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GF always hits the spot for me and pretty much stays as my number one Bond film. On the exact opposite of that ranking was my most recently watched 007 epic: the legendary DAD. I was in the mood for it the other day and. although I had fun with it- it proudly holds it's place IMO as my least favorite entry in the series. Why? For me it's not the gene therapy plot, the characters, cast, music, writing, direction or any of the above. Most of those elements I really don't mind, but the climax is what does it for me. The inter-cut fight sequences between Jinx/Miranda and Bond/Graves somehow degrade Bond to such a degree I might as well be watching a typical '90's made for cable action yarn instead. The dialogue in those scenes as well just doesn't feel appropriate for Bond: "Read this.....bitch!" compare that to : "Where's Goldfinger?", "Playing his golden harp". I miss the witty dialogue of Richard Maibaum, Tom Mankiewicz, etc.
Interestingly, QoS provided a similar style climax in the hotel with Bond/Greene and Camille/whatshisname. A more solid version of that type of ending, but still lacking a Bondian feel.
Watched that one again recently and nope...in the words of Mark Kermode ..'' ITS A MESS! ''.
The beauty and the Beast.
That, and the rather bizarre and unnecessary decision to make Bond and Blofeld brothers of sorts. Truth be told, I never wanted Blofeld to come back. Mendes acts as if the fanboys will get hard at just the mention of his name, and perhaps some of them did for all I know.
I was invested in Quantam. Needless to say, the retcon pissed me off. Even if they were a proto-SPECTRE, not having the rights to Blofeld forced them to come up with something new. But they just couldn't handle not having something familiar to hand feed their audience, so (borrowing a phrase coined by our wonderful Wizard) blew their load on shoehorning SPECTRE into the proceedings. It's even the lame and uninspired name of the film.
Negativity aside, there some things to praise here. I enjoyed the PTS, meeting in Rome (homages be damned), reunion with Mr. White, and of course the train fight. Interestingly enough, when it did something right, it really knocked it out of the park. Which is what keeps it a step above the worst Bond movies. Sadly, these moments are too few and far in between.
The whole thing felt lazy and uninspired. Mendes ran out of steam and clearly stayed on for one film too many. Now, the future is unclear. As much as I have enjoyed Craig as Bond, I'm conflicted about whether or not he should return. I'm well aware that his possible replacement may not excite me, but I just can't get behind the idea of continuing this stupid Blofeld storyline.
Probably the weakest parts of both films. Pretty much everything else is iconic.
I'm totally with you on Quantum as well. I found them far more compelling and nefarious (as outlined in QoS) than SPECTRE.
To be perfectly honest though this was only 30 minutes (with a fan made gunbarrel thrown in) if it wasn't for the dreadful acting of nearly everyone except Lazenby I might be tempted to put this above a lot of the other weak films... this is going to be a slightly longer review as unless I mistake my guess I am the only bond fan here to not only watch it but review it so is lazenby's return after 20 years all we wanted and more well no... also writing this as I am watching with a few comments here and there
So obviously since the creators can't outright call him James Bond 007 as they don't own the rights to it he simply refferened to as James but like Blofeld in the beginning of For Your eyes only he is so clearly 007 the episode starts of with a vaguely interesting PTS 007 is on a plane and Colonel who is evil points out "even in death you still manage to take me with you" bond says "afraid not Cherrio" and jumps out of the plane (though we don't see that just a plane going down and a voice over) and so far so good. Had this been an actual bond film with the same kind of budget a fist fight with Lazenby's bond on a plane ending with him jumping out would of been a cool pts. Anyways we see a menacing look man chopping wood (seriously does any menacing people knit or fix shoes or something) bond lands in a white tuxedo (because I don't know) and gives the dog outside a treat (Uhm does he always carry dog treats around or..) we get a slightly Humerous Bond James Bond with glass breaking sound effects covering the Bomd because copyright and Bond is given his room key and told the bar is excellent. We meet a lot of other characters here who are so poorly acted and one dimensional that well did any of these actors do well anything? Since no one else will likely see it we have a guy who is in love with his therapist and his therapist who is bland and unattractive we have a nature film guy and some ditzy actress wannabe who wants to be in his films and a creepy Bartender who I swear thought he was in a remake of the Shining and no one told him other wise. Bond gets his orders from M (oh yeah he is in this too no idea who plays him but he is there) that one of us agents is a soviet spy and wants to steal a gold falcon that is important to some made up place and that should the soviets get the falcon the small nation will fall under Soviet rule... which ok I like as a plot has sort of a casino royals vibe (seriously why didn't hitcock presents just do that book) and the M actor (no idea who he is) is better then Edward Fox and is just under Fiennes plus he weird watch gadget that causes his tv to turn into a viewing screen to talk to M is kind of clever it's not exploding pen but still yeah I like it. Anyways we get more info on the other characters the bartender is a peeping Tom the ditzy actress doesn't know left from right (God I wish I was joking) the film guy wants to kill himself cause he can't talk to women the therapist wants to help him I am wondering why I should care about any of this and the plot moves forward.. bond comes down to the bar and has a classic shaken not stirred martini and is wearing a black tuxedo (seriously bond wore other clothes besides tuxedos) and bond flirts a bit with the owner of the hotel and asks her to see if anyone left the falcon in the safe (and we get the first fourth wall break joke where he looks at he camera and says still got it but meh) ditzy actress lady tries coming on to the nature guy (I guess she thinks he does porn) the therapist breaks it up and bond smirks and scenario (and Fleming thought the spy who loved me was bad .. if he could of only lived to see this silliness) well the owner of the hotel is dead and the guy who wants to have his therapist thinks he is the killer. After a riveting conversation about the difference between a scythe and a sycle (I am lieing it is not riviting at all) bond takes charge of the situation. All of them are arguing as to who is the killer bond is trying to play Sherlock now and by god is it bad. Hey bond did an OHMSS reference pointing out about the bob sled and how he is better and action stuff the drawing room sleuth stuff (though bond of he books and film had to solve a few murders you would think this case would be easy enough.) ok so nature guy and therapist hooked up and I still don't care. Ditzy actress is looking around and ok an action sequence of sorts bartender and the woodchopper try to kill the ditzy girl Bond comes in and while the fight is ok it's not amazing that being said Bond (again in a full tuxedo) kills both of them as everyone watches and says two sort of classic lines the Woodchoper he kills by throwing him on a stationary thing and bond quips "I think he got the point" ala thunderball and the bartender he electrocutes and says shocking which got me to laugh. Turns out the bartender owner and woodchopper were all Russian agents and killed the real owner woodchopper and bartender... and onto the final twist the Falcon was in a stuffed bird the courier was the guy everyone thought was the killer (who also is some sort of assasain.) anyways ditzy actress is really a spy (CIA NSA who knows who cares) she killed the assain bond makes another quip about the colonel in the pts says the title of the episode and kills the colonel who pops up again. Overall it wasn't bad it wasn't great it just kind of was well meh. If your a die hard bond fan watch it if you aren't don't simple as that.
1. The Living Daylights
2. Quantum of Solace
3. Licence to Kill
4. From Russia with love
5. For Your Eyes Only
6. The World is Not Enough
7. On her Majesties Secret Service
7. Tomorrow Never Dies
8. Octopussy
9. Live and let die
10. Skyfall
11. Goldeneye
12. Spectre
13. Dr. No
14. Thunderball
15. The Spy Who Loved Me
16. Goldfinger
17. Die Another Day
18. You only live twice
19. The man with the golden gun
20. Diamonds are forever
21. A View to a Kill
22. Moonraker
23. Diamonds Aren't forever
24. Never Say Never Again
25. James Brolin's Octopussy
26. Casino Royale 1954
27. Casino Royale 1967
And yes due to better music Lazenby being more believable then Connery and a much better plot and M it does rank above Never say Never Again.
I might just wrap up my list for 2016 and watch Casino Royale tomorrow
Same here.The Liparus battle even to this day is action movie filmaking of the highest order.Its one of the many highlights of TSWLM.
Also, as impressive as the massive set is, it doesn't get the imagination working quite like the volcano lair. At the end of the day, it's just a day metal room, whereas the volcano lair is cavernous and has real dimension to it. There's the monorail, the seperate set of stair leading to that control room, Blofeld's living Quarters etc.
The sequence on the Liparus is so drawn out, with Bond first escaping and rescuing the men (which he does with considerable ease by the way), THEN the big fight, THEN attempting to break into the protected bit, THEN diffusing the bomb, THEN sending the missiles off course, THEN escaping the Liparus, THEN going to save Anya...
It just keeps going and going, on and on. Sorry, I don't mean to rant, but I really would think more highly of this film if it weren't for the last half hour always spoiling it for me.
I just don't want Mendes back. If they find a new director, I'd be willing to give it a chance. That is, if Craig's heart is still in it, and that would seem to be the case considering his recent comments.
Also, sorry to the SP fans out there for the late night rant, but it was my first time seeing it again in over a year and it brought some strong emotions back up to the surface.
There were many other things I wanted to say, one of them being Craig's performance. He's absolutely terrible with the quips. For all the flack that Dalton receives about his delivery of the one liners, man, does he blow Craig out of the water with them. I guessed I realized this about SF too, but I had my blinders on. SP has really opened up my eyes to SF's weaknesses.
But it's more than just that. It seemed like Craig was trying to give his best Connery impression at times and it just didn't work for me at all. I understand they wanted to bring back some fun a la GF or TB (not all the way to Moore era humor) but it seems very forced coming from Daniel, whereas Sean was just so natural.
I just couldn't get into Spy this time, not that I have ever been one of it's biggest supporters, but I found Bond to be an insufferable prat. While not a fan, I used to think that Moore was good at being charming, but more often than not, he over does it, and comes of as incredibly smug. I haven't noticed it in any other Bond, but everytime there's a pun, Moore has this expression on his face. It's like a 100ft neon sign that says "PUN INCOMMING!". Either that, or he has let one off, and has realised that he needs a change of underwear. The Liparus battle was the highlight of the film. Explosions, machine gun fire, and the disco Bond theme. I think Stromberg is a great villain. He has so much refinement, even as he lounges back dispensing orders. "Let them get ashore, and then kill them."
I also caught Tomorrow Never Dies on tv. It was on, and has always been one of my favourite Bond films, so I couldn't resist. In light of that, I have decided to move Tomorrow Never Dies up a spot, above For Your Eyes Only.
My 1996-2016 20th Anniversary Bondathon
1. The Living Daylights
2. Licence To Kill
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Octopussy
6. The World Is Not Enough
7. Spectre
8. GoldenEye
9. Die Another Day
10. The Spy Who Loved Me
11. Casino Royale
12. A View To A Kill
13. Skyfall
14. Moonraker
15. Quantum Of Solace
There is a special place in hell.
I pushed Hell off of it's Tricycle, and stole it's marbles.
This has always been my view. But I do love the rest of TSWLM and the corny ending.