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Comments
The BMW garage sequence is fabufantagiganticly fun.
FUN belongs to Bond.
The phone remote is freaking cool.
I was 23 in 1997 and those cool cars with gadgets gave me a boner.
So sue me for having romantic glorified memories and feelings about it :))
I like both the fun and serious moments so perhaps that's why TLD and OP are on top of my rankings.
I'm not opinionated on the Z3 or Z8 but I do like the the late 90's 3 series, I'd go so far as to say it's one of my favourite automotive designs.
That's the beauty of it, there's scenes to be enjoyed in all the films. Someone recently made the comment (maybe you?) that it was mostly depressing to be a Bond fan during that period because of the "going through the motions" films they were churning out.
I'm from a younger generation so didn't have to live through the periods of what are generally considered mediocre films, and of course the painful 6 year wait in the 90's.
When I started truly getting into the films I had the advantage of having most films at my disposable so I could put in a silly or serious one depending on the mood.
Pierce Brosnan again does very well as Bond, once more serving as one of the movie's best parts much like Tomorrow Never Dies. Elektra was a pretty interesting character, but I didn't care for Renard all that much. Also, Christmas Jones is a really weak Bond girl; Denise Richards' acting was exceptionally bad. On the bright side, I did enjoy seeing Valentin again. Judi Dench continues to do well as M, and the final scene with Desmond Llewelyn's Q is truly noteworthy. That scene alone gives the movie a good boost for me.
Although lengthy, I really do like the PTS; it manages to be epic, action-packed, and mysterious all at once. The score by Arnold was good, but I'm indifferent on the title song. I think it was @Birdleson who mentioned it, but once Elektra is out of the picture, the interest level drops severely. I'm engaged through most of the movie, but I always find once it's just Renard left, it's not as intriguing. Still, the majority of the movie is alright - there's a lot of good action, a good Bond performance, and a fairly interesting story. I must admit though, the film had potential to be better than the end result.
Many hate it, a few love it, and I simply like it. The film has its obvious flaws, but there are still several things to enjoy about it. There was definitely room for an even better movie to come out of it, but for what it's worth, The World Is Not Enough still provides a serviceable Bond experience.
FoxRox's 2015 Bondathon Ranking
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. Goldfinger
3. GoldenEye
4. Dr. No
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. Licence to Kill
7. Thunderball
8. From Russia with Love
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Live and Let Die
11. The Living Daylights
12. The World Is Not Enough
13. You Only Live Twice
14. Tomorrow Never Dies
15. The Man with the Golden Gun
16. Octopussy
17. Diamonds Are Forever
18. A View to a Kill
19. Moonraker
After the near perfect GE and TND it was a disappointment for me back then.
I hated Renard, dull, forgettable and much too weak a villain to have the endfight with Bond.
After the probably second best PTS ever the movie gets boring pretty fast anyway, the only good thing is Brosnan who shines in it, the direction is the weakest of the franchise.
Forster at least made QOS beautiful if epileptic.
Tamahori did good and only gets heat because it's DAD.
Goldfinger
This is a film that has great scenes but I don't like the overall result. I know, I know it's many good people's favourite but I simply can't see why (I know I'm not alone). I always feel like it's a film full of great moments but there's something lacking to glue it together as a great work. Besides, Bond (not Connery) is at his lowest here.
Thunderball
I love, love, love the soundtrack in this one, I think it's one of Barry's best efforts. The effortless incorporation of both the title track and Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang make it absolutely unique. The cast in this one is also top notch, I really like the girls, Fiona Volpe is my favourite bad girl ever. A funny thing is that the swimwear in this film is probably the best in any film (Bond or otherwise), whoever took care of that section should receive a special award for it. The second part of the film, especially the underwater sequences, lag a bit but that's about the strongest criticism it will get from me.
You Only Live Twice
I always had a bit of a soft spot for this one. I blame my life-long fascination with Japan and the great soundtrack for it. Connery really aged from the previous one and, although I don't think he looks bored as others do, I don't think he was giving his best either. It's overall a weak entry with some redeeming features.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Oh, I love this one despite its limitations. There are quite a few cringe moments in it (I'm not even talking about Lazenby here), like Bond looking at souvenirs from previous missions, or the terrible dubbing. However the rest of the cast is absolutely brilliant (even Laz has his moments), for instance Diana Rigg is absolutely gorgeous and intense and believable as Tracy. The photography is gorgeous, the locations like wise, an almost perfect film.
That's what I feel about all of Hamilton's films
This is the second to last movie in my current Connery/Moore Bondathon. Only left is OP now.
Believe it or not, but 15 years ago TB was in my Top 5 together with GE, TND, OP and TLD. Times change.
Nowadays Thunderball is somewhat a drag to watch. While I find it beautifully shot and Connery certainly never looked better that's just not enough for me. Too slow moving and Domino is quite dull if beautiful and sweet.
The only thing I truly love here is Fiona, it's a real treat to watch every second of here.
Having said this, I want to add that it is a very good film, objectively looking at it I find it a real classic of the 60's. The underwater scenes were groundbreaking and you can still see how much incredible work went into those scenes.
My current ranking:
the good ones
1. FRWL
2. GF
3. FYEO
4. LALD
5. MR
6. TSWLM
7. DN
8. THUNDERBALL
the good enough ones
8. YOLT
the not so good ones
9. AVTAK
10. TMWTGG
11. DAF
Brosnan still does a good job as Bond; barring the quality of his Bond films, I think he gave good performances in all four of them. I think Jinx is a little over-hated. While not one of my favorite Bond girls by any means, there are a few I like less. Gustav Graves is among the weaker Bond villains, but I thought Zao was decent. John Cleese was alright as Q - just not the same as Desmond :(. The rest of the supporting characters were pretty much average for me.
The film begins with a fairly solid PTS. Although I dislike Madonna's title song (my least favorite Bond song), I thought the torture montage was a good idea; it quickly yet effectively showed us a vulnerable Bond. For a while I like the film just fine; it's not amazing or anything, but the first half is totally decent. I really enjoyed the sword fight scene between Bond and Graves, and as I mentioned before the PTS was good. Once they get to the ice palace though, the movie really starts to slip. The surfing scene stands out as particularly bad, of course, but generally I just keep losing interest as it gets further along. The whole climax and finale was disappointing; the suspense fell flat for me, and at that point I was just ready for it to be over. I also wasn't a fan of the use of slow-motion and CGI in the movie.
Many peg Die Another Day as the worst Bond film, but the first half boosts it a little for me. It would probably be much higher if the second half had been as good as the first. Anyways, the film is commonly cited as one of the weakest Bond films, and it's really not hard to understand why. It's just not quite at the bottom of my list.
FoxRox's 2015 Bondathon Ranking
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. Goldfinger
3. GoldenEye
4. Dr. No
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. Licence to Kill
7. Thunderball
8. From Russia with Love
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Live and Let Die
11. The Living Daylights
12. The World Is Not Enough
13. You Only Live Twice
14. Tomorrow Never Dies
15. The Man with the Golden Gun
16. Octopussy
17. Diamonds Are Forever
18. Die Another Day
19. A View to a Kill
20. Moonraker
After watching the films, CR is clearly the best of Craig's movies so far - while a little overlong it is hard to complain about having too much of a good thing: the lush cinematography compliments the fantastic set design, so I think it looks even better than SKYFALL.
It was interesting to watch CR and SF so close together. SF has been my most watched Bond over the last few years (which usually happens with the most recent Bond) and while I still feel it is undeserving of the backlash it has got from some people I do think the lustre has been dulled slightly. The plot in CR is tighter and the film seems far more set in the 'real world' than SF is.
This is perhaps unsurprising as the brief on CR was to ground Bond whereas SF was a celebration of the franchise's history, but I hope this means that future films look forward as much as they look to the past.
I was hoping that watching QoS directly after CR would improve my estimation of it but it sadly remained the same: We were promised the first true Bond sequel but instead got an unnecessary epilogue. There are some wonderful artistic flourishes from director Marc Forster (particularly in the Tosca sequence) and I don't think Craig has looked better than he does here, but I immediately found my attention wondering and the shakey-cam is unforgivable. Whereas CR got the balance of 'real-world vs fantasy' almost exactly right QoS goes too far; with so many shades of gray the whole murky affair becomes as dull as dishwater.
I'm a fan of the villain though for some reason - I like the sliminess and wild eyes of Dominic Greene, and it's not often a villain looks so weak but is able to hold is own against Bond!
Despite my dislike for QoS I find the fight with Mr Slate and Greene some of my favourites in the series
I suppose it's because Craig is the most muscular out of all the Bond's we've had thus far, so they feel like we need a Hinx-type character to take him on every time, when really, that's the first physically threatening character Craig's Bond has come up against (in terms of pure muscle and brawn, he's also met his match in equally skilled assassins and warlords).
QoS is one of my favorites, and that Slate/Bond fight is my favorite in the series, I think. That's how it should be done.
Today I moved into Moore territory with Live and Let Die. I have to confess this was never one of my favourites but everytime I watch it I always think "why don't I watch this one more often?". A very solid entry, 5* soundtrack, 5* title song, 5* villain (Yaphet Kotto delivers the best performance in the film, one of the best of all villains, what an amazing actor).
I just watched AVTAK... I used to rank it low also, but I think now I'll rate it a good bit higher than this... :-?
This one has always been one of my least favourite Bond movies... until two nights ago. I was pleasantly surprised by how great it actually is. I was not even bothered by the awful title song (admittedly it works good with the opening titles) or by the fast-paced action sequences. My only complain with the movie would be that it's too short, I wish they had made it fourty minutes longer (if not more).
Rankings:
01. OHMSS
02. CR
03. QOS
04. FRWL
05. LTK
06. TND
07. GE
08. TWINE
09. TLD
10. DN
11. FYEO
12. DAD
13. TMWTGG
14. TSWLM
15. GF
16. MR
17. OP
18. DAF
19. TB
20. LALD
21. AVTAK
22. CR '54
23. NSNA
24. YOLT
25. CR '67
Actors ranking:
1. Daniel Craig
2. Roger Moore
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. George Lazenby
5. Sean Connery
6. Timothy Dalton
I like your ranking very much :)
OHMSS and FRWL are (objectively) probably the two best Bond movies.
TND is underrated by most.
QOS gets mostly very low because of technical problems (editing, short running time) when the movie is actually one of the best action movies of the 00's!
I have QOS very low for those reasons, but it is the next I will watch in my Bondathon so it can go up considerably.
It was all Connery and Moore movies (and OHMSS).
This is the order I watched them:
FYEO-DAF-TSWLM-MR-YOLT-FRWL-LALD-GF-DN-TMWTGG-AVTAK-TB-OP-OHMSS
As I owe the OP review first here it is:
Octopussy...Octopussy...
I admit it, this is the first film in this Bondathon where all my objectivity goes overboard quickly...
The PTS clearly is my favourite of all those movies above. I'm getting all excited watching it and get that happy-go-lucky feeling. The world around me can go to hell as long as I can watch OP.
I just love it, all of it. Louis Jourdan is my favourite villain of the whole franchise. Only Elliot Carver comes close.
Gobinda played by the great Kabir Bedi clearly is my favourite henchman of the series.
Steven Berkoff as Orlov is bloody great as well.
Overall this is the best villain ensemble cast of the franchise in my opinion.
The exotic places work perfect for a Bond movie and then there is Octopussy herself...what a stroke of genius to cast Maud Adams again. This time she shines as one of the best "good" Bond girls ever. She is a perfect fit for Moore, both are elegant, sophisticated and dangerous in their own way.
The final fight in and on the plane is marvelous and feels like an encore to the great finale in the palace where the fighting takes place beforehand.
I tried to "dislike" Octopussy so I may look at it more objectively but it just doesn't work.
I love this movie and even when I know FRWL is probably a better movie artistically I just can't place OP below it when looking at the whole picture.
Octopussy, one of the greats for me!
My ranking so far:
1. OP
2. FRWL
3. GF
4. FYEO
5. LALD
6. MR
7. TSWLM
8. DN
9. THUNDERBALL
10. YOLT
11. AVTAK
12. TMWTGG
13. DAF
Right there with you!! Definitely two of my favorites, they're some of the best.
Yay! I placed it very high for the same reasons. I do agree it's got one of the best group of villains but wouldn't say Gobinda is a favourite.
I see what you did there.
Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Connery in my opinion (my favorite is a toss-up between the two), giving us a great new incarnation of the character. Vesper ranks as my second favorite Bond girl behind Tracy, backed by having more depth than the majority of Bond girls through the series. Le Chiffre is a very good villain, too. The supporting cast is great, with the likes of Judi Dench's M (as fiery as ever), Jeffrey Wright's Felix Leiter, Mathis, and Mr. White. Every character played their part really well.
The PTS is my favorite of any Bond film, and one of my favorite sequences of the whole series. Though it's brief, I thought it was a fantastic way to show Bond becoming a double-O. Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" is one of my favorite main songs from the series, and I really enjoyed the whole soundtrack by David Arnold. From the get-go the film lets us know this Bond will be darker and grittier, and for me the idea worked exceptionally well. There are a lot of particular things I like about the film - Craig's Bond, the Bond girl, the supporting characters, the soundtrack, the story, and many of the individual scenes. I absolutely love the action scenes in this film, from the epic chase in Madagascar to the final showdown in Venice. The end scene is also brilliant, and probably my favorite ending to a Bond film (On Her Majesty's Secret Service is close, though).
Coming off Die Another Day, it was obvious the series needed a fresh start. As far as I'm concerned, this was the best possible new beginning, bringing in a great new Bond actor and a darker, more serious tone for the franchise. As it has been for a while, Casino Royale remains my favorite Bond film.
FoxRox's 2015 Bondathon Ranking
1. Casino Royale
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Goldfinger
4. GoldenEye
5. Dr. No
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. Licence to Kill
8. Thunderball
9. From Russia with Love
10. For Your Eyes Only
11. Live and Let Die
12. The Living Daylights
13. The World Is Not Enough
14. You Only Live Twice
15. Tomorrow Never Dies
16. The Man with the Golden Gun
17. Octopussy
18. Diamonds Are Forever
19. Die Another Day
20. A View to a Kill
21. Moonraker
The Man with the Golden Gun
Never one of my favourites although it certainly has its moments. Christopher Lee is great, he was always great. Maud Adams has quite a screen presence, no wonder why she came back. This is a film where the silliest and the most serious mix together, unfortunately not in the best way but it is certainly far from the worst entry of the series.
The Spy Who Loved Me
This film is just like Moore, a funny, silly, charming, irresistible thing that you just can't dislike. It's one of my favourites, let's face it, it's probably one of everyone's favourites. Great title song (the greatest I should say), incredibly iconic (and a bit silly) PTS, a re-heated YOLT story that works great this time around. Stromber is a bit meh, Barbara Bach's acting likewise but this is a Bond for which there will always be a place in my heart.
Although it isnt my number 1 JB movie of all time (only SPECTRE may beat OHMSS ??) i must say that Goldfinger is indeed THE james bond movie that had it all (and that made the benchmark for every one after).
It is obviously one of my favourites. The fast pacing and nice editing, the great villains (Goldfinger and Odjob) and Bond girls (Pussy Galore, Jill Masterson,.), the style and class of Connery as Bond (the perfect balance between toughness and tongue in cheek), the music (hat's off to John Barry and Shirley Bassey)... well, amost everything about this one is charismatic.
"Movie history" in the making. cheers
You Only Live Twice
Watching this time around, some of choices or actions of people in this film made no sense whatsoever. Like the ones people always mention like Blofeld not shooting Bond when he had the chance, when Helga Brandt was doing the whole plane thing instead of just killing him when he was tied up. How a piece of board across your lap can hold you in your seat? How Osato's men where chasing and shooting at him in broad daylight? Why bring a huge magnet to discard of there car? Are the general public watching all this happening, wouldn't someone call the police? Why that first girl (I forgot her name already) falls in love with Bond all of the sudden? I usually go along with all this stuff, but this time I couldn't. Aside from that I thought the action was great, the attack in the volcano was fun. It was nice to see Blofeld even though Pleasance isn't my favorite one. I like Tanaka. My favorite scene, however, is when the volcano is under attack and there is all those explosions, Blofeld's white cat starts freaking out and Pleasance has to hold him really tight so he won't escape. Poor thing! I laugh everytime I see that scene. C+
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
This is my 2nd time watching this film. I still enjoyed it, but I realized it took too long to get to certain scenes. The whole middle part being the culprit. From him sneaking into that building to scan those documents to finally getting to Piz Gloria and figuring out what Blofeld is up to, it just drags. Basically once Diana Rigg leaves the movie, it just loses something. I guess I really enjoyed watching the "love story" unfold, that Louis Armstrong song that is bittersweet sounding, the wedding at the end. It was just so nice. Lazenby didn't bother me as much the first time, but after watching Connery, I realized he couldn't really deliver all those zinger lines that Connery is so well at. They sounded rush and bland. I kept wonder what those lines would sound like if Connery said them. Although I do feel that as far as the romantic scenes, Lazenby works for me. Connery just seems too much of a macho man for me to be all lovey-dovey. Anyway, I loved Telly Savalas as Blofeld - I found him menacing and one I could take seriously unlike Pleasance or Gray, who I don't think as being too much of threat. The action was great, love the ski sequences although that thing that hurts them and other action sequences in the previous films, it that awful rear-projection. Otherwise, I really like this film. B+
I kind feel the same watching it this time around. It's just feels like those really tiring movies that they would air on Saturday afternoons. They are not exciting, just background noise. Although it has one of my favorite theme songs that I enjoy singing everytime. Connery was ok - he didn't need to come back, the bond girls were kinda annoying - although I always laugh at the "blow up your pants" line, I like Kidd and Wint, Gray not my favorite Blofeld, locations were boring, I did like the Peter Frank fight, the end was weak - probably the weakest attack the lair I've seen. Especially coming after OHMSS, it just not good. D