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I don’t hate any of those, but they’re not my ideal Alien movies either. I thought Covenant was pretty good. It’s different from The Terminator franchise in that I honestly don’t like any of them after those first two magnificent films, which are untouchable. I defended Salvation for years, but I don’t feel it works for me that much anymore. Haven’t seen Dark Fate yet though.
With Bond, I not only dislike but I detest everything about Die Another Day. It’s the only one where I really feel that way. Even I will admit that junky, unworthy entries like Moonraker, The Man With The Golden Gun and A View To A Kill have moments that I like. Can’t bring myself to entirely hate those ones.
I find Tilly's performance just before she's killed even more shocking.
I don't know if it counts as cringe, but the fact that Felix shows up and explains that he and Ms Galore more or less resolved the plot of the movie offscreen is fairly offensive.
It works especially well for the novel imo. Bond going by train to Fort Knox with Goldfinger and the mafia guys, and seemingly no-one alive in the houses along the tracks (arranged by the CIA), so it seems Goldfinger's plan to kill the town population with poisoned water appears to have succeeded. Highly suspenseful and tragic, at least for the first read.
(and I like it in the film, too)
Right. Behind all of the nastalgia and iconography is a movie with lot more flaws than people like to talk about.
Still a fun romp, of course.
It's been a while, but in the novel, doesn't Bond have a bit more reasonable hope that his message got out? In the film, it's clear to him that it didn't.
But also, the way we see a bunch of apparently staged car accidents is kind of obnoxious. It drives me a bit nuts when things happen in movies that don't really make sense solely for the benefit of the audience, either to trick them, or provide exposition. Once we get to Kentucky, Goldfinger has loads of it.
These are keys for me in not feeling the GF love so many others do. Sure we have the iconic moments, but those hood accents -- "Goldfinguh" -- are distracting. Tania Mallet is wooden in acting and delivery, but not too distracting.
I'll throw in Cec Linder as another main offender, my least favorite Leiter portrayal. Jack Lord's Leiter at least lent some mystery and seemed like a guy who would join Bond on an adventure. Linder not only looks like a typical fed of the day with his baggy suits and Ted Knight Caddyshack hat, but his line deliveries are straight out of a B-movie of the time.
We're on the same page as far as that goes. I like the Rik van Nutter Felix much better, but even he leaves a lot to be desired. I too have wondered what a Young-directed GF would've been like and would include that as one of the great what-ifs of the series.
Many have countered Hamilton's touch contributed in GF becoming a blockbuster that pushed Bond over the top and I don't dispute that. I just prefer the harder edge Young brought and that may have helped enhance my appreciation of the film more.
I'd love to see a Terence Young GF. I actually really love Guy Hamilton and the slight pisstake tone he brings to his movies, but vastly prefer his other three. I know Guy didn't write the script, but watching Bond screw up so much and having the plot resolved offscreen by secondary characters is a bit too much for me personally. It does feel pure Guy Hamilton, and I'm sure those are both aspects that he got quite a kick out of, but the satirical bent, for my money, is done much better in DAF. (LALD and TMWTGG are also very much his wheelhouse, but less deliberately mocking of the franchise, for my money)
Whew - worse than Van Nutter being condescended to by Bond and acting like an idiot who was DESREVING of it? Close one.
I like Rik more than Cec (what the hell is going on with these names), but yeah, he is a bit like the Milhouse to Sean's Bond.
"no 'need-a-bathroom-break or fridge raid' or check messages moment"
I don't worry about bathroom breaks or raiding my fridge for another bottle of wine, even during the highlights of each movie. I've got them all on Blu-ray and simply press "pause" when human needs arise. Other than that, there are ample problems with each the fims at some point, as we all know. I just find the love for Octopussy in this thread particularly striking, since my impression has been since the 80s that it is inferior to its direct competitor, NSNA, and only marginally better than the bottom line of all Bond movies, including for me AVTAK, DAF, TWINE and DAD (in downward order).
I may revisit Octopussy one of these days, but I may be less likely than with other films to hit pause if I have to take a pee.
Pacing issues? LOL, Please. I was thinking blinking pigeons & Space Marines... ;)
Is it clear to him it didn't, in the film? To the audience, yes, but I can't remember it was clear to him.
Sure, I can understand that. Speaking for myself, it doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the movie because I'm much more interested in the overall plot and style than in such 'small details'.
Haha. In that case, no. There aren't any Bond films that have zero moments where I'm a little less-than-enamored. Even the newest films have groaner parts that haven't "aged well" or will ill-conceived.
Yeah, the car comes back and Goldfinger mentions separating his gold from Mr Solo, and Bond seems to know his plan doesn't work. I mean, if he doesn't realize that, he can't be very clever!
Nice post, for those of us whom haven't seen GF very recently...
I think you nail it in this post @marc
I’m not sure films are supposed to be super analysed as we do now. Especially not the 60’s Bond films or the 70’s , 80’s, 90’s or most of the Craig films for that matter.
A film is supposed to entertain us. Thrill us and amaze us. If a film can use and all female flying circus to gas everyone in the vicinity of Fort Knox, whilst a British agent played by a Scotsman is strapped to an atomic device that gets placed within the vault where gold is stacked higher than it could be. Then yes, I’m going along for the ride.
And I’m loving every thrilling minute of it.
Also, did Solo have a private or chartered flight? I'd like to imagine his explanation to commercial airline agents about hauling this amount of gold back to wherever he was returning. Then again, he's got connections, so it wouldn't be too problematic, I suppose.
Yeah, that's how it should be. It's why I never watch those YouTube videos or articles about here's everything wrong with this film or that.
But we'd have a lot less to discuss on boards like this if we didn't have the opportunity to watch these over and over. I've also noticed though that some of the films in the series get more slack than others when it comes to some of these issues.
It's a movie. ;) And it afforded a funny line.
+1.
If one could take a time machine back to the 1960s and inform Broccoli and Saltzman that their films were still being analyzed and watched and rewatched in the 2020s they probably would've been surprised. They were too busy raking in the money with one hit film after another to worry about things like a 1967 Bond telling Henderson he had never been to Japan before while the 1963 Bond mentions being in Tokyo with M or why "Count de Bleauchamp" does not recognize "Sir Hilary Bray" despite the two having met in the previous film.
I don't think there is one single perfect, flawless, "cringe-free" Bond film and that's fine. Usually something that goes wrong in one film is made up for in another and that helps them complement each other.
Oh, I love TLD. I consider it the best Bond film made post-Terence Young.
But even it has an imperfection, i.e. the 2 lead villains Koskov and Whitaker are far from the strongest. The next film LTK strongly corrected that with Sanchez although it had other problems that TLD did not have. But that's just another example of how the films complement each other.