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To be honest I much prefer YOLT in terms of a spectacle driven adventure.
The biggest issue I have with MR like I said before is that it just feels like its aimed mainly at 10 year olds.
YOLT & TND are my favourite 'spectacle' Bonds.
The cinematography and score say otherwise.
- I love the theme song. Very 80's, very catchy, and now I can look forward to singing the chorus over and over and over again for the rest of the night. I like the main titles, too, but I don't think I particularly care for Easton appearing in them. I'm happy this was the first and only time to have happened.
- After the ship is destroyed, we cut to the exact same shot of Moscow they used in TSWLM.
- The beautiful Melina, and the tragic death of her parents. And so it begins.
- Maxwell as MP ages very well. Still beautiful after all of these years.
- I like the appearance of the title of the film in the movie. Nicely done.
- Not too crazy about the score so far, but we'll see how it goes from here.
- As bond infiltrates Hector's place in attire fit for a grandfather taking his kids to the mall on a Saturday morning, a miscellaneous guard attacks him from the tree. Why is this guy dressed in a suit and hiding in a tree?
- Melina drops Hector with a well-placed crossbow shot and immediately satisfies her revenge. I love it. I also like Bond's subsequent sprint through the woods as AK shots plaster the trees and brush.
- I COMPLETELY forgot about the Lotus' self-destruct system. Watching it detonate and send the guard flying back is fantastic. Thankfully an enemy found it and not a few juvenile delinquents...though that would've been even more satisfying.
- Nice to see James Bond getting a little assistance from the locals.
- Of course, Moore with another playful, sarcastic nod to the men in the car next to him. This is why I love him as 007.
- Digging the chase scene so far, but could do without the score, that's for sure. Is Moore's "I love a drive in the country, don't you?" line ad-libbed? Melina's laugh seems incredibly genuine and his delivery sounds like it was off the cuff.
- Of course, we need a little cheese to bring down the excitement of the car chase: let's have their car land in the tree with perfection. Ugh.
- We're meant to believe that 007 and Q have been using the Identigraph for at least an hour or so, but they knock out the most key details in just a minute or two. Doesn't make sense to me.
- Bond makes quick work of the foes on the motorcycles. Quick and deadly.
- I do like the theme song playing in the background as James and Melina speak about what to do next.
- Moore doesn't even have to do anything anymore, he makes such an impression on the women that they go out of their way to find his hotel room, shower, climb into bed (nude), and let him have at it.
- I love the battle in the woods, the spy vs. the assassin. Of course, Bond loses his gun, and now one ski pole. He makes up for it with a badass 360 jump that disarms one of the bad guys.
- Bond and Locque's man go down the ski jump together, score gets, and they fall in near silence. I really like when the films do this. It's a shame after he starts his escape that this 80's cartoon music kicks in. Yet another score I'm not a fan of.
- When Bond jumps and lands on the table, why is the sound reminiscent of a gunshot? Seems so out of place.
- I also love 007's jump he does as the gunman fires at him, right before he goes on the bobsled track. I'll admit, the whole chase scene on the track is very well done and impressive.
- Anyone else find 007 and Bibi on screen to be a bit creepy given his age that's now starting to show?
- Bond thwacks the hell out of the goalie with that stick. Can't imagine how much that hurt. Time to make a quick getaway on the zamboni!
- I love James' outfit when he meets Melina on the dock. So classy.
- Pierce Brosnan's wife being introduced in the same type of game that Brosnan's Bond first plays with Xenia Onatopp.
- Intense dinner scene. Columbo knows how to talk to a woman! ;-)
- Really upsetting when Lisl dies. You can hear the worry and despair in her voice when the dune buggies first hit the beach. Sad.
- Bond and Columbo finally meet. One of my favorite allies.
- Here it is, the warehouse scene. One of my favorite scenes in the entire film.
- I love the awkwardly cut editing of Bond smashing that guy's face in as he flies off the boat. Now we have Locque playing the role of The Terminator momentarily as he dual-wields assault rifles.
- The warehouse goes absolutely silent. So intense. Locque destroys the warehouse and Bond takes chase. Here comes one of my absolute favorite kills and scenes in Bond history. It's so quiet as Bond patters up the steps panting. He takes great aim, and...POW, right in the shoulder. Here's Bond at one of his more brutal moments. James kicks his worthless ass off the cliff, and you even see his body flop out of the car at the bottom. So fantastic!
- Now we instantly cut to some beautiful looking underwater scenes as the theme song plays. Absolutely gorgeous work.
- Cue spacey Halloween-esque Bond theme as James and Melina dive underwater in the Neptune.
- "Speak only when necessary." - Bond to Melina underwater
- *Bond sees shark* "I hope he was dining alone."
- Great work, Bond! Very key, pertinent information.
- Also, if you're supposed to be conserving oxygen, why are you reading the instructions aloud when you're doing all the work? I don't understand.
- Now that that's out of the way, the fight between Bond and the massive diving suit is intense indeed. I love the "Shit!" he yells out just before his suit detonates.
- Time for another great scene in the movie where 007 and Melina are thrown in the water.
- I like how the sharks absolutely ignore the blood-ridden Bond, yet attack Kristato's man who instantly falls in the water.
- Max saves the day. Well done. And now, the finale begins, one of my favorites in the series.
- Bond's climbing up the rock face. Can't imagine how scary and nerve-racking that must feel. Makes it to the top just to be kicked back down. That fall...whew.
- Apostis is DOWN! Bond turned him into a pancake real fast.
- Melina knocks out the second foe and they tie him up quickly. I love how stealthy the entire finale attempts to be, makes it even more fierce for me.
- I'm also a huge fan of the fight between Bond and the guard when they dive through the stained glass together. Now Bond is stuck with an even bigger foe, Mr. Kriegler himself. Too bad he didn't pay attention and Bond speared his ass off the cliff.
- Nothing more entertaining than watching two old friends kick one another's ass. Columbo gives him the Raoul Silva treatment: throwing knife right to the back.
- I could do without the cheesy sound effects when the ATAC smashes into the rock.
- Bond finally gets to tumble in the sheets with Melina. I think this is the least amount of sex Moore's Bond has gotten in a film so far, or at least it seems that way.
- PM Thatcher wants some Bond loving. And so the film ends.
This is definitely one of my favorite Bond films, and just might be my favorite of Moore's thus far.
Of course. And sometimes I don't even have to imagine it; it actually happens. That's when you know the best Bond films, because they're the ones that make you think for a second that the villain may be victorious.
He got away and also had Tracy killed.
Nah… not really. His grand plan was jeopardized, his laboratory destroyed and he himself was left physically injured. Killing Tracy was more of a sweet revenge than anything. And given that Bond was most likely the target, even that could be viewed as a failure too...
In Casino Royale Bond realizes he has not only been played like a fiddle by a woman he fell for, but he also lost the money he won in that card game, which no doubt helped to fund a lot of Quantum's operations after the film ended.
And of course Skyfall can be interpreted as a villain's victory. What I love about that film is that it made me realize there's no such thing as winning or losing sometimes, because both Silva and Bond had lost so much by the end of it that the only victory for either of them would have been a pyrrhic one. Bond made it out alive, sure, but look at all he lost.
So yes, I think there have definitely been films where Bond has been left so empty and beaten that he doesn't "win."
I've always thought that TSWLM was probably the best example of a real Bond adventure with all the proper elements in place- there's a whole classic feel to it, and it makes for quite an enjoyable ride. I really don't have any serious complaints about this one, which should signal to me that I need to rank it fairly high.
I suppose the only negative things worth mentioning would be some instances in the soundtrack and Barbara Bach's lame performance. As for the soundtrack, it can occasionally get on your nerves more than it needs to, such as when Anya and Bond travel to Atlantis in Naomi's boat, during the Lotus chase when Naomi's helicopter is shooting up the road, or during the night-time pyramids show. Instances like these detract from the movie, but on the plus side, there are some truly great tracks, such as Bond '77. In regard to Barbara Bach's performance, well, she's wooden and dull, and frankly, is not any bit enjoyable.
Other than those two things, I really can't hit TSWLM with anything else- it's too good! The only thing that would keep it from topping the majority of my rankings would be the fact that it's never had any level of nostalgia for me; it doesn't have that feeling of being "my Bond movie". Still though, I thoroughly enjoy it for what it is!
Spring 2014 Bondathon Ranking
1. GoldenEye
2. License to Kill
3. A View to a Kill
4. SkyFall
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. The Man with the Golden Gun
7. The Spy Who Loved Me
8. The World is not Enough
9. Dr. No
10. You Only Live Twice
11. Thunderball
12. The Living Daylights
13. Live and Let Die
14. Die Another Day
15. Moonraker
16. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
But unlike the vast majority of primary villains, Bond always emerges alive (no small thing, I daresay), and the villain's plot is thwarted. Those are the chief indices of victory in Bond films. The fact that his victories often come at a terrible cost doesn't turn them into losses or draws.
Well of course Bond survives at the end; the films wouldn't go on if that weren't the case. However, to limit the definition of a victory as being a hero that simply outlives their enemy and thwarts their aims is somewhat erroneous. You are only looking at the failings of the villain and not the tragedy that can fall to our heroes once that villain has failed. The entire definition of a pyrrhic victory is exactly that; the hero survives but the costs that have befallen them while taking out their adversary are so great that it doesn't even feel like a victory, and shouldn't even be defined as such. In light of that a victory of the pyrrhic nature can and does at times made a hero's triumph null and void if they lose things that mean the most to them during the course of the final act, like Bond losing M in Skyfall or the briefcase and his lover in Casino Royale.
Apart from a hectic opening 20 minutes or so, yet again I really enjoyed this movie. Marc Forster gives us a sombre, subtle look into Bond life. This, is for my money at least, the best looking Bond film. The colours are so sharp, and Forster and Roberto Schaefer use great colour palettes; crisp white and black in Bregenz, or the blue of the sky and arid, bleak deserts. Kudos to Dennis Gassner as well.
The editing and the performance of Joaquín Cosio are only the downsides to QoS. (And the CGI parachute of course...) What is it with Forster and his obsession with the four elements, basing the four major action set pieces around fire, earth, water and air? The film does an acceptable job with the action, sans editing, but I was interested in the quieter, character driven pieces of dialogue. Shame we didn't get more of them.
As to SF and CR, Bond strikes me as quite satisfied as he says "With pleasure, M. With pleasure." and "Bond. James Bond." It is Bond triumphant not downtrodden.
Oh, you're right. I must have just imagined that film called QoS where he's a complete emotional wreck over Vesper the entire film.
I missed it, too.
What a fantastic Bond film, one of Roger's best. I think my only two complaints are that horrid, horrid Tarzan yell as Bond vine-swings while running from Kamal, and the entire circus team infiltration at the end. I wish they could've incorporated a much better pre-ending to the film, I guess you could say, as it's a damn shame it goes from one suspenseful bomb defusal scene to this. The girls, the hot air balloon entry, the fact that they enter at night and minutes later it's the middle of the day. No matter, it doesn't tarnish the movie that much, and Bond makes up for it with the cool railing-slide shoot-out scene and the entire airplane scene is awesome, sans incredibly obvious stunt double.
Having said all of that, this is most certainly one of my favorites.
Usually after I do this for a film, I watch another after, but I don't have the patience to write up my thoughts on every slight detail, so now I'll do it for Moore's last outing:
- There is no way anyone else would agree with me, but 'California Girls' playing as 007 switches from skiing to snowboarding? I love it. It's goofy, but hell, I love it.
- After Bond makes it to the other side, the score kicks in as he is peppered from the helicopter, and I love that as well. Bond: 1, Flare-Ridden Helicopter: 0.
- I'll leave this thought here: Moore is about 57 years old here, but (at least this scene, anyway) he really doesn't look as old as I remembered. I think this was a good stopping part, and one more would've been way too much. However, in the scene in M's office, you can see it in his cheeks and chin.
- Now, cue Duran Duran. So catchy. The title work is great, too, I love it.
- It's a shame I'm shitting on this catchy song by singing over it in a very loud, awkwardly blurted out tone. Oh well, it's too good to stop.
- The thought of Bond completely ignoring Q's memos is hilarious. You know that Bond couldn't care less and it seriously chaps Q's ass.
- The score in M's office while they speak about Zorin is ominous and, I feel, unnecessary. Seems out of place.
- Zorin Christopher Walken. I can't hate the man, he's just one fantastic actor. Then it pans to May Day, and I laugh really hard because I thought Bond said "WHAT'S that with him under the hat?" Would've been spot-on. Hideous woman, but I love her as a villain-turned-ally.
- I don't care for the whole butterfly bit, but the ensuing chase is entertaining. I love the score blaring as May Day dives off the Eiffel Tower.
- Damn, that jump onto the bus is fantastic. What sucks, though, is that there have been five instances in this scene alone where the stunt double is incredibly obvious, and I know there are more to come. Shame they couldn't have made it a little more hidden. What's even funnier is that every time one is shown, his hair is all over the place, then it cuts back to Moore whose hair is in perfect, laid-down condition.
- May Day's outrageous laugh to Zorin is awkwardly unnecessary.
- I love all of the chateau/quarters scenes, and Bond's dialogue with Flex is hilarious as usual. Moore's last outing and he still hasn't lost it. I also enjoy watching Bond milk Tibbett's role as the chauffeur.
- Bond takes a page out of Kananga's book and plays a pre-recorded tape for those listening in via the bug. Great work.
- James doing a little quick detective work.
- "Dr. Carl Mortner, perhaps you've seen me when you played Monopoly."
- Tibbett has been caught and he's...nope, it's just Bond, who has already found what Tibbett probably never could. Now, let's find out just what Zorin is up to when it comes to the horses.
- Tibbett gets laid out and Bond is left with fighting Rob Reiner's doppelgänger. The fight is okay, could've done without the overly loud punching sound effects.
- May Day in a leotard. Could've gone the rest of my life without seeing that.
- 007 must be desperate to have an assuredly sweaty May Day ride him for the night. Poor Bond.
- "A little restless, but I got off eventually." Classic.
- Zorin can only scoff and chuckle at the idea that Bond is extremely dangerous. If he only knew.
- Ahh, poor Tibbett. I hate that he dies.
- I like the horse scene, Bond manages to control Inferno pretty well despite the odds.
- Zorin's figured out Bond's mission and has him pissed for the death of Tibbett. Very heated. Now comes the dumping of the evidence, I love this scene, as well.
- Dolph Lundgren's looking young and sharp.
- If you take away nothing from the Bond films - ever - just know that in Bond's world, if all businessmen are hell bent on destroying the world.
- "Project Main...Strike!" Zorin's so impressed with himself.
- I LOVE the little trap set to shove someone out of the blimp. Amazing stuff.
- Bond doing a little more investigating, underwater this time.
- Zorin's so close to killing Bond while he's in the pipe and he has no idea.
- The death of the man with Bond is incredibly gory, I'm surprised. However, after they've caught and killed him, what makes them think he wasn't alone? Do they just do it to double check, or do they surmise that Bond had to be with him?
- "The bubbles tickle my...Tchaikovsky!" Ahh, so cheesy.
- The man with the shitty combover is unimpressed with Bond keeping that elevator door open...
- Bond has arrived at Stacey's house. Time for quiche and a pump action shotgun!
- The roll Bond does, followed up by blasting the guy with the shotgun is excellent. Shame it was only rock salt.
- May Day has a habit for killing people in cars.
- The whole fire trap scene in City Hall is really intense, now comes the firetruck chase.
- "So wait, you lied about who you are? I've already forgotten, I'm fascinated by the sound of a fire siren."
- Some may not like the firetruck sequence, but that jump across the bridge is pretty cool.
- Bond absolutely LAYS OUT the driver of the explosives truck.
- The whole setup they have for the mine is well done, I love the look of it. It's a shame that everyone's about to be shot or drowned, though!
- Yeah, I think Tanya Roberts is a bad actress. She sounds accidentally condescending, it's very annoying.
- The explosion of the mine shaft is pretty well done, hope there weren't any epileptics watching when it first goes off.
- "Give me some spare clips." - Zorin. Ahh, one of the biggest sins I constantly hear in a movie.
- I enjoy the brief moment that Bond and May Day are allies.
- Bond moves the cable as they make their way through the water. Isn't this cable attached to the same structure the one worker tried to hang onto, but was electrocuted? Shouldn't Bond have been zapped, as well?
- Back to May Day: I like that she changes sides and does some good, and I've always hated that she dies, but then it hits me, she technically murdered two people, one that was close to Bond. She deserves it, in the end. At least she redeems herself.
- Beautiful shot of Bond dangling from the blimp with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
- Zorin ripping the axe off the wall as the score kicks in is awesome.
- Oh look, another obvious stunt double.
- Goodbye, Zorin!
- Why the fridge loaded with dynamite, Dr. Mortner? Doesn't make sense to me.
- You can tell that Mortner and Scarpine were fishing for a reason to keep the dynamite in the blimp. It couldn't have been that hard to get rid of.
- :( poor MP. She needs a hug, and needn't be upset.
Overall, I love it. I know quite a lot of people don't, but I think it's one of Moore's better outings. After seeing all of the Moore films over the past few days, I always recalled MR being my least favorite, but in fact, MR ended up being better than I recalled, and I never remembered TMWTGG being so bad. Time to move on to Timothy Dalton's introduction as James Bond.
Some of the best bits of the film are Moore and Patrick Macnee who are an entertaining pair (maybe Tibett should indeed have had a small ongoing part prior to AVTAK alongside M).
There's also a lot of Ethnic stereotypes. Aside from Aubergine there's the flamboyant American Texan, the rich Arab and the old exentric German (around the right age to be a mad Nazi) we all see at the party.
Walken as Zorin is decent and him and Moore have a few good lines, but Moore isn't really Bond in this film. He's just Roger Moore. After one of his stronger performances in OP this just feels like he's playing himself again. When he meets Stacey he's not the charming man we like, more an awkward, slightly sleazy dinosaur trying to still be cool.
Then we get the fight sequence in the stables, possibly one of the worst edited fights I've ever seen. Atrocious. They don't even bother hiding Patrick Macnee's double when he's lying against the wall.
Not long after that there's the infamous scene when Moore beds Grace Jones. Yuck.
Some of the following stuff with the steeple chase and Bond escaping from the car in the lake are good though.
The scenes of Bond playing detective in San Francisco are half decent but are let down by David Yip as the bland Chuck Lee. There's a TV feel to this sequence that I can't quite put my finger on.
I'll stop there but you get my point. I think AVTAK is a plodding, bland film. :p
Glad to see some Octopussy love. My only regret is that it wasn't accompanied by the running commentary.
What gives @Creasy47 ?
You summarize how I feel about AVTAK pretty well. At the end of the day, it's the films overall blandness and lack of innovation that let's the film down, not the occasional goofy bits. Apart from a few of Zorin's best moments, there's just nothing that really stands out…
But I'll give the film credit where it is due. One of the things I realized on my last viewing (like with you its not that long ago), is that the plot is not really bad at all. Its a fresh modern take on Goldfinger, and actually in a way more interesting than the original. And although the "horse doping side plot" seems bland and a bit unnecessary too be honest, the overall story is pretty well thought out with a clever backstory. It has some really dark content which I very much appreciate, like when Zorin massacres his workmen, and coldly executes his plan to kill millions of people. Its hard to notice in amongst all the silliness and overall "weirdness", but at its heart (at least plot wise), AVTAK can actually be considered one of the darkest and grittiest films in the series. And I like that.
I just re-watched OHMSS last night, and cannot find much room for agreement with @00Beast...except perhaps for the truly out-of-place "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown." "We Have All the Time in the World" is a lovely, poignant song, the last recorded offering by one of music's all-time great performers. Tracy, Draco, and Blofeld & Bunt are all brilliantly cast, and Lazenby... is very good in the action sequences. And yes, he does nail the final, grieving scene as well. Each to their own, I suppose...
I don't think the goofy bits help what is already a fairly phoned in film. The police chase could have been cut and felt like padding.
Incidently I did notice that Mayday and Stacey still had their make up on despite being almost drowned/burnt alive in a lift shaft.
I don't think Blofeld counted OHMSS as a "win." His big plan was foiled and he took some revenge for that in the killing of Tracy...but on the Big Scoreboard, it's a tie at best. I think the advantage in that film is still Bond's, bereft though Lazenby is at film's end.
Skyfall is a tricky matter. Yes, Judi Dench's M is dead at film's end...but Silva does not live to see his victory, and that's a subtle, under-appreciated point. Dench's M had nothing to look forward to if she survived; she was going to be forced from her office and clearly wasn't looking forward to retirement. The only thing she really wanted was to have her hard decisions vindicated, and in a sense they were. Silva was defeated and his machinations against MI-5 were halted, by an agent that she had approved for duty despite the recommendations of others. In a very real sense it is a win for Bond, for M...and for the franchise, which can now move forward with a cast of Bond, Moneypenny, Q, and a new M in place.
I didn't say the goofy bits don't matter, of course they do! My point is that they're not my main issue with film. Just compare AVTAK to its predecessor Octopussy: Just as much goof, far more memorable in terms of locations, characters and not least action.