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Comments
-Serra's gunbarrel theme is lacking and I don't like the stiffness of Brosnan, who stands almost straight up. Hope he's aiming at an NBA player or is accurate with a head shot.
-After one of the greatest Bond stunts - the bungee jump - it ends on a stunt too far. Why not have Bond struggle with a pilot on the runway instead of the goofy flying in the plane freefall. I've seen some try and justify how it's possible but it just doesn't work.
-Take out the bicyclers getting knocked over. It's a leftover from the Moore era.
-I don't mind Serra's score so much now. It kind of works in the context and I can understand a fresh approach, but this was a case where a Barry-like sound would've worked better to reestablish the series.
-The casino scene seems more ritual than interesting and some of Bros's line readings seem stiff here.
-The main story seems to take forever to get going. And yet another piece of space hardware as part of the main threat.
-It's interesting viewing the sexist, misogynist dinosaur comments and Moneypenny attitude now that MeToo is in the news. I would have preferred something similar to Gardner's Licence Renewed where M talks about the country needing a troubleshooter and will have one although the OO section is being abolished. This is almost like an apology.
-I'm probably one of the few who don't care for Zukovsky. I don't buy this guy was a dangerous gangster with all this influence.
-I've also never cared for the tank chase. It's like they needed to get Bond in a vehicle he hadn't previously been in and it feels like an outtake from The Blues Brothers rather than Bond.
-Natalya is another character who gets a lot of love, but I just see her as a nag, never grateful Bond is there keeping her alive. Kara was also drug into the action through no choice of here own but didn't act like an unhappy wife with Bond. Then suddenly she's a transformed action heroine by the end. One of my least favorite Bond women.
-BMW product placement with no payoff. Blah. Ignores the stage directive if you're going to bring a gun onstage make sure it goes off by the third act. Otherwise why explain it has stinger missiles, etc. if you don't use them.
-Beach scene. Awkward. Say what you want about the Craig character issues, it isn't as bad as this.
-As a fan of Dalton, the best Bond since Connery claims after just one film. He's okay, better at the physical stuff than I thought, but doesn't do much to stand out either.
There are a lot of things I like in GE - credits sequence; statue park scene; ending in Cuba; fight with Trevelyan; Trevelyan and Bean are good; Xenia is fun even if she's a repeat of Fatima Blush; the scene where Bond sets a bomb and just shakes off the bullets flying overhead are pure Bond.
I can understand people who discovered the series through this or the game holding GE in a special place. But it's such a mixed bag to this longtime fan and still is nearly 20 years later.
While the Moore, casual, and 12 year old fan may have liked GE, this movie was the beginning of the dark years for the Fleming, Connery loving fans who had to suffer the general degradation of Bond into bargain bin dvd, made for tv (90s tv) mediocrity... I realize that EON had degraded Bond to varying degrees many times before, but never for a whole era, culminating in DAD.
I appreciate that 12 years old of the time have sentimental, beer goggles love of this movie, but personally I would erase it along with the next three.
They are the only four truly horrible films in the franchise. Just like everything just came together to create lightning in a bottle with the first few films, the same thing happened in the Brosnan years, just in the opposite direction.
Just thinking about it has compelled another viewing, which I might take in tonight.
I want nothing to do with such “people”
Thanks. I was prepared to be raked over the coals for my views.
And this is unique, how? I'd say a majority of us here can quote the dialogue from multiple films in the series.
Cut out Joe Don Baker's Jack Wade. So annoying.
The BMW placement is pathetic.
The end title song is abysmal.
Campbell had a perfect grip on the character second only to Terence Young, though Campbell reinvented Bond twice, and equally good both times.
For the sake of this thread, if i had to change anything... Yeah maybe i would have replaced the porn track in the car chase with something less... porny. But thats about it. Everything else is a joy for me.
The whole film?!
- The way this progressivism is handled throughout in fact comes across as insecure, surface-level point-scoring. They seem to want to invite us to examine the character of James Bond (which they, more or less, sincerely get around to doing with Craig) without fully committing to it. Because simply showing us that this is the 90s, and that this Bond will be different than your dad's Bond, might go over our heads and in that case leave the franchise open to further accusations of sexism, we've got to have it all set out and explained to us: Bond has to tell Caroline he respects female authority, Moneypenny has to jokingly accuse Bond of harassment to diffuse any criticism that's this is actually the case, and in the exact same way M infamously has to call Bond a sexist and a misogynist, so that we're destined forever to have a PR sound-bite that Eon can point to. The aims of the whole shebang are screaming and waving madly from the rooftops. If this is the mission statement Eon wants to make, that's fine. But for heaven's sake be deft about it.
- The former friend turning out to be the villain is an okay device, but it ultimately makes less impact than I think it's intended to. This is partly why the beach scene falls so flat. After the reveal, whatever special quality Alec has in the gallery of villains quickly turns generic. One way to fix this might've been to save the reveal for the train. I feel like Bond's capture at the hands of the Russians/tank chase pushes the idea of Alec and his betrayal to the backburner, or at least doesn't present much breathing space for us to observe Bond's processing of it. The beach pause following immediately might shape the tale better.
In all seriousness though, I'd change nothing about the films themselves; some tweaks here and there would obviously (and objectively) strengthen particular portions of each film, but they're so ingrained in my memory that it'd be odd to watch GE with a better soundtrack, or see the corkscrew jump in TMWTGG without a slide whistle, or the obvious stunt doubles that are made apparent throughout the entire series, etc.
One scene that comes to mind is in the junkyard at night when Bond encounters Janus/Alec. It's a good scene but somehow I think it could've been done better to maximize Bond's shock at seeing his old pal again or to make Janus more menacing...though I admit if it was Daniel Craig, he wouldn't register shock on his face--he keeps it pretty well inside. I think Bain's right: A villain who's menacing and looks that way may be a stereotype, but it works for me. Maybe the part was miscast. Maybe Janus could've used just a little more disfigurement from the facility explosion...maybe the script could've been improved to give Janus a psyche that includes touches of, say, the "dark" Largo in TB and the "certifiable" Largo in NSNA (or a little Walken-like Zorin)...and the music could've been more malevolent or haunting. Because for me it's a pivotal scene--the sense of betrayal between former comrades, and Alec's hidden (to Bond) past--though yes it's only one scene of many.
This.
However it’s fortunate that these action scenes are (IMO) entertaining.
I get what people mean when they say a lot of the issues raised in the film (Bond’s loyalty, Trevelyan’s hatred towards the British government) aren’t really explored as substantially as they perhaps could be.
I love the Severnaya control sequence btw. I can never take my eyes of Scorupco during the entire thing.
They could've presented it in a different way. Brosnan wasn't Bond in '86, why try rewriting history?
Brosnan was reportedly the man in waiting for 9 years, having lost out on the role due to some nonsense at ABC or wherever. Moreover, the Dalton years weren't the most successful box office wise and represented a somewhat unique cinematic take on the character at the time.
The "You were expecting someone else" comment in the famous trailer also played into this.
Not sure why that has to be a concession. I think all of the characters you mentioned (save perhaps Boris, who does grate) are very well drawn and well acted by the performers. Of course, I can appreciate disagreement, but I don’t think a penchant for a performance that verges on hammy is necessarily a concession so long as it’s executed as well as it is here. GE has one of the strongest supporting casts in the series, rivaled only by LALD and maybe one or two others.
Agree with you and @Strog about the Severnaya control sequence.
It was cruel but it worked.
EON/MGM are not above a little dismissive 'cruelty' when the shift is required. They tend to focus forward at that point.
Nearly 23 years on, how do you feel about it?