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Comments
MR is 100X better than DAD but is ruined not so much by the space stuff, rather by the silliness/cheap slapstick.
The photography is lovely (some of the best in the series) but the silliness...urgh!!
MR's locations and cinematography are easily the best thing about the movie. No question, agreed.
You do know its a James Bond Film right? i mean please explain how Roger Moore's Bond could fly a rocket with no experience? or how Craig could survive a fall out of a plane with no parachute?
Bless you good sir, bless you!! We need more Brosnan fans around here! I myself am a HUGE Brosnan supporter! GoldenEye is my favorite Bond movie of all time!
I sat through all of TWINE just today. It's got it's moments (the boat chase, the scenes in the scottish castle, Bond's early scenes with Marceau, Bond smarming his way through the casino, Robbie Coltrane, the scene between M and Renard) but is somewhat average overall. It's ok though (I enjoyed it a bit more than MWTGG which was on straight before).
Last time I saw DAD I literally turned it off just after Bond surfed the wave.
Strange because Brosnan is actually better and more consistant in DAD. TWINE, for all it's flaws at least doesn't "jump the shark" so to speak.
Best pre credits sequence, a decent, no good, theme intro from Garbage, Brosnan redeemed himself from the awful mess of Tomorrow Never Dies, looked plausible, there wasn't so much humor as before or his last feature, an appearance of the great British actor Carlyle, lots of interesting locations and there's so much to get involved in. Only spoilt by a horrendous Denise Richards and a rather dull and forgettable finale on the submarine, but up to then, it's a great viewing pleasure
Once again, worst Brosnan Bond movies
#1 Tomorrow Never Dies
#2 Die Another Day
#3 Goldeneye
#4 TWINE
my ranking of Brosnan movies from favorite to least favorite:
1. Tomorrow Never Dies
2. Goldeneye
3. (tie) The World is Not Enough
3. (tie) Die Another Day
While Goldeneye is widely accepted as Brosnan's best, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would . Compared to TND the pacing was off in my mind--too many peaks and troughs. Also, I don't consider either TWINE or DAD bad Bond movies by any means. In fact when I first say DAD when I was much younger I immediately thought of it as the best modern Bond film. That was before I realized that it was more of a video game than a movie.
And I can't be the only one that hates TND: weak villain, weak dialogue, a terrible Teri Hatcher, over the top commercial tie-ins (which is something people seem to forget: it has always been part of the Bondmovies, and it was the worst in Brosnan's, not Craig's), Carver' silly dance, the wrong choice for title song (I do like the rest of the soundtrack, though.)
TWINE has a great main villain, but is ruined by the over the top action, John Cleese & Denise Richards.
DAD is the series Batman & Robin, but it starts very promising. Alas, it turns into a disaster soon: Halle Berry, invisible car, comical tributes, John Cleese, extremely bad CGI and weak villains.
4. Die Another Day
Up until the Antonov climax, I really, really enjoyed it, well not the ice dragster bit, but anyway. And during the Antonov climax…meh. (Have any of you seen James and the Giant Peach? When the ice dragster goes off the glacier, that’s what it reminds me of. Anyway, I digress). ((They just have well used a carrot, attached to a bit of string for that sequence!))
Where was I? Ah yes… It’s still rooted at No 20 in my rankings, but like Moonraker before it, it’s gone up in my expectations.
The Bad
• Corny dialogue “psychedelic light mask!”
• Zao is an appalling henchman. There have been weak henchman, Scarpine springs to mind, but not this bad, plus he’s in an awful lot of the movie.
• Bad CGI (CGI should not be in a Bond movie, period. Even if it’s done well)
• Bad puns
• Speed up editing. I think they called it speed ramping; stop it!
• Halle Berry degenerates into one of the most disappointing Bond girls.
• Invisible Cars
• The plot is circa 1971
The Good
• Berry starts up with an intriguing character.
• The Pikelet
• The first half an hour is up there with the best of the series, and the first half is up there with the rest of the Brosnan tenure,
• The production values
• The music. I know its techno driven, but it gives a certain chutzpah to the film. (I used to listen to “Hovercraft Chase” before 5-a-side football, at school, to get me in the mood).
• Bond going rouge in a novel fashion, trying to redeem himself.
• Main titles given us a glimpse of Bond torture.
• Raoul is a great little ally, and General Moon gives some presence to his character.
• The action is kick ass.
• Especially the sword fight, which isn’t ruined by some bud puns. Classic 007
• Sentimental scene with the Quartermaster.
• The scenes with Bond and M crackle with tension.
• Graves’ sneering villainy. Previously I’d have said this was a pastiche, a parody on Bond villainy, but as Graves’ comments Bond made a lasting impression on him, so really it was Moon/Graves imitation of Bond persona.
• The Moonraker novel provided inspiration for the screenplay.
• “I’m just here for the birds”. Love Brosnan’s delivery of this line. (I always used to say the dialogue between Jinx and Bond was a poor attempt of the flirtatious banter, a’la the 1960’s. But lets take it in context; Bond has just gotten out of prison, he’s desperate for some, um, female companionship, should we say. He implies his chats up lines were too strong, but Jinx says she could like it.
• Last, but not least, Pierce Brosnan, who at his fourth attempt, seemed to have nailed his performance. He’s got a swagger in this film; he seems much more comfortable in the role. I felt he had one more film in him, so it’s a shame to end his tenure of such a bad line; “Especially when you’re bad”. Oh Pierce…
Die Another Day has a great first half, and sub-par second half, symptomatic with the rest of Brosnan’s era. The first half of his movies had so much potential, but played it safe with loud bangs and not very good boner gags.
6.5
(20)
3. GoldenEye
A greatest hits Bond film that launched our venerable hero into the nineties. There really is a lot to enjoy with this one, namely a superb primary cast and a very strong script.
Indeed this script helps anchor GoldenEye’s more fantastical elements, allowing for some rare moments of introspection. The script also cleverly asks Bond to validate himself in the post cold war era, something he achieves with aplomb.
There are a few quibbles; some of the action scenes need trimming, while Boris gets far too much screentime, especially for such an annoying and superfluous character.
8
(14)
2. Tomorrow Never Dies
I felt TND was a more complete, poised film in comparison to GE. The cinematography was much, much better than was the case in the preceding film. A neat updating of You Only Live Twice’s plot, and with recent events, so topical. Sleek, sophisticated and thrilling. The accent is on high tech, sleek thrills, and the film delivers it in spades. Kudos must go to Spottiswoode, who betrays his background as a film editor delivering a brisk film. A quick word for Mr Brosnan, who, builds upon his good work in GE, with a more composed and confident performance as Bond.
The negatives, then, alas;
The final ending on board the Stealth Boat, as many people have said, is too “Rambo-Terminator-esque” for my tastes, abandoning the good script in favour of more bullets, more action.
Teri Hatcher was boring. To get under Bond's skin, I expect her to have "something" about her. She didn't.
Still there's plenty to enjoy, namely;
The whole PTS; Bond doing what he does best – effective and so very deadly.
Bond “brushing up on a little Danish”
I don't know if this was a reaction to the underwhelming score by Serra, but I was glad to hear Arnold's music, even if he over-scores a tiny bit.
Carver was an absolute, megalomaniacal nutter.
Wai Lin is the best of Bond's “comrade in arms”
The gadget's were very neat.
Brosnan and the killing of the Doctor was exceptional
Brosnan, clad in his white shirt, complete with gun holster, awaiting the assassin. A'la Dr No.
The subsequent seduction between Bond and Paris was erotic.
8.5
(11)
1. The World Is Not Enough
I just don't why this film has such a bad reputation round these parts. Surely my sentimental feeling towards this film (it was my first time seeing Bond on the big screen), has blinded me to the obvious?
Sophie Marceau is sexy and seductive, Robert Carlyle evokes genuine pity, and The Brozz turns in a supremely elegant and dangerous performance as Bond, plus the overall premise is inspired and all the Bondian attributes abound and in novel fashion.
Now in light of objectivity, I shall point out some of the film's flaws...
The more emotional nature of the script allows for some unintentional melodrama. (Primarily the scene between Bond and M in Scotland and the scene where Bond confronts Elektra.). I always imagined Bond being more still, in the two aforementioned scenes. Brosnan is too animated in those particular scenes. Fleming wrote that Bond is precise in his movements, decisive and economical. He wouldn’t have acted like that. Just my two cents worth.
It sounds like I'm being too hard on The Brozz, but he's my childhood Bond, and he carries a special place in my heart.
To balance out, then, here are some moments in which Pierce Bronsan is just so smegging cool;
The ways he takes out the goons in the Banker's office
Sorting out the heavy, gaining access to Zukovsky's office
During the buzz-saw helicopter attack, Bond opens a trap-door, pushes a goon away, and fires straight up, through the floor, to a second goon.
Human shield in the sub.
9.5
(3!)
I totally agree with your points and ranking. As horrendous Denise Richards may be, she's just (good) eye candy in the movie.
TND is worse to you than DAD?! We truly have gone to the madhouse folks...
I found at time of writing that I felt TND was the worst of the foursome, but now that I think about it, possibly DAD could be even worse
All I know is, they are two Bond releases I basically fail to recognize, lame, lousy releases, Tomorrow Never Dies' biggest flaw is that it is so damn boring, while Die Another Day falls short, simply in that it is - a 'muddled, implausible mess'
Both movies have some redeeming features, but the fact of the matter is, they can swap places as often as I see fit, but any watchings of these two releases now, are very few and far between. Brosnan had the potential to do another great Bond release in 1997 but the end product was a mundane disaster for me
An acknowledgment also, to @Royale65 for typing all the above out... Effort noted
I wanted to like it but just can't.
I have the same idea. The World is Not Enough is my second favourite Brosnan flick and probably somewhere in my top 10, believe it or not. I just get a real kick out of it. Just don't start talking about Christmas coming early... oh wait, it's October so Christmas is everywhere right now ;)
Tomorrow Never Dies is solid. There's nothing spectacular about it, everything's done with an amount of style that many films in the same genre lack. For Bond, however, it's by the numbers, but it gets the job done.
The World is Not Enough is another good entry for me. It tries something new. It doesn't entirely work but there's some really neat moments and the PTS is superb. It only loses its way in the final quarter. The submarine climax lacks any tension and lets the film down majorly, despite the exceptionally good Bond/Elektra scene beforehand.
Die Another Day's problems have been well documented. Campy villain, too many sex jokes, phoned in Halle Berry performance, bad CGI and wasted initial premise. It's the least satisfying Brosnan Bond film, but I've never understood why people label it a bad film in general. There's far worse out there.
But the short answer....Die Another Day.
M was used more, but it was different and original then. The PTS is maybe the best of the entire series, there's the great last scene with the original Q, Renard is a decent villian, Elektra is a great Bond girl/villian, the theme is great and is used through the film, and there's some cool action.
Ricards was just there to look hot and she did a pretty good job of it. I don't get the complaining about her playing a scientist, what do you want them to do, cast a real one?
My one problem with TWINE is I would've liked it to focus more on Bond trying to kill Renard instead of his relationship with Elektra.
@00Beast - oh, I forgot that one! Done...
TWINE shows us almost as much as GE how good his era could've been. And Elektra has always been in my top 10 Bondvillain-list.
Apart from Craig's series, it's still Judi Dench's best performance as M I think.