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James Bond is better than everything


Jay

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On 1/4/2022 at 12:14 PM, Edmilson said:

Next Friday, Amazon Prime here in Brazil will add to its catalogue almost all the Bond movies except for NTTD. It'll be my chance to binge them, as I have seen very few 007 movies in my life (basically just the ones with Daniel Craig and parts of the Brosnan flicks).

I recommend that you watch them in chronological order. Not much continuity between the movies but some few of them have references to previous events that are nice. It is also interesting to watch how the series progressed and alternated between more over the top entries and more restrained, specially in the Moore era. 

And please post your thoughts on the films and scores here as you progress. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
55 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Moonraker and Die Another Day compete on being the worst Bond Movie ever.

Both are waaaaay over the top, but both have bits that I like, a lot.

MOONRAKER has great cinematography, excellent miniature work, from Meddings, et al, and a fantastic score. Flight Into Space is among the finest, and most beautiful, pieces of music, to grace a film. It's James Bond's Eleanor's Arrival. It's just a pity that it keeps being dialed out.

DIE ANOTHER DAY is fun, and has a great pre-title sequence.

Both films are far above the truly insulting DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER.

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

Moonraker's better than Skyfall

You're probably right, Stu! :lol:

 

1 hour ago, May the Force be with You said:

I always found that On her Majesty's Secret Services was the worst one

Get thee to a nunnery!

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  • 4 months later...

Well.   Guess I'll go watch For Your Eyes Only for the 50th time instead.

 

https://variety.com/2022/film/global/james-bond-007-barbara-broccoli-michael-g-wilson-1235378239/

Quote

Both Wilson and Broccoli, who is a director of the U.K. chapter of women’s advocacy org Time’s Up, have left their mark on Bond, particularly in humanizing the once-womanizing spy and ensuring more fulfilling, meatier roles for the female stars of the franchise. These are qualities that will continue in the next films, says Broccoli.

 

“It’s an evolution,” she says. “Bond is evolving just as men are evolving. I don’t know who’s evolving at a faster pace.”

 

Craig, she adds, “cracked Bond open emotionally,” bringing audiences into the character’s inner life. “The films over his tenure were the first time we really connected the emotional arc.”

 

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Indeed. Talk of Bond 'evolving' sends a chill down my spine ... I honestly wish they'd stop making them rather than turn him into some (for want of a better phrase) woke shadow of his former self. 

NTTD's box-office was 774 million ... yes Covid played a part, but maybe EON should ask themselves was that the only reason it made less than both SPECTRE and Skyfall.  

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To me, the perfect balance was struck with Tomorrow Never Dies, with Michelle Yeoh as a badass "holds her own" spy and Teri Hatcher as your more standard Bond girl, but one that verbally spars with Bond in a fun way.   And now realizing that movie is 25 years old.... I need some air.

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34 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

NTTD's box-office was 774 million ... yes Covid played a part, but maybe EON should ask themselves was that the only reason it made less than both SPECTRE and Skyfall.  

NTTD is, also, at 165 minutes, the longest Bond, so reduced screenings could have played a role.

I'd like to think that people saw NTTD for what it was - woke shit, with an emasculated Bond, and a very uninteresting female lead (more Anna De Armas, please! :)) - and didn't go back for repeat viewings.

Playing "We Have All The Time In The World", over the end credits was an insult to OHMSS.

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This is a film franchise thought brought us 16 entries in its first 30 years ('62-'91)

  1. Dr No
  2. From Russia With Love
  3. Goldfinger
  4. Thunderball
  5. You Only Live Twice
  6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
  7. Diamonds Are Forever
  8. Live and Let Die
  9. The Man With The Golden Gun
  10. The Spy Who Loved Me
  11. Moonraker
  12. For Your Eyes Only
  13. Octopussy
  14. A View To A Kill
  15. The Living Daylights
  16. License To Kill

And then only 9 entries in its next 30 years ('92-'21)

  1. GoldenEye
  2. Tomorrow Never Dies
  3. The World Is Not Enough
  4. Die Another Day
  5. Casino Royale
  6. Quantum of Solace
  7. Skyfall
  8. Spectre
  9. No Time To Die

 

What a difference!!!

 

The spent way too much time and money on each movie now instead of making more simpler, more fun adventures for Bond to go on, rinse and repeat.  Everything's gotta build off off and one-up what came before for some reason.

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Not to mention there was only 5 directors who handled the first 16 Eon films (Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, Peter Hunt, John Glen), and none of those guys directed any Brosnan or Craig films

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5 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

NTTD is, also, at 165 minutes, the longest Bond, so reduced screenings could have played a role.

I'd like to think that people saw NTTD for what it was - woke shit, with an emasculated Bond, and a very uninteresting female lead (more Anna De Armas, please! :)) - and didn't go back for repeat viewings.

Playing "We Have All The Time In The World", over the end credits was an insult to OHMSS.


Yep ... it felt utterly unearned, the playing of we Have All The Time Of The World ... ooh, look at us! It's a callback to/ironic reversal of the end of OHMSS, aren't we clever! 

No, no you're not ... I'm sitting here in the cinema completely deflated that a Bond movie has actually ended with his death, and you're hoping for stolen kudos by playing one of the best songs of the series from one of its best entries? 

Fuck off. Fuck RIGHT off. And when you get there, fuck off some more.  

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Because I'm not a fan of the Craig films I haven't been paying close attention to these details, but is the next generation of the Broccoli family already working on the films, being groomed to take over from Barbara/Michael down the line?  Like how Michael started working on the films in the 70s and Barbara in the 80s.

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All 9 Bond films of the past 30 years only credit Michael Wilson & Barbara Broccoli as producers, and they are also the 2 producers of The Rhythm Section

 

Here's a fun chart:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_of_the_James_Bond_films#Core_crew

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5 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Surely even for someone older than me the natural cutoff is between Dalton and Brosnan.  It's the longest gap between films and the official hand off from Cubby to Barbara/Michael.


Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's just ... the difference in, well, DYNAMISM between A View To A Kill and Daylights. In the former, we have a pushing-60 Moore being replaced by stunt doubles in places for mere fistfights. Whereas an early 40s Dalton starts the latter clinging to the roof of a Land Rover (and for a lot of it we can see that it is actually him) careering down the roads of the Rock of Gibraltar.   

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The Living Daylights is my most listened to Barry score.

 

For Your Eyes Only is my most listened to non-Barry score (it's Bill Conti, and a lot of fun).

 

Tomorrow Never Dies is my most listened to Arnold score.

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16 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I can enjoy that stuff as a time capsule of its era just like I enjoy the drum machine in TLD.

 

Anyway, TWINE is the second best Arnold score, kind of underrated maybe?


It certainly has the best title song of the Brosnans. Garbage nail the sweet spot between their alternative rock and the big, dramatic Bondian ballad.  

25 minutes ago, Jay said:

Dance music?


Am sure I thought parts of DAD's score were too 'beat-y'.  

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I'm sure if we're talking underrated Arnold scores then that must be Quantum of Solace. Just because it's such a great score and such a terrible movie.

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Not to mention there was only 5 directors who handled the first 16 Eon films (Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, Peter Hunt, John Glen), and none of those guys directed any Brosnan or Craig films

 

Glen tips the scales a bit, doesn't he?

 

Every Bond has a mostly clean cut off. (Although weirdly Connery got to star in the first Roger Moore film with Diamonds.) But the change from Dalton to Brosnan has to be at least as distinct as Brosnan to Craig. Just being post-Cubby would be enough to do that.

 

I still haven't seen NTTD.

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You'll find Croc on your side when it comes to Quantum.  Because of my aversion to Craig and the whole aesthetic of his films, I find it hard to get into Arnold's two scores for him.  I suppose that means, yes, I underrate them!

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35 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I'm sure if we're talking underrated Arnold scores then that must be Quantum of Solace. Just because it's such a great score and such a terrible movie.

 

 

Glen tips the scales a bit, doesn't he?

 

Every Bond has a mostly clean cut off. (Although weirdly Connery got to star in the first Roger Moore film with Diamonds.) But the change from Dalton to Brosnan has to be at least as distinct as Brosnan to Craig. Just being post-Cubby would be enough to do that.

 

I still haven't seen NTTD.


Glen does indeed ... director of all 5 80s Bonds. 

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40 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I'm sure if we're talking underrated Arnold scores then that must be Quantum of Solace.

:thumbup:

It's my second favourite Arnold score.

 

 

41 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I still haven't seen NTTD.

Believe me, dude, you're not missing much.

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11 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Indeed. Talk of Bond 'evolving' sends a chill down my spine ... I honestly wish they'd stop making them rather than turn him into some (for want of a better phrase) woke shadow of his former self. 

NTTD's box-office was 774 million ... yes Covid played a part, but maybe EON should ask themselves was that the only reason it made less than both SPECTRE and Skyfall.  

 

Spectre made less than Skyfall as well. And NTTD made more more money than Casino Royale. In fact, I would argued the Craig films are more "woke" according to traditionalist than any of the other Bond films and yet they made more money than any of the other Bond films. 

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On that ... at the time I was pleasantly surprised at how much of Casino Royale the novel had made it into the movie, in one form or another. Especially striking was that 'The bitch is dead' was present and correct. 

Brosnan is doing promo for Black Adam ... in an interview with GQ he said (apparently bringing it up himself, probably in anticipation that the interviewer would anyway) that he wishes the next Bond well, but doesn't care who it is. He praises Craig's physicality and 'from the heart' acting as Bond, but indicates that wasn't that keen on NTTD.   

And speaking of Pierce, those in the UK who have Sky Documentaries amongst their telly channels may be interested to know that at 9:00 tonight they're showing 'GoldenEra', a 25th anniversary 2-hour docu about the creation and legacy of the GoldenEye videogame. 

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  • 1 month later...

Watched yesterday the James Bond concert at the Royal Albert hall on Prime and enjoyed it a lot.

The best part for me was David Arnold singing "You Know My Name".

Only disappointment, the performance of "You Only Live Twice" by Celeste as it is one of my favourite Bond songs and Celeste usually is a great performer singing her own material. But this was a big mismatch.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

‘Skyfall’ at 10: Sam Mendes Recalls How Shutting Down the Movie Led to Its Ultimate Success

The film faced an uphill battle — including studio MGM going bankrupt and headlines declaring the end of 007 — before a 10-month hiatus put it on the path to $1 billion at the box office.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

We used to make proper Bond films

 

gg+corkscrew.gif

The moment the car lands the violins start playing the "bouncy" version of the bond theme! I really like TMWTGG's score and the movie is fun as well!

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15 minutes ago, Mr. Who said:

the movie is fun as well!

 

I've never understood why it's seen as one of the worst in the series, it's so much fun to watch.

 

It was from when you didn't hear any Bond producers going on about "honoring the journey of the character" or some such self-important nonsense, nor were they trying to make some larger point.  They just got on with making something fun and silly that can be enjoyed by young and old.

 

To paraphrase Neil Peart, those pre-Craig Bond films are from "a better, vanished time."

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3 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I've never understood why it's seen as one of the worst in the series, it's so much fun to watch.

 

It was from when you didn't hear any Bond producers going on about "honoring the journey of the character" or some such self-important nonsense, nor were they trying to make some larger point.  They just got on with making something fun and silly that can be enjoyed by young and old.

 

To paraphrase Neil Peart, those pre-Craig Bond films are from "a better, vanished time."

Yeah I've always liked this one a lot, it's just fun from start to finish and I love Barry's score. Funnily enough it's one of the only scores where the guitar section of the bond theme is played by strings.

 

I like the Craig movies a lot but I would like the next couple of movies with the new actor to be a bit more classic bond without any overarching characters etc.

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15 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

If only Bond has been driving a Red Barchetta.

 

It's actually kind of impressive that after 60 years, Bond has never driven a Ferrari or Maserati to my knowledge.  Italian sports cars are just not part of the Bond aesthetic.

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