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Absolutely agree. Craig second and Connery now third. That fight in the hotel room was just awesome. The way he throws that huge guy around? wow.
And I totally agree about the kungfu stuff in TND. Yaaaaawwwwwnnn.
Hopefully your wish will be granted. EonN/Mendes have hired Olivier Schneider and his team to choreograph, stage and supervise the fights for SPECTRE. The guy is incredible and his work is precisely what Bond needs.
Glad to hear it. The name is unknown to me, but I trust your judgment.
Sleek, explosive, hi-tech and pacy. Pierce Brosnan cements his role as the legendary 007, giving us a more complete, and composed performance. This may be the Brozz's, best performance. He was nervous in GE, too animated in TWINE, and he was encumbered by the general crappiness that was DAD. TND has a good cast, namely Michelle Yeoh, who is the best of Bond's "comrades in arms", although Teri Hatcher was disappointing - stunt casting.
Roger Spottiswoode does well in the directors chair; one can tell he was an editor, not one wasted shot. Other strengths include the music by David Arnold. If there was a caveat to Arnold's work, is that he over-scored them, but not on TND; Arnold was almost perfect, and I was left humming the score for a while afterwards, especially "Surrender". In fact I got all goosebumpy when Bond dived to rescue Wai Lin, with the orchestral swell of Surrender, in the background.
This is the perfect film for the 90's; superficial, and proud of it - not a scrap of pretentiousness anywhere.
Two things that always bugged me, were, how does the SeaDrill move, inside of the Devonshire? And if the stealth boat got all exploded like, when the cruise missile went off, the hook that was supporting the chained Wai Lin would have got slightly destroyed, plunging her, with a butt-ton of chainage, straight to the ocean floor.
So what don't I like:
The use of green screen. I realize it was the 60's but there is quite a lot of it in this movie, and it is perhaps more obvious to me due to the scale of the film's ambitions. Just like we will look back on the Phantom Menace one day (if we don't already) and say that the special effects during the ground battles are horribly dated, I think the green screen use here is very noticeable. Green screen is obvious in the opening space scene, in the Aki/Bond Toyota chase, and in the Little Nellie sequence
Connery's performance. I think this is his worst performance (outside of NSNA). I actually think he was more engaged and sprightly in DAF (although he looked absolutely awful in that film and was fat - I'm only judging his performance here, not his look ). In YOLT he just seems bored, going through the motions....lazy. This is especially noticeable during the Ninja camp scenes in Japan
Speaking of which, said Ninja camp scenes including the wedding bits are booooring. They go on too long and really slow the pace of the film down. Everything up to this point is great for me, but this middle section just drags the experience down. I don't really buy the Aki/Bond romance either, so that kind of impacts my view of this bit.
Donald Pleasance as Blofeld - terribly uninteresting, despite his scar (which I really was impressed/terrified by as a kid). There isn't much witty repartee between Bond and him either. His reveal must be one of the biggest disappointments in Bond movie history (particularly after the fantastic set up in FRWL & TB - I really liked that actor who had a more interesting voice and seemed much more menacing than little Pleasance). The fact that he looks like Dr. Evil (or is the other way round) also hurts.
The Volcano HQ. While it was probably great in its day, it does seem cheesy in some bits now (particularly when the rockets are landing and taking off). This is to be expected of course, but it's still quite noticeable. It's been copied and done better in MR/TSWLM and that impacts my view.
The shootout finale is a bit dull too.
There aren't as many memorable lines for Bond in this film (if there are, I've forgotten them already).
What do I like:
There's a lot to like in this film
Helga Brandt and Osato - love them. I really enjoyed their intro scene with Bond at the top of Osato HQ, including the line about cigarettes etc. Connery acted well as he panicked that they were going to find the dead body in the bar. Whenever Brandt was on screen, I was interested. I wish there was more of her as her character was not properly fleshed out.
Tiger Tanaka is an interesting character and well played.
All scenes from the bit when Bond is supposedly killed in the pretitles all the way up to and including the Little Nellie sequence are Bond at his best. Only after this point does the film drag for me.
Bond's fight with the Rock's grandad - one of the best fights of the Connery era IMO. Great stuff
The music is first class as is to be expected from the Master.
The little Nellie scenes that do not include green screen are magnificent to look at. Great cinematography. PS: Did they really drop that car in the water after the Toyota chase from Osato HQ? It sure seemed like it (the waves did not look like they came from a model).
Ken Adam's sets are outstanding, as is to be expected. The Tanaka HQ and Blofeld's living area (with the piranha lake) are superbly done
So at the end of the day, I enjoyed watching it, but it sort of underwhelmed, as it did the last time I saw it. I think it's because it's really most impressive on a visual and plot ambition level, and those things have been done better since in more recent Bond films.
I totally agree. OHMSS fights are real and visceral, and the kung fu TND fights, well, you can see where the blows are headed to where the other arm is supposed to intercept them. Fake, that is.
I think I may as well, along with Goldfinger. Slowly but surely finishing out the series. Not sure if I've updated my rankings list after seeing SPY again:
THUNDERBALL
DR. NO
OCTOPUSSY
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
SKYFALL
LIVE AND LET DIE
A VIEW TO A KILL
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
MOONRAKER
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
TOMORROW NEVER DIES
LICENCE TO KILL
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
DIE ANOTHER DAY
ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
There are several effective ties in this list (DAD - TMWTGG / LTK - FYEO / MR - DAF) and now TSWLM and OP. It's basically a coin flip. My heart tells me Spy but my most recent viewings tilt towards OP.
Either way, superb Bond films.
Was that really his reply? Have not seen that sorry excuse of a Bond film for a long time.
" I never Miss" was Brosnan's line.
Truly. Movie should have been called As the World Turns.
Agreed. A shambles. Truly for the daytime soap crowd.
The whole Brosnan era was basically for that audience.
8-|
It is even worse when he gets to write the script.
Touche'.
I would argue that the Brosnan era, save for Goldeneye and parts of TND, was more for 12-15 year old boys, but you're on the right track.
I know it sounds like I'm hating on Brosnan and his Bond films but I'm not. The only one I don't like is TWINE and the first two I enjoy a lot (GE is in my "top tier" of Bond films)
Wow. great observation. I totally agree.
100% agree. 100%
3/3: Goldfinger
3/10: Live and Let Die
3/17: GoldenEye
3/24: Casino Royale
Looking very forward to seeing GF for the first time in a theatre.
harkinstheatres.com/TNC.aspx
Forget that, just enjoy it my friend!!!