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Most definitely!!
I started with Casino Royale, namely because of the origin story. I then moved on to Quantum Of Solace. It's the second half of the Vesper/Bond arc and finishes the transformation of Bond from a blunt instrument into the more suave and sophisticated Bond played by Sean Connery.
After Quantum Of Solace, I had to debate what movie to put next. Skyfall's ending would have flowed into the opening of Dr. No really well but the themes in Skyfall just don't really gel with the idea that Bond has just been promoted two missions prior.
By this time in the story, Bond is a seasoned agent in Dr. No. It's understandable how Bond and Felix don't realize who each other are...Bond has transformed from a English 5'10" blonde into a 6'2" dark haired man with a Scottish accent and Felix grew hair and stopped tanning. Jokes aside, watching them this way, you begin to start piecing little bits of dialogue to events that were previously unrelated. Honey asks Bond, "Do you have a woman of your own?" It's visible that Bond doesn't really know how to answer that question. On this Bondathon, I'm chalking that reaction up to Vesper. Bond learning his most valuable lesson in Casino Royale (trust nobody) flows nicely into the Ms. Taro sequence in Dr. No where he has the upper-hand the entire time.
For obvious reasons, From Russia With Love comes next. It's a semi-sequel to Dr. No and one of the main reasons for SPECTRE's plan involving Bond is due to him killing Dr. No at the ending of the previous film. I won't lie, I love From Russia With Love. It's the best Bond film period.
Goldfinger was next. Bond mentions Jamaica to Felix which ties it into the events of Dr. No. It also appears that the Aston Martin Bond won in the Bahamas has been retrofitted with the driver's seat on the left by Q Branch when they were modifying the car with the gadgets. In previous Bondathons, Goldfinger was always in my top 10. This time, I would put it in my top 5 easily. Everything works.
So where do I go from here?
I'm going to throw my first curveball into the mix now and say Live And Let Die for a variety of reasons. Guy Hamilton is back as director and the tones between both films stay pretty consistent. Roger plays Bond in a similar vein as Connery in the previous film. However, the biggest reason I stuck it here was because of Rosie Carver.
I've always felt that after OHMSS, the idea of sticking her into this film as "Mrs. Bond" and Roger not even batting a eye of sadness towards the subject to be horrendous. Especially since in later films (TSWLM, FYEO, LTK, GE, TWINE), Bond was shown to still be saddened by the events.
So here's the order I've watched so far:
Casino Royale
Quantum Of Solace
Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Live And Let Die
...next up? SPECTRE has been pretty dormant since their botched Lektor deal. It's about time that they return in Thunderball.
I will be intrigued to hear more about your continuation story as it continues. Both here and in the other thread. It is definitely a fresh take on the Bondathon format!
And maybe I will copy that order in my own Bondtathons later on... if you don't mind? No copyright issues? ;) :P
I do what I affectionately call a Bond Film Festival every one to two years. Always start at the beginning with Dr. No and go through in release order at a rate of one per week, and usually follow each screening with the excellent Patrick Macnee narrated documentary (which as most of you know only go up to Octopussy).
I tip my cap.
I absolutely adore the Inside series with Patrick Macnee. It's a shame it stops at LTK. I'm not sure when these were created, but I had assumed they were for the Ultimate Edition DVD releases, which means they would have been recorded in the early 2000's. I was anticipating these extras for the Brosnan era and was greatly disappointed when they were not included.
My most recent bondathon involved watching all the commentaries. So delightful and peaceful, especially Moore's commentaries. It's a shame no other Bond did commentary tracks.
Even though I've seen most of them I still watch a few I've seen after watching the films sometimes. Some are really interesting (like all of the business with the tower jump in A VIEW TO A KILL as well as the blimp/mine finale.
Fortunatly Goldfinger and Thunderball sort of get extended versions by having both "Inside..." and "....Phenomenon" docs which dovetail well.
Thunderball includes one of my favorite scenes of the franchise, The Kiss Kiss Club. I love everything from when Connery ties his flesh-wound up until Connery's "You mind if my friend sits this one out? She's just dead." The whole scene is just brilliant.
I find the biggest issue with the film is the pacing. We hear Largo talking about their plan and then we spend the next twenty-five minutes watching it slowly unfold. The plane, the hijacking of the nukes, etc. I read somewhere that Terrence Young walked away from the film during the editing phase and Peter Hunt practically salvaged the film.
This one inches ahead of Quantum of Solace in my ranking.
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Casino Royale '06
Dr. No
Thunderball
Quantum Of Solace
Live And Let Die
Today I watched the first episode of Fleming: The Man who would be Bond; really nice a tv series for a Bond fan and someone who's fond of WW2 operations (loved the mention of Operation: Mincemeat). There were so many little touches which made the viewing a pleasure (hints of the Bond theme, the Vesper martini, admiral Godfrey's office which inspired M's and so on).
Pierce Brosnan did a commentary for DAD and its absolutley brilliant.The guy has a terrific sense of humour! Highly recommended.
Wow, how have I missed this! I think I listened to the second commentary on DAD before. I will give it a go next time. Thanks @AstonLotus !
The World Is Not Enough
The Spy Who Loved Me
Dr No
Octopussy
You Only Live Twice
Casino Royale
Moonraker
The Living Daylights
Die Another Day
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It suddenly dawned on me that all the usual things that provoke people about DAD more that anything else - Jinx, Robocop, crap CGI, Madonna, Madonna's theme song, - somehow doesn't bother me that much.
The thing that really does for me is the last 40 minutes of the film - an endless, screeching, cacophony of noise, a mindless, uncreative and quite frankly tedious climax to what had been occasionally a diverting and entertaining film.
What Bond is famous for is real stunts. Non of that here. By the end I was thoroughly depressed.
Next up From Russia With Love.
Has anyone here actually tried it?
And yes they did look like the living dead by the end of it.
And I honestly wouldn't mind being the subject of a news story entitled: 'Man Dies Attempting James Bondathon'
1) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2) Casino Royale
3) From Russia With Love
4) Skyfall
5) The Spy Who Loved Me
6) GoldenEye
7) Live And Let Die
8) Dr. No
9) For Your Eyes Only
10) Goldfinger
11) Quantum of Solace
12) Octopussy
13) Moonraker
14) Thunderball
15) The Living Daylights
16) The World Is Not Enough
17) A View To A Kill
18) Diamonds Are Forever
19) You Only Live Twice
20) Tomorrow Never Dies
21) The Man With The Golden Gun
22) Licence To Kill
23) Die Another Day
- I fell in love with OHMSS again. Not that it was ever far from my top spot.
- I was actually hoping that SF would drop a little but darn it all if I didn't enjoy the hell out of watching it again.
- GF came dangerously close to falling out of my top ten for the first time ever but it managed to make it by the skin of it's teeth. It does keep dropping though and I wonder how far it might fall next time.
- Sadly, not every actor is in my top ten this time around. Both Dalton films dropped but I can still appreciate his short time in the role. That was not always the case before I joined this forum. So again, thank you fellow members for helping me with that. LTK still remains a low point in the series for me though.
- It's always amazing to me how much better GE is compared to the rest of Brosnan's films. IMHO, anyway.
- Like I said, I can enjoy every film to some degree. Although the second half of DAD really tries my patience.
The World Is Not Enough
The Spy Who Loved Me
Dr No
Octopussy
You Only Live Twice
Casino Royale
Moonraker
The Living Daylights
Die Another Day
From Russia With Love
______________________________________________________________________
Strange following the mad, noisy DAD with FRWL. Maybe the Bond film I have seen the most over the years, and still a delight to watch. Occasional clumsy use of body doubles, but hardly hampers the experience.
Thoughtful, respectful film making before the series began to get overwhelmed with clichés.
Next up Diamonds Are Forever