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Yes, me too. Thank God for MB!
Robert Carlyle is practically a household name in the States these days, due to his role on "ONCE UPON A TIME". Actually, I would love to see him portray a Bond villain right now.
Okay . . . so you've never seen "ONCE UPON A TIME" before. Despite the fact that it has been one of the top shows on TV since its debut in October 2011. However . . . Carlyle is a big name in the States these days, along with the rest of the main cast for "ONCE UPON A TIME". I'm not exaggerating.
Not as stupid as the one in Casino Royale thats for sure!
Say what you like about The Man With The Golden Gun, but it is Moore's last youthful Bond. At times he looks in his late 30s, as young as Fleming's character. That and a youthful villain, and the dynamic is not unlike that of a Craig film. However, within three years he's aged a decade and could only really pass for late 40s in The Spy Who Loved Me. This went unnoticed at the time as those surrounding him - Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewellyn and so on have got older too, and Curt Jurgens is white haired.
As if aware of this, Moore seems to be looking to David Niven for inspiration, and he certainly had that charming ageing playboy vibe in The Pink Panther. While with his first two films I can only imagine Connery saying many of the lines better, in this one I can imagine Niven doing it better, in particular his dialogue with Barbara Bach. That said, Moore does come across as a bit sleazy; Niven was like Macnee in that he was very much the gentleman, though he was a philanderer in real life. All the same, though he no longer looks young, this is a real movie star performance from Moore and he is at ease on the big screen.
The film gets in credit early on with, personal preferences aside, the best PTS of the series followed by the best song. You then get arguably the best henchman, best car, best villain hq x 2. Perhaps we have Kevin McClory to thank, as his mooted Thunderball remake encouraged EON to up its game and deliver an all out water-based Bond classic that would outflank any Warhead. And they succeeded, not least to the inspired addition of KGB agent Triple X. That said, though she is meant to be as smart as Bond, despite this or because of it, Moore's Bond is just as sexist, though maybe this was forgiveable at the time because the KGB and Soviet Russia were very much the enemy back then, and with good reason, so Bond's obnoxiousness was based on that.
For all that, I do find the movie a bit flat. Not sure why. It could be because Moore is a flat actor still, so is Bach and so is Jurgens, who never livens the film up or delivers anything other than a standard performance. Kiel, however, is genuinely frightening and Bach is genuinely erotic, which lends the film a stirringly visceral and tacky Hammer horror exploitation feel to it. Generally, if I tune into this film after the great pts and song, I do find it hard to warm to.
Thats true now you mention it.
Totally agree. I went as far as saying I prefer NSNA (the competing 1983 Bond) for this very reason. Vijay playing the Bond theme on a flute to signal Bond over? So he knows he has a theme???
I have to agree, Connery's first two films are his best. They descend in quality from there on.
Last one I saw was Tomorrow never dies. Atrocious.
Moore is great in it, though, as is Lee. And that ship MI6 base is my favorite of the "mobile HQs" in the series, by far.
It is now very clear to me that Connery reached his peak with DN and FRWL. GF is a big step back for him. I had never noticed this before but Connery looks weird in the PTS when he's pouring the nitroglicerin on the heroine. It's maybe the lighting of his haircut but he doesn't look at all like the alpha male I saw in the previous 2 films. I also think some scenes and actions are contrary to Connery's Bond. When he looks full of fear when he's strapped on the table with the laser, for instant. I am not saying Bond would never show fear, but in FRWL when he was on his knees and was facing certain death from Grant, he stayed calm and kept trying to anger Grant. There was not an ounce of resignation or even fear in him, he was going to go down with a fight and his honour intact. Also, when he gives his name to Tilly and she cuts him first. Firstly, Bond in DN and FRWL just oozes sophistication and suaveness, and shoving his name like that felt force and not very cool. Secondly, if anyone, let alone a woman, had cut off Bond's sentence in DN/FRWL would have been beaten to a pulp. We are talking about a Bond which even while sitting down can give orders to people and they'd comply immediately. I also wonder what on earth does Guy Hamilton have against car chases? In the one at Auric's factory he puts an old lady firing a machine gun, and in the 2nd half he has the most useless car chase ever seen on film where Oddjob takes Solo for a spin, only to kill him in a death so elaborate it actually felt retarded, only to take him back to Auric's farm. Couldn't they just have killed him with the other gansgters and avoid all of this? This same Hamilton who directed DAF with the mose famous goof in the entire franchise (car on wrong wheels), and then in TMWTGG he has an epic stunt, only to put a slide whistle sound effect on it, which made the stunt laughable for almost everyone. And the whole plot made no sense at the end. If I understand well, Connery seduced Pussy Galore, that made her switch the gas cannisters. Now, Felix Leiter tells Bond 'what made her change the cannisters', and Bond reacts as if he didn't know his seducing had worked. Now, if he didn't know, he then didn't tell Felix the cannisters were changed, so why on earth did the entire armed force fell asleep? Surely they expected the lethal gas, but if it was 'harmless', why did they fake to pass out? This whole scene was epic the first time I saw it as a kid, but as I grow older is just doesn't make any sense and seems like they pulled some things out of a hat to finish the film.
TB is a step up from GF, Connery is back to his commanding, suave, alpha male status. However, the plot also seems convulated. The mission is 2 nuclear bombs stolen and could explode anywhere... and it's forgotten immediately. There is no sense of eminent danger from this epic threat. Bond spends the film bedding women, chucking out one liners (which were great, don't get me wrong), there was no allusions to the upcoming catastrophe. And the finale... Impressing water ballet but it gets tedious after a while. And Barry annoyed me too. His soundtrack is very hypnotic which suits the film perfectly, but I didn't like the music during the large scale end battle. It was already tedious to see, and Barry continues his hypnotic music instead of going bombastic like the PTS fight, so I kept waiting for Bond to save the day. And the story falls flat on it's face when that guy tells Domino that he threw the detonators in the sea, so now there is no threat anymore.
What a wonderful appraisal of one of the finer James Bond movies. Doctor No is often over looked by the younger fans (Forgive me for possibly placing the young ones in the same pool) as it is not full of action or gadgets. It has a story. With great characters and excellent acting. Sean Connery owns this movie. And movie history was made.
Barry is a god but his action score in the TB climax is very wearing and tinny. Contrast with the music in the pts or bobsleigh in OHMSS, you almost wish they could redub that over it, it feels and sounds so much better.
Except for the Karate Nieces whipping the hell out of an entire karate school--precursor to Rambette, Wai Lin--I enjoyed the action. The car chase--alas, somewhat marred by the slide whistle--was well done, and I thought the Saida punch-up was also quite good.
Regarding Goodnight, she was an intentionally dumb blonde bimbo, and I thought Eklund was convincing in the role. Certainly not my favorite Bond girl, but she at least puts XXX, Christmas Jones and Jinx to shame.
The worst aspect of the movie, IMO, was the title track and the credits. Naff. Just plain naff.
Bond in GF does mirror the Beatles, despite his sideswipe, as it is post-Profumo and Colonel Smithers seems to exemplify the old order, an old fool whose pretentious waffling ('unauthorised leakages') is tersely translated by Bond 'I take it you mean smuggling'. The old boy even shows up in the train scene in A Hard Day's Night, guyed by the Fabs.
Also, Connery looks different - didn't he have some surgery so he has less of an overbite, before GF? His face looks less Frank Sinatra-like, he does look more handsome imo.