It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
.. and it does beg the question - should Bond post-Craig re-embrace a similar style of action movie?.. the F&F movies are dumb loud fun, but there is also just enough substance to the actual story and characters - which is what keeps it from completely going off the rails... should Bond go a similar route?... i only ask this, because outside of SF, Bond has a very hard time cracking that $1b mark - and outside of SF and SP, the closest it ever gotten was CR with $599m.... I don't think Bond needs to go full on DAD again, but i believe there might be some room for a middle ground there - something that i thought SP kind of achieved - one foot kept in what got them there, but the other foot deep into some old fashioned fun as well..
two questions...
- moving forward, does Bond need to consistently be part of the Billion Dollar club in order to be considered a success?
- in order for Bond to achieve higher B.O. success, does it need to take a cue from films like F&F and other Superhero movies, and bring less of an edge, but a little more casualness to the films? - or, does it really just all boil down to simplest answer, and thats just write GOOD Bond films, and try not to do what everyone else is doing?...
... i dont want this thread to get too OT, but i figured i would pose this question here - since it does more or less correlate to F&F
I sincerely hope they don't go in this direction. The last time they attempted to 'dumb down' Bond and appeal to a lowest common denominator was during Brosnan's run, and sadly I felt the product became cheapened.
I postulated on another thread that there is a gap between the MI films and the FF films at the moment. Bond currently plays in the spy thriller market, FF plays in the pure action market and MI straddles the two quite well, and increasingly infringes on the Bond space with glamour.
If they're smart, I hope EoN will retain the high style Britishness (thereby differentiating it from MI) & intelligence of the product while ensuring that the films have one or two superior and impactful action pieces, done for real, rather than od'ing on CGI to up the ante as it were.
I think they will need to change the actor before they go in this direction however, because for this to work the actor will have to easily and naturally convey an insouciance, a savoir faire and a certain casual arrogance.
Now I'm not saying EoN should ignore what others are doing but they really need to look at the how and the why and to be honest, many of these successful franchises are doing what Bond was doing 50 years ago. EoN to some degree have lost their way but can easily remedy the situation. They just need to be better focused.
Do NOT go all out DAD on us. That would be disastrous. Make the films akin to CR tonally, tell an exciting story; it doesnt need to be THAT deep, keep the films honestly brutal, he's a trained killer for crying out loud and please please please, let's go somewhere else other than Italy! The locations don't even have to be some unused never seen before on film country; but at least make the location a character within the film and lets feel immersed like what used to be the case.
They do have a fine selection of actors with little hair in F&F, so we can cast the next Blofeld with ease.
The locations have to be immersive, as we've noted here before. Keep it simple, keep it focused as you say, and above all remember that Bond is Bond and not Vin Diesel.
Indeed they have all they need in their film DNA to give us something spectacular, if they'd only dig deep and keep it real. Good writers would be able to organically tap that Bondian essence without making it look like it's a cheap copy of the past. I have my doubts that P&W can do it, but let's see.
---
@DaltonCraig007, I agree on that prison fight in FF8. I'll confess that I am looking forward to the Johnson/Statham spinoff.
Comercial made for Dutch tv channel Veronica promoting
The May film month with Vin Diesel drives as his chacfer from furious on a road in Amsterdam.
Also the movie opens with almoost 2,7 million and after 2 weaks it doing 4,8. Furious 7 did almoost 3-million in first weak and after two weaks 5,2.
Get it into your heads people. SF was an absolute exception due to the best marketing campaign ever for a film with the 50th Anniversary.
ONLY 29 FILMS SO FAR HAVE EVER SURPASSED THE BILLION DOLLAR MARK. And that includes this year's Beauty And The Beast and FF8.
29.
Spectre with 890 million is the 47th most successful film of all time, just to show you how ridiculously difficult it still is really for a film to go beyond 900 million.
FF has elevated to that billion dollar franchise. Because it has the kind of audience that will get them one billion or more.
Just look at the list of those 29 films that reached a billion. SF is like an alien in the midsts of fantasy, comic book and sci-fi movies.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/
Here you find the complete list of worldwide most successful BOs of all time
Plus the target audiences demo, is almost the same
I just don't think Bond has to do one billion nor should it or ever will again (inflation in future not taken into account).
FF is fantasy with fast cars and big muscled guys and sexy looking girls. That's not a niche market in my opinion.
Bond isn't niche as well, but it's a genre that can only do that much, just look at Mission Impossible for instance.
It doesn't really matter if "the success of a Bond film (is) called into question" when it was factually a success. As I said, would've been even better for them with a lower budget, but still, a success.
but then i guess what that really boils down to, moving forward, is not letting the PD budget get completely out of hand.
The Fate of the Furious Uni. $19,389,780 -49.5%
Domestic: $192,721,355 18.2%
+ Foreign: $867,600,000 81.8%
= Worldwide: $1,060,321,355
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=furious8.htm
Matt plays a great villain (Talented Mr. Ripley and Interstellar) too.
I think F 5 and 6 were much better. Real heist movies. Ocean's 11, but then rougher and more 'street'. Also the car chases seemed very much real.
F 7 to me was OK-ish, although with the skidiving cars F 7 already headed into " Die Another Day" terrirtories.
Now, yesterday I saw "Furious 8", and by jolly was this bad. I mean, really really bad. If we complain about "SPECTRE" using too much CGI, then this was the start of CGI-porn. My God, the plot was farfetched as well. The falling cars from skycrapers, the grotesque, idiot 'car war' on the Russian ice lake. And then this crap still manages to earn 1.2 Billion Dollars worldwide. I just hope the Chinese and Russians -who are starting to become very big and influential cinema markets- aren't becoming as important for Bond as they are for "Furious". This was just...ghastly.....
At least in 7 the skydiving cars had a practical element to it in that they did drop shells out of a real plane for certain shots.
8 was utter rubbish. Theron and Statham were the saving graces of the film, and even then it wasn't enough. Plus, I hate the fact that they have completely done a reversal on Deckard Shaw's character. He killed Han in 7 and then attempted to kill the rest of them, and now they're all chummy? For a series that likes to go to hammy-town on the idea of family, that was screenwriting vomit. If you're going to be ridiculous, at least be consistent with your characters.
Fast Five is as good as it is going to get for this series. A rip-roaring actioner that embraced its craziness without being insulting to your intelligence. Loads of fun.
After 'Mission Imposible: Rogue Nation' on July 31, 2015, after 'Jason Bourne' on July 29, 2016, after 'Atomic Blonde' on July 28, 2017, and after 'Mission Impossible 6' on July 27, 2018... It is now turn for the Fast & Furious spinoff with Dwayne Johnson & Jason Statham to lock its target on this specific weekend, with a release date aimed for July 26, 2019.
Fast & Furious 9 has been pushed back to April 10, 2020 to make room for the spinoff.
I mean... it's exactly opposite of the "real life" thing you look for in movies.