It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Joy ? that film is like a near death experience to me,and not a pleasant one !
Meh.
To determine how I was going to take this on, I thought about in release order, back from SP to DN, in my latest ranking order etc. However, I couldn’t decide so left it to chance and, therefore, found a random number order generator online, popped in 1-24 and it came out like this.
3 - GF
24 - SP
13 - OP
7 - DAF
20 - DAD
21 - CR
6 - OHMSS
12 - FYEO
19 - TWINE
1 - DN
9 - TMWTGG
2 - FRWL
10 - TSWLM
18 - TND
23 - SF
15 - TLD
22 - QOS
17 - GE
11 - MR
5 - YOLT
16 - LTK
4 - TB
8 - LALD
14 - AVTAK
It’s worked out quite well, great start with GF and finishes with the last movie, AVTAK (which I must say I do have lots of affection for) from my favourite 007 actor.
So, tonight, it’s Goldfinger.
Next time! Though FRWL is a bit too early - I like having it at the end of the Bondathon.
New ranking:
1. GF
Next up: Spectre.
Sir Rog gives a fine performance in his first outing. He seems quite comfortable throughout, and never do I think about Connery, or wonder what it could've been like if he'd stayed. One thing that did surprise me was the breakneck pace at which the film moves at. There's rarely a dull moment throughout the two hour run time, (EON take note, two hour run time works!) some truly memorable characters and set pieces.
The lengthy boat chase is still probably the best boat chase put on film. I'm hard pressed to think of another one. 45 years later!
The most impressive stunt for me is the run across the crocodiles backs. Totally insane, extremely cool, dangerous and jaw dropping. Perfect escape for Bond.
A fine cast also help keep this entry interesting and in a way unique. We've not had a film before or since with a majority of coloured villains. And with the story and setting it works well. The story is a little on the weaker side, but nothing too disappointing. I'd think though that 'a certain group of families' might not take to being muscled out of the heroin game quite as easily as Kananga expects. But this is not overly important to the overall scheme at hand.
A wonderful soundtrack and well shot locations also aid LALD to the rank of a genuine OO7 classic.
As with DN, this film shines because of the actor in the lead role, and Sir Roger Moore sure fits the shoes well in his debut.
2018 ranking
1. Dr.No
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Live And Let Die
Next up...
The Living Daylights
Our love for LALD is shared by Craig, Mendes and Hiddleston.
It's a great film and it's 15th in my ranking, just because there are so many 60s and 70s films above it.
Maybe with another ending it could be higher.
:!!
Set the timer to six minutes.
I set the timers for six minutes. The same six minutes that you gave me. It's the least I could do for a friend.
I need to explain a few things first. I watched GoldenEye already roughly a week ago. The trouble is it was such an overwhelming experience I couldn't think straight to where to put it in my ranking. So I decided to watch it again one week later and then give the film a proper review and ranking position.
So here we go: Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Bond, James Bond in GoldenEye
This film gives an instant feeling of witnessing something greater than usual. The gun-barrel introduces a new modern look that feels absolutely justified. The first shot of the plane flying over the dam sets the atmosphere for one of the greatest stunts ever performed in a Bond movie. The editing and direction of the sequence and later not showing Brosnan's face close-up but his eyes only is real art.
Pierce receives the maybe best Bond introduction after Sean Connery. While Lazenby's is of course fantastic, this one culminates in 006 in the shadows stepping into the light and then it's 006 and 007 "James, for England." "For England, Alec."
Goose bumps all over and the rest of the dialogue is as brilliant.
"It's too easy."
"Half of everything is luck, James."
"And the other half?"
"Fate." "Set timers: six minutes." "Six minutes, check. Fire! Closing time, James! Last call!" "Buy me a pint."
But it doesn't stop there, every single syllable spoken up to Bond's "The pleasure, I'm sure, was all mine." in the casino is a work of genius.
The first 20 minutes of GoldenEye are simply flawless and as Bond as it possibly can get.
The title sequence starting with the framed explosion of the facility is pure bliss. And then Daniel Kleinman provides the perfect titles, a mix between the classic Binder stuff and the more modern glossy look that Kleinman later overdid considerably with SF and SP. Kleinman's best work in my opinion is and stays GoldenEye.
Not to a small extend responsible for making the titles work so beautifully is Tina Turner's breathtaking song GoldenEye. I only got it now how fantastic this song is. This is actually the next best thing to Shirley Bassey's Bond themes.
The score in the PTS is the best piece of score outside of Barry and Arnold. The GoldenEye Overture. What fitting title!! - Well, let's add Bond77 to it, that is as iconic.
The titles end with going directly to a racing street, fast velocity car chase. And this is how a car chase has to be shown. Interesting camera angles but always giving a clear picture of what's happening.
The playful, quirky tune to the car chase with Xenia fits the scene like a glove, despite not having any Bondian feeling to it.
The repartee between Bond and Caroline is rivaling Moore and Connery at their best.
And so is the dialogue in the casino scene which got to be my favorite after Connery's in DN.
Famke Janssen, possibly the best casting decision since Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe.
What she adds to the film can only be compared to what Eva Green added to Casino Royale roughly ten years later.
What is shocking, positively shocking, is how great Brosnan's chemistry is with Janssen, Bean and really all of the actors, including Judi Dench of course.
Meanwhile the score, romantic and mysterious for the casino section is wonderful. So far Serra delivers great stuff!
So what we have after a bit more than 20 minutes is the perfect PTS, titles, dialogue, introduction to a new Bond, villainess.
Can it even get better, is that possible, am I witnessing the greatest thing since OHMSS or even something better?
Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves shall we.
Pierce Brosnan has the classic look, he could well fit into the 60s and therefore he is a perfect fit for the DB5. Seeing his Bond sitting in the car listening to Moneypenny is a delight and I wish the car would be seen again later on.
Brosnan entering the yacht with such panache, it's rivaling Cary Grant and again I think Pierce has it all.
He gets into a first rather short but brutal enough fight, no real challenge for Bond. But it shows that with this Bond you better not trifle with!
This lengthy segment is so atmospheric and wonderfully scored by Serra. The introduction to Boris and Natalya is the only thing I find a bit awkward, it's mainly Boris's obnoxious personality though.
The rest is solid Gold(eneye). Expertly shot, the action and destruction of the Severnaya dish and building is gripping and tense. And quite brutal too, Xenia showing off and getting off on mass murdering people. By this time in the film, she has already surpassed pretty much anything that came before her. What a memorable unique character she is.
Famke Janssen, it has to be said, is to blame. Her acting is a clever balance between menace and over the top. Simply irresistible.
Enter Judi Dench. Immediately you can feel the magic than unfolds on screen. Dench and Brosnan, a dream team. Both act their parts beautifully.
Moneypenny while her own woman, clearly is evoking some Maxwell, put into the modern world of feminism. The sexual harassment thrown into the dialogue seems to be more contemporary as we probably want it to be.
48 minutes into the film we go to St. Petersburg.
We get some very fine acting in the sequence. Ourumov and Defense Minister Mishkin are very good characters and they have some very good scenes.
It gets interrupted by the mandatory Q in the lab sequence. But this is no commonplace sequence that is just there for its own sake.
Desmond and Pierce have such great chemistry and the fun they had working together transcends to the screen. I love this elderly Q secretly caring for Bond like a grandfather but at the same time reprimanding him like a school teacher.
The "don't touch that, it's my lunch" moment is hilarious, look at Brosnan's shocked expression!
I also feel that Ourumov somehow evokes AVTAK and the 80s in a good way. A great link to the past. But the greatest link is of course Desmond Llewelyn. It is so good they kept him and it makes the Brosnan era up to TWINE a part of the classic Bond decades. 60s to 90s, four decades of entertainment on the highest level, always staying true to the identity of what makes a cinematic Bond experience.
Back to St. Petersburg we get to know one of the more hilarious characters in the Bond universe. Jack Wade. Seriously, the Muffy moment had me in stitches. Gotta love that guy!! And another great link to the past, this time to TLD. EoN up to that point really had their mojo going.
Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky, another colorful character that highly enriches GoldenEye and later TWINE as well. Wonderful scene and then it's "no more foreplay".
Xenia and Bond get it going on in the sauna. Brosnan really knows no mercy, he knocks out a goon with one strike and then brutally smashes Xenia over his shoulder to the floor. But not before Xenia gives Bond a good squeeze! Priceless!!
70 minutes into the film Natalya and Bond finally meet...Bond is a little tied up at first but the things that he does for 'frequent flyer' mileage.
Mishkin, Ourumov, Natalya and Bond have a little nice chat and then a library gets demolished before we engage in the most original and hilarious chase sequence to date in a Bond film bar the boat/police car chase in LALD.
When after all we already got we'll get a tank chase through St. Petersburg we get spoiled rotten. Even in a Bond film, bloody hell!
And if that wouldn't be enough a train sequence follows with a Xenia on fire, or should I say in heat...Ourumov finds his fitting end and Alec realizes: Bond, Only Bond.
PART II OF THE REVIEW FOLLOWING IN HALF A DAY plus my new ranking
Alec Trevelyan still has a lot of admiration for 007. When he sees the tank at the entrance of the tunnel all he can say in awe....Bond. Only Bond.
Xenia meanwhile is enjoying her foreplay...."He's going to derail us"....
It's quite amazing realizing that the film is already at the 90 minute mark once the train sequence is finished.
Is there any single scene so far, that wasn't up to the standard that the first 20 minutes of GoldenEye have set? I don't think so.
The wonderful mix of characters is another strength of the movie.
-Alec
-Ourumov
-Xenia
-Natalya
-Boris
-Valentin Zukovsky
-Mishkin
-the new M
-the new Moneypenny
-Jack Wade
and of course the new Bond Pierce to secure the future, accompanied by beloved Desmond who is now at his fifth!!!! Bond actor!
But back to the film, Ourumov is gone, one down, three to go....
Romance is in the air. I like Serra's score a lot here. Bond and Natalya have some very nice scenes together.
The airplane crash is well done, no CGI and that's so refreshing in retrospect.
20 minutes, that's how long the satellite sequence is. Not only is this the last great villain's lair in the series but everything from start to finish works and simply is one of the very best end-scenarios.
Alec shines here, and even obnoxious Boris finally serves a purpose. Add some outer space scenes including a satellite and we're on YOLT quality territory.
Again the dialogue is perfect. The last great film in that regard as well. Really everything that Alec says is well written and memorable. Brosnan really gives a marvelous performance here.
The very lengthy fight on the dish, I'm almost afraid to say, rivals the best in the series. Maybe it's even the best overall.
Brosnan and Alec fight to the death, it's fast, it's brutal, it's bloody and it's relentless.
This is the real deal, not hampered by fast shaky cam editing.
Alec's death is gruesome but done in a way you can't help but clap your hands.
Alec: For England, James?
Bond: No. For me.
The way the dialogue is build up from the first scene with Alec and Bond to the end on the satellite dish is nothing short of ingenious.
There are only four films that left me with the sense to have witnessed something extraordinary and possibly iconic.
-Goldfinger
-On Her Majesty's Secret Service
-The Spy Who Loved Me
-GoldenEye
There are of course other films that are quality wise overall maybe even better than some in that list. And in the end it's all in the eye of the beholder.
This Eye tells you though, GoldenEye is 007 Heaven.
GE marks the first real shake-up of my initial ranking.
I needed to watch CR again as well to get a clearer picture of things. Seeing GE and CR back to back made me realize that GE works better for me on almost every level. CR has some advantages over GE but they are mainly found in the casting. Overall CR starts already to get on my nerves by some seemingly minor things that do bother me greatly though. Especially in the context of the evolution of 21 EoN Bond films up to that point.
The reboot idea and how it's executed by simply ignoring what worked so well for 4 decades is unforgivable and it hurts the film a lot as it doesn't work very well, in some instances it doesn't work at all. Having said that, CR still is one of the great Bond films, make no mistake.
GE up considerably from 7.
CR down from 3 as I overrated the film somewhat, Eva Green has that effect, she's a Goddess.
My new ranking therefore:
1 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 Dr. No
3 GoldenEye
4 Goldfinger
5 You Only Live Twice
6 The Spy Who Loved Me
7 Casino Royale
8 Diamonds Are Forever
9 The Man With The Golden Gun
10 Thunderball
11 Skyfall
12 The World Is Not Enough
13 From Russia With Love
14 Moonraker
15 Live And Let Die
16 Die Another Day
17 Quantum Of Solace
18 Casino Royale 67
19 For Your Eyes Only
20 Never Say Never Again
21 Octopussy
22 A View To A Kill
23 Licence To Kill
24 Spectre
great review @Andi1996Ruegg
it's always nice to hear a fresh perspective
Starting with page 68 of this thread I have reviewed all of the Bond films except TLD and TND.
Simply because I didn't have the time to do these two. I owe you those and they will come later in February!
I've seen almost all films three times now and a few a fourth time. I've yet to see CR54.
My Top 10 should be pretty definite. Maybe within a few changes could happen but at this point unlikely.
1 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 Dr. No
3 GoldenEye
4 Goldfinger
5 You Only Live Twice
6 The Spy Who Loved Me
7 Casino Royale
8 Diamonds Are Forever
9 The Man With The Golden Gun
10 Thunderball
11 Skyfall
12 The World Is Not Enough
13 From Russia With Love
14 Moonraker
15 Live And Let Die
16 Tomorrow Never Dies
17 Die Another Day
18 Quantum Of Solace
19 Casino Royale 67
20 The Living Daylights
21 A View To A Kill
22 Never Say Never Again
23 For Your Eyes Only
24 Octopussy
25 Licence To Kill
26 Spectre
A few afterthoughts:
I've given QOS a lot of slack to put it on 18. We'll see if that holds in the future.
The 80s films, while I really love them all at least to some extend, are still clearly concentrated at the end. TLD may be the one that could escape and move further up.
As for Spectre, I hate to say I can't find much in it that would make me want to watch it again. Of course I will watch it nonetheless. It's Bond after all.
In my personal opinion there should be a new start in 2019, anything else seems foolish.
Interesting ranking there. We have some noticeable similarities and differences. Hoping to have the time to at least finish the Moore era with TMWTGG and LALD next week in my Bondathon.
Even though it was Roger Moore who introduced me to Bond, and his Bond was (and still is) my firm favourite, when TLD came along in 1987 it was an easy transition for me. Of course as a 12/13 year old it wasn't that much of a chore. The film seemed fresh and exciting. Timothy Dalton was a much harder and intense Bond than Moore had been. For me it was a winner from start to finish. And to be perfectly fair, it still is for me.
It's never a hardship to sit down and enjoy Daltons debut. Yes it's dated, but then what film hasn't. Dalton still commands the screen, a very impressive debut. I find TLD to be very Fleming inspired in many of the scenes. I enjoy the PTS, but the scene immediately after the title song set in Bratislava is pure Fleming for me. The relationship between Bond and Saunders, getting Koskov out. It's brilliant stuff.
So too are all of the scenes between Bond and Saunders and how their relationship transpires. Makes Saunders death all the more sombre.
Another notable scene and from what I gather a fan favourite is Bond's interrogation of new KGB head, General Pushkin, in the latter's hotel room. Dalton and John Rhys-Davies
are very good in this scene, and it's a credit to their ability as actors.
Necros taking the Blayden Safe House dressed as a milkman is another scene I enjoy.
Whilst the film is a little weak on the villainous front, it's far from disastrous. I think the producers were aiming to make the film more down to earth, with a more dangerous and darker Bond, so too the villains had to be more low key and not Blofeldeque ,living in a volcano or under the sea.
The Bond girl in Kara Milovy is one I have to confess to liking (Sorry @barryt007)
I find Ms d'Abo to be charming and attractive. Her role in the film is imo much better than the 'she's Bonds equal/ another agent' that has been played out all too often.
I guess it's an each to their own on that one.
The action is the usual John Glen fair. Done for real, fitting the story well and exciting.
The PTS, Bond and Kara's escape to Austria and the finale set in Russian occupied Afghanistan are all breath taking. I've said countless times the cargo net fight between Bond and Necros IS the greatest stunts of all time. So I wont go into that one again...well.
A fantastic John Barry score, and sadly his last help secure The Living Daylights a high ranking spot on my Bond ranking. It always has, and probably always will.
Maybe it's that trip back to ones youth that maintains it's high rank.
Or maybe it's just a damn good Bond film.
2018 ranking
1. Dr.No
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. The Living Daylights
4. Live And Let Die
Next up...
GoldenEye
The next movie up in my first Bondathon of 2018 was Spectre, which I watched last night. I mentioned in the "Last Bond Movie You Watched" thread that this movie frustrates me the more I watch it. For one, it tries too hard to be a classic Bond movie and I don't think Mendes makes it work. I also don't think that Craig has it in his locker to give us the Connery/Moore manner which were a big part of the 60's, 70's movies. The car chase scene is rather dull, the mouse at L'Americain and other little things like this. I don't rate Waltz as Blofeld either and the "Cuckoo" thing? Nope! Lea Seydoux, while quite stunning, seems a little boring at times. The scene where she is drunk, while I understand where she is coming from, she comes across as a teenager who has been on the drink and being clever. The whole step-brother gubbins, sorry but not for me; the same could be said for Team Bond.
However, the fight with Hinx on the train, I feel is very good, Bautista makes a decent henchman. He and Craig excel in a quite violent fight that is up there with some of the best fight scenes of the series. It was nice touch to see Dench have that one final scene, Andrew Scott was suitable wease-ly as C, Fiennes is always good and, Jesper Christiansen, in a short scene was wonderful.
I've not, actually, said anything about Craig. He is good for the most part, but when it comes to the one-liners, he doesn't have the same sort of delivery as we have had before.
On, one final thing. This movie did provide the one thing I have wanted in a Bond movie for a good few years, and that was the appearance of the most beautiful, Monica Bellucci - a crush of mine for so many years it was almost like a dream come true. In such a short amount of time, this Bond fan was very happy and I thought she played her role very well. Could she make a return? I bloody well hope so.
Anyway, despite the failings that this movie has, there are some good points too but, as for the new ranking I'll be putting together through this, I don't expect it to make massive waves.
New ranking:
Goldfinger
Spectre
Next up: Octopussy
Good review. TLD never fails to entertain, mainly for Dalton. The excellent scene with Bond interrogating Pushkin was, apparently in the original script, when they werent sure Roger was returning, just the two of them sitting ina restaurant! They rejigged it knowing Dalton was doing a harder take on Bond, and all the better for it!
Maybe Bond - in that scene in TSWLM - does not think about his wedding with Tracy but his staged wedding with Kissy in YOLT :-) At least, I found it interesting that Ania says "married once" even though Bond was officially married twice.
I sometimes really wonder whether the Bond directors only had in mind the Bond films they had worked on in the past.