Is 'For Your Eyes Only' the most boring James Bond film?

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  • Creasy47 wrote: »
    I didn't say anything about wanting a different movie. I just don't think your explanation here tracks.

    I do think, now that I've been opened to the sort of missing and heated discussion about what revenge does, it would've been interesting to see that attempt in FYEO, but I love it for what it is and it's my favorite of Moore's era.

    Same here.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    Posts: 3,800
    Indeed, but anyway, since it's been an interesting discussion, let's save all of our thoughts in @thedove's missed opportunities thread when we get to FYEO.
  • edited December 2023 Posts: 1,462
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Melina's so innocent that she managed to infiltrate a highly guarded compound and snipe a man diving into a pool with a crossbow.

    She doesn't have licence to kill. She is a random woman and she spoils his mission. She is losing her innocence too.

  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited December 2023 Posts: 6,393
    Carole Bouquet is of course lovely but she is so miscast opposite Roger Moore. Very little romantic chemistry (which is the case with many Moore films). Imagine if Lisl had been the main Bond girl--better, right?
  • Posts: 1,462
    echo wrote: »
    Carole Bouquet is of course lovely but she is so miscast opposite Roger Moore. Very little romantic chemistry (which is the case with many Moore films). Imagine if Lisl had been the main Bond girl--better, right?

    Imagine a younger Bond. :D
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,703
    echo wrote: »
    Carole Bouquet is of course lovely but she is so miscast opposite Roger Moore. Very little romantic chemistry (which is the case with many Moore films). Imagine if Lisl had been the main Bond girl--better, right?

    Imagine a younger Bond. :D

    How about, Pierce Brosnan? :)
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,624
    echo wrote: »
    Carole Bouquet is of course lovely but she is so miscast opposite Roger Moore. Very little romantic chemistry (which is the case with many Moore films).

    I always think she's rather miscast just in the role of a Greek lady.
    "Thay keeled ma parontz!" :D
    echo wrote: »
    Imagine if Lisl had been the main Bond girl--better, right?

    She's a bit too silly for the main lead, but I agree there's a quite tangible, quite grown-up warmth between the two of them. The night he spends with her, and the walk on the beach in the morning, is one of the most surprisingly romantic trysts in any of the Bond films.
    It's quite hard to imagine Connery's colder, shallower Bond in those scenes with Lisl.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    Posts: 3,800
    I actually think that Ornella Muti would've been more fitting for Melina (she's once considered for the role).
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,491
    Funny how Carole Bouquet was only 2 years older than Holly Lynn Johnson! Yet Bond is robbing the cradle with Bibi and with Melina it's more age appropriate. Bond was 30 years older than both women. Which is crazy when you think of it. Admittedly Melina was played as an old soul and Bibi was more a youthful teen, but still you can see the obvious age difference between Roger and both women in the film.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited December 2023 Posts: 3,800
    thedove wrote: »
    Funny how Carole Bouquet was only 2 years older than Holly Lynn Johnson! Yet Bond is robbing the cradle with Bibi and with Melina it's more age appropriate. Bond was 30 years older than both women. Which is crazy when you think of it. Admittedly Melina was played as an old soul and Bibi was more a youthful teen, but still you can see the obvious age difference between Roger and both women in the film.

    Yes, that's why I think Dalton should've been in this, it's obvious that this was written with a new and young actor in mind.
    Then yes for Bouquet (who thankfully I'm not alone in seeing how miscast was she, beautiful though, but also added to that was her stiff acting, and no chemistry with Moore; well as usual with his female leads), I wished it's Ornella Muti who played the role instead with Dalton as the opposite lead.
  • I love FYEO apart from the silly Margaret Thatcher and Parrot interface scene!
  • LucknFateLucknFate 007 In New York
    edited December 2023 Posts: 1,676
    I love FYEO apart from the silly Margaret Thatcher and Parrot interface scene!

    I recently showed that to my friend who is not into Bond, and he laughed and was shocked something like it was ever in a Bond movie and is now even more curious about them, to be fair.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,491
    "Thatcher isn't for everyone." says Mr. White while watching people react to the ending of FYEO! LOL!

    It would have been more in place in MR but I don't think Margaret was elected yet. Interesting that earlier in the film doesn't Freddie Gray say "she'll have our guts for garters" referring to the female PM? Seems Wilson and Maibaum were trying to reflect reality in their script and play off the new PM.
  • Posts: 1,927
    FoxRox wrote: »
    I wouldn’t call any Bond film boring in a collective sense, especially not FYEO for me. Personally, the one that tends to bore me the most is TWINE.

    I support this view. Felt that way since my first viewing in '99 when my friend turned to my and said "No superlatives."
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    Personally FYEO is my favourite Moore Bond. I could see how in the gamut of Moore Bond films it could appear boring, but, for me, Octopussy is the most boring Bond film.
  • Posts: 1,394
    I think Skyfall is the most boring Bond film.
  • brinkeguthriebrinkeguthrie Piz Gloria
    Posts: 1,400
    DAF. Not even close.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,393
    It's funny because I don't find DAF boring at all. Sloppy, sure. An insult to OHMSS, of course. A hot mess, absolutely. But never boring.

    The one I most dread putting on, because it's so boring, is TMWTGG. But TND is up there too.
  • Posts: 7,507
    I think the original claim is outright absurd. FYEO have tons going for it. Great Bond film and Moore's best.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,265
    jobo wrote: »
    I think the original claim is outright absurd. FYEO have tons going for it. Great Bond film and Moore's best.

    I agree, @jobo. Here's where I'm at with Moore:
    His best Bond film: FYEO
    His most fun Bond film: TSWLM
    He looked best as Bond in: MR
  • Posts: 7,507
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    jobo wrote: »
    I think the original claim is outright absurd. FYEO have tons going for it. Great Bond film and Moore's best.

    I agree, @jobo. Here's where I'm at with Moore:
    His best Bond film: FYEO
    His most fun Bond film: TSWLM
    He looked best as Bond in: MR

    Probably a fair analysis. His best performance was FYEO in my opinion.
  • Posts: 7,624
    echo wrote: »
    It's funny because I don't find DAF boring at all. Sloppy, sure. An insult to OHMSS, of course. A hot mess, absolutely. But never boring.

    The one I most dread putting on, because it's so boring, is TMWTGG. But TND is up there too.

    I think both DAF and TMWTGG start off really well, but struggle in the latter stages to keep your attention!
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,361
    In a world where NTTD exists, FYEO is anything BUT boring.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,265
    I don't think any Bond film is boring. TWINE comes closest for me, and even that one is far from boring. I have yet to see a boring Bond film.
  • JonasTJonasT Washington
    Posts: 10
    Though I've not liked a Bond since The World is Not Enough, the only one I've ever stopped watching and watched the rest later was Quantum.
    FYEO isn't boring its just by design not boombastic
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,221
    I must admit, sometimes I tune out during the 'Baby is asleep' scene of GF.
  • Posts: 2,029
    There are no boring Bond films, even among those I don't care for. However, there are plenty of sequences throughout the entire Bond series that are misfires, none more egregious than the wheelchair scene in FYEO. That opening puts me off the entire film because it emphasizes what I dislike most about the Moore era. It's cheap nonsense humor well-suited for Moore's caricature of Bond. (My opinion, not those of his legions of fans and record box office receipts.)
  • Posts: 7,624
    CrabKey wrote: »
    There are no boring Bond films, even among those I don't care for. However, there are plenty of sequences throughout the entire Bond series that are misfires, none more egregious than the wheelchair scene in FYEO. That opening puts me off the entire film because it emphasizes what I dislike most about the Moore era. It's cheap nonsense humor well-suited for Moore's caricature of Bond. (My opinion, not those of his legions of fans and record box office receipts.)

    I think if you take out the silly dialogue, and Bond patting the bald head, ( a very unconvincing bald wig, would the stuntman not shave his head for the part?) It would work better, it is a spectacular shot of him being dropped down the chimney stack, and nice fade into the titles. I'm not sure how else they could have ended the sequence?
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,265
    I wish the PTS had been more tonally equivalent to the rest of the film. FYEO is, IMO, a strong Cold War thriller with a great Roger Moore as Bond, but the film starts with the opening titles. The PTS is a teaser and (justified) finger to McClory.
  • Posts: 7,507
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    I must admit, sometimes I tune out during the 'Baby is asleep' scene of GF.

    Same. It drags.
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