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Saying that, I can't see it ever falling out of the top ten. It was the first James Bond film I saw (it was on television, and I couldn't have been more than five or six). My dad, a Connery-only James Bond fan, told my mum that I didn't have to go to bed at my usual time that evening, and he and I sat side by side as I experienced my first 007 film.
And the little boy in me marvelled at the PTS. Connery was so incredibly cool and confident. The battle in the study was exhilarating. The escape by jet pack was out of this world, and a car that had water cannons in them stole my heart.
By the time the PTS was over, I can pretty much say that I became a James Bond fan at that very moment.
Thunderball will always have a special place in my heart, and I continue to fully enjoy Connery's performance today. He was at the height of his powers, he looked fantastic, and Fiona Volpe has never been bettered as a femme fatale.
Also, incredibly rich bits of dialogue, like:
"That gun, looks more fitting for a woman"
"Do you know much about guns, Mr. Bond?"
"No, I know a little about women"
And the battle at the baccarat table, playing with the word spectre.
And the verbal exchanges Bond has with Fiona.... All just classic...
It used to be much lower down my rankings but over the years has steadily climbed to a more respectable spot. Whilst it has its issues (which are well known) I think it improves on GF. Connery was surely never cooler than he was in TB. From the pts to Shrublands and finally the Bahamas. This Bond is effortlessly in command and dangerous. I love seeing the set-up of the story with Spectre doing what they do. We get to see them in action before Bond is called into action to stop them. The pace can be slower at times, but it doesn't matter. The travelogue from dull and grey London and Paris, to bright and colourful make TB a joy to watch. The Bahamas look so beautiful on screen that any mistakes are easily forgotten or forgiven.
Largo whilst not as memorable as GF or Blofeld is still a decent villain for Bond to take on, and at least poses a threat to Bond. Fiona remains the femme fatale that all others are measured by, and Domino is equally one of the top tier of Bond girls.
The underwater scenes are well shot and exciting. They also still hold up well nearly 60 years later!
I like that the filmmakers didn't try to make a GF pt:2 by bringing the DB5 back for more of the same or producing a new version of Oddjob. They wisely went in a slightly different direction with the gadgets and the villains which 'I think benefits both films.
The booming John Barry soundtrack also makes the film seem larger than it perhaps is, and the cinematography gives the film an almost epic feel.
I love :
The pts
The Spectre meeting
The OO briefing / M scene
Shrublands
The Casino scene
Bond and Fiona (especially their byplay)
Bond when he visits Palmyra / skeet shooting
The Junkanoo and the death of Fiona
The end battle
The skyhook rescue system (so cool!)
Not a fan of :
Some of the editing
Some of the minor characters, what does Pinder really do?
The sped up climax aboard the yacht.
I think TB is a very worth top ten Bond film and is always good for a rewatch.
Some of the best dialogue can be found here as well. Far too many to list.
GOLDENEYE (1995)
Directed by Martin Campbell
"It appears we share the same passions."
GE obtained Pierce's only gold medal of the contest. It also received one silver medal, one 4th place and two 5th's.
Six other top 10's were awarded to it, four of those came in 9th. Five more members ranked it inside their top 15.
Two members, however, gave it a bottom 5 finish, of which the lowest was one penultimate place.
We discussed the other three Pierce entries a while ago, all of them towards the lower end of our ranking, this one though is an entry he can always count on.
GE scored a total of 135 points.
More than any other movie in the franchise, it’s a film for which I never understood the outpouring of love and accolades.
Trevelyan lacks the grandeur or menace other classic Bond villains possess, while Xenia and Boris are two of the most ridiculous, over the top hench(wo)men, whose rightful place is in an Austin Powers movie.
And Brosnan… always liked him in other roles, but I could never stand his interpretation of 007. The pretty boy, smug attitude was toned down a bit in subsequent films, but here it’s on full display and I don’t find it the least appealing or charming.
A good title song and a wonderful title sequence, I’d give it that.
#22 for me.
BB & MGW come straight out of the gate on their first solo flight with an enormous hit; they showed they really knew what they were doing. And Brosnan is pretty note-perfect: yes, as he's admitted he's basically playing it somewhere between Sean and Roger so it's not exactly a portrayal which will go down in history, but what works works, and he owns the movie. He has much more charisma and screen presence than his predecessor, and this film rightly made him a star and moved him into the big time properly.
The stunts are all superb and eye-popping, Tina Turner's song is big and brash and just what we needed, and hiring Danny Kleinman was a masterstroke which just keeps giving to this day. Much like the rest of the film, he gave us the Bond titles sort of how we remember them rather than how they were: just that bit better.
One tidbit I only learned relatively recently which GG's graphic above reminded me of: motorbike stunt legend Eddie Kidd plays Bond in the opening titles!
Top 10?, never even come near my top 20!
Cool action sequences - the PTS jumps, the final fight with Travelyan (very gritty and up there with the Grant/Bond fight in FRWL for me), and of course the tank chase!
The story works. As others have said it feels like an updated Bond movie but tweaks things in ever so slight ways. Ie. Instead of the usual Moneypenny/Bond scene with Moneypenny swooning over him we get a more scrappy version, one who rolls her eyes at the idea of dressing up for Bond, claiming ‘he’s never had her etc. It’s still playful and even flirtatious but it’s a different spin. Same for M of course now being played by Dench - a character much more businesslike, and a bit scornful of Bond even. Again, you still get the usual ‘come back alive’ which shows that level of trust in Bond, but it adds a good element of conflict without going the full Robert Brown M route.
The score is a bit ‘industrial’ which works better at certain times than others.
All in all, this is one of those films in the franchise that really reinvented Bond for the present day. Always been one I revisit.
I've been very down on Meddings' work on this film and I think there is indeed some dreadful stuff, but watching it again there are some really standout shots which are better than anything CG could do: the shot of the Tiger's ejection module in the air firing its parachutes is superb, and the shot of Bond and Natalia's plane crashing into the lake really does look like the real thing, you wouldn't know. and the MIGs taking off looks completely convincing.
Yeah, I'm not down on the score and I think it works well quite often (I think the gunbarrel is genuinely one of the best ever!), but I was watching it and wondering if the 'Run Jump shoot' track was intended for the sequence they use it on in Bond's escape from the archives- you can feel the sound mixer actually having trouble and having to mix the sound effects down for the music slightly, as the melody is using a low cello sound which I think clashes a bit with the effects.
Did you know there were TLD and LTK props reused in GE? Isthmus casino chips in Monaco, and TLD's opium sack bomb timer becomes a keypad lock on Q's workshop door when Bond walks in.
I genuinely never knew this but I appreciate you sharing it! I gotta keep this in the back of my mind when I do my Bondathon in November.
That's so accurate. I've seen some of these installments close to 500 times, if not more, and I'm sure I don't know even 25% of all the production trivia, easter eggs, etc.
I remember the one year a few of us here watched about 400 Bond films each, and I was amazed at just how many actors I noticed appearing in numerous installments, background characters I had spotted countless times and never realized they were a part of other films, like the GE computer salesman working alongside Professor Dr. Metz in the lab in DAF.
Even back when I wasn't a fan of Brosnan, I was still a huge fan of GoldenEye though, that was really the one Bond film of that era that ticked all the boxes for me. It really feels like a classic, and so it did back in the 90s already. Like Brosnan himself, it strikes the right balance between the seriousness of the Dalton era and the campy fun of the Moore era. What is gone is the cheap feel of the John Glen era, GoldenEye feels like a premium production.
It has a fantastic list of characters, Travelyan, Onatopp, Boris, Natalya, Zukovsky, Ourumov, Dench's M are all some of the best in the series. Only one that misses the mark for me is Jack Wade.
The film is packed with iconic scenes, the PTS with the bungie jump, the casino scene, the theft of GoldenEye, the reintroduction of Trevelyan in the Statue par, the archives scene, the train sequence and the whole climax. There are so many brilliant aesthetics choices. I also love Tina Turner's song.
It is not all perfect though. The tank chase, while quite fun, is a little too much, Bond is a bit out of character here, being very reckless, risking the lives of civilians and the police. Some plot points are a little too convoluted, the PTS makes little sense when you start to think about it and the attempt of disposing of Bond and Natalya by putting them in a helicopter set to fire rockets at itself is just mind boggling. The soundtrack is also a bit hit and miss. There are tracks that are absolutely fire and others that are completely off.
What're the odds of that? That's gold - now here's me adding it to my Watchlist just for that slight connection and to say I've seen another one of Craig's films haha.
Of course, the action is great (although a bit OTT, Bond driving the Tank is on par with Bond driving the semi truck wheelie on one side), the plot is great, there's tense and danger, the Russian Cold War feel is very felt throughout the film, it's a style that most James Bond Dynamite comics have, the acting of the main characters were great (Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, and Izabella Scorupco), Robbie Coltrane and his character, Zukovsky is great too, I liked the few backstory that was shared between him and Bond.
The things I disliked about it are the editing, I don't liked the transition from PTS to the Title Sequence, well, most of the transitions from one scene to another, fading and such, very dated and a bit corny for a Bond film, the acting of whoever played the role of General Ourumov, he's not good in the role, I must admit, he's very comical to be taken seriously, and his accent was all over the place and silly (much worse than Barbara Bach's Anya who's very much tied with this).
Boris Grishenko (for how good Alan Cummings is) the character was weird, I don't know why he's acting like that, some were even having theories that he's an autistic of some sorts, I don't know, his character was so all over the place too, he's annoying and irritating and his actions were somewhat blurry (Why did he hated Natalya all of a sudden? Sure, he's a villain but what's the reason for his bullying of her? I don't get it).
Natalya Simonova is a realistic character, I'm going to give her that, she got some agency and capable of survival, a strong willed and determined woman, but she's always complaining and didn't cooperated with Bond until she's held hostage, although I got it, she had trust issues, but Bond already showed the most obvious to her that he's fighting them and even tied with her in the bombing of the helicopter and saved her life many times, and she's always criticizing Bond (that beach scene is the most example), I don't get the reason behind that attitude of her.
Jack Wade is always, ridiculous, Felix Leiter should've been here instead.
The score is decent, at least better than the one in FYEO, but it's a bit awkward, especially the race scene between Bond and Xenia at the beginning, it's awful.
Brosnan was decent in his first outing as Bond, a bit smug, and still almost playing Remington Steele in a Bond film, the hairstyle was bad, just bad, thankfully his hairstyle got better in his subsequent outings, and so his suits, looked very cheap, especially the neck tie, he looked more like a low class broker.
Those are what I could say about this film, it's in my Top Ten, so that's the highest I could give for this.
Ah that's very cool- will look out for that! I remember seeing that sack bomb timer lying around in the Q Branch-themed queueing area at the Licence To Thrill ride in London :D
See, I think the genius of the tank chase is it's a ridiculous scene but done in a straightforward way stylistically. We don't get any slide whistles or 'wink wink' moments in the filmmaking such as a change in music or double taking pigeons. It's just the Bond theme and some cool (and often humorous) stunts.
For me it's actually the perfect Bond action scene. It's humorous, but gripping. It's one of those big, cool moments that bridges two quite tense scenes as well.
Pierce is a suave and elegant Bond, born to wear a suit and I just love that!
The other characters are all eccentric and unforgettable. Especially Famke is brilliant, but I love them all to be honest. I find Mishkin is often forgotten, so I'll quickly mention him here, I quite like Tchécky Karyo in several films, this one included.
There's a superb post-Industrial, après-Cold War vibe to this film, thanks to, in no small part, the shadowy cinematography and Éric Serra's wildly underrated score. The latter is one of my favourites of the entire series.
The stunts, the dialogue, the story, the title song and title sequence are all great too. Number 5 for me.
It's also quite funny really because it's a chase which doesn't have an end- there's no resolution, just a sort of full stop. The baddies get away, and then it turns out Bond has been sort of surreptitiously tailing them... in a tank. It's a Bond film- don't think about it too much! :D
Actually, speaking of GE: I finally got it a few weeks ago. I've never liked the Omega Seamaster he wears in it, it just didn't do anything for me. Then suddenly it clicked- I just started liking it! So I'm now the proud owner of a blue Seamaster (a bit of a later model so closer to the one in CR than GE) and I absolutely love it!
Love the cold war vibe - I miss the military angle in these films. I keep thinking of Brosnan crouching down in the bush in that blue Brioni suit holding the AK. The missile train is so cool. You could feature one of these in a future film, showing the missile firing from the train. Check out Kim Jong Un's train firing a missile on YouTube, it's scary stuff.
It's just such a Bond thing to do. Instead of stealthily finding a way to follow them he decides to commandeer a whole tank and smash through the middle of a major city.
But yeah, it's all glorious nonsense, and really well done. Sometimes when a Bond film goes too far with the comedy of those sorts of scenes (again, slide whistle in TMWTGG territory) it takes the audience out of the film. With the tank chase you go along with it.
Congrats on your purchase, mate. That's definitely a fine watch to own. If I'm not mistaken, the GE one was actually a quartz. They turned to automatic from TND onwards.
Oh man, I love those Brioni suits. They're so stylish.
There are many elements I really admire about this film, but as a whole, I just don't get that punch in the gut that I want from a Bond film. Brosnan's second film really scratches that itch for me, at least for two thirds of it (I can't stand the third act and find it one of the worst, but, up until then, Brosnan just seems so relaxed and assured, and fun, and funny).