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I don't go to the movies anymore. Only rare occasions like a new Bond film can make going to the cinema worth it. I'll happily wait the extra 4-5 months until a film is available for purchase.
In the case of SP I can't blame people as much for checking their smartphones. Even I had to check more than once how much more was left of the film - on my wristwatch, of course.
With a pull-out garrotte? That would be useful…
Huh?
As per Grant,FRWL,Torg...wake up boy !! ;)
He is just playing innocent.
:))
To be honest, I didn't catch that one. I blame the sudden warmer weather!
My broader theory on the movie still holds up, which is that it's a doubly-failed attempt to hit the perfect balance between questioning and exemplifying the traditional elements of Bond. GoldenEye, Casino Royale, and Skyfall succeeded because they were compelling spy capers with thrilling setpieces and cutting one-liners that still made you wonder what made Bond tick and why he lived such a miserable life.
Spectre, on the other hand, has a languid plot and leans too hard on the jokes, and the attempts to make it deep are obviously tacked on and never cohere into a central thesis, or even an interesting question. M thinks that surveillance is bad, if it's overused, Madeline protests that Bond has a choice to continue in this life, whatever that could mean, and Bond briefly feels wistful about Vesper and M.
And then there's the attempt to make Craig's movie into a cohesive whole, which is perfectly fine in theory (it's where CR and Quantum of Solace were clearly going) but downright offensive in practice. Who thought Silva needed to be involved? And who on Earth thought "Blofeld is mad that Bond got too much of his dad's attention?" was a compelling motive? Who?! That, more than the flat jokes and halfhearted attempts at depth, sinks the movie.
The actual plot of the movie, beyond Blofeld's ridiculous quest for revenge, is a mess. They knew that Bond just chasing Blofeld off a random tip wasn't up to snuff and any Bond needs an evil plot, but they chose one that was almost completely unconnected to the rest of the story and is resolved, therefore, completely separately from the conflict between Bond and Blofeld.
C (I still don't get that joke (the name, not M calling him a c**t)) gets only the teeniest bit of characterization, when he insults democracy (see the bit about depth above) and has apparently formed a tactical alliance with Blofeld. Surely they would turn on each other when Nine Eyes is activated, that might have been an interesting plot to explore. And the buildup of Nine Eyes (the attack, the vote, the home secretary shuttering the 00 program) happens almost entirely off screen and is defeated solely through dramatic typing on the part of Q. That's quite the mess they got themselves into.
But that's enough criticism for right now, let's talk about the positives. The movie has quite a few great individual scenes. The PTS is a rollicking bit of action, and the Day of the Dead parade is a wonderful use of local culture in the Bondian tradition. The Spectre meeting in Rome is creepy as only Bond can be, and the car chase is pure class (a couple of the jokes there are dumb, but I can let them slide). Bond's confrontation with Mr. White is the only time the movie actually approaches genuine insight, perhaps because it has the weight of CR and QoS to lean on. I also enjoyed Bond chasing Hinx down with his plane, which admittedly doesn't make much sense. For that, I refer you to half the other action sequences in this wonderful series. The fight on the train with Hinx is even better, and the torture sequence would be compelling in just about any other circumstance.
The flashes of brilliance it shows, and quality performances from just about all the main cast, is enough to keep SP out of the bottom tier. But it's sadly too flawed to move anywhere beyond the mediocre, stuck in there with Live and Let Die, Octopussy, and The World is Not Enough. Here's to a better fifth for Daniel Craig, though history gives us a pretty mixed bag.
Add DN, TB and GE to that list.
Rewatched SF yesterday and its mediocrity shone through with overwhelming effect. It's nowhere near as offensive as SP though.
I decided to revisit this on account of my recent 4K TV & player purchase. It's still an unmitigated disaster imho (and I still switched it off after the gratuitous torture sequence as I normally do, to spare myself the torture of London), but a few things stood out in upscaled format.
-Thomas Newman's score has a lot of detail in it which I had not heard before and which made it sound better in this format.
-The production qualities are generally top notch apart from the piss filter and occasionally very shoddy CGI. In certain places, the film looks as good as the best of them. The money is definitely up there on the screen.
-Daniel Craig looks pretty old even here in upscaled high def. In some sequences he honestly looks like death (I'm thinking in particular of the part in the snow where he tries to restrain Madeleine after the plane/car crash). I shudder to think what it's going to be like almost two years from now. Makeup is going to have to earn its keep.
-One of the scenes which really stood out this time was the Hinx/Bond train fight. I realized now why, among other things, this sequence has never worked for me. In the other train fights (FRWL, LALD & TSWLM), Bond and his opponent fight in the cabin itself. Therefore it's more plausible and understandable when, after dispatching his foe, he decides to get it on with the leading lady (at least in the last two films). In SP, the fight is out in the open and causes a lot of damage to the shared compartments of the train. So I guess I just expected them to have to explain that after Hinx is thrown out, rather than just being permitted to go straight to a bit of impromptu passionate nookie.
-When the countries are voting on Nine Eyes, one would think that there would have been a more confidential mechanism so that their vote couldn't be readily seen by those sitting behind them.
-Blofeld's control room looks really bland. It's just a series of led computer screens. A far cry from Adam's work.
It had been quite some time since I had visited this film. I fell asleep right when Bond and Pussy are in the hay since I had just finished a 12 hour work day. I'll keep it short but it falls around my second or third favorite Connery film and just out of my top 10. Great viewing nonetheless. Connery is prime and peak Bond here.
Some interesting points on SP, @bondjames.
I've tried to find positives with this one, but have yet to find anything. Agree on the train sequence. The confined space of a single cabin worked so well in FRWL, LALD and TSWLM - and it could have been just as effective in SP.
Having said that, I honestly have no doubt that Craig and Mendes made the film they wanted to make after this recent viewing. They both were involved in the process and decided to direct (in Mendes's case) and act (in Craig's case) the way they did, for better or worse. There's a consistency to the approach they both took here throughout the film.
I think Mendes gets too much flack for this one. More than anything it is Craig who I have issues with here. If he had just given a more engaged and raw performance rather than attempting typical Bondian nonchalance (which just doesn't suit him), I think I would have enjoyed the film much more. Costume design messed up as well. As an example, he just doesn't wear that white dinner jacket like Connery and Moore did, and they shouldn't have put him in it.
Seydoux really tries in this film, but she's terribly miscast. She just doesn't have the gravitas or grasp of English elocution to hold her scenes imho, but she's very easy on the eyes which softens the blow somewhat (perhaps this is why her role in MI:GP was mainly non-speaking). I sometimes wonder if a Nikki van der Zyl type dubbing could have helped.
Apart from that bloody winking fish.
One of the best finales in a Bond film. The sound design. Stunts. And yes, music (not my fave soundtrack, but Kamen shines in the climax).
And the incompetent Babs Broccoli was in charge of co-ordinating all of the very intricate
beats to this climax... Hmmm....
Same here, it s not as if it turned its face towards the camera and said "That s all, folks!".
I see you are taking after me. ;)