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Vintage flairs?
Vintage flair. A style that is best represented by the 70s and its outlandish, crazy visual appeal. Make sense?
A lot of them were, yes, but the Adam sets and location shooting give the films a style of their own. That can't be said for Brosnan's where there's iffy suits and rather dull sets, with fairly standard location shooting.
Licence To Kill
The Living Daylights
Spectre
Goldeneye
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
And worst (descending order)
For Your Eyes Only
Diamonds Are Forever
Moonraker
The Man With The Golden Gun
Quantum Of Solace
Those last two are the only two films in the series that make me genuinely angry. I can barely sit through them.
1. The Living Daylights
2. For Your Eyes Only
3. From Russia with Love
4. Goleneye
5. Goldfinger
And worst (descending order)
20. Moonraker
21. Tomorrow never dies
22. Spectre
23. Quantum of Solace
24. Die another day
I would have to disagree a little bit.
What about the ice palace, the media center of Carver, the GoldenEye center, the park with the demolished statues, Wai Lin's lair, the satellite dish site, the various locations of Valentin in GE and TWINE, the sword fight club, Graves's plane. The list is endless really.
I would agree though, that compared to Ken Adam they all pale in comparison.
I also agree, there are plenty of memorable locations and sets from the Brosnan era, but compared to Ken Adams efforts on something like YOLT, or TSWLM, they do somewhat look pale. But memorable in their own right.
The Brosnan film sets generally look like Studio sets.....that's the problem.
The graveyard of GE was cool, but everything in that era has that fake modernity look to it flashy and empty, and lacks a true sense of eloquent style or glamour. Adam knew how to use space, geometry and scale like a magician to create mind-bending things with his team and Lamont. The Brosnan era has a small number of interesting sets and that's fine, but it also takes a good director and cinematographer to shoot those sets as magnificently as crews under Hamilton, Young and Gilbert could. If you don't have good people behind the camera, those sets become wasted, like decoration instead of truly iconic settings for the characters to face off inside.
We'll probably never see someone like Adam again, and that's a crying shame.
For Tomorrow Never Dies, I like the stealth boat interior as well. Carver's Saigon office is nicely designed too, and while not a built set but a found set, I do love the look of the printing press.
The World Is Not Enough perhaps features the least impressive set work of any of Bosnan's films, but the MI6 interiors, Kazakstan bunker, caviar factory, and lopsided submarine stand out to me as impressive and inventive builds, particularly in concert with the action sequences orchestrated around them. I can't think of anything in TWINE that particularly reads "studio." Maybe Devil's Breath, but I've seen far worse interior "exterior" sets.
Die Another Day really brought things back to Adam though with the Ice Palace and conjoined greenhouse dome. Some of the design work on the Cuban clinic, especially that hallway of mirrors, stands out as well.
Best five: DN, FRWL, GF, OHMSS, QOS
Worst five: LALD, TSWLM, TLD, GE, TWINE
1. GOLDFINGER
2. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
3. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
4. DR. NO
5. THUNDERBALL
But lately it's been more like:
1. GOLDFINGER
2. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
3. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
4. DR NO
5. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
DN and TB now must take turns in my top 5.
An exceptional Top 5 there @Thunderfinger.
And a brave bottom 5, by which I mean Spy.
Best Five -
DN, FRWL, OHMSS, TSWLM, CR
Worst Five -
DAF, LALD, TMWTGG, MR, DAD
Maybe. Bondathon depending, of course.
Yeah, a lot changed during my last Bondathon.
GE
CR
MR
SF
FRWL
Bottom 5
TWINE
DAD
AVTAK
FYEO
LTK
Skyfall
Casino Royale
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
The Living Daylights
From Russia With Love
Bottom 5
Die Another Day
Moonraker
Tomorrow Never Dies
The Man With The Golden Gun
Octopussy
TOP 5:
TSWLM- First Bond I saw as a 10 year old, nostalgia, affection, comfort food disguised as a Bond film.
GE- The Bond film we needed at the time to allow it to continue to this day.
CR- Showed the modern audiences that Bond and Fleming was still relevant if done right.
FRWL- Proper classic Cold War thriller, it's like a novel on the screen.
OHMSS- The cinematography, the score and the more serious tone makes it a proper gem.
BOTTOM 5:
DAF- huge missed opportunity, I wish Peter Hunt had directed this as a sequel to his masterpiece.
AVTAK-What no Bond should be, boring. Wasted potential of the villain.
TB- It drags too much at Schrublands and under water, I don't hate it but it's not a 'go to' very often for me.
TND- again I find it boring in too many places and Jonathan Pryce's performance WTF! The man is nominated for a best actor oscar this year for goodness sake.
DAD- dreadful CGI that cheats the audience, a pantomime Robocop suit, Gustav grave's ludicrous sneer, Madonna's cameo as well as her dogshit song, Halle Berry, Halley Berry's lines... Good grief, I hope the follow up movie is better than this.
Goldfinger
From Russia With Love
Dr No
The Living Daylights
Casino Royale
Bottom 5
The World Is Not Enough
A View To A Kill
Spectre
Diamonds Are Forever
Die Another Day
Goldfinger
OHMSS
Licence to Kill
From Russia with Love
Casino Royale
Bottom 5
Die Another Day (officially worst movie)
A View to a Kill
Octopussy
The World is Not Enough
Tomorrow Never Dies
1. The World Is Not Enough
2. Thunderball
3. Goldeneye
4. The Living Daylights
5. Tomorrow Never Dies
Bottom 5
1. Diamond's Are Forever
2. Octopussy
3. Moonraker
4. Quantum Of Solace
5. A View To A Kill
1. From Russia With Love
2. The Living Daylights
3. GoldenEye
4. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
5. License To Kill
Bottom 5:
1. Spectre
2. Octopussy
3. You Only Live Twice
4. Die Another Day
5. Diamonds Are Forever
Amazing. I wouldn't choose exactly the same lists but mine would have been pretty damned close, particularly your top 5.
Just to mix things up a bit:
1. GF
2. OHMSS
3. TSWLM
4. DN
5. TLD
Bottom 5:
TB
LALD
SF
DAD
TWINE
I've thrown in TB and LALD for a bit of controversy- can't let the Brosnan era take all the glory. I do find both LALD and TB pretty dull though, despite some iconic moments.
Favourites
- The Living Daylights
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service
- Thunderball
- Quantum of Solace
- GoldenEye
Least favourites
- Spectre
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Skyfall
- For Your Eyes Only
- Diamonds Are Forever
CR
FRWL
DN
QOS
TLD
Bottom 5
LALD
TWINE
DAF
AVTAK
DAD
*** Was hesitant to participate in this because generally we see the sameish top 5 and the sameish bottom 5. The real magic and controversy happens in the middle 14.