Now that we are sitting in anticipation for Craig's third time at bat and hoping for a classic Bond adventure, we should ask ourselves: ARE THE PRODUCERS UP TO THE TASK?
Let's face it they had massive budgets, a popular "people;s choice" star, mega advertising campaigns and studio backing 110% yet, if we discount Goldeneye (that still has Cubby's prints all over it) they have done 5 films and what have we got?
TND Bond by the numbers and play it safe. aside from the scene with Kaufman the movie is on life support.
TWINE missed opportunity and trying too hard to top past films. Elektra was the only rose in a bunch of thorns.
DAD no roses just a bunch of thorns and filthy rats all over the bushes.
CASINO ROYALE they finally got it right. I am hard pressed to find any criticism with this effort.
QoS A convuluted, over blown 200 million dollar epic that does not even look like a 200 mil dollar movie. (at least when Cubby was helming the ship every cent was up there on the screen-and it was obvious) Weak villian (a recurring theme in post GE films), wild plot that just is all over the map and looks like an abstract painting like someone trying to make a masterpiece but ended up with just a bunch of paint on the canvas. Like someone fell in a bucket of paint and wiped their face with the canvas.
Four out of five films fall short. That works out to a 0.2 winning pct. WTF?
Maybe they've become too joined at the hip to the studios and are hindered by the mammath budgets and the pressure to get the bacon out of the fire. Emphasis on product placement, stunt casting, trying too hard to sell a proven winner: JAMES BOND, 007. Maybe Babs and Mikey are not half the producer their father was.
What say you ? Am I overly critical? Can we discuss this?
Comments
You are right. In the minds of businessmen: THEY ARE WINNERS.
And the 007 movies are all about making money and less about creating thoughtprovoking cinema.
Which is a rather strange comment since all franchises were always meant to make money from the earliest cinema untill now.
Just out of curiosity, which franchises do you refer to?
As far as franchises that are more deep than action centered mess, I love the Bourne series/trilogy, Nolan's Batman trilogy, and though I am not the biggest fan, The Godfather films. Pixar has done great films that make you respond emotionally, and like I've said, I always go to Nolan when I want to think during a film. Bond has FRWL, LTK, CR, and QoS for really deep films, especially LTK and QoS, but so much of Bond is just action that it irks me.
Eon's mistake was rushing QoS into production right before a writers' strike. I don't know if it was their choice or studio pressure or just a need to solidify Craig's Bond (which arguably is the one thing QoS did do), but it was a mistake, in retrospect.
Like someone fell in a bucket of paint and wiped their face with the canvas - funny!! =))
Yes I agree what your saying but believe since they(Babs & MGW) got Craig as 007 that the tide is changing for the better. And with Mendes doing the next movie I believe that we will get a FRWL(hoping) type of movie.
I don't know and evryone else dosn't know.
It's all guesswork if you were to answer that now.
I'll wait till i see the movie.
Yes everyone knows what's happened in the past but hopefully it will be a good movie.
Nolan's Batman trilogy is vastly overrated imho, I'll be waiting out the last one on dvd since the first two I found rather bland if anything.
The Bond series has its deep moments but that is in essence not what the franchise is about it is about adventure and some of it over the top. Every time it start navelstaring it becomes a bit of a mess. That was essentialy the weakest part of CR & QOS it forgot to deliver. And LTK is just like QoS a different movie as they wanted to make but ended up with this half%rsed result.
Every time I hear people complaining about its seriousness I fear that they have forgotten what the series is about, glamorous adventure with great actionpieces. That is what has kept the series going for so long. The last movie forgot everything about that and ended up being a piece of horsedung.
I sort of agree, apart from with regard to QoS, which I felt actually delivered a more classic Bond feel than any movie for years.
And yes, Nolan's Batman is overrated. Tim Burton's with Micheal Keaton are still superior IMO.
Nolan overrated? Interesting. I rather liked the first one. The second one was okay.
Batman goes for the thought provoking moody, dark avenger.
Don't makes excuses for EON about rushing QoS prior to the writers strike. They had a strike hanging over their heads prior to LTK and that turned out all right. It may get hate from some Bond fans but a lot of us liked LTK, same cannot be said for QoS...
I hate to keep referring back to that Men's Magazine article which said that after DN the Bond films "devolved into family entertainment". I would say that this happened after FRWL and that my fellow afficionados is when Bond became a genre of its own.
Bond movies do better with simple easy to follow plots, unlike the abstract QoS. Too many films seem to put too much emphasis on the loud set pieces and little substance to plot etc. But then that is what movie making is all about these days. (This shytt costs a lot of money BTW)
CR hit on all cylinders. I just hope that Skyfall can deliver as well. No loud explosions, machine guns, just a good story
I agree, the Bond series works best when the plot is straight forward. This isn't Kubrick. It's not about questioning the meaning of life, or the purpose one has in the universe. Bond is escapist entertainment, producing glamour and the finer things in life, and juxtapositioning them with danger and great action setpieces. It doesn't need amazing writing, it just needs to work.
GE got it right. TND got it right. TWINE got it right. DAD didn't get it right. CR got it right. QOS didn't get it right, but it had admirable intentions.
corrected it for you. O:-)
OHMSS - Brilliant
LTK - so so
QoB - Even too bad to fit in the Bourne trilogy.
I'd like to appeal that correction, Mr. Examiner.
How dare you suggest there is any similarity between QoS and the Bourne trilogy?!
Apart from the editing, action, fight scenes, underlying story and ending there is nothing in common at all!
You lunatic!
Underlying story? What?
Isn't that like....2/3 of the movie though? All that's left is character.
But his argument is also faulty, so it's most unreliable.
That's my point. There are folks round here who will have you believe that QoS and a certain other spy franchise about a certain other JB exist in completely parallel universes and have nothing to do with each other. At all.
Which is obviously true.
I'm agreeing with you. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that QoS was in the slightest bit influenced by Bourne. At all. Absolutely. Nothing in it whatsoever. Lunatic idea.