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Last Bond Movie You Watched

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  • CrzChris4CrzChris4
    edited January 2017 Posts: 463
    You Only Live Twice.

    There's a good film...somewhere in there. I think it gets buried by the "Bond becoming Japanese" storyline and Connery's sometimes bored performance. If a good ten or twenty minutes was trimmed or removed, we would have the perfect 60's Connery Bond send off. There's a lot to love: the volcano base, the fight on the roofs at Kobe Docks, Blofeld's reveal, the fight inside Osato's office and the next scene's interview in the same office, Tanaka, the score and the cinematography, Little Nellie...If I can figure out how to strip the music from the film, I will definitely attempt to do an edit because this film could definitely benefit from a little trimming.

    1. From Russia With Love
    2. GoldenEye
    3. Octopussy
    4. The Spy Who Loved Me
    5. You Only Live Twice
    6. SPECTRE
    7. The World Is Not Enough
    8. Never Say Never Again
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,400
    Just something I thought of while watching SP, that everyone talks of Die Another Day starting out as more realistic and character driven as the Craig films would go on to be, but eventually it gets pulled back into the Brosnan oeuvre in the second half, right? Well SP kinda follows the same pattern, if you think about it - but in reverse. It starts out like a more lighthearted, OTT adventure, and gradually gets pulled back into the character drama we associate with Craig.

    The more I compare these two films, the more similarities become evident.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    SP lighthearted? I still don't understand this contention. I'd also hold that the first half of the film is where all the major character drama occurs, not the second half. In the second half we just see minor payoff to all that was addressed in the first half.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    edited January 2017 Posts: 8,400
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    SP lighthearted? I still don't understand this contention. I'd also hold that the first half of the film is where all the major character drama occurs, not the second half. In the second half we just see minor payoff to all that was addressed in the first half.

    Kinda, but it creeps into the story in a similar fashion. The invisible car is introduced about half way through DAD for instance, as does the gene therapy plot point, in the first half. The reveal of Graves as Moon is a mere payoff that occurs in the second half. You can't exactly payoff something unless it has been setup to begin with, after all.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited January 2017 Posts: 23,883
    I find SP to be 'light hearted' up to and including the car chase (which was certainly played for laughs in comparison to prior Craig car chases). Then once we get to Austria and White there is a marked tonal shift as the connections begin to pile up. White's death in itself and the setting are quite eerie and dark, and it continues on ominously from there.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,400
    bondjames wrote: »
    I find SP to be 'light hearted' up to and including the car chase (which was certainly played for laughs in comparison to prior Craig car chases). Then once we get to Austria and White there is a marked tonal shift as the connections begin to pile up. White's death in itself and the setting are quite eerie and dark, and it continues on ominously from there.

    I agree, but then again plenty of otherwise lighthearted Bond films contain rather unpleasant scenes and images. Moonraker for instance features that harrowing sequence in the woods with the dogs, and in TSWLM Strombergs secretary gets eaten alive by a shark. Both quite disturbing.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited January 2017 Posts: 23,883
    Mendes4Lyfe wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    I find SP to be 'light hearted' up to and including the car chase (which was certainly played for laughs in comparison to prior Craig car chases). Then once we get to Austria and White there is a marked tonal shift as the connections begin to pile up. White's death in itself and the setting are quite eerie and dark, and it continues on ominously from there.

    I agree, but then again plenty of otherwise lighthearted Bond films contain rather unpleasant scenes and images. Moonraker for instance features that harrowing sequence in the woods with the dogs, and in TSWLM Strombergs secretary gets eaten alive by a shark. Both quite disturbing.
    That is certainly true, but for some reason I felt an added layer of uncomfortable & unsettling darkness in the SP scenes imho (particularly White and the torture sequence). I can't put my finger on it, but it reminds me of something else I've seen before. In a way, LTK gave me that kind of unsettling feeling the first time I watched it, but for different reasons (it was Felix being eaten, Della's dead eyes, and the blood/violence in that one that took me by surprise).
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,400
    I now think of Die Another Day and SPECTRE as prototype Bonds, caught between two eras in a fashion, and displaying a sometimes uneasy mixture of both. On the one hand there is a forward thinking vein in both films which is very much aware of how audiences tastes are changing and wants to meet them head on. On the other hand, there is the identity crisis, that this Bond should stay true to the actors tenure.
  • GBFGBF
    Posts: 3,197
    I have not really thought of any complete turn with regard to the tone in Spectre. I guess it is balanced throughout the film. You have dark moments in the beginning. For instance the cold killing of the two assassins in Lucia's house or the Spectre meeting with the brutal Kill by Mr. Hinx sandwiched by rather lighthearted moments like the Q scene and the car chase. The darker Mr. White scene is followed by the amusing sanatorium scene where Bond gets his non alcoholic drink. The film follows that pattern and I actually like it. It is a bit like the traditional Bond films, especially the later Roger Moore films as well as the Dalton films.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    GBF wrote: »
    I have not really thought of any complete turn with regard to the tone in Spectre. I guess it is balanced throughout the film. You have dark moments in the beginning. For instance the cold killing of the two assassins in Lucia's house or the Spectre meeting with the brutal Kill by Mr. Hinx sandwiched by rather lighthearted moments like the Q scene and the car chase. The darker Mr. White scene is followed by the amusing sanatorium scene where Bond gets his non alcoholic drink. The film follows that pattern and I actually like it. It is a bit like the traditional Bond films, especially the later Roger Moore films as well as the Dalton films.

    I agree with this,whatever SP problems are its not the tone in the film ,which is very balanced and,as @GBF says,like a traditional Moore film.

  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    I don't know guys. I didn't get a Moore vibe or a Connery vibe from SP. I got a vibe certainly, but it was different. More detached, sinister and definitely darker towards the end. More Kubrick actually. Unsettling. Dreamy.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @bondjames, I get a Connery vibe at parts of SP, but not in tone, really. Just in the overall visual style and its approach to narrative, with many moments that feel straight out of a vintage 60s film in the character moments, sets and look of Bond's suits that are largely tributes to Connery's best looks.

    I do get what you're saying about the tone, though. While most Bond films do have moments in them that could be described as dark, SP for me has an ominous feeling that it carries for long, long stretches without much pause. A film that I saw this sustained mood replicated successfully in recently is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (also with Dan), as both plots feature very deprived acts both being shown and implied as mysteries of a crippling and dark nature are unearthed. Just the SPECTRE Rome meeting alone gives us a window into the operations the organization is involved in that turn my stomach, already making it a very dark and adult film in comparison to others. This darkness only continues as we witness a suicide, psychological and physical torture, staged terrorist attacks and more volatile images in between.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited January 2017 Posts: 23,883
    @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7, strangely I got that 60's Connery'esque classic vibe more from SF than SP. Certainly with Craig's cropped hairdo and his grey suit, which consciously evoked GF's famous number. I just felt much more of a retro flavour in the earlier film, but with a very contemporary personal story thrown in.

    With SP, the monotone colour filter removed much of the link to earlier films for me, although I did get a TSWLM/YOLT Gilbert vibe in places due to wide angle lensing of some of the earlier sequences and the 'scale' that was conveyed.

    Yes, I agree, TGWTDT is a good example of the sort of underlying sinister menace that I was alluding to. I also think Kubrick in the visuals and the unsympathetic nature of a lot of the characters (they are distant and a bit cold to me). There is definitely an unsettling psychological undertone to the film that seems intentional. Mendes operating at a subliminal level.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @bondjames, SF is definitely more old school, it may just be SPECTRE's involvement in SP that gives it a Connery feeling to me. I just see a lot of Sean through it, with Daniel playing the dark and lighter moments as he did, and of course the suits, the sets, the character dialogues; it all feels vintage.

    I agree with you on the Kubrick comparison too. The SF Scotland tracking shots following Bond on the road in his Aston was a tribute to The Shining, and the Rome meeting is very reminiscent of the cult-like meeting happening in the estate building in Eyes Wide Shut, so it's clear that Mendes is a big fan. There's definitely a piercing, never-relenting paranoia that takes over Kubrick's movies at times, and I do feel that in SP too. Kubrick would even add in background audio that sounded like radio static to induce a feeling of unease, and that same kind of trick with sound is used in moments like Bond's ride to the Rome meeting, his approach to White's home in Austria and more. Very unsettling.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited January 2017 Posts: 23,883
    @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7, for sure the Spectre involvement evokes the Connery days. I sort of forgot about that. I see where you're coming from, but with the Connery films I always felt engaged with him as a character. There's something about the way that Mendes directs Craig that keeps him more detached/aloof than he was to me in CR/QoS. I can't put my finger on it, but I noticed the difference first in SF (but thought nothing of it, because the rest of the cast were fully formed in my eyes - think Brosnan in GE), but felt it far more in SP (due to the detachment of the other characterizations). Like he's not there, even though he's there. There's something robotic almost. Again, perhaps this is just something I'm picking up, because I don't think I've heard it mentioned here by others.

    Good point about the background audio. That is definitely a conscious decision and I noticed it and like it.
  • GBFGBF
    Posts: 3,197
    I think the tone is quite similar between Skyfall and Spectre. I find both films very much inspired by the Batman trilogy with regard to the darker tone and London being a bit like Bond's Gotham City.

    The main difference is that SP tries to be funny in places and I don't think that the humour always works so very well there. People just don't expect such things like the car chase in a Daniel Craig film and find it disturbing. I personally don't mind it so very much. My main complaint is the lame third act.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    @bondjames, I can understand that, and SP almost by default has the least character moments of great impact for Bond, I think. CR was the biggie, and QoS was very much a study in his grief over Vesper, with SF giving Dan a lot to work with as a resurrected agent in addition to all the emotional resonance that comes from his dynamic with Judi's M and her death.

    In SP I feel the character in it and he feels consistent to who I know and expect to see, but I absolutely get what you mean when you say he's there but not really. The focus isn't lost on Bond the character as badly as some films, like YOLT for example, but the plot wrestling the spotlight from Bond is definitely more pronounced than the other Craig films. And because his first three are such heavy character pieces with high drama, it's hard for the movie to meet that level of focus after so much has been resolved for Bond. There's definitely stuff going on with Bond in the film, as he's reconsidering what he wants in his future, brought up to him on the train by Madeleine, but the problem is that he never directly addresses it. He never talks with M about doing something else with his remaining years, never really confronts Blofeld face to face in as explosive a way as he should, or feels the anger he should in other moments. There's a lot that feels suppressed in the performance in some ways. Dan is always such an overt Bond in that it's easy to see how he's feeling when he wears his heart on his sleeve, but here he feels more guarded and we lose a lot of resonance from his part in the movie because of it.

    So I definitely understand where you're coming from, as I've felt hints of that too.
  • CrzChris4CrzChris4
    Posts: 463
    Moonraker.

    Having just watched YOLT, I was in the mood for another big-spectacle Bond adventure. I sort of got it. Ken Adam is the unsung hero of the series. His set designs are ALWAYS impressive. Barry delivers another great soundtrack as well.

    The problem with Moonraker is anytime there's a good scene, they have to punctuate it with something stupid: Jaws flapping his wings, the double taking pigeon, the random faces Jaws makes that are inserted randomly into scenes, his who love side-plot with Dolly, etc. It's a shame because Moonraker has some of the best dialogue in the series and is genuninely hilarious at times, due to Moore's interpretation of the character. It's also a shame because there are some eerie and suspensful moments as well.

    1. From Russia With Love
    2. GoldenEye
    3. Octopussy
    4. The Spy Who Loved Me
    5. You Only Live Twice
    6. SPECTRE
    7. The World Is Not Enough
    8. Moonraker
    9. Never Say Never Again
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    CrzChris4 wrote: »
    The problem with Moonraker is anytime there's a good scene, they have to punctuate it with something stupid: Jaws flapping his wings, the double taking pigeon, the random faces Jaws makes that are inserted randomly into scenes, his who love side-plot with Dolly, etc. It's a shame because Moonraker has some of the best dialogue in the series and is genuninely hilarious at times, due to Moore's interpretation of the character. It's also a shame because there are some eerie and suspensful moments as well.
    I completely agree and am similarly annoyed whenever I watch the film. It's like they deliberately go out of their way to diffuse whatever magnificent tension (given the budget) that they create on screen. I'm certain the reason is that Gilbert and the team decided to create a yang to TSWLM's yin, and took this route to have a different tone to the earlier film. They do make for a great double bill as a result. I am probably in the minority, but I really like Moore's work in MR. It's absolutely spot on for the tone of the film. He's having a blast, and so is everyone else around him.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    bondjames wrote: »
    CrzChris4 wrote: »
    The problem with Moonraker is anytime there's a good scene, they have to punctuate it with something stupid: Jaws flapping his wings, the double taking pigeon, the random faces Jaws makes that are inserted randomly into scenes, his who love side-plot with Dolly, etc. It's a shame because Moonraker has some of the best dialogue in the series and is genuninely hilarious at times, due to Moore's interpretation of the character. It's also a shame because there are some eerie and suspensful moments as well.
    I completely agree and am similarly annoyed whenever I watch the film. It's like they deliberately go out of their way to diffuse whatever magnificent tension (given the budget) that they create on screen. I'm certain the reason is that Gilbert and the team decided to create a yang to TSWLM's yin, and took this route to have a different tone to the earlier film. They do make for a great double bill as a result. I am probably in the minority, but I really like Moore's work in MR. It's absolutely spot on for the tone of the film. He's having a blast, and so is everyone else around him.

    This has always been my experience with Moore's films-on the whole-and it's why they are my lessers. There's great moments that come, but somehow, someway the films go out of their way to ruin the tension, suspense, momentum, etc. by adding in something that sours it all.

    Or in other cases, crazy, over the top, far too nutso elements distract from all the good. We'd be ranking Drax and Bond's dialogues up there with those the character shared with Dr. No and Goldfinger if so much in MR didn't bog down the great writing that can arrive in moments. Drax's dialogue reads like poetry, but the movie strives to make you forget it with laser battles in space, a romance subplot with a once imposing henchman and other assorted no-nos.
  • CrzChris4CrzChris4
    Posts: 463
    A View To A Kill.

    Similarly to Moonraker, many good moments in this one are ruined by bits of "humor." Although in this case, I feel that it's not as frequent as in Moonraker.

    A View To A Kill benefits from having one of the better scores and title tracks in the series, Christopher Walken as the villain, and Grace Jones as Mayday. in fact, I feel that the supporting cast is actually well done in this movie, despite all of the regulars being 50+


    01. From Russia With Love
    02. GoldenEye
    03. Octopussy
    04. The Spy Who Loved Me
    05. You Only Live Twice
    06. SPECTRE
    07. The World Is Not Enough
    08. A View To A Kill
    09. Moonraker
    10. Never Say Never Again
  • LordBrettSinclairLordBrettSinclair Greensleeves
    Posts: 167
    Watched A View To a Kill

    Always get a bit sad when finished because I know it's Roger Moore's last.
    He is so great in this one, and I love the last third of movie so much when they go into mines and then on the bridge.
    The Goldengate Bridge scenes are my favourites of all the movies.
  • GBFGBF
    Posts: 3,197
    LordBrettSinclair wrote: »
    Watched A View To a Kill

    Always get a bit sad when finished because I know it's Roger Moore's last.
    He is so great in this one, and I love the last third of movie so much when they go into mines and then on the bridge.
    The Goldengate Bridge scenes are my favourites of all the movies.

    I love it as well. The climax is certainly one of the best in the series and the score, especially the GG bridge score, is amazingly powerfull. For decades this had been my #1 Bond film. Meanwhile it has slightly fallen in my ranking but it is still a top5 film for me.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    Something I knew this time round that I didn't know the last time I watched TWINE: the answer to Elektra King's question "Do you know what happens when a man is strangled?" and why she sits on Bond's lap when she asks it...
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    Something I knew this time round that I didn't know the last time I watched TWINE: the answer to Elektra King's question "Do you know what happens when a man is strangled?" and why she sits on Bond's lap when she asks it...
    She wanted him to die happily? That was my thought.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    I figured it was more about her pleasure than his.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    He may have died faster due to blood dropping quickly from his upper regions to support other areas.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited January 2017 Posts: 28,694
    bondjames wrote: »
    He may have died faster due to blood dropping quickly from his upper regions to support other areas.

    I would be so conflicted if I was Bond in that situation. On one hand it's dangerous and life threatening and all, but it's also quite...arousing on the other. I would embrace that death.
  • CrzChris4CrzChris4
    edited January 2017 Posts: 463
    Dr. No

    It says something about a film when you can literally say there is something iconic about every scene. Connery is on fire. His introduction in the casino is single-handedly the greatest scene in the entire Bond canon. The pace is tight and quick, and the humor is excellent: I love how he dispatches Mr. Jones and leaves him in the back of his car when he pulls up to the embassy. Connery's showdown with Professor Dent cements him as the best Bond of all time: charming, sophisticated, debonair, dangerous. I do not think there has ever been a role casted better than Connery as James Bond.

    01. From Russia With Love
    02. Dr. No
    03. GoldenEye
    04. Octopussy
    06. The Spy Who Loved Me
    07. You Only Live Twice
    08. SPECTRE
    09. The World Is Not Enough
    10. A View To A Kill
    11. Moonraker
    12. Never Say Never Again
  • CrzChris4CrzChris4
    Posts: 463
    Casino Royale.

    Still as fresh as the first time I've watched it on opening night. Craig electrifies. It was a stroke if genius to open the film with Craig's version of Dent's execution. It's as if the film gods literally said that Casino Royale was going to be great and then it happened. From the first frame until Craig's delivery of THE line, we are given a portrayal of the character that hasn't been rivaled since the early 60's.


    01. From Russia With Love
    02. Casino Royale '06
    03. Dr. No
    04. GoldenEye
    05. Octopussy
    06. The Spy Who Loved Me
    07. You Only Live Twice
    08. SPECTRE
    09. The World Is Not Enough
    10. A View To A Kill
    11. Moonraker
    12. Never Say Never Again
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