Dennis Gasser. It would be more interesting sometimes to hear how difficult certain aspects of the production were and how decisions are made from a producing stand point.
Well now that I am a little bit older, it was something that had dawned on me because I watched GE a few weeks back and when that scene in TWINE unravelled, it had struck me. Everytime I had watched TWINE, I just took it as Zukovsky freeing Bond so he can save the world.
Hold on, I just noticed your name! SF reference?
Yes and being a Florida Panthers fan, we throw rats on the ice when we win.
Octopussy is a decent film, and like many of the Roger Moore films it has a bit of good (Bomb disarming scene, Sotheby's scene etc), and a bit of bad (George of the Jungle, Hot Air Ballon etc). The theme song itself is one of the weakest in the series, but Barry's score makes excellent use of it.
I appreciated how confidently the film seems to handle itself. There just seems to be an unexplainable sparkle to the film, I can't really place it.
Kamal Khan might be the most underrated villain of the series. Louis Jourdan is actually great in the role and perfectly portrays a sniveling, weasel type of villain who is in love with his own evil and happy to let the muscle (Gobinda) do all the work. Dominic Greene could also fall into this category, but he is far substandard.
I continue to have mixed feelings about Octopussy as a whole, but I think it is a solid piece of Bond yarn at the end of the day. It sits in the middle of the pack for me.
And Tarzan, indeed, good catch.
I don't see why this one gets so much hate among fans. It's not the greatest by any means but it's still one of Moore's better outings. Although I will say that Goodnight is probably one of the worst Bond girls.
Tomorrow is my favorite Moore movie TSWLM. I hope I still love it as much as I did the last time I watched it.
Favorite Bond movie (not necessarily the best) since I was a kid. Bond running all around the planet to get after Koskov and Whitaker. Unique villains in that they are just trying to get laid and paid - as opposed to the take over the world/get revenge sadistic type villains. Dalton will certainly be the best actor to play the role for a long time. Sells disappointment and frustration particularly well. Along with FYEO, the movie I could play over and over (not too much drama but not boring either).
Room 1:
CR
SF
OP
Room 2:
GE
DAD
TLD
Room 3:
FRWL
GF
OHMSS
It was spectacular and I'm going to do this again for Halloween.
Decent enough opener for Dalton but didn't enjoy it as much as I should have.
Close in execution.
Something about it struck me oddly this time around. I never realized how bad in places it really was. Yeah I know about ice surfing CGI etc etc etc but Brosnan seemed off to me this time around. It didn't seem like he was enjoying the film at all and he didn't seem as cool as his first three films. I know that people say that he's strong and comfortable this time around and he is one of the saving graces of the film, but just something about it this time around rubbed me the wrong way.
Lucky crowd in room #3.
It was still a triumph, a success on nearly every level, and an entry to which all fans of the series are permanently indebted. As a rollicking adventure, as an action-packed thriller, as an examination of Bond's character and role in the world, and as the rescuer of a series in trouble, it passes with flying colors.
The movie starts off strong, with one of the best stunts in series history, perhaps second only to the Asgaard jump in its breathtaking nature; no one watching either the Asgaard jump or the bungee of the front of the dam could fail to recognize it as James Bond, through and through. The rest of the PTS is a strong little action movie recounting Bond and Trevelyan's mission to destroy a Russian base and the (apparent) death of 006. Bond catching up to the plane is a bit too far, but it can be forgiven with how great the rest of the mini-movie is.
The film then slowly establishes Bond's mission, taking time to set up all the strands individually. This is perhaps GoldenEye's greatest strength: every character gets a moment in the sun to establish who they are and why they're around, rather than simply serving as appendages to Bond's mission. We see this most with Natalya, who has her own arc starting at Severnaya and only crossing paths with Bond halfway through, but everyone from Tanner to Mishkin is fleshed out, at least a little.
Bond himself gets the brunt of the examination, given that its his movie, most famously from Judi Dench, who is excellent as M, and Trevelyan, who's perfect as Bond's evil twin, so to speak. We explore both his relationship to his job and his relationship to the 1990's. Is he just another killer? How much does he regret the death of his wife and his other allies/lovers over the years? How can any man cope with all the death, state-sanctioned or otherwise? Is he hopelessly out of touch now that the Cold War is over? What about the new wave of political correctness? Has the world left him behind?
The movie leaves the first set questions unanswered, although it does suggest that Bond isn't happy with the life he leads. It answers the second set of questions with a resounding no, showing that Bond is still relevant (and cool) as long as there's danger in the world. One could make a pretty good case that there's a contradiction between how cool the movie makes Bond's life seem at times (He drives a tank! Around St. Petersburg!) and the associated misery, but this is a problem with the fundamental structure of Bond more than GE in particular.
Apart from all this analysis, GE is a great Bond film by all the classic metrics. The plot is the right mix of silly and devious, Sean Bean can match Bond in both brawn and brain (an evil 00 as the villain was truly a stroke of genius), and the henchmen and Bond girl are well-written. The stunt work is great, as the bungee jump and the tank chase will attest, as will the fight between Bond and Trevelyan at the climax.
Finally, we turn to Pierce Brosnan's debut as Bond. He's great for the role, able to balance between the many different elements required to play our favorite super-spy. His quips are well-delivered; his suits are always well-tailored, and his fights are believable. At times, he does overact, but I think this is actually less of a problem for him than Dalton.
GoldenEye does have its flaws, though. Sometimes, the jokes fall flat, and there are times when the movie fails to follow through on its questioning of Bond. The series would perfect the model of GoldenEye in time for the Craig films, but we'll cover those in a few weeks. GoldenEye acquits itself exceptionally well and deserves all the praise it's gotten over the past twenty years.
1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia With Love
3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
4. GoldenEye (first top-tier movie in almost twenty years)
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. Dr. No
7. Licence to Kill
8. For Your Eyes Only
9. The Living Daylights
10. You Only Live Twice
11. Thunderball
12. Octopussy
13. Live and Let Die
14. Diamonds are Forever
15. A View to a Kill
16. The Man with the Golden Gun
17. Moonraker
A review for keeping. Thank you so much for this detailed, objective and fair article.
Sometimes people forget that there are 20 years between GE and SP.
The production values were so much higher from CR on and the budget as well, therefore the Craig era seems to have "better" movies.
OMG that sounds amazing!! Let me save up some money so I can visit for the next tri-room Bondfest in 2016, if I can beg an invite, of course...
Happy Birthday, btw!