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Such care for the novels and collaborative relationships make all the difference for the fans and non-fans.
True.
Which brings us back to the quality of p&w... Not that I'd claim it's easy to find good scriptwriters, just that I think their work is too much hit and miss for Bond.
In all honesty, their track record isn’t really better or worse than Maibaum’s (who had the IMMENSE benefit of working off actual Fleming novels).
Let's start with their work in 007 films
TWINE: The story sought a character depth lacking in TND but ended up a cliche of one man who saves the world. It gets so silly with character becoming parodies or imitations of a PhD NUUUUclear scientist whose only 24ish at the time and also a Blofeld wannabe. The final fight scene gets so silly that even the music gets this over the top vibe to it.
DAD.....don't get me started
CR thru NTTD.....each of these movies is better than anything PB could get. He wished he could have had similar films much like how Connery wished he could have done OHMSS.
Maybe it's the directors, studio interferences, and lack of Bond actors who care but are also diplomatic enough to make an effort and help enhance the quality of each movie. PB looked bored in TND perhaps putting off the effort and ability to work on various production aspects... like maybe he could have better input on the next one. Thomas Crown Affair and other tempting roles took a lot of time from his schedule. DC didn't act in as many films at the same time outside of 007 during his tenure.
I disagree that PB looked bored in TND.Whatever was going on behind the scenes there was sense that he was having fun playing Bond.He looked a lot more comfortable in the role than he did in GE.His performance got better and better with each film.
QOS and SP prove otherwise. DAD was awful, but at least it’s fun and stupid movie, whereas QOS and SP are just boring movies in the end, and that’s the biggest sin of any James Bond film. Love Craig, but don’t start putting down Brosnan just to prop him up. They’re both great.
Agreed, Brosnan got better and better as his films went on, even if the scripts weren’t all that great. Though I’ll always defend putting both TND and TWINE in my top 10 ;)
TWINE is the perfect example of good intentions gone horribly wrong to adhere to the formula and an example of half-@$$ing it, something the Craig era for the most part corrected. I don't blame P&W for all the decisions, the blame can be equally distributed.
Let's try something different with Bond getting injured and then forget about it halfway through. Bond has to win, you know. And let's give him emotion by tracing tears on a computer screen and get totally duped by the woman he's protecting.
Let's create an interesting female villain but we can't just let Bond have one girl. He's got to have a girl in the end. Great idea, who's the latest Hollywood hottie who is years younger than the leading man and starred in mostly trashy thrillers, you know, kind of like Tanya Roberts and make her character one with a totally unbelievable profession.
Let's get the actor who played one of the most frightening characters in recent years in Trainspotting and make him invulnerable, he can hold hot rocks and punch a table to show this, but we need character so let's give him feelings and in love with the leading lady to up his drive against Bond.
Snow action scenes are great in Bond films. Let's get vehicles we've never seen and Bond can ski around timed explosions and make quips when he does.
Zukovsky was great in GE. Let's bring him make him into a comedy character, but also prove he's a good guy and make him a sacrificial lamb who is a great shot.
And on and on.
Not so sure. There's an interview I recall with him wearing a leather jacket and he looked checked out.
His performance in TWINE is terrible, but I put the blame on the director for having his actors overact.
DAD truly is his best performance and the kind I wish we saw from the start. There's a real take-no-prisoners quality to his performance. If he had been given a fifth film, another performance like that would have been a great welcome.
I think it’s okay for TND, depending on the time they were going for and that film was pretty light.
It’s in TWINE where it got inappropriate. The filmmakers should have had it fit more tonally with OHMSS, but instead tried to be both that and Roger Moore film at the same time. That really should have been Brosnan’s SKYFALL.
I agree, but I always consider TWINE a dry run in that kind of experimentation they would go for in Craig’s tenure. That’s kind of why I like the movie. It’s dares to be something more even if doesn’t succeed.
Did you listen to the tone of the musical score of TWINE in the last half? And the cinematography style...it didn't take itself seriously. Plus, unlike QoS, where Bond had reason to visit various locations while out to find Quantum and being on the run all the time....what the hell was he doing out in the desert with a Z8 from here to another location every 5 minutes?
The crew and filmmakers all just gave up and threw their arms up to wrap up shooting.
In QoS, the cast and crew did not want filming to end. It got to a point where the last half became less "messy" and even the editing became more calm/collected. The crew found ways to help increase whatever visual quality touches they could make to help make the most of short available amount of time. The crew added the snow to the Kazan scene. The tone of filming on the set in that scene carried an air of melancholy and a serious tone in everybody's mood. The idea was that Bond has realized he lives in a cold world with M being his sense of family. They were surrounded by coldness but they had one another to rely upon.
My problem with TND is that, after a near excellent first half, in the second half they seemed to have forgotten that Carver's greatest power is his ability to manipulate the media and world events. EON chickened out again and gave us another shoot 'em up, countdown to explosion finale. This really should have come down to a serious battle of wits (which need not be to the exclusion of action).
Well yeah, it could have been better... but name a Bond movie or two (or three) that's perfect.
It would have been nice if Carver had not been present during the finale. It actually doesn't make much practical sense for him to be there. Then, we could have had a smaller scale showdown between him and Bond, ala Whittaker in TLD. Although, whether that would have worked with the kind of performance Pryce was giving, I'm not sure.
also QOS: why does nobody know who edmund slate is???
I just remember feeling dizzy on my first viewing that by the time Bond was rescuing Camille only to hand her off to a complete stranger (who could have been another SPECTRE agent for all he knew) I felt completely lost. It’s easier to know what’s going on in later viewings, but that first viewing was not a good impression.
I’m so glad EON never took that approach for future films, and was relieved of Sam Mendes bringing back the languid pace that made CR a more pleasant cinematic experience where we can take in the atmosphere of scenes.
Obviously, I love QOS as it is, but that's not to say that some longer scenic and atmospheric shots or longer scenes (eg. Bond and Mathis on the plane) that let things breathe a bit wouldn't have been welcome - they definitely would. But that's because the inclusion of that stuff would've meant that there'd just be even more QOS to love! ;)
You're onto something!
Extended cut would be incredible, if such footage exists.
Oh, it exists. In someone's garage if not in the studio vaults...