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Yeah you have to think about the financial succes of the franchise. Its the same with european movies in theaters in the usa. most people when they have to read subtitles they rather not go in the theaters - they are lazy. so german is spoken in three countries in middleeurope and has the biggest dubbing companys. these voices and the people behind it, are real stars here.
Here an example of the german dubbing: the skyfall trailer.
clearly i prefer the originals. but i get why they do it and u have to know, they do it well.
Yes indeed, its a miracle and a real joy to watch, mostly Dr. No.. just great
Certainly enjoyed it! It's not always the most exciting Bond adventure, but there are some fine characters in DN, along with a quote-worthy script and a simplistic, engaging plot. Its downsides- action, soundtrack, and cinematography (in some places)- cause it to fall a bit short of where it would like to be, but not enough to cast it down to the bottom feeders.
Spring 2014 Bondathon Ranking
1. GoldenEye
2. License to Kill
3. SkyFall
4. The Man with the Golden Gun
5. Dr. No
6. You Only Live Twice
7. Thunderball
8. The Living Daylights
9. Die Another Day
10. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
11. Moonraker
No matter how many times I watch the introduction to Bond at the casino, I'm always left mesmerized. Sean's delivery is just perfect, and he looks so unbelievably cool. In that moment he cemented himself as the pinnacle of Bond and the most legendary of actors.
One of my favorite parts of DN is when Bond inspects his room for bugs. I love seeing Bond do some detective work, and when he uses that thin slick of hair to test if the hotel's people were rummaging through his luggage is excellence personified. That film just has so much to offer despite it's smaller budget and the fact that it was only the first film in the genre by EON. I wonder what reactions we'd get if we all went back in time to 1962 and told the cast and crew that the film they were making would be only the first film in a long series of Bond adventures that would last well over 50 years. They'd probably laugh us all off. ;)
I've been watching them at a very leisurely pace over the past few weeks. Having watched the Daniel Craig films before, I decided to do the same with the Brosnan movies. Pierce seems to get quite a lot of stick at times, and I wanted to see if it was justified.
First up, Goldeneye.
Now it's no secret that I've never been a huge fan of this film, and though it has grown on me, there's no real change in my opinion of it. It has an almost made for tv feel about it. It takes far too long for the actual story to take off. Trying to be a more hard edged Bond film, and upto date (For 1995), but going back to a villain having a submerged satellite dish in the Cuban jungle. Trevelyan's scheme is fairly weak when you think about it. What does he plan to do with the money he's got in a world of economic ruin?
Pierce plays Bond in a similar manner than he played the character of Mike Graham in the two 'detonator' films. I felt Pierce in Goldeneye was Pierce playing Bond as Pierce Brosnan. Not Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.
Some good stuntwork, and after a six year hiatus it is of course good to have Bond back. But, I still think GE is overrated and as some might think, it did not save the franchise. The series did not need saving. Bonds return with the face of Pierce Brosnan gave the world a new OO7 is all.
Tomorrow Never Dies is believe it or not, a better film than GE for me. I think Pierce really improves in his take on Bond here, and adds more of his own take on the character. As with GE, the villains scheme is preposterous, a trait that all the Brosnan Bond films would suffer. Maybe as much as the producers wanted to make the 90's Bond a little more believable than his 60's and 70's predecessor, they didn't quite succeed.
Now, I like the pace in TND. It moves along at a great speed. Rarely giving you enough time to think about the plot holes. This is pretty much non stop action. But when your story is fairly weak, it's not a huge problem. At least the action is handled well. The finale on the stealth ship will forever be a talking point of the film. Personally I can go along for the ride. If you can't accept the finale now, then you might as well not watch the film in the first place. At least it's set up within the film, rather than being shoe horned in toward the end.
An improvement on the first of Pierce's films then.
The World Is Not Enough, I actually used to like this film a lot more. I felt that Pierce gave a good performance, with a better take on the Bond role. He's more violent and ruthless. Though has a compassionate side. It's not Fleming Bond, but at least Pierce is having a go at giving the character new traits. With this viewing I felt the film dragged. It's almost like you can break the film down into set piece chunks. The pts, the mission briefing and parahawk scene...
Renard could've been a much more interesting villain, but nothing happens with his character. He's the same in the final scene as he is with his introduction. A real waste. Especially for Robert Carlyle, who I 'd hoped would get a more memorable and formidable villains role. Once again the villains plan hinges on the absurd. Villainess Elektra King for some reason goes bad after being kidnapped, and plans to destroy Istanbul in order to make her oil pipeline the only viable option. When questioned by Bond about her plan of action, she replies, 'Don't you see, no one can resist me.'
Really that's it? No wonder Purvis and Wade are ridiculed so much.
There are times when this film shows me hope that it can redeem itself, but on the whole it's a painting by numbers film. Not quite as enjoyable a romp as TND, but enough to keep me happy with the Brosnan Bond films thus far.
And finally onto Die Another Day.
Now, this one really surprised me. Yes it's the most despised of all the Bond films. It gets taken apart on a regular basis on these boards. But I actually enjoyed it this time. So much so, that I would take it off the bottom of my Bond ranking!
I hate the opening surfing scene. Whilst having three surfers on one wave is impressive, I always ask myself the question. Where did they come from? Surfers paddle out from the beach to catch a wave. So where did these agents appear from? Makes no sense at all. The rest of the pts is fine, and quite fun. Certainly upto a typical Brosnan Bond standard. Better I feel than the overlong Thames chase of TWINE, on par with GE and TND openers. Lots of bangs, some nice action. Terrible joke at the end though. It is nice to see Bond captured for once. Something we had at that time, yet to see.
The reason I enjoyed this more was mostly because of Pierce. He's probably at his best in DAD. Yes there are the unforgiveable lines 'I'm going aftaaa him.' But on the whole he gets it right for this film. I got caught up in the fun this time. The invisible car will always be a gadget too far for me. Jumped the shark. But this time, it worked. I know, I cannot believe I'm saying that, but I got taken along for the ride. The whole gene therapy thing, and the yet again crazy villains plan, all sucked me in. Even the ice dragster and the following para-surfing scene didn't make me wince as much. I think only in a Bond film could you try that. Yes the cgi is woeful, but then it is for the rest of the film. Even the battle on the plane wasn't quite as stupid. I even quite liked the ott Gustav Graves. His pantomime sneers and line delivery making it part of the fun.
What is wrong with me?
I'm not going to say I loved it, and it's still a terrible film. But for a popcorn film and a little fun you could do worse. Better I feel than some of the 70's Bond films.
So the Pierce Brosnan films have come to an end. There are times when he's a great Bond. And moments where I will be the first to make fun of his pain face. Sorry Pierce it's a little too much at times. But on the whole I cannot think of a better actor to take Bond through the 90's and early 00's than Pierce. He's hugely likable. Very charismatic, and at times cold enough to be a great Bond. I have to say he's not the strongest in the acting department at times. But I do put some of that blame on the direction and screenwriting.
In an huge turn of opinion on the Pierce films, if I had to rank them, I would go;
TND
DAD
TWINE
GE
That's all folks
I've done that same hair trick to my own closet. It never stuck too long but it did stick for a short time. :)
It's not that terrible. It's still terrible, nobody is denying that, but it's not that terrible. In any case, last night's viewing has kept it off the bottom spot, as nothing gets worse than The Man with the Cheesy Boring Ridiculous Plot.
There are even some things in DAD to enjoy. The PTS is my favourite Brosnan one by far, minus the pointless surfing section at the beginning. Even after the titles, the film is solid enough, and if the whole film had continued with the quality the film has up until Bond leaves Cuba, then it would be middling rather than bottom. Unfortunately the movie then self-destructs with Toby Stephen's awful villain, and the continued appearance of Halle Berry's worse Bond girl. The ice palace is stupid, the CGI is awful, and ANOTHER f*cking space laser? It's getting ridiclous now. The brilliant Rosamund Pike is underused, the awful Toby Stephens is overused, and this is by far Brosnan's worst performance. And who's idea was a god damn invisible car?
So I like the PTS, to an extent the first or so of the movie, Miranda and Zao, and I dislike... well pretty much everything else that turns up on screen.
Thank god we're onto Casino Royale next time.
I especially like your DAD review, particularly about Grave's OTT villainy. Once one gets one's head around his pantomime, grotesque, parodying Bond-esque, it's actually quite good. I quite like this line;
"Oh look! Parachutes for the both of us!"
"Woops! Not any more!"
Same opinion I've always had. The first hour is top-notch stuff. I don't even mind the Ice Palace or the invisible car. It's OTT Bond fun. However, as soon as Zao steps out of that car dressed like a Sith Lord things begin getting more than a little cringe worthy. It's a shame because the set-up really is pretty awesome in that first hour or so. Oh, and Halle Berry as Jinx is quickly becoming my least favorite Bond girl.
Still, it will never be my least favorite. I still like it quite a lot. It has a lot of energy and Brosnan gives quite possibly his best performance.
I recently watched GoldenEye.
It had been at least 5/6 years since I last watched it and despite some pacing flaws, I still really enjoyed watching it.
I can't help but shout from the rooftops at how wonderful Famke is as Xenia Onatopp. There's something about her performance that I adore. Perhaps it's that sadomasochism thing.
However, I still wasn't entirely convinced with Trevelyan as the villain. Not a knock at Bean's performance but overall it seems a little ''whatever''.
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Enjoy yourself. :-)
Even though GoldenEye is my favorite Bond movie, I get that feeling every now and again with Trevelyan- I think he's a fantastic villain "nine times out of ten", but there are instances where I doubt his villainy. Some of it might have to do with his line delivery, which occasionally sounds over-the-top.
I think it's a shame because his normal voice sounds so much better.
I agree. It could have been a great contrast to Bond's accent too.
Absolutely spot on. It's one of the reasons I'm not a fan of Trevelyan. I'm guessing because the producers may have worried that American audiences could have had a hard time understanding his native Yorkshire accent. How patronising to American audiences is that??
Actually this brings up an interesting point: has there ever been an English character in a Bond film that doesn't speak with an RP accent? Off the top of my head the only ones I can think of are Connery's Bond* (Scottish) Brosnan's Bond (weird mix of Irish and English with some Americanisms) and the bloke on the tube platform in Skyfall (cockney).
Time for some representation I think. Let the yanks and everybody else know that we don't all sound like that ;)
*I know Bond is actually half Scottish half Swiss but he was raised in England, he went to school in England and he lives in England so I'm counting him as an English character. And since he lives in London, he's a southerner.
I can only think of Ruby from OHMSS, who has a lanky accent (albeit still quite RP). And Lisl von Schlaf (scouse, apparently).
The milkman and the Chef at Blayden in TLD.
"Dear god, I want to rip into the poor woman but I feel bad for her".
I had rather mixed feelings about LALD this time around, and I'm not sure quite why....
I used to absolutely love it- in fact, it was my longstanding #2 Bond movie until License to Kill knocked it out of that position. I'm almost upset over the fact that LALD has slipped with me, hahaha, but I suppose the passage of time changes opinions even unintentionally.
It's not that I hated it, because I know I could never hate it- it's certainly better than that, but I begin to doubt whether or not it should be included in the Top Ten, which frightens me, because I've usually always placed it in the Top Ten for as long as I can remember. Still though, I wasn't too pleased on this viewing.
It truly all came down to one little nagging thought- there's almost NO PLOT. We've all drawn the many parallels between DN and LALD: Bond solving a detective-like mystery of the deaths of MI6 agents, Quarrel and Quarrel Jr. being allies, Felix taking a more than active role in the assignment, the Caribbean as a location, the only two Bond movies where Bond's house is shown, and the lack of Q in both- however, whereas DN had a plot that went forward with each passing minute, LALD is kind of all over the map, without a definite sense of direction. We start off great, with three mysterious deaths and M explaining that all three were MI6 agents; we are set up very nicely with a mystery plot in which Bond is supposed to find out the connection between these three deaths. Even so, whereas DN really rode with this plot all the way up to Dr. No's big reveal, LALD takes a bunch of crazy side roads that distract from its primary focus. I felt this the most with the scenes on San Monique. That's easily the most boring part of the movie for me- everything from Bond and Rosie chartering Quarrel Jr.'s boat up to Bond and Solitaire's escape from the island is just not entertaining, and even then, that airport chase sequence following this is equally lame. The movie really picks up again when Strutter gets killed by the funeral parade, and subsequently, the plot gets back on track, for the most part. The crocodile farm is another brief sidestep, but it at least provides a nifty stunt and a flashy escape for our hero.
Even if the plot does get slightly back on track at that point in the movie, there's still not much of a plot at all. What we start with- the deaths of the three British agents- is not explained, and if it is, it wasn't done in a way where I would remember it. Kananga never goes into his reasoning for the killings of Dawes, Hamilton, and Baines. We're left wondering why Bond was even dispatched in the first place if, apparently, his colleagues' deaths are inconsequential. What is explained is rather lame and uninspiring- Kananga wants to make his street friends become heroine addicts by selling it for free, and then put a hefty price on it once they have become addicted. Okay.....? I mean yeah, that will eventually be a threat to security and safety once the drug supply hits the streets, but it's nothing the CIA and Louisiana/New York State Police can't handle. In other words, it's not exactly an extravagant "Bond Villain Plot". As a result, and combined with the fact that there are way too many side roads taken to distract us from the overall plot, there's this sense of zero fulfillment and a lack of purpose. On an unrelated side note, anyone else highly dissatisfied with that pitiful "fight" between Bond and Baron Samedi? Good grief....what a waste.
Also, did I mention the numerous plot holes? Bond "killing one of the brothas up in Harlem"? Uhh, Bond didn't kill anyone in Harlem, unless you count that goon he knocked out with the ladder in the alley, which in no way could have been fatal. How about Rosie trying to put Quarrel Jr. at gunpoint? If she was a double agent in the CIA, wouldn't she have known Quarrel Jr., since she evidently knew Felix? What was her point in holding up Quarrel Jr.? If she wanted to do anything productive, she would have just shot him and Bond and taken the boat back to San Monique where Kananga could congratulate her on some actual competence. And, as already mentioned before, why were the three MI6 agent deaths never explained by Kananga? There always seem to be pretty glaring plot holes in the Guy Hamilton Bond movies, unfortunately.
Overall, I don't hate LALD at all, or even dislike it for that matter. However, I won't be placing it in the Top Ten in these current rankings. I can certainly say that it's slipped for me, tragically.
Spring 2014 Bondathon Ranking
1. GoldenEye
2. License to Kill
3. SkyFall
4. The Man with the Golden Gun
5. Dr. No
6. You Only Live Twice
7. Thunderball
8. The Living Daylights
9. Live and Let Die
10. Die Another Day
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12. Moonraker
Tomorrow Never Dies
The action is great but obviously serves to make up for the weak plot.
Brosnan appears to be a lot more comfortable in his role and Wai Lin is a great ally.
I wish there could have been more involvement of M. That annoyed me at how underused she was in this.
Apart from his psychopathic nature, nothing really struck me about Elliot Carver being the villain of the movie. Again that is possibly down to the weak plot.
I laughed at Carver's henchmen beating up Bond and not a scratch on him in the hotel scene right after.
The World Is Not Enough
I have to say that the boat chase scene is still pretty fantastic to watch. (aside from Bond's boat on dry land part)
I couldn't help notice that there are some scenes that feel completely off, for example, the scene with 'Q' and the gadgets feels unbearably hokey and in some regards this sets the movie back a step or two compared to GE and TND.
Renard is quite weak, compared to his profile of being this 'invincible man' and yet we're only really shown this in scenes where he has to resort to self harm to get the point across.
Also, horrible ending.
I'm afraid to say that it will probably end up in the same spot for me once I finish up this particular Bondathon- I remember it slipping for me about two years ago, but I always tried to force myself to enjoy it more than I did and keep it in the Top Ten; this time, however, I just couldn't do it.
Don't know why I punish myself like this, but there had to some reason for watching (Jill Saint John). In the simplest terms, it's a mess of a movie. Few redeeming qualities, and only the aformentioned St John (character) and Wint and Kidd make this any kind of worthwhile viewing experience
Lousy PTS, Connery looking less interested than Goldfinger (if possible) and a pale imitation of the greatness of less than a decade previous. Lazenby should of had this one with the Tracy angle brought in, but all we get is some lame-ass plot about laser satellites and Bond messing around in the Nevada desert. It's almost embarrassing to have this included in the James Bond franchise
3 out of 10 and that's being generous. The next release would be a mammoth improvement