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Comments
Glad I am not a thinking person, then.
Probably the most positive experience I've had with this film. It's sensational. My only complaint is that they didn’t put an extra 15-20 minutes into the film to flesh out the story a bit.
I really seems as if QOS is becoming somewhat of a favorite around here. I'm going through the series right now, but I'll most definitely be revisiting this movie soon.
Strangely enough, I kinda think Skyfall justifies the time more than CR, because the former is much more an exploration of themes, for better or worse.
I agree with this assessment. The film loses me once we reach Bond's homestead, but I don't find this a length issue. I agree OHMSS and SF justify their running times, whereas CR and SP could only have benefited from adhering to the usual 2hr, 10 min. QOS and TND, as the only sub-2hr modern-day Bond flicks, are both lean, mean machines.
I agree. I remember (I hadn't read the Novel back then) clear as day sitting in the cinema and watching Le Chiffre get killed thinking "well, the mission is over! Well done, James." And then being puzzled once the romance stuff suddenly started and the film geared up again. I think the fact that it sits at such an odd spot in the film makes the dodgy dialogue between them all the more apparent (You're right, the scenes by the shore do strongly evoke the "I hate sand" monologue from Episode 2).
I think a part of the problem is that a lot of the Bonds feelings play out in his head in the Novel, and since there's really no way to portray that visually, they are forced to voice them directly for the camera. They obviously weren't shy about straying from the source material, given the ending, so I think it would have been far more beneficial if they have scattered those scenes throughout, and built to them organically. Like I say, part of what makes them feel unnatural is the fact they come out of nowhere.
The first half of Casino Royale feels very concocted, in retrospect. Everything of genuine import starts from the train sequence onwards.
Even Fleming lacks those kind of descriptive powers, Brady.
That would have worked well, too. Move right on to Venice.
It's just down to how she's written for me, and how different a character (in a good way) she feels in the film. In the book Vesper just cries awkwardly while Bond stands puzzled for days on end, until she just ups and dies. In the film her grief is masked such that he doesn't know he's been played, and you can feel her heart break when she witnesses him uncover what she's done to him. In the book we're cheated out of that moment, because Vesper leaves a note and commits suicide before Bond suspects a thing. That's one reason why I am somewhat okay with the Venice finale, as we get to see Bond face Vesper with no pretense. It's very raw and you can feel Bond's mix of anger and despair battling his desire to save her, though part of him hates her.
As a story of betrayal from Bond's perspective, the film absolutely bludgeons the book.
First time I've watched this for a while and bloody enjoyed it!
This really does move fast and keeps the attention with it's admittedly silly plot.
After Spectre it's nice to see Bond out on his own doing what he does best. M doesn't appear for huge swathes of this film and its all the better for it.
Really good PTS with one of Arnold's best pieces of music in 'White Knight'
Actions well done, especially the bike chase that while it does go on too long is technically excellent, and I love those long shots of the Bike in action.
The climactic events on the Stealth ship are also a lot of fun and its nice to see the British Navy get in on the action.
I know he gets a lot stick but I like Jonathan Pryce's Carver. Obviously completely insane from the outset and I love the way Bond obviously detests him when he goads him at the media launch.
Brosnan is good in this and apart from some silly bits with the BMW he gives a pretty serious performance.
At age 12, I love this film. It was Bond, right?
At age 16, I hated this film. What a silly, insulting parody of Bond.
At age now, I love this film, and more than ever before. I simply enjoy how outrageous and quirky this film is. Half the time one wonders who was smoking what at the time. Yet everyone is in on it, and that guarantees a lot of fun. Just fun, nothing else. And today, I just felt that urge, that urge to go back to DAF and watch the film in a state of total intellectual numbness. Barry fixes everything by the way. Once the score hits my ears, it brings me in the proper mood. Also, favourite theme song. Handsdown.
Moonraker 1979
First of all the good, Barry's score is a given, no the title theme is the worse of all the Bassey collaborations but Barry's cues are top notch and his best Bond score of the 70's. Flight Into Space is one of the best cues of the series and the rest are quality. Ken Adam's swansong while not quite up with YOLT & SWLM is definitely some of his best work of the series.
Christopher Wood has some real gems hidden amongst a good deal of corny cheese that omits from Rog's mouth and most of it is delivered by Lonsdale, "You appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season" is a particular highlight, the Frenchman seems to be having a ball all delivered as dry as toast.
While I wouldn't say MR is anywhere approaching SWLM as a whole the one thing it has over that film is Lonsdale's Drax is a more successful version of what it essentially the same character that Curt Jugens Karl Stromberg is. Lonsdale steals all of his scenes.
Unfortunately as charming as some may find Moore (he peaked with the previous entry for me) his insufferable know it all routine gets tiresome and also his inability to not be able to avoid getting himself into tight situations because he can't resist the sniff of skirt while endearing to some is an aspect I'm glad is long gone. I'm just too much of a fan of the darker interpretation and the globe trotting playboy routine has not dated well.
All in all quite entertaining but I'm unlikely to return to it for sometime but that said a damn sight more fun than SPECTRE and it looks quite stunning on Blu ray.
2.5/5
Goldeneye 1995
This was the real surprise and I haven't watched this since doing a marathon before the release of QOS so nearly a decade ago.
I'm no fan of Brosnan and don't make a secret of it but this was my first time on Blu ray as I have the Bond 50 set.
I have to say I really enjoyed this and now understand why so many of his fans state this as the best one of his, it clearly is. You have to credit EON with wanting to do something different with the character and from the get go this is evident
Yes Dalton's interpretation was him bringing the most literary take on character, someone who'd clearly read the books but despite me preferring TLD by something of a margin, Brosnan with Goldeneye was given a film that tried something different whereas both Dalton's were not very removed from the Moore entries despite Dalton's take.
You could argue Dalton would have faired better with GE than Pierce gave us but watching it I saw quite a confident turn from the Irishman, Michael France's screenplay is by far the best of this era and the plot and cast easily better than anything in the subsequent 3 films that followed.
Famke Jannsen makes a memorable henchwoman/ Bond girl, not sure about her orgasmic moaning though, Alan Cumming though is seriously irritating. Sean Bean is the pinnacle of the villains of this era with his Alex Trevelyan/006 and the spiky interactions between him and Brosnan's Bond are nicely played.
Eric Serra's score is a mixed bag, some of it sounds fine and lush but then especially in the opening sequence after the titles where Bond is being evaluated just sounds like electronic squelching and totally unsuitable for Bond. Although EON asked Serra to do the score on the back of his success with regular collaborator director Luc Besson so it's a wonder what they expected.
John Altman's only contribution does pep up the St Petersburg Tank chase though. The film has a good pace, also the Bono & Edge penned title track sung by Tina Turner is the most successful of the Brosnan era by far.
I'm never going to be his biggest fan but this was quite a confident debut. Pity it all got undone when EON rewarded him with lazy Roger Moore knock offs and tonally awkward entries that didn't play to his strengths, the next three films got gradually worse as they went on.
I took from this that despite myself always being critical of this film that my opinion of Pierce comes more from the other films as smugness seems at a minimum and his Bond quite likeable plus it's a much more balanced portrayal than Dalton delivered in 1989 in Licence To Kill.
This shoots up to middle rankings for me now and I'd rate it higher than LTK, it's amazing what my reaction to SPECTRE has done to some of the entries I previously gave a hard time, I'd return to this again before I subject myself to that again.
The Blu ray is certainly not one of the best of the set but looks competent enough.
3/5
Finally
You Only Live Twice 1967
Definitely from the point of view of Connery the weakest of his entries up to DAF of course that is. Connery while still entertaining is clearly wanting out, he couldn't even be bothered to keep himself in physical state to seem credible as the character, compare this to vision of the Bond in Thunderball only 2 years previous and it's night and day.
That being said, Freddie Young's cinematography is stunning, Ken Adam alongside his work in SWLM is a real watermark in the series. John Barry's score is second only to his OHMSS one, Space March isn't only one of the best cues of his Bond career but his career period. The Nancy Sinatra sang theme is exquisite.
Plenty of memorable moments and the supporting cast equips itself well, Tetsurô Tamba is one of the best allies of the series and makes a likeable and Memorable Tiger Tanaka. Donald Pleasence is clearly the blueprint that was set for Ernst Stavro Blofeld and although it can't help but remind you of Mike Myers Doctor Evil in the Austin Powers films, is much more memorable and effective than the recent reading of the character by twice Oscar winning Christoph Waltz.
Some niggles though, why does Helga Brandt go through that elaborate exercise with Connery to get rid of him, the whole bit in the plane seems utterly pointless. Also one of my favourite plot holes for the series, look fans seem to like to pick holes in the Daniel Craig films to a detailed degree, you'd think they instigated this themselves to hear some but the series has been littered with them since the beginning.
Who the hell is filming the final sequence of the SPECTRE rocket ship attempt to swallow the American craft that we see on the monitor in Blofeld's crater control centre?
Also finally one of the biggest pointless moments of the series and I think we can only attribute this to Roald Dahl, Why make Bond Japanese, what is the point, they just stick a toupee on and do something to his eyelids which proceeds to change Connery not one jot, must rank as one of the most WTF moments in the 50 year plus history of James Bond?
Again like Goldeneye I enjoyed this for the first time than I had for many years and see it heading to around middle rankings.
3/5
The first James Bond film and, in some respects, it's still the one to beat. I recently took in a viewing of DN on a quiet night with a liberal portion of whiskey. I seem to return to this one often, so it made sense for DN to be the first Bond film I've seen on Blu-Ray (as I try to convert, or at least additionally accumulate, my Bond film collection). I'm behind the times; I know. The restored transfer looks crisp and vibrant on Blu-Ray and I'm looking forward to seeing how other Bond films look in this format.
I've always loved the plot of DN. The Caribbean-set Cold War plot is hauntingly timely for 1962 - and thankfully the series didn't wait to introduce SPECTRE because it's inclusion here makes for something wonderful to build upon with the future films. There's a lot of Fleming here, it's a pity he wasn't crazy about the film when it was first released. Maybe that's precisely because they faithfully relied heavily on his source material and he couldn't watch someone else score on his play. Anyway.... I especially love watching Bond do his spy "thing," like the scene where Bond plucks a hair and sticks it on the closet door (right out of Casino Royale if I'm remembering correctly). The humor throughout the film is just perfect. Unlike some of the other Bond films, the quips have a rhythm and pay off within the flow of the story. 007 isn't telling jokes to himself in this one.
Amazing how the Bond series started off swinging - Terence Young, Richard Maibaum, Ted Moore, Ken Adam, John Barry.... These talented people together make a deep and immediate stamp upon cinema. The cast is miraculously assembled as well. Joseph Wiseman is still probably my #1 favorite villain of the series - Dr. No is a very pulp character but Wiseman makes him convincing and imposing in a way that not only created an iconic individual character but practically spawned a new type of film villain. And you have to love how Dr. No does his own dirty work when push comes to shove - running to beat Bond with his bare hands for ruining his plan; no ordering guys in jumpsuits for that. Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell would of course plant their flag in the series with their portrayals of M & Moneypenny - I'm not sure what else there is to say about that, they are note-for-note perfect in this movie. Jack Lord was a cool Leiter and it's a pity he didn't reprise the role throughout Connery's tenure. Instead, we got almost a decade-long revolving door of clueless and/or pudgy Leiters to carry Bond's suitcase around for him. Honorable mention to the always reliable character-actor Anthony Dawson, who gives a great showing as Professor Dent.
And - whoa.... The girls in this movie! Very hard to top this elegant ensemble. Bond has his hands full just between the playful sex kitten Sylvia and the drop dead gorgeous femme fatale Miss Taro alone. I don't think Ursula Andress gets enough credit for her individual performance of Honey Rider - she's no "bimbo," as Honor Blackman likes to think all of her predecessors were. Andress creates a strong character with her impressive physical acting despite being often poorly dubbed (EON did better with the dubbing in FRWL and TB). She manages to create a pretty rounded character who is undoubtedly sexy but also completely capable on her own. There is more of a convincing relationship between Bond and Honey than in most other Bond films as well, which is still refreshing and something those who like to bemoan the franchise for their portrayal of women love to overlook.
Sean Connery convinces as James Bond from his first moment on screen - no needing to see the 007 checklist ahead of time (Aston Martin, check; cigarette, check; suit, check - it's Bond!), just one phrase growled over a smokey card table is enough: "Bond, James Bond." I don't like how the word "suave" has attached itself to the series. Waiters are "suave"; there's nothing suave about Connery - confident, charismatic and vulnerable ("of course I'm scared too") but unbreakable from the start. There's no time for f!ckery - he's a very nervous passenger, so don't try to take him for a ride. I love how well Connery sells Bond toying with the chauffeur with bad intentions, double-crossing the murderous Miss Taro after first using her for what she's worth and barking at Crab Key's guards to remove his handcuffs. My favorite in the long line of great Sean Connery performances of James Bond is seen right here in DN.
There are a few elements within the film that I do cringe at however.... Some of the voice dubbing is just awful - but it's the early 60s, the technology wasn't where it is today and the coffers may not have been sufficiently filled for Bond's first screen adventure. Alright. But the completely botched editing while Bond asks the General about Strangeway's photograph for instance - that's harder to forgive. It's baffling how something like that can make a final cut. Then there's the "dragon" they often speak of - surely few would have the high degree of mental decay required to mistake a weaponized (and hilariously decorated) Jeep for a giant, flying, fire-breathing lizard? And boy.... did they ever drop the ball on Quarrel. He's a fun guy, no doubts - but the CIA sure seemed to have picked a real superstitious dummy to help their mission in Jamaica, the same country to create Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, Dennis Scott and a whole host of other brilliant people. Doesn't the cream float to the top in the Caribbean too? Quarrel can't seem to do much outside of pilot a boat and fetch Bond's shoes (something Bond actually asks him to do at one point, for some reason). Sure, take a swig from the jug to the goofy music - you'll need it to portray someone who doesn't think to run away from the flame-throwing Tonka truck. Nah, just sit there in that bush - the dragon's vision may be based on movement.
I'd be interested to see how others reconcile some of DN's faults - because I'd love to not be distracted by them anymore. Help me! Still, DN is one of my very favorite Bond films - I don't see it leaving from my #5-10 position but, if it didn't include some of its obvious faults, it could have been my #1 or #2 favorite Bond film.
Favorite Element: Sean Connery as James Bond.
Favorite Scene: "That's a Smith & Wesson - and you've had your six."
If you are interested in reading my perspective, I did do an in-depth review of Dr. No's elements on my blog, where I talk about everything I think it does right matched with some minor complaints:
https://fortressoffleming.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/fortress-of-fleming-dr-no-review/
I think I'm a lot easier on it than most, but it is the one that really opened up the Bond world to me all those years ago.
That was a great review - I read your others as well. I'll be interested to keep up with your site - TB is next I presume? One of my favorites as well.