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You said it mate. Am saving my annual viewing for Christmas Day! I look forward to it every year. This year even more so! A highlight of my telly watch!
I couldn't wait! What a festive treat it is! 👍
A bit late to reply, but thank you for the wonderful compliment :D
That moment is so extremely out of place in that movie, but at the same time I would never ever want them to cut it. Such a horrifying, beautiful, violent scene. Some of Barry's best work. Haunting.
The whole film is beautiful, but not in the way that sequence is.
As the CGI bullet screamed towards me, I remembered that this was the 40th Anniversary film. A celebration of all things Bondian. A big, daft event. Let's go crazy.
Sure, it derails spectacularly in the 2nd half; terrible CGI; Halle Berry is a woeful punning machine and she has some truly god awful lines, such as “psychedelic light mask”, delivered like Berry was auditioning for Mr. Freeze; Zao is dreadfully wooden and the Antonov fist fight cum climax is a set piece too far, but, yet, I can’t help but enjoy it. It has the self awareness of not trying to take itself seriously. It’s an entertaining car wreck, but it intends to be one.
And there are some great little scenes, such as, the panning shot from the N. Korean flag down to the prisoner exchange bridge and ensuing dialogue between Bond the General; Bond swaggering into the hotel lobby; Bond’s reveal of the Chinese agents in his hotel room; Bond in Havana and his reawakening of Raoul; Bond in the VR room after shooting M - he hasn’t forgiven MI6 for abandoning him - and Bond trying to execute Frost after the revelation that she was the traitor. Lovely stuff.
The action is especially good, in a switch one’s brain off and just revel in the chaotic type of way. I feel that Tamahori infused the action with a certain dynamism, which was lacked in TND and TWINE. Indeed, for all Tamahori’s faults, one has to give him credit for the amount of gumption that DAD has. Which contrasts with the safe, dare I say it, staid, direction of Spottiswoode and Apted.
Best of all though is Mr. Brosnan. He brings a calm dignity to the role, that belies all the bumph and general craziness that is this movie. Brosnan even manages to make the terrible punning acceptable, with a certain grace and wryness that even Sir Rog would be proud of. Gone are Brosnan’s much maligned, erm acting foibles, such as the overt animation or the even more overt gurning, and instead replaced with a calm self assurance. He puts me in mind of the performances of Connery and Moore - Brosnan tended to act at being Bond, instead of just being Bond. But not in DAD. It’s a pity that his overall great performance was overshadowed by DAD’s trashiness. C’est la vie.
Watched it today. Always splendid! The other thread where you have to pick 5 scenes is impossible for me! Too many to choose from.
Pts, titles and Barrys score, meeting Tracy at the Casino, fight sequence in hotel room, resignation scene,meeting Draco, We have all the time in the world, Gumbold break in, M house, meeting Irma Bunt, first encounter with Blofeld, the girls,Irma Bunt in bed!!, Blofeld explains his plans, cable car escape ,night ski action, bell room scrap, stock car chase, helicopter attack on Piz Gloria, bobsled chase, and tragic ending! Wonderful Bond movie!
My opinion on this one hasnt really changed,its a pretty good film until we get to Brofelds lair and the film derails completley leading to a very dull climax in London.I still think QOS is the low point of the Craig era as Spectre at least has good camera and editing work and actually takes its time to tell its story but yeah,this was a disappointing one.
Cracking start, great finish, drags slightly when Bond becomes 'Japanese'.
Overall a fun watch though, those space scenes give me goosebumps.
Good summing up of YOLT. It starts off great, and that finale is fantastic, but it really drags during that whole turning Japanese section!
Wasnt intending to watch this Bond, but it was on telly, so i settled in, and had a great watch of it! Contains one of the best set of villains in the series in Kananga, TeeHee and Baron Samedi, and great set pieces, McCartneys theme, and though the final showdown is a little subdued, it makes up for it with TeeHees final reel attack, and the cheeky reappearance of Samedi! Have always enjoyed its signature sequence of the boat chase, but feel it could have been tighter and it cuts away too much to Sheriff Peppers antics ( though I do like the character!) Great viewing!
Well my home telly station showed this last night, so since i enjoyed LALD the night before, i gave it a viewing.
For the first 40 mins or so this is excellent. The pts is a great intro for our villain, Scaramanga and the duel with Marc Lawrence nicely staged, the opening briefing scene is well written, ( though Bond looks like he googled Scaramangas history!)
The fight in the belly dancers room is one of Rogs best, and the meeting with Lazar a highlight, Rogs slap happy time with Maud is a little out of step with his persona, but its still a good sequence.
Its after the Bottoms Up club that the film just loses lustre and starts to meander. There are small moments, but overall it was a missed opportunity, and the whole solex agitator business is dull.The action is poorly staged too! Nowhere near as good as LALD, though not a total disaster
I love the 54 CR. Always liked Barry Nelson in this and countless Golden Age of Hollywood film. Underrated actor.
Well, with the deaths of Michael Apted and Tanya Roberts, it was either TWINE or Rogers swansong!
I chose this, and must admit had a really enjoyable watch. Tanya was not the greatest of actresses, but she is beautiful ( and has quite striking eyes, which I have never noticed before!) and I dont think first choice Priscilla Presley would have been any better! What this does have is two great villain's in Christopher Walken and Grace Jones, i think Fleming would have approved! Patrick Macnee is also good value, and the plot, a reworking of GFs story is solid, though characters like Chuck Lee and Pola Ivanova are unnecessary and slow things down. The Pts is well shot, and has great skiing action, but the use of the Beach Boys song was a huge error. In fact the humour is one of the main things that let it down, the other is, am pained to say it, Roger himself. He was far too old for the role, and looks very aged. As someone mentioned in another thread, it would have been a better ending for Rog to sail off into the sunset with Octopussy in the previous movie!
OHMSS, this is one of my Favourites.
And I have to say, I just enjoy the newer movies more. Everyone knows CR and SF are great movies, but I have to say, I prefer TWINE to most of the 70s and 80s stuff. And it is almost entirely because I am much more at home with the pacing and the visual language. I read this a lot here and in other places, but it really seems like one loves the things one grew up with...
As for CR and SF: They just work great as a double feature and one of the reasons for it is the relative lack of connection between the two. It is strange how the two films that went out of their way to connect to previous films (QoS and SP) are relative failures (in my eyes). I hope they get out of that trap with NTTD (or at least that it is self-contained enough to just watch CR, SF and NTTD to get the best of Craig)
Edit: fixed a few annoying typos.
Red Grant is a terrific Villain and so brilliantly portrayed by Robert Shaw.
I hope you've seen Robin and Marian--that's Connery and Shaw's final battle!
( and still do ) a white Lotus esprit. " ... such lovely lines "
I think A View to a Kill is one of the worst Bond movies.
good points, I love Christopher Lee, the Island set and of course the
amazing car jump.
I used to rank it at the bottom of the pile and despite the fact that it just simply isn't one of the more exciting Bond films, I am continually finding it more and more enjoyable for some academic and some non-academic reasons. I wrote a long essay on the academic aspects of the film that I found interesting.
But beyond that, as a fan, I really love Moore's performance (even if he didn't!). Lee is fantastic. The largely terrible action is saved by what is a pretty genuinely intriguing first half.
It'll never be a top 10 for me, because it's just lacking too much, but it is growing in my estimation slowly over time.
edit: Done with the viewing. The climax (the final confrontation, at least) is very anti-climactic but all in all this sits a lot better with me this time around. There are many standout scenes, despite my issues with it. The main location for the film is really awesome and that entire stretch is generally pretty great (minus the video game battle). Fatima Blush is a top-tier villain. Easy. She literally singlehandedly *makes* this film something fun. I wish she had lived longer.