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Better. :) and I too now think it's a great Bond film.
I think it depends on how much of a "plan" Silva actually had. I don't buy into Q's suspicion that Silva had the whole thing planned out for years--at least not to an extent. Silva had a basic idea of how to get at M, but he didn't have it all planned far in advance. That is ridiculous. Furthermore, he didn't have to. Remember what Silva said about getting things done: "Just point and click." In his world, it was quick and easy to arrange anything. So Silva's idea of a well-thought-out plan is hours in advance. He can fly by the seat of his pants.
And remember: Mallory gives full authority to Bond's plan. Bond's off the hook on that.
Tosca, Giancarlo, Gemma Arterton, parts of Craig's performance, the cinematography (long - establishing shots), David Arnold's score.
Got to Never Say Never Again tonight. There are a few things I like, but this might be my pick for the worst of the lot. I consider it "official" because it is clearly trying to be a "real" Bond movie (unlike CR '67). I really like Carrera as Fatima Blush, and Connery is in good shape, spry, and committed, but this one really lacks that "EON polish." This had a bigger budget than OP but looks considerably cheaper. The cinematography, direction, cast, action (excluding bike chase), production design, and music all just feel rather cheap. Like a made-for-TV movie at some points, and the script isn't strong enough to make up for any of its shortcomings.
I do like that they highlight Bond's age and the fact that he's "burnt out" here and is called back into action after what we are made to believe has been a considerable hiatus from field work. First film to do that in the series, I think. One of my favorite Leiter incarnations, too.
Rankings:
1. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
2. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
3. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
4. DIE ANOTHER DAY
5. NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
The World Is Not Enough
The third outing for Pierce Brosnan. Bit of a mixed bag really. At times it's an okay film. And then at other times it's a mess that I don't like at all. Pierce is looking a little older, and at times is very effective. I like the part in the sub where he tells Christmas to use the hatch to escape. Make sure you exhale all the way up. It's just a little bit more than Bond might normally say in a situation like that. Unfortunately it's only a fleeting thing.
The infamous 'pain face' makes a return, and is used often.
I'm not a fan of the damaged shoulder, it didn't work and only seems to be a problem for Bond when it needs to.
The rest of the cast are poorly used in many ways. When I found out Robert Carlyle would play the villain, I thought what a fantastic idea. A good actor, who might be like Sean Bean in GE. Someone that could be a real threat to Bond and the mission. Whilst there is a fight between Bond and Renard, it's quite weak. Especially considering Renard feels no pain, and he's just found out what Bond has done!
The bullet in the brain thing is also underutilised. The man apparently will grow stronger, and feels no pain what so ever. Why then does he look nervous for the most part. Could've been so much better.
Sophie Marceau is possibly the best casting in the movie. A spoilt oil heiress who really spits the dummy. It's not a huge shock when the truth of her character is revealed. But it does make for a change from the usual Bond girl development. She's also a good enough actress to pull off the sweetness and villainy angle. Not bad on the eye either. ;)
On the other end of the scale we have Denise Richards, as a nuclear physicist. Yes that's right. Denise Richards, as a nuclear physicist!
Not only is she a very poor actress, who looks like she's reading off of cue cards when delivering her lines. She really is poorly written. The role is embarrassing, even if they'd cast a better actress. Possibly the worst lead Bond girl of the series. In this case, easy on the eye just isn't enough.
The film also suffers from largely dull and unimaginative action set pieces. Shoe horned into the story for the sake of it. The best action coming from the PTS boat chase down the river Thames. Though even this scene is overly long, and enters the area of absurdity when the boat leaves the river and manages to continue through London streets!
Other action includes a ski chase involving parahawks, a helicopter assault on a caviar factory involving deadly saw blades, and a finale aboard a flooding nuclear submarine.
None of them very memorable imo.
The locations are also something of a let down. Whilst Azerbaijan and Baku have not featured previously, the location is not used to its full potential. Istanbul is also featured, though again as with many locales in TWINE, only really seen fleetingly.
I always feel after I watch TWINE there is a better Bond film trying to get out. Some of the ideas and storylines are quite good. It's as if the film has two directors. One for the action, and one for the character and drama. But in the end, neither seem to mesh together very well.
Sadly a mediocre entry for me. On par with TND.
Benny's Blu-Ray Bondathon ranking:
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. The Living Daylights
4. Octopussy
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Goldfinger
8. Thunderball
9 Doctor No
10. Goldeneye
11. Licence To Kill
12. Live And Let Die
13. You Only Live Twice
14. A View To A Kill
15. Tomorrow Never Dies
16. The World Is Not Enough
17. Moonraker
18.The Man With The Golden Gun
19. Diamonds Are Forever.
Really like the PTS, but it acts as a double edged sword because none of the action in the rest of the film is as exciting or inventive.
I also despise that the film climaxes with Elektra's death and then meanders on in that submarine for 20 minutes of uninspired fights, swimming, and pain faces. I'd probably slot it a few notches higher had they just ended it with the true climax of the picture (and, presumably rewritten parts so it would make logical sense to not have the submarine finale).
This is not the place to discuss such things, as everyone here knows.
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/10450/spectre-leaks-discussion-allowed-on-only-this-thread-major-plotline-spoilers#latest
Die Another Day
Much quicker than some of my previous reviews, and as with FYEO before it, DAD was a real shocker for me. I actually enjoyed it!
:-O
Now I'm not saying this film is great or anything, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was entertained by it. Certainly more than the two previous Brosnan entries. It has a quick pace that never really lets you think too much about the flaws of the scenes you've just seen. Afterall, the flaws are quite apparent when you're watching said scenes.
Pierce Brosnan returns for a fourth and final time, and sadly this is one of his better takes on Bond. He looks good, he's full of confidence and seems to have found the right mix. At times in TWINE he came across as too vulnerable and over used the infamous pain face to the extreme. In DAD we get a scaled down version, but with a more killer edge. He seems more dangerous and unpredictable. It's a pity this would be Pierce's final Bond film, as I feel given a really good script, he could've given us a good film.
The rest of the cast are a mixed bag. Halle Berry comes into the series as quite possibly the worst Bond girl Jinx. Though I'm going to leave that credit to Denise Richards. Despite the terrible, terrible dialogue Jinx is given, and yet another Bond girl as Bond's equal she does have good chemistry with Pierce, and at least has something to do other than be tagged into the story ala Dr.Jones nuclear physicist.
Toby Stephens often gets a bad wrap for his villainous role of Gustav Graves, but I actually like his part. It's pretty pantomime villain stuff, but he hams it up perfectly. At least he seems to be a physical threat to Bond, unlike Carver in TND. Rick Yune is fine as the henchman Zao, who is undergoing DNA replacement therapy. An ingenious writing move, whereby a character can alter their appearance. If only it was feasible in reality.
And reality and DAD have nothing in common. The story is a mixture of MR novel and DAF film. A blend that unfortunately may seem like a good idea on paper. But the mixture is not a good one. Graves face altering from Colonel Moon, whom Bond appears to have dispatched in the PTS intends to use a super satellite in orbit to destroy the DMZ in Korea and join North and South Korea together under North rule. After this the West will crumble in fear of the super death ray laser satellite. Or that's the general intent.
The action is for the most part either green screen or CGI. A nice battle between Bond and Zao on ice is done for real, though the Aston Bond drives is given the gadget of invisibility!
Yet another thorn in DAD's side. Over use of CGI, and taking the Bond series into an over the top area, the likes of which have not been seen since MR. Too much of DAD lives in a world in the too distant future or outside the bounds of feasibility.
In saying that, I thoroughly enjoyed this romp. Yes it's bonkers. And the lines are dreadful. But it was fun. I enjoyed the two hours of lunacy.
The blu-ray transfer is as with previous entries fantastic. All the colour and sharpness is there, though CGI para-surfing Bond is much more evident like this.
The locales are slightly better than those from the two previous films as well. Iceland makes a stunning backdrop for the action. And Spain fills in for Cuba nicely.
In summary, DAD is a terrible entry in the Bond series. But for a couple of hours of mindless entertainment, there are worse films to pick.
Benny's Blu-Ray Bondathon ranking:
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. The Living Daylights
4. Octopussy
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Goldfinger
8. Thunderball
9 Doctor No
10. Goldeneye
11. Licence To Kill
12. Live And Let Die
13. You Only Live Twice
14. Die Another Day
15. A View To A Kill
16. Tomorrow Never Dies
17. The World Is Not Enough
18. Moonraker
19.The Man With The Golden Gun
20. Diamonds Are Forever.
*Never thought DAD would reach that high up my Bond ranking*
Feel free to participate in this thread, the more the better =)
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/10577/bond-movie-meter-2015#latest
First of all, really glad to be back around here! I lost some of my Bond "mojo" there for about a month and a half, but have recently picked it back up and am quite ready to roll with it again as I travel through the series in search of an improved ranking!
In a way, I sort of feel sorry for LALD. It held my number 3 position for the longest time before being sent progressively further and further down the rankings. Some of the other movies got better and LALD somehow got worse. Unfortunately, it's never really come out of that slump. I don't despise it or even dislike it by any means, but I can't necessarily hail it as a Top Ten favorite like I once could. I still believe that it contains the greatest lot of villains in the series, along with one of the greatest soundtracks and one of Roger's most satisfying performances. Everything else sort of falters, though. The sense of danger isn't there with such an unimportant plot (by Bond standards), and our supposed payoff in the finale is quite a letdown. Thank goodness the brilliant fight with Tee Hee on the train was included; otherwise, LALD would end with its last action image being Kananga's inflation. 8-| It's not among the worst in the series with such redeeming qualities as the ones previously mentioned, but because of its drawbacks, it probably ought to rest among some of the middle grounders.
2014/2015 Winter Bondathon
1. From Russia with Love
2. Tomorrow Never Dies
3. Diamonds Are Forever
4. Thunderball
5. The Living Daylights
6. Live and Let Die
7. You Only Live Twice
8. The Spy Who Loved Me
So completely different yet both amazingly entertaining.
I liked it more, but was tired and just took the good of it. I treated it more like it was a Bond movie than an action thriller, okay okay so it is a Bond movie. But on first viewing I really want to believe in a film, Bond or not, whereas on repeated viewings you look for different things.
It seemed that the grim tone of the first half hour is such that the makers must have thought there'd likely be an awful terrorist attack on London in the year of the Olympics and had to anticipate it, rather than just kicking off with a jolly Bond caper, not that Craig's are ever that jolly. Plus they anticipated the death of HM the Queen, in which case the death of M would have acted as a safety valve of sorts (just as the death of M is a release for Bond's grief over his parents). Thankfully, neither happened but had they done so, I think SF would have been on the money with its tone, just as some say that had Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor been released six months later it would have been a big hit, reflecting the 9/11 horror and being of its time, he would have been hailed as a visionary.
SF is all about its themes, its actors, its look and so on, just as DAF is about its witty one liners delivered superbly by its leading man; Ken Adam sets, great song and John Barry score, set pieces. Neither make sense as a narrative but its other traits may or may not redeem that, depending on your tastes.
So, I just finished DN. My favorite Bond is Moore, but I must agree with what @bondjames said in another thread: the introduction scene alone, where an uber cool Connery gives the 'Bond, James Bond' line while smoking a cigarette puts him as, IMO, the best and ultimate Bond. This DN rewatch is one of the best experiences I had of seeing a Bond film I've had recently (on par with the last time I saw LTK). While the entire film is epic, the first hour is pure gold. Not one scene, not one second, not one action, not one line of dialogue is too much or unnecessary. It's pure and utter perfection. If I wanted to make a blunt statement, I'd say the first hour of DN is the best hour in the entire franchise. Connery, as I've said in another review of this film, is absolutly fa-bu-lous in this. He is utterly confident, pure alpha male, he has bucket loads of masculinity. Dare I say that look-wise he never looked better as Bond. For an outing that has almost no action, I was not bored for one second, and I could watch this film every day and not for one moment think 'this is boring'.
I'm going to start TB now. I'd dare to predict now that with GF vastly improving, this will be a close match for 2nd place for the first 4 movies of this Bond-a-thon (and it's a tie for DN and FRWL, it would be criminal for me to put one of these 2 ahead of the other).
I enjoy hearing your reactions after viewing the films again very much! Your enthusiasm is infectious ;) . I am just watching Goldfinger now myself and have to agree, the first hour is very nearly flawless. Never a dull moment. However I must say, I don't care for the extended scene of Solo being crushed in the car. It's so unnecessary and ruins the pace the film had going. I think they could have edited it better so we get the same information without having to sit through it. For instance, Solo leaves, Leiter follows, Oddjob drives into the scrap yard, Leiter's scanner goes dead, Leiter decides to return to the horse track, truck arrives back without us seeing the crushing. That way it's left to our imagination, much more dynamic and keeps the pace up going into the climax. I think making this simple change would have dramatic improved the second half of the film which sags a little in my eyes.
I need a shot of Connery myself. The Dr. will see me, No?
Due to the rise of Live and Let Die and Octopussy in my top ten, LTK has been pushed to number 8.
It's a great entry, with so much to love- the villains, Pam Bouvier, the action, Dalton and, of course, Professor Joe!
This time around, however, I thought the second act dragged a little, with the ninjas and all. But who knows, my rankings have been so fluid recently, and LTK could once again creep into my top five with a future watching.
I'm right there with you. I'd add that the dialogue in TB is whip-smart.
I prefer TB to GE. Whilst both films are fairly faithful to Fleming I beleive TB to have a more epic quality, the locations are more glamorous, the script more interesting and the villan more engaging (he has sharks in his pool). Furthermore, the Bond girls are more attractive too. Teraence Young is superior to Guy Hamiliton in everyway.
There is an edit button you know ;) I find I have to use it regularly. And I am not ashamed of it. b-(
Edit: See, there I used it again! :))