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I'm on the verge of saying that I like MR more than TSWLM. It's just as silly, but has better cinematography, better soundtrack. a better villain, far better dialogue, a slightly better Bond girl (not in terms of looks, but acting ability) and so on. It's a tie in regard of production design since Ken Adam was still around. But other than that, I find it's more re-watchable and considerably less dated than TSWLM, which I so far have been rating 1/10 higher than MR:
style in to TSWLM. His discription of Bond finding the murdered girl's Body and the
only thing stopping him from killing the female russian agent sent to seduce him, was the look of horror on her face when she too saw the girls Bond.
He somehow mixes the more outlandish elements very well with the more traditional literary Bond adventure.
Does Wood claim he came up with it? I thought the received history of the sequence is that MGW saw this ad in a magazine:
and they asked if Sylvester would recreate it for TWSLM, something which Sylvester himself also backs up:
http://moonshineink.com/news/how-greatest-bond-stunt-came-be
In any event Wood's novelisations are better than most of the continuation novels. I can only assume that with FYEO coming back down to earth it was Wood who was deemed sacrificial lamb for the over the top epic nature of the previous two films and let go. But you're right his novelisations do display a better appreciation of Fleming's character than you might assume from the two films he wrote.
I wonder how we'd react today though if EON hired a bloke whose previous scripts weree such dismal fare as Confessions of a Window Cleaner and Confessions of a Driving Instructor for the next B25?
Though Woods does go on to say that the "Keeping the British end up" line wasn't his creation, along with some of the other funny quips in the movie. He gives that credit to Roger Moore himself.
I believe the Confessions movies were based on his bestselling books to begin with, before they became low-budget smut movies. He admits that he made a big mistake selling the rights for only £2000 and the only reason the producers asked him to write the scripts was because he was cheaper than finding a proper screenplay artist. He goes on to say that his first stab at writing the screenplay for Confessions of a Window Cleaner he turned in an overlong script that had very few jokes in it. The story was whittled down and the saucy jokes added later. Having not read any of his earlier Confessions books (or any of them for that matter) I can't vouch for the original content and how they differ from the movies. I suppose the books were considered very risque at the time of their publication and were something akin to E.L James' Fifty Shades of Grey phenomena.
Glad he told you so, or is it an assumption on your part?
Fleming was after all a bread writer and would ave laughed all the way to the bank, I guess but am not sure.
It was a cash cow for sure,but that's about it.
I think that SPY has to be credited with being the film that stripped the rapidly tiring formula down, and rebuilds it to resemble a brand new glossy structure. It was incredibly exciting at the time.
But I do kind of agree with this. MR does do so many things better, and for a good 45 minutes or so threatens to be up there with the best.
The problem I guess is that as the jokes begin to wear thin they don't graciously retire they actually get more extreme and outlandish. The writing was on the wall during the bondola chase, and between that and the introduction of Dolly the film lost all credibility. Such a shame, because as @j_w_pepper says it's a better film in so many departments.
Bloody good entertainment I say, and quite frankly that's all that matters to me. There are other films to view if one is a purist.
Gondola + double taking pigeon
Jaws falling in love
the glorious 7
the stupid ambulance scene
Amazonas boat chase
the PTS plus the first part in California is certainly the best part of the film but the space scenes are also OK. It is the boring and silly 2nd Act that prevents MR form being an above average Bond film.
I even don't mind the 2nd act because I really enjoy the iconic cable car sequence and the ambulance chase (I quite like the humour). I'm not a fan of the Amazon boat chase purely because of the silly gadgets and the poor back projection. I dislike the gondola also because of the gadgets. Even then, there are decent bits in Venice in my view. I really like the Chang fight and enjoy the interlude in Holly's hotel. Manuela and the festival are highlights of Rio.
Hahaha it just occurred to me,i was going to change it but you beat me to it, you young scallywag !!!
It would be really great to hear it again,i agree,in a light scene as you say.
the ambulance scene alone is tolerable. However, I find how the film is put together in this part is just a bit sloppy, mainly due to lazy writing. It feels like: OK how do we now get rid of Holly Goodhead? Hmm, we probably need an extra scene in which she gets kidnapped. They just could have been more creative.
I don't entirely buy that there is "plenty of darkness" in MR.
1. the centrifuge scene. Well made and well acted by Moore but it never goes beyond one scene. He's instantly smiling and seducing Corrine straight away.
2. Corrine's death. Ok, a genuinely dark moment.
3 Scientists choking. Even Roger in the audio commentary says they are "overacting wildly". Plus we don't know anything about them. They are just nameless scientists we quickly forget about.
The film has the odd darker moment but they are easily outnumbered by all the silliness. It's a film you could certainly imagine also being made in cartoon form. From Russia with Love this aint.
I agree with you on it being like an over-indulgent feast you would have at Christmas time. That's a comparison I've often thought of myself.
Well true perhaps 'plenty' is overstating it but all you need to lose is the entire hovercraft scene and Jaws flapping and falling in love and you've got a standard 70s/80s/90s era Bond film and not the comic romp it's always painted as.
I feel way more, true hate against SP because it threw all the production values, great actors and performances and beautiful locations away by basing it upon a mostly crappy and lazy script.
So for me THAT‘S hate - but MR stays true to it‘s tone perfectly and does not attempt to he any other movie than it is and so ... it may not be my favourite because if do prefer tonally different entries but again - it‘s a fine entry.
Maybe for a few moments due to the whole hearse boat setup, but we soon get silly slapstick gags where boats with courting couples are split in two without the couple even noticing.
Extremely dark.