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James Bond is better than everything


Jay

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6 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

A love for the Bond movies was passed down from my late father, and that led to my reading all the Fleming novels and short stories and quite a few of the continuation ones, too. Love the character ... the first action hero, you might say. 

I do like Craig, but I harbour a hope that with the next actor we can move away from the 'this time it's personal/weight of the world on Bond's shoulders' plotting and return to something more akin to 2 hours of escapist action-adventure.  

 

We need more of this. I will use the term breezy...

 

We need breezy entertainment. Not overanalyze narratives. Have a good plot, good action, some wit and cleverness, keep it tight and breezy - and you have yourself a good adult entertainment.

 

I think the last film to do this was Casino Royale.

 

But look at the Connery Bonds. That would be the template. 

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My faves, in no particular order;

 

OHMSS

Goldfinger

Thunderball

Casino Royale

Goldeneye - music ruins / keeps it from being perfect though

The World Is Not Enough

License To Kill

From Russia With Love

A View To A Kill

Live and Let Die

For Your Eyes Only - minus the dumb pre credit sequence

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19 minutes ago, El Jefe said:

My faves, in no particular order;

 

OHMSS

Goldfinger

Thunderballs

Casino Royale (2006)

From Russia With Love

Dr. No

 

Excellent list, that's mine too!

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QoS is a great film. People say it suffered from the writers strike, but its shorter length is a great strength, as it isn't overly bloated like the other Craig films. Concise, great setpieces, nifty Arnold score, interesting story.

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Listening to Thunderball.

Of all the Bonds, this score is by far the one with the most grace, and the one that encapsulates Bond the best. If someone asked me for just one Bond soundtrack recommendation, it would be Thunderball. The wealth of material and variety is amazing.

The trio of Dancing With Domino, Casino music, and Death of Paula alone ...

 

People like OHMSS more, but to me, Thunderball will always be THE Bond score.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The kind of interesting thing about this franchise is that there has never been a perfect Bond film. I feel like everyone knows all the elements that make a perfect Bond film, but no one film is completely exemplary. So the end of a film always leaves you a little disappointed (sometimes a lot disappointed, but usually only a little), but you’re always looking forward to the next one, to see if they really nailed it this time.

 

Contrast with Star Wars, a franchise in which, depending on your tastes, the original Star Wars (1977) and/or Empire (1980) exemplify what the franchise is all about. Here, every subsequent movie is disappointing because none is a complete return to form. And if it is, it’s blasted for lack of originality (eg., Force Awakens).

 

Whereas with James Bond, you can admit you don’t want originality, you basically do want a remake/remix that hits all the right notes. Right?

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The other night at home I was flipping through what's available on the PLUTO TV app (a great app ya'll with smart tvs or sticks should check out, BTW) and they now have a James Bond channel, that cycles through 18 James Bond films 24 hours a day.  It was showing THUNDERBALL at the time and hooo boy, that John Barry wrote one corker of a score for that film!  Even a silly scene where Bond was investigating clinic had really awesome sneaking-around music.

 

Sometime soon I'm gonna re-watch this whole franchise from the beginning, I think!

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10 hours ago, Pellaeon said:

The kind of interesting thing about this franchise is that there has never been a perfect Bond film. I feel like everyone knows all the elements that make a perfect Bond film, but no one film is completely exemplary. So the end of a film always leaves you a little disappointed (sometimes a lot disappointed, but usually only a little), but you’re always looking forward to the next one, to see if they really nailed it this time.

 

Contrast with Star Wars, a franchise in which, depending on your tastes, the original Star Wars (1977) and/or Empire (1980) exemplify what the franchise is all about. Here, every subsequent movie is disappointing because none is a complete return to form. And if it is, it’s blasted for lack of originality (eg., Force Awakens).

 

Whereas with James Bond, you can admit you don’t want originality, you basically do want a remake/remix that hits all the right notes. Right?

 

I think there have been several Bond films which exemplify genre.

 

I think the only single holdback has been - these films are still PG13. If anybody has read the novels, they would know that Bond honest to god is an R rated franchise. Like for real.

 

It is the one franchise that can really be improved with more nudity and sex and violence.

 

For a movie franchise aimed squarely at adults, the rating should reflect that. Instead it has the same rating as Marvel films.

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Yeah, but I know people who watch Bond with their families around Christmas or whatever and they seem to do this as a bonding ritual and turn out fine.    

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24 minutes ago, Thekthithm said:

My old man is dead.

 

19 minutes ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

Mine is dead to me.

Geez. If James Bond isn't family friendly, it sure brings out the family drama.

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5 hours ago, Thekthithm said:

I think I remember Albert Broccoli saying once he felt 007 should be a relatively family friendly franchise, or something like that I'm paraphrasing. 


'Sadism for the family' was the phrase, I think. 

There were those who thought that an 'A' certificate (modern equivalent - PG) was way too lenient for the early films. Licence To Kill is notable for being the series' only 15-certificate entry to date, the upped intensity of the violence/bloodiness sitting uneasily with what censors had come to expect from 007. Then there was Craig's bloodied shirt in Casino Royale and the series' first F-bomb in Skyfall.        

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A few of them scattered around in movies that fall into the next category up from PG has been deemed acceptable for a while now.  

Forgot about the 2 headbutts (amongst other things) they cut out of Goldeneye in order for it to be certified 12/PG-13. 

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Natalya is on the receiving end of one from Xenia when Natalya steps up to try to stop her thigh-crushing Bond, and Alec lands one on Bond during the punch-up before they go down the ladder on the huge satellite antenna. Both were restored to the film in subsequent DVD releases.  

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On 9/12/2019 at 4:41 AM, Arpy said:

Yeah, but I know people who watch Bond with their families around Christmas or whatever and they seem to do this as a bonding ritual and turn out fine.    

"bonding ritual" ROTFLMAO

 

 

 

 

On 9/12/2019 at 5:02 AM, Thekthithm said:

My old man is dead.

My old man's a dustman. He wears a dustman's hat. He wares "Cor blimey" trousers, and he lives in a council flat.

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He did these Moviola albums that are basically "Best of", even if all the best stuff isn't on there. Moviola II has a bunch of Bond and even King Kong, but the latter is represented only by the love theme and completely excludes the brooding masculine stuff.

 

71DdqVM-zRL._SS500_.jpg

 

His best scores are King Kong, Indecent Proposal and 007, of course.

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