Controversial opinions about Bond films

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  • Elvis was a poor character, devoid of any redeeming qualities and an all said, banal and forgettable individual. Not too far detached from that years main adversary Dominic Greene in actual fact. While Quantum of Solace was an entertaining release, full of vigor, and plenty to occupy the viewer, the often nauseating pace, disjointed appearance, and aforementioned lackluster villains, keeps the overall release below the water mark. Not a controversial opinion, merely in reference to the most recent responses
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    doubleoego wrote:
    QoS although cobbled together from a screenplay perspective is incredibly flawed, I think it could have gotten away with it a lot more had the editing not been so horrendous. I'll go as far to venture out that the shaky cam wasn't even an issue but using that filming approach with the lightning speed-chop editing, the film really suffered. Had Baird edited QoS it would probably get more replay value than both CR and SF, especially as it's a well-paced film too.

    Regarding editing, this interview with Mark Kermode and Neil Brand is quite interesting.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/posts/What-Makes-Gravity-So-Great

    Yes! Brand was spot on. The frenetic cutting isn't clever at all and nor is it even artistic. It's cheap, lazy and infuriatingly disconnecting.

  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    TWINE is a very good Bond film. While not perfect, I don't understand the hate for it. In fact it has some very nice parallels to OHMSS and Mirrors parts of it. Bond is very no nonsense in this outing. He gets straight to the point. However Elektra enters his life. She's beautiful but also similar to Tracy. She's had a rough life. Though she chose a life of Crime and Evil. She channels Blofeld too as she hatches a plan he would think of. She twisted Renard and she twisted Bond. She's a master manipulator. TWINE is Brosnan's OHMSS. The film has it's flaws but they are very small. Christmas Jones is not in the film that much and the Submarine climax was slow and similar to Thunderball's climax. Brosnan's first three films are Excellent while Die Another Day was mediocre and took a step in the wrong direction.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited January 2014 Posts: 17,801
    My esteemed colleague Murdock laid it out here for you. Accept it or be doofy. :))
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    edited January 2014 Posts: 14,584
    TWINE is a very good Bond film

    Less of a foolish sentiment, more of a family motto. ;)
  • pachazopachazo Make Your Choice
    Posts: 7,314
    Murdock wrote:
    TWINE is a very good Bond film. While not perfect, I don't understand the hate for it.
    I can't agree that it is a very good Bond film but I don't understand the hate for it either. I can certainly understand the disappointment in it. This film was searching for a dramatic gravitas that it never quite found. I agree with you that I do hear echoes of the past (OHMSS) inside of it but it never quite realized it's potential. This lack of depth, while simultaneously trying to desperately provide us with some, is what ultimately disappointed and angered the fans. Interestingly enough the next film went completely off the rails and descended into total lunacy. These were the growing pains years for MGW and Babs and they unfortunately gave Pierce the boot before they realized their shortcomings. Perhaps they felt they needed a clean slate.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited January 2014 Posts: 24,183
    My beefs with TWINE in a nutshell:

    - the plot goes neither here nor there; it tries to be a Greek tragedy but brings in soap opera conveniences to achieve at least a modest form of cohesion;
    - the action works better in concept than it does in execution; the parahawk sequence is edited in rather a dull fashion and whatever happens aboard the sub, not even the film's novelist has a clue;
    - the music isn't terribly bad but at times it squeezes in too many electronics and 'noisy' effects that distract me from the viewing experience;

    And I'm not even going to comment on X-mas Jones because I don't even mind her all that much...

    The strong points:
    - Great PTS.
    - Decent theme song.

    I think TWINE needed to be more outrageous. That may in fact be why I *like* DAD better. If nothing else, at least it provides some over-the-top material that provokes a response from me.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Hmmm. Comparing TWINE to OHMSS is like comparing Skoda to Rolls Royce imo.
  • edited January 2014 Posts: 12,837
    Murdock wrote:
    TWINE is a very good Bond film. While not perfect, I don't understand the hate for it. In fact it has some very nice parallels to OHMSS and Mirrors parts of it. Bond is very no nonsense in this outing. He gets straight to the point. However Elektra enters his life. She's beautiful but also similar to Tracy. She's had a rough life. Though she chose a life of Crime and Evil. She channels Blofeld too as she hatches a plan he would think of. She twisted Renard and she twisted Bond. She's a master manipulator. TWINE is Brosnan's OHMSS. The film has it's flaws but they are very small. Christmas Jones is not in the film that much and the Submarine climax was slow and similar to Thunderball's climax. Brosnan's first three films are Excellent while Die Another Day was mediocre and took a step in the wrong direction.

    I agree with most of that apart from the bit in bold, I think it's more along the lines of

    Goldeneye- Excellent
    Tomorrow Never Dies- Fun (if a bit generic)
    The World Is Not Enough- Great
    Die Another Day- Crap
  • Posts: 6,396
    GE - V good.
    TND - Bland.
    TWINE - Bland.
    DAD - Awful. Just awful.
  • GE - V good.
    TND - Bland.
    TWINE - Bland.
    DAD - Awful. Just awful.

    Not too controversial. Most people will put GoldenEye in the top ten, the middle two in the middle, and Die Another Day in the cellar. The only real controversy is whether Tomorrow Never Dies or The World is Not Enough is better.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    I think he was just referring to the previous post.
  • edited January 2014 Posts: 6,396
    I think he was just referring to the previous post.

    I was. And I wouldn't call either TND or TWINE as "middle" Bond films. I'd have both in the bottom half dozen with DAD propping up the lot of them.

    Brosnan era - Vanilla Bond.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    Brosnan era - Vanilla Bond.

    I like vanilla.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    While Brosnan's movies are pretty much a greatest hit's (I have no problem with that.) I think a better analogy to describe them would be as follows.

    GoldenEye: Brosnan's You Only Live Twice.
    Tomorrow Never Dies: Brosnan's The Spy Who Loved Me.
    The World is not Enough: Brosnan's OHMSS.
    Die Another Day: Brosnan's DAF.
  • Murdock wrote:
    While Brosnan's movies are pretty much a greatest hit's (I have no problem with that.) I think a better analogy to describe them would be as follows.

    GoldenEye: Brosnan's You Only Live Twice.
    Tomorrow Never Dies: Brosnan's The Spy Who Loved Me.
    The World is not Enough: Brosnan's OHMSS.
    Die Another Day: Brosnan's DAF.

    Where do you see the similarity between GoldenEye and You Only Live Twice? HaphazardStuff, in his series, described GoldenEye as like a Dalton movie (unsurprising, given the circumstances), Tomorrow Never Dies as an update of the classic Connery thriller, The World is Not Enough as like Lazenby's sole effort, with a greater focus on relationships, and Die Another Day reminiscent of all the over-the-top excess of Roger Moore's era.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    edited January 2014 Posts: 16,351
    Murdock wrote:
    While Brosnan's movies are pretty much a greatest hit's (I have no problem with that.) I think a better analogy to describe them would be as follows.

    GoldenEye: Brosnan's You Only Live Twice.
    Tomorrow Never Dies: Brosnan's The Spy Who Loved Me.
    The World is not Enough: Brosnan's OHMSS.
    Die Another Day: Brosnan's DAF.

    Where do you see the similarity between GoldenEye and You Only Live Twice? HaphazardStuff, in his series, described GoldenEye as like a Dalton movie (unsurprising, given the circumstances), Tomorrow Never Dies as an update of the classic Connery thriller, The World is Not Enough as like Lazenby's sole effort, with a greater focus on relationships, and Die Another Day reminiscent of all the over-the-top excess of Roger Moore's era.

    Well instead of "You Only Live Twice" being applied to Bond, apply it to 006. He "died" once at the chemical plant and was reborn as he put it. And his plot is using a space based weapon to create chaos. Also his lair is very similar to Blofeld's volcano. A large underground base.
  • edited January 2014 Posts: 11,189
    GE was Brosnan's TSWLM (big blockbuster return after a disappointing predecessor)
    TND was Brosnan's TMWTGG (lost potential, big actor playing the villain, annoying female - I would rank TND a few places higher than GG though)
    TWINE was Brosnan's...I don't know to be honest
    DAD was Brosnan's Casino Royale (1967)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    IMO there are 4 separate eras of Bond:

    #1 The Sixties Movies. Mainly serious, sometimes OTT, but within some sort of control.
    #2 The Tongue-In-Cheeky Bond. Starting with DAF & ending with AVTAK. Some serious moments, but this was NOT your Grandfather's Bond.
    #3 The New 007. TLD to TWINE. Reworked for a more serious take, then again for the end of the Cold War.
    #4 Bond In The 21st. Started with a thud (DAD), but continues with a BANG!

    My favourite era so far is #3.

    Is this controversial?
  • 1) I think Quantum of Solace is one of the best Bond films made. It has great actions scenes, a underrated villain, a decent score and Bond is a intriguing character for once. He is learning to grow and become a better man from Vesper, and Mathis' death.

    2) I think GoldenEye is overrated.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    As fun as Brosnan can be to watch at times, I honestly do feel that the role of Bond was too big for him and I'm convinced he had the talent and capacity to do an overall better job with the role but I get the impression that along with other factors, he himself put too much pressure on himself to accomplish what he wanted and what some of his detractors wanted from him.

    I saw an interview with him where he essentially said that, it's a role an actor can't really make his own so he took a bit from Sean and some from Roger. Such a statement is quite worrying because he's inadvertently saying that the role in terms of character is not only largely limited but there really isn't any point in continuing with the character because it's generic and we're plodding along with box-ticking tropes we've seen countless times before. It also conveyed a message of him not being a strong enough actor to deliver on what all other 5 actors have managed to achieve.

    Sean and Roger both did their own thing but even Lazenby with all his inexperience managed to make the role his own, in fact, Lazenby probably had a much harder job than most if not all the actors due to not only his inexperience as an actor but he was playing a more "humanised" Bond which audiences got to see for the first time and he also assumed the role of Sir Hillary. Then, we have Dalton who is famously or infamously known for his portrayal that is conspicuously different to not only his successor but to the 3 actors that came before him.....and then there's Craig who like everyone else before Brosnan has made the character and the role definitively his own in the most thunderously approved way.

    I understand people wanted a 5th movie from Brizzer, a sort if redemption movie to make up for DAD but after 4 movies and still with that mentality, the creative credibility with Brosnan to continue in the role was unequivocally compromised. What makes it worse was, at the sane time Brosnan made those comments, Dalton talked about his experience in the role and what he had to say was so interesting, said with authority and a conviction of understanding who the character if Bond was/is that I wouldn't be surprised if that moment was the conception of EoN needing to go for something better and something with more credible and creative class that had been lacking for the better part of 7 years.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    I may not comment on a lot of your posts @doubleoego but like nearly everything you write I am in complete agreement with your above post. Very much, nail on the head for me.
  • Posts: 6,396
    Yeah same here. You summed it up perfectly @doubleoego.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited January 2014 Posts: 17,801
    doubleoego wrote:
    It also conveyed a message of him not being a strong enough actor to deliver on what all other 5 actors have managed to achieve.
    :))
    Ha ha, this is seriously amusing. It's so trendy to hate on Brosnan, so easy. It makes one feel marvellous to be with the in-crowd.
    C'mon folks! Join in!

    All of the other 5 actors to portray Bond were better! They were all more handsome, more athletic, more worldly, more tall, more Moore...
    ONLY Pierce sucked, poor chap! Only the movies HE appeared in were badly written, box-ticking, nonsense. If ONLY even one of his films were even as good as DAF that'd be SOMETHING!

    All right, I'll stop now.
    :P

    It's just that I remember a time when Lazenby was dumped on for being the 'wooden Bond', when Moore was dumped on for being the 'comical Bond', and when Dalton was dumped on for being the 'waaaaay too Intense Bond'. Well I guess it's Pierce's turn. Much later Daniel will surely get his.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    @Samuel and @Willy, thanks.

    @Chrisisall, did you read the whole of my post? I'm not hating on Brozzer. In fact I regard him to be one of the most if not the most charismatic of all 6 actors but as I mentioned, I think he put too much pressure on himself for a character he loved and coveted more than than the other actors that it hindered his ability to really get to grips with the role in the way that he largely would have liked and everything Brozzer said was backed up in all the 4 movies he did which serves the point I'm making. However, as I also mentioned, I did/do find Brosnan entertaining in the role and I also said he definitely had the capacity to do a better job but in the end it's my personal opinion that in addition to factors outside of his control, he allowed himself to be dwarfed by the magnitude of the role. It's unfortunate but sometimes these things do happen in any creative medium but still, Brisnan has carved out a legacy and contributed a lot to the series.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    doubleoego wrote:
    @Chrisisall, did you read the whole of my post?
    Yes, I read it. Forgive the sarcasm in my response, if you will. Pierce was trashing his own performance as Bond because there's a dark and sad side to him. He will be harder on himself than anyone else. To read or hear what he said and not take this into account is an error IMHO. In a 1978 interview George Lucas said he got about 75% of Star Wars fairly right. We fans said he was nuts- it was just great! Same with Brosnan. He's too hard on himself- I thoroughly enjoyed and believed his portrayal of Bond. Last point, who the heck CARES what an actor says off screen anyway? It's what's in the movie(s) that counts. An actor can say he was totally lost, but if his performance seems confident ON SCREEN, than that's all that matters.

    He took his Remington Steele character and gave him more seriousness and a harder edge and that was basically his Bond. For what was written for him (and some of it was very good) he did perfectly fine. No, he's no Dalton, but neither is he a Lazenby. He was not dwarfed by the magnitude of the role, but neither did the writers challenge him in more than a handful of moments during his tenure. I could use intricate language & concepts to dissect all the other actors faults in the most scathing manner possible if I chose to do so, but what's the point?

    Now, let's discuss why Roger Moore secretly played Bond as closet homosexual...

    :-O
  • edited January 2014 Posts: 11,189
    chrisisall wrote:
    doubleoego wrote:
    @Chrisisall, did you read the whole of my post?
    Yes, I read it. Forgive the sarcasm in my response, if you will. Pierce was trashing his own performance as Bond because there's a dark and sad side to him. He will be harder on himself than anyone else. To read or hear what he said and not take this into account is an error IMHO. In a 1978 interview George Lucas said he got about 75% of Star Wars fairly right. We fans said he was nuts- it was just great! Same with Brosnan. He's too hard on himself- I thoroughly enjoyed and believed his portrayal of Bond. Last point, who the heck CARES what an actor says off screen anyway? It's what's in the movie(s) that counts. An actor can say he was totally lost, but if his performance seems confident ON SCREEN, than that's all that matters.

    He took his Remington Steele character and gave him more seriousness and a harder edge and that was basically his Bond. For what was written for him (and some of it was very good) he did perfectly fine. No, he's no Dalton, but neither is he a Lazenby. He was not dwarfed by the magnitude of the role, but neither did the writers challenge him in more than a handful of moments during his tenure. I could use intricate language & concepts to dissect all the other actors faults in the most scathing manner possible if I chose to do so, but what's the point?

    Now, let's discuss why Roger Moore secretly played Bond as closet homosexual...

    :-O

    :)) Funnily enough I have a friend who hates Moore as Bond and thinks he's "too gay"

    @doubleoego. That's not a very contriversial around here and, as much as I hate to say it, you have a point. In fairness I have heard an interview with Broz (made around the time of TND and TWINE) saying that he wanted to explore Bond's "more fallible" side, but you get the sense that the likes of Dalton and Craig dug deeper into the character and made a more focused effort to portray the troubled side of Bond. With Brosnan it was kind of like "I'll just do my best and hope it works".

    He was fun though - watching him with Desmond (in TND and TWINE) I can't help but smile.

    Are you talking about that Bond tribute show with Michael Parkinson in 2002 by any chance?
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    edited January 2014 Posts: 11,139
    @BAIN123, yeah I'm pretty sure it was the Parkinson one. Dalton's comments came from a man who knew what he wanted and confessed that what he wanted, in leaving his own mark and making the role his own was met with opposition but he fought for it and got it. It's something I can't say Brosnan was able to accomplish but then again, I get the impression from what I've seen and heard from the actors themselves that, the role of Bond is unique and special and is a huge responsibility but Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Craig aren't and were never too preoccupied in coveting the role with as much zeal as Brosnan. In the end and this is pure speculation, money and the association of being Bond for a guy that wanted the role so badly took precedence over artistic integrity and any proposed depth that Brosnan had hoped to explore.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    doubleoego wrote:
    In the end and this is pure speculation, money and the association of being Bond for a guy that wanted the role so badly took precedence over artistic integrity and any proposed depth that Brosnan had hoped to explore.
    Heh heh, more humour here.
    And what did Lazenby hope to explore besides maybe a paycheck, fame & a bunch of Sixties hippy chick's panties? Was Moore in it for Fleming's character, or his own 'Saint-ly' interpretation?

    :)) \m/
  • Posts: 15,124
    Murdock wrote:
    TWINE is a very good Bond film. While not perfect, I don't understand the hate for it. In fact it has some very nice parallels to OHMSS and Mirrors parts of it. Bond is very no nonsense in this outing. He gets straight to the point. However Elektra enters his life. She's beautiful but also similar to Tracy. She's had a rough life. Though she chose a life of Crime and Evil. She channels Blofeld too as she hatches a plan he would think of. She twisted Renard and she twisted Bond. She's a master manipulator. TWINE is Brosnan's OHMSS. The film has it's flaws but they are very small. Christmas Jones is not in the film that much and the Submarine climax was slow and similar to Thunderball's climax. Brosnan's first three films are Excellent while Die Another Day was mediocre and took a step in the wrong direction.

    I didn't either, until I read an interview when Michael Apted said Elektra was the first credible female Bond villain... and then I saw TWINE in a very different light, and pretty much as a labour of arrogance.
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