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True NicNac, but in GF, Bond's original mission is to investigate the gold smuggling. In AVTAK his mission from the start is the microchip leak, but he is almost immediately sidetracked by the horse doping.
Right, I see your point. No explanation why Bond takes a sudden interest in something un-associated with his mission.
Also, Pepper's repeated reference to the Thai people as "pointy heads" is *really* uncomfortable. I'd rather have any other character from LALD (Solitaire, Mrs. Bell, Baron Samedi) show up in the AMC Hornet with Bond.
My favourite Felix is Bernie Casey.
I think that's a GREAT opinion.
Casey, IMO was an excellent Felix and Bliss an extremely underrated Moneypenny. Lois is still my favorite, though I prefer Bliss over Samantha Bond.
I also don’t understand the appreciation Rik Van Nutter. All he does is say his lines, he doesn’t have a personality like any of the other Felixes. And he only got the gig because he was close pals with Cubby. Should have brought back Cec Linder and kept him throughout the Connery films. Although I would have wanted Jack Lord, of course.
I think Caroline is my favorite Moneypenny too. She and Dalton are perfect in TLD.
Big no to Cec Linder, though, my least favorite Leiter. Zero personality or charisma. Lord would've been a much better fit, although he doesn't exactly light up the screen either, personality-wise, but at least seems more than just a company guy, but one who could help Bond physically.
I kinda like Van Nutter as he more physically resembles the Leiter of the novels than his predecessors.
That is what makes the plot very Flemingesque and why I like it. It is a classic Fleming trope that Bond is sent to investigate a lesser crime to uncover a much bigger and grave one.
That is indeed a Fleming trope, but one could argue that AVTAK doesn't employ it very well. The horse doping subplot goes on for too long and doesn't have much do with the Silicon Valley scheme. It just shows how Zorin cheats at horse racing. In Goldfinger the villain's tendency to cheat is dealt with just a minutes after the credits, and then Bond is sent to investigate gold smuggling, which leads to the discovery of a plot to increase the value of Goldfinger's gold reserves. There's a thematic connection ans consistency that isn't present in AVTAK.
A trope that originated with MR. It’s excellent there because the card cheating allows us to get an idea of who Drax really is before we even find out his true identity. Summed up at the very end of that night with “I should spend the money quickly, Commander Bond”.
Made me think of MR as well, as Blades also seems to take up a large part of the novel if I recall correctly.
I would add that though it takes up several chapters, the sequence has a simple and effective structure: it builds into a tense duel between Bond and the villain. How Drax cheats is ultimately much less important than how Bond will teach him a lesson. Whereas in AVTAK the emphasis is on finding out how Zorin cheats at horse racing, which is much less compelling.
Me too. Goldfinger works in the context of the film, but as a song, it's pretty obnoxious, and the lyrics are, well, stupid. Shouting "he loves gold!" at the end is kind of hilarious.
Moonraker and Diamonds I think are both gorgeous songs.
+1.
She does exactly what is asked to do.
YOLT benefits by being sung in the second person.
YOLT has beautiful lyrics and is the main reason it's one of my favourite Bond themes.
The lyrics to GF bother me because it seems to me like sometimes she's singing about Bond, sometimes about Goldfinger.
While she’s not good, I don’t think she’s anywhere close to the worst actresses and for me is the least of TWINE’s problems.
The lyrics of DAF and MR are not in the same realm of stupid as GF. "He loves gold" is a simplistic childish subject-verb-object lyric below anything Disney would consider clever enough for a children's film. "Such a cold finger beckons you to enter his web of sin!" Oh, gee whiz Shirley, what should I do? "Don't go in!" Oh, don't go in his web of sin, okay. Moronic.
But it is, as you say, the epitome of what the world considers a Bond song, just as a bald pervert in a volcano lair is what the world considers to be a Bond plot. It is without question the lowest common denominator.
EDIT Actually very few Bond songs imitate the lyrical idiocy of Goldfinger. TMWTGG I guess is the only one. But even that manages to describe the character accurately. "Golden words he will pour in your ear"? We don't see that, and it's not easy to imagine.