Last Bond Movie You Watched.

Gents, we're now in the 90s.

Shut the door, Alec, there's a draught

the fuller review is at the GE25 thread.

8/10

We'll do it the old fashioned way.

Tomorrow Never Dies

The gritty look of GE is gone. It's now the late 90s and for the first time in almost ten years, Bond has returned after the [old] two year-hiatus. One of the best Brosnan moments is blazing away in the cockpit of the jet to Arnold's brassy music. And that's another great contrast to GE is that Arnold has a bit more girth to his music. Some would say a bit much re: the Bond theme but he tries. Seeing the As Time Goes By partnership of Dench/Palmer in serious action with each other always tickles. Credit to both actors that you watch them in 1997 do this (the sitcom carried on for years after) and not expect laughter (well, certain lines aside, not gales of it). Like M's bit about "my man" and worrying in her way about 007.It's also a rare case of M getting to see her man in action.

PTS and film is a rare case, as far as modern films go, of the British taking the lead on something. It's a SIS agent at the arms bazaar (and a RN ship supplying the firepower), it's the British going to China to take on the fleet (granted it's them and China who've lost men but still, the idea of us sending the fleet Falklands style) and it's the good old Navy getting Carver. (Not since Thunderball has the RN been able to go hell for leather against a Bond villain).

TND is one film I skip the titles. Blame Sheryl Crow. I just can't. Sorry chaps.

Attention to detail has touches of the earlier films. Thunderball's RAF briefing room, MI6's communications room in Dr No say. According to a website I found, the operations rooms for HMS Devonshire early on and HMS Bedford late on, were filmed in the Royal Navy's training room at HMS Dryad (a stone frigate). The RN allowed a great deal really. HMS Somerset is not only used for cruising shots but HMS Westminster doubles for Devonshire's interiors. As said elsewhere, the model work is excellent. Authenticity is as such that in the rec room as it goes to pot, you see a copy of the Navy News fly through the air. Essentially a publication for the Navy but can be attained in newsagents (my dad used to subscribe to it).

The scene has packed a wallop since I first saw it. Growing up reading certain books, the sight of a stricken naval ship stirs. (in reality we've not lost a ship since 1982) Made more-so by the music underlining the drama now involved. The order to abandon ship, the choir as you have that ghostly image of the crew getting from their seats and then the massacre in the water. The first example of the ruthless nature of Carver. As with Klebb/Grant, Carver is the brains and Stamper the brawn. Gotz Otto is a touch underrated as an actor.

As with GE, there are some quotable lines galore. "Consider him slimed" being one or "delicious". Let us revel in Jonathan Pryce. One of this country's greatest modern actors.

Oh 007, why couldn't I have had teachers like that? Well, now anyway.

(Great lines involve Moneypenny on the phone. Cunning linguist..."Don't ask/Don't tell") She says we're sending the fleet and Bond is...well, ,slightly bothered.

We seem to have good luck out in the Far East with stuff. In YOLT we figure out or suggest that the enemy rocket is landing in the Japan area, Americans frown but we're right. At the MoD M says our Singapore station detected transmissions on the line, well..there you go. We have our moments.
When Julian Fellowes says about screaming for blood in the press, you imagine that would be true then as now. Those of us from the UK would well attest to what the Mail, Express and say Sun would be going for re: Devonshire's loss (indeed, I brought the Mail on Saturday because of the VE-Day bits inside and figured might as well justify paying 1.10. Constant tosh. "Mail Force", the language they use, the font...it's all up my nose and then some).

"I didn't realise it was public knowledge." Ah, harks back to OHMSS. "...everything you have done."
"Everything?/Don't worry, don't worry"

For the first time Bond has shirked Pan-Am. Granted Pan-Am have gone bust between 1989-97 but Connery, Moore and Dalton used them all over the place. Still, BA needed the money in 1997 and is our flag carrier.
The Q scene is a delight. Again Brosnan relishes them, again it's a fantastic example of Bond needling Q in a boyish way. I might not be mad on BMW's but this film made me like the idea of remote control like Bond.

I clearly don't pay attention, that waiter that serves Paris and Bond is wearing a suit imprinted with newspaper headlines. Now, the gun line is good and is used well to stitch both of them up but I think the immediate cut to Gupta doesn't seem right. Either delay it a minute or two or leave it till Carver goes to him. Otherwise the first contact between Bond and Carver isn't too bad. I like to think that the naval officer in Bond is bridling at some of his own being killed and there's the Flemingesque sense of duty and loyalty to service. (His face when looking at the newspapers). The needling of Carver is a good touch: "...or a ship".

Always feel for the blonde who Carver fires. Granted she's lucky but boom, job lost. Where's Moore's Bond to show up and take her away whilst snapping: "Fuck him!"

On one hand one could argue Bond in the hotel is ripping off Dr No with Bond waiting for Dent but on the other hand, it's individual to Bond. Unlike Connery he has poured a drink and sits waiting without playing cards or watching TV. No Saunders to spirit him out of Hamburg. Always something chilling somehow when Carver goes to kiss Paris in the office (via long shot) and the music reaches a note.

As risks go, Paris going to Bond at the hotel is up there. Makes me nostalgic for the 90s, when Teri Hatcher was in New Adventures of Superman. Such a crush back in the day.

Strikes me that Carver indeed has this complex. Only Stalin had more pictures of himself all over the place. More of the BrosnanRun and then the punch up. All well and dandy until that little squirt tries to act big bollocks. There's a feeling that Brosnan's Bond is irritated to say the least. Alright they're trying to kill him but it's like, seriously? Come on.
Carver's ruthlessness further underlined, outside of sinking ships, by murdering his wife (or having her murdered) and then subtly taunting Bond (Bond using his phone whilst driving, tut tut). On top of that having her death notice on the news pre-recorded to Bond's arrival.

I'm 50/50 on Kaufman. In a way a classic Flemingseque villain. Bizarre and utterly deadly. At the same time it has the danger of veering into parody. Even for the 90s (I believe Austin Powers was the same year...God, already?). "Have you called the autoclub?" Not the brightest villain neither, ha.

In this one scene, Brosnan's Bond goes from utterly devastated (well, on the inside one imagines), to faintly disgusted to grim blunt instrument-style. Imagine Carver's face:
"Sir, Mrs Carver WAS found with an unidentified man as per the news item.
-Delicious.
-Except the unknown was Dr Kaufman.
-Fucking amateurs."

In Hamburg/not Hamburg we have the Backseat Driver scene. Ah...the 90s. Who needs that Musk idiot when you have Q? I do like how the number plate, though German, pays tribute to the DB5's by starting with BMT. Brosnan seems to enjoy himself, and it's hard not to I suppose. Great action piece (and to think it's all in some car park near London), with some further great modelling and effects. The Surrender instrumental works. Had I been Bond I might well have been tempted to touch my hair after the rocket whooshes overhead.
Though a deleted moment and probably a bit much, I do like Bond going to check out the damage he caused at  the rental and handing the keys back. Moore-esque.

I nearly did a tongue in cheek story where locked away in Whitehall there's an overworked chap who since Dr No has to deal with the public consequences of Bond's actions and one would be the Beemer. Sending it crashing into a shopfront (what about the chaps inside?), sending chunks of masonry onto the pavement. This chap would be one step away from a heart attack constantly.

Bond back in uniform. I've long seen a little shop near Portsmouth Dockyard's east entrance that has officer uniforms in front. Aside from thinking it's nice that officers might still go there, imagine -maybe, I don't know otherwise, the film makers going to that effort. Aside from his shirt, good to see Wade back in action. Could've done with him briefly in DAD.
"Freezing my ass off whilst you're getting your ass off!"

As humour goes something about that bit just before Bond jumps.
"Parachute, the wet suit, the fins..." and the officers face when Wade says "he didn't even say goodbye!" Forget MI, Bond gets there first.

If there is ever proof that Bond has big brass ones, in the air especially, you have the MR PTS and you have this. Though Bond has a parachute from the off, plunging all that distance, to hit the water and dive, well I couldn't even if I did like heights.

If any Bond is a tale of two halves, TND is it. The Hamburg half, the Nam half. So Hamburg start film to the HALO, Nam from that. Something seems to change, much like DAD when Bond returns from Cuba.

Another good Carver/Bond moment. Some good one-liners ("I would've thought watching one of your TV shows was torture enough"). So now we have Wai-Linn. Solid Bond girl, always rated her and like Triple X before her, Bond's equal (in skillset anyway) and opposite in ideology. That's something else about this film. Russia isn't the big enemy as such now, it's China (Times newspaper a week or so ago had a big article feature about the West running out of time to stop the globalism by China).

Take the lift, James, take the lift. (this line delivered in Higgins of Magnum PI's voice)

The bike scene is good, British understatement here. The music is sharp, the stunts too and it's clever. I mean Bond is having to drive a bike restricted, with a woman handcuffed to him and is having to outwit the numbskulls pursuing. The bad guys though, to bring Admiral James T. Kirk into this: "like a poor marksman...you keep...missing...the...target!"

"Trapped!
-No."

That's our boy James. Never noticed though just how rigid the helicopter crew is as it flies into the building. Dummies of course. Still, they're preparing for death rather well.

Of course it's now quite laced with puns and one-liners.

Like the Chinese Q-Branch (as it were). Was a trick missed not having the Chinese Q? Sort of show the other side? Suppose that would've been a bit much. Certainly he would've stopped Bond cocking about with the fan etc. (Even if that lot is just for her, Wai Lin is more than prepared for shit. I'm willing to bet Bond's home isn't). I forget sometimes that Kowloon Bay is the same location from TMWTGG. That also it was hit by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.
Like Bond/XXX going into action getting together, getting their gear ready. Only thing lacking is the uniforms, hoho.

Never tires seeing dear Michael Byrne and co pop up (there's a few faces in Bedford's company that are well known by now including Bonneville, that chap from TwentyTwelve/W1A etc). Same time Carver's mania has now reached peak mania. That idiot kung-fu aside, when he says the anchorman line the gleam to his eyes (alright, specs) and how he delivers the line work. It is still a bit much Bond haring round blazing away as he does but there are still good moments around it. The Navy coming in, Carver's mania, Carver getting his comeuppance (great line by Bond), Bond saving Wai Linn (great music) and the last moment.

So there we go, halfway. Looks like I'll be slamming into the Craig era Thursday.

7/10

Hilly Does Bond 2020

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr No
4. The Living Daylights
5. Licence To Kill
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Thunderball
8. Octopussy
9. Goldeneye (currently 9th, 2015 placed 16th scoring 6.5/10)
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Goldfinger
12. Tomorrow Never Dies (currently 12th, 2015 placed 21st scoring 6/10)
12. Moonraker
13. View To A Kill
14. You Only Live Twice
15. Live And Let Die
16. The Spy Who Loved Me
17. The Man With The Golden Gun

The 'copter henchmen during the bike chase ... how do people who can't even hit a motorbike and/or its passengers as it slides directly beneath them get hired to start with, lol?

Good to see TND growing on you, Hilly! Your commentary is very easy to read, as always. Shame about the theme song. One of the great Bond themes and as a love letter from Paris it works very well too.

Wade on the plane is a great little scene. "You'll die of asphyxiation" / "Sounds like my first marriage!"  

Never thought much about the cut from Bond and Paris to Gupta, which to me is an example of good editing. I've heard - was it Scorsese? - say you notice good editing and you also don't notice it. Hard to say what works but personally, since I never gave it a second thought...

The waiter serving Bond and Paris at the party - the newspaper apparel really lends a touch of bizarre to the film, doesn't it?

Can't say I see a change for the worse once we hit Saigon. The turning point is a must in any film and with TND, Bond finding the GPS encoder and managing to hold onto it just happens to correspond to the change of location. It allows Bond to really start honing in on Carver, as it's the one vital piece of evidence that implicates him-- i.e. that leads to the sunken ship and find a missile has been stolen (effectively upping the stakes, since British weaponry is stolen). Not sure how many Bond films actually really managed to have an efficient and clear turning point. More often than not they go through one scene at a time. What jumps out where it is as clear as TND is perhaps Goldfinger (being captured) and Skyfall (capturing Silva).

I really like this assessment:

Hilly wrote:

In this one scene, Brosnan's Bond goes from utterly devastated (well, on the inside one imagines), to faintly disgusted to grim blunt instrument-style.

Quite the seamless transition in Brosnan's performance. One of the very reasons I find his work to be very underrated in this film. Layer that into the excellent set up of the scene with the brilliant Dr Kaufman waiting for 007, tomorrow's news today playing in the background (with Bond grieving Paris but still alert enough to hear the reporter's words to react to it), the writing of both characters in the scene, Arnold's sinister music... Top stuff!

As for this:

Hilly wrote:

Imagine Carver's face:
"Sir, Mrs Carver WAS found with an unidentified man as per the news item.
-Delicious.
-Except the unknown was Dr Kaufman.
-Fucking amateurs."

So much for German efficiency indeed! I think he deliberately didn't name Bond in case he got out of it. That classic idea of the villain appreciating the skill set of Bond, reworked in a fashion to also characterise Carver as clever and resourceful. I imagine, had Kaufman succeeded, perhaps then he'd start to move forward to attack Bond and MI6 for interfering.

BI wrote:

The 'copter henchmen during the bike chase ... how do people who can't even hit a motorbike and/or its passengers as it slides directly beneath them get hired to start with, lol?

Not sure this particular skill was part of the job requirements upon hiring.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The 'copter henchmen during the bike chase ... how do people who can't even hit a motorbike and/or its passengers as it slides directly beneath them get hired to start with, lol?  

Ha indeed. Utter simpletons.

Otherwise thank you Fields. You raise salient points on TND. I'm pressing onto TWINE. I largely refer people to comments in the TWINE20 thread but some lines:

Always have an escape plan

The World Is Not Enough

It is curious the PTS, you forget you'e not had the titles when Bond's at in M's office. Have all of the boat chase and there they are.
Looks like a camera boom in shot just after Bond demolishes the jetty (hanging over the river). And it's fascinating to see Canary Wharf with only No.1 Canada Square (Canary Wharf Tower) there. The cursed thing of this PTS is the Dome is in it. Sure I read that it was featured maybe on the suggestion of the government, to promote it in time for Millennium Eve. If so must be a damning indictment to have a superspy crash onto it.

MI6 Scotland feels like the old days of SIS. I do assume those others in the briefing are Double O's and the portrait of Bernard Lee is a nice touch. (I like to think there's one of Robert Brown's somewhere).

Hard to think that this film is twenty-odd years old now. The Odeon opened a brand spanking new cinema that year, meant to be part of this redevelopment in this idiot town and the youth group thing I was with decided for Christmas to go see TWINE. So TWINE was my first film there but also my first Bond film at cinema ever.

More of Doctor Warmflash. She doesn't have to say anything. Just more. Got to love Brosnan's grin after M says "exceptional stamina". Yep. Way DAD was, it couldn't have hurt to have her accompanying M to Hong Kong and tending to Bond on ship. The Navy are excellent but she's (I assume) MI6's CMO.

"Have you ever lost a loved one, Mr Bond?" easy lady, we've just met.

There's a lot of flippant Bond in this film, not a bad thing be it his "I don't know any doctor jokes" or "no" in response to his taking no as an answer, in the bank, at Q's lab. Indeed, I like how Q has taken the Q-boat up to MI6 Scotland.

His farewell is quietly great.

And Zhukovsky is always a delight with some of the best lines in the movie. Why can't you knock/insurance company/social call etc

Sophie Marceau was a knockout in the day, she might lack the er charms of Fiona but Elektra is as deadly and more-so than Fiona in a way owing to her mental set-up. Now, bear with me chaps (especially you Fields!) but I've been working through my Starsky & Hutch episodes and Bond reminds me (and I know there's a 1001 differences between the two) where one of the pair falls for a woman they shouldn't (usually someone they're protecting or a criminal's daughter), get all puppy eyed and then snap out of it with a muttered curse, grim face and strut.
Thus...thus, Brosnan does well in this regard. Bond is there to protect her or keep an eye on her, investigate and gradually gets too close (a shadow underneath), feels a bit of a fool and then comes out on top by films end.

It's also where the whole M-with-issues starts. Gone, in places, is the steely-eyed wouldn't-hesitate to send a man to his death M. DAD sort of recovers this though she has issues with Bond and then you sink into the twenty-first century proper.

It sits uneasily in the listings. It is not the worst film but not the sharpest.

7/10

Looks like your friends have bailed

Die Another Day

this review will likely fly along the lines I did in one last year if not against it. I think this'll  be written in a tone of a man knowing his next film is Casino Royale.

Nearly twenty years is a long time. Packing yourself into town on a cold evening to watch the latest Bond film. Then a few years later joining a Bond forum and realising some of your teenage ideas were outmoded.

James Bond has now edged into the twenty-first century. The age of the War on Terror, truths and untruths, knowns and unknowns, cyberwarfare, Putin and Bond sluggishly starts into it. Providing North Korea as an enemy of sorts is intriguing and initially, not a bad one. In spite of the look (there is some lens stuff going on that I am not clued into word-wise), it provides Bond with one of his most realistic 'could-die in this' moments. The look of startled realisation he's been shafted, that the gig's up and in a country that is still routed in Stalinist ways. The way the music builds as Bond is faced with a firing squad.

Brosnan is what about 50/51 in this and it doesn't show. If anything he's now grown into the role, his age is not as apparent as it was with Sir Roger. There is though what I guess is a lot of green screen on the hovercraft. Certainly Bond and co sometimes seem to be standing out from the background. (Sidebar: the surfing might not be everyone's cuppa but bullet dodge it wasn't to a Beach Boys or Surfari track).
So it's gone belly up for our man north of the 38th parallel. It is intriguing choice to show Bond being tortured by Kim Jung-Un's sister in the titles even if it looks odd with the women twirling around. The titles are going for both, shrugging off the 90s-era style a fraction. The song, well, I'm none the wiser. The lyrics can vex: throwing in Sigmund Freud like it's bloody profound. I ask you.
Bond being captured by the North had the potential to be quite interesting. I'm not saying a whole movie but as a book it might well have been captivating. Work even as a 'last Bond ever' story. For it seems Bond hasn't made an attempt to escape, well knowing he's written off anyway.

The ship is Brosnan Bond's Hemingway House perhaps. He's on his own and has to sort things out for himself. Even so, I assume M held off pursuit as if that hotel was his usual in HK, MI6 would've landed on the hotel like hot bricks.

As we press through Cuba the film remains relatively grounded.  Almost like VTAK, it's parts are sometimes better than the sum and it has moments that make you wish it had kept to and like VTAK, goes the opposite way.

Jinx is not a favourite, it's not wholly down to Ms Berry. The intro doesn't help, though a homage to Andress it doesn't feel right. Arnold's music at least offers some help. Could've inserted, so to speak, Dr Warmflash in the clinic. "Molly, what are you doing here?"
"Some of us lose our job when we dip our pen in the company inkwell."
I don't quite follow why we need the sluggish slow-mo and close-ups we get in the film. I know we're in the twenty-first century now and we've got to be flash I suppose but it doesn't look right at times, especially in the ice palace scenes.
As it goes, Raoul is not a bad ally. The idea of a sleeper is one that isn't done enough. You'd imagine that Dalton's Bond could have used one perhaps in Isthmus City if he hadn't had Pam along.

So we hop back on the flag carrier home. Wonder what  Sir Roger thought when Brozzer watches his daughter walk off, ha!? That's one thing about DAD, the Royal Premiere was this film and everyone was there. I always wonder what the Queen and Prince Philp were thinking. I believe the last Bond that was a Royal Premiere was YOLT (the Duke would've appreciated the navy scene perhaps).

Ah, good old Toby Stephens. He's the kind of actor who can do smarm well, capture that shit eating expression and loathing a chap can have. Whoever thought Madonna was a good idea (in any sense) should've been keel-hauled minus a brunette. (DAD as I've said before, does seem to like to push patience on how many point based puns you can have in a 2hr frame).
The scene after Madonna's dismissal is a favourite in this film. I may have said before that Graves/Moon obviously has the edge on Bond from the off. He knows Bond even if obviously Bond doesn't know he's Moon. Bond though has an edge growing *against* Graves being the man he's going after via diamonds etc but the fact he's an instantly dislikeable little shit. Stephens does well enough to bring to the fore quickly the temperament Moon had and the sword fight itself is the first taster of the battles ahead. As it goes, as it gets more desperate and violent, you wonder if Bond is actually going to go all the way and end up killing Graves. Or vice versa.

Reform Club must've had kittens with them running round inside. The club reappears in QOS (would've possibly been on my walking tour. Outside, anyway).

Trivially, good to see Bond is proficient with a sword (he is in MR but it's not quite the same). I imagine Fleming's Bond was. I also imagine Fleming's M would've given Bond a bollocking for the damage done to the club physically as well as financially and in terms of reputation.

The amount of people who actually think there is an abandoned Tube station underneath SIS is unreal. Geographically, Bond hasn't technically entered Vauxhall Cross. Westminster Bridge and that entrance is half a mile downriver from SIS HQ. (I guess you could argue he walks a mighty long subway). On the quiet there likely is a fantastically intricate series of tunnels beneath Whitehall anyway.

A good M/Bond scene. She feels closer to her GE persona here than she was in TWINE. (Another fine attire for our Bond). The VR training works in the sense that you imagine one day if not already training would be done this way anyway. Look at what lockdown has done to things - the Prime Minister is able to talk to his Cabinet via a TV screen (Zoom or whatever), press conferences are held old fashioned way until they take questions via TV screens, there's VR growing and growing as far as entertainment goes. SIS and other intelligence agencies are always at the top of the curve technologically, so it stands to reason.

Seeing Cleese now as a fully fledged quartermaster makes you wish he had carried on. I suppose a Cleese Q would've been jarring with a Craig Bond. Craig doesn't seem to have a sense of humour. Q-lab is 50/50. Is it a bit much when you see in Skyfall for the 50th, the subtle tributes? Maybe. For Brosnan's Bond it's not too bad and it's not a bad idea. Stands to reason that SIS hasn't thrown everything away and would keep it in 'annexe' as such. I do like seeing the Octopussy crocodile though.

The film now goes boldly. In Moonraker this moment was when we see the laser tested at the range after Bond rides in. In principle it's an interesting idea, using mirrors to cloak the car but not in a Bond film. The Vanquish is a decent piece of kit otherwise. (You know I say all this and remember that the Vanquish's technical first appearance, in Nightfire, she was able to go underwater...)

Arnold's score is one of his better Bond efforts and would earn higher plaudits were it not for the techno stuff. I know I've said it before, but you get fine orchestral pieces ("Bond to Iceland" say) and you have this noise under it. It's not funny, it's not clever [/Cleese as Fawlty line]
(That's not meant to be scathing the line above, just came to mind).

GE had Boris, DAD has Jurgen Klinsmann, I mean Vlad. By now Brosnan looks like he's going to savour moments and that's his one-liners such as when he walks through the palace with Frost and the remark about sparing ice. (Strikes me now I should've done a live commentary, ha. We'll leave that for a different film).
Wish I had a dream machine, saints alive. Am I reading too much into Zao/Graves when they first are reunited? Maybe they just go on hikes together.

I realise Berry shouldn't have been given puns or one-liners. For some reason it reminds me of Anya's "shaken, not stirred" in TSWLM if just for Bond's eyes to heaven.

Hang about chaps, isn't that the satellite from DAF with extra muscle? Yes, yes, details. There's a feel about Bond in the crowd during the demo as if he's thinking about shouting "Am I am the only one to see through this shit!?"
(Occurs as you see film crew walking away behind Bond as he follows Vlad after the demo, that if only the film crew had Carver Media Group logos. Bond goes to get into the car, sees them: "CMGN?"
"Under new management, sir" and it's Wai Lin's operation now).

Do somehow like the fact Bond is doing his snooping still in tux. Ah, watch out, Robo-Graves. ("Armed...and very dangerous." See, Stephens would've been an interesting live-action Bond). I wonder if the reaction shot of Zao/Graves (after Bond unleashes the steam against the goons) was done in the same take of their reuniting. It's feasible Vlad's walked off but I don't recall seeing Zao when Graves flexes his arm wrist thingy.

If any film could've worked, DAD had the potential in places. Had it done its best to tone down visual style and other effects, eliminated Jinx as a character, yes.

Reassuring the old ways still work re: the laser on the watch, the mouth respirator. Bond's got moxy, that water must've been savagely cold. Kenneth More supped enough brandy to float the  Titanic for his Night to Remember scenes, Bond surely had a quick one before he left his room.

Bond's escape from Graves was one of those moments in the cinema that there was a slight element of danger but also excitement. Bond running hell for leather, the music and then he shoots up to safety, down the dome.

(My blu ray is useless, sound drops when you least want it to to. That or they're speaking too quietly)

Bond's face after Frost's treason. Shit, she's the traitor, shit I'm an idiot for buying into her.

"Kill him, quietly!" bit late for that mush. I mean the goons are still firing machine guns outside when the guests are getting into their cars nearby. As escape vehicles go, Graves' solar thingymajig is an one-way ticket to pain. Either he's trying for Reykjavik or it's all part of a diabolical diversion plan.
Something delicious about Stephens' slimy scowl to the "he beat your time": "Not now Vlad, this is product placement."
In the cinema there was a slight tension as Bond is seen vanishing towards doom as the ice floe crumbles and the Bond theme kicks along. Then, you er see the windsurfing. Needs must when you're about to peg it.

Bond's Vanish plan backfires when he wisely leaves it in the way of a skimobile. No matter, we're off and cooking. Rarely has an Aston had a chance in Bond to show off its engine or the sound of it anyway, have some decent shots of it swerving and glistening. Never though hasthe bad guy been as evenly matched. The making of this scene makes for interesting viewing/reading. Always amazes me risks taken in Bond films for some things that are in a film briefly (the effort they took to do the ski jump in TSWLM say or the Sanchez fireball in LTK).
Something quite satisfying when Bond smashes through the skimobiles to get into the palace. The melting ice palace makes for  a decent playground. Element of risk involved, it's literally falling apart around them. The music for this scene is one of the better parts. (Wherethe hell does that prong thing come from in Zao's Jag? Weight alone...)
As pay offs go, Zao's is also satisfying. There's an almost casual manner in which Bond shoots the rope. Note that upon entering the palace, Bond has an expression that suggests he's had enough already and he's focused on rescue.
And that's it, as far as the car goes. One downer of no Brosnan CR, surely he would have had the Vanquish? (A 2004 CR...)

Ah, Michael Madsen. Fuck sake, was Joe Don Baker busy?

"Jimbo! Who's the dame?
-One of yours?
-Nope. Looks like my fourth wife though.
-Fourth? Already?
-About the only thing moving quickly these days, get my meaning?
[M] Gentlemen, please."

It is strongly recommended though to not show this film to Donald Trump or maybe he has seen this and figures this is the way to operate with Kim Jung-Un.

Stock footage of 'HMS Chester' launching its TND missile warms the cockles. The Americans thought they were launching on Icarus but they had to rely on the old Royal Navy, huzzar. I but jest.

Well, here goes nothing, we're airborne. I remember Blue Peter showing how they did the exploding glass effect and stunt, talking to Toby Stephens and maybe Brosnan. In true Bond fashion, Miranda's managed to change into a nifty outfit, the ensuring catfight is relatively intense and yet capped off by the read this, bitch.
Meanwhile Bond and Robo-Graves fight to the death. In the blink of an eye and to a triumphant Bond theme, Graves has the tables turned and meets his maker.

Further proof of the never say die from TND (when Wai Lin thinks that's it as the helicopter bears down), "not done yet."

So it goes. The Brosnan era fades away into the early century mists. As far as everyone was concerned he was going to be back. Maybe CR would've redeemed the era and been a fitting swansong. Like LTK before it, DAD is thereby a little open-ended. Neither were meant to be that particular actor's final Bond (whereas at least with DAF we knew and VTAK) so there's unfulfilled promise. (Only Penny gets a swansong as such).
Or would CR, in the wrong hands, have gone the DAD route? CGI cards flying through the air in slow motion, the torture scene reduced to a joke? It's hard to say. A Brosnan CR would've been nice and had that been the means for an unofficial one, all the better. It at the very least would've BEEN in Royale-les-eaux.

So that's that, onto Casino Royale and QOS tomorrow.

DAD scores 7/10

I'm stone-cold sober.

Hilly Does 2020 Bond
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr No
4. The Living Daylights
5. Licence To Kill
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Thunderball
8. Octopussy
9. Goldeneye
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Goldfinger
12. Tomorrow Never Dies
13. The World Is Not Enough (currently 13th, 2015 placed 22nd scoring 6/10)
14. Die Another Day (currently 14th, 2015 placed 20th scoring 6/10)
15. Moonraker
16. View To A Kill
17. You Only Live Twice
18. Live And Let Die
19. The Spy Who Loved Me
20. The Man With The Golden Gun

Well here we go. Those of a nervous disposition look away now

How the Hell can Bond be so stupid?

Casino Royale

law, I raved about this when it came out. Fresh air after DAD and then as the years rolled by it sort of went south. Fatigue with certain factors of this era, watching Dalton closely, and whatever.

So, here we are, the start of the neverending story, the Craig era stretching fourteen years.

The black and white PTS is an interesting choice, the best way I suppose to underline we're not in Brosnan territory anymore and we're back to square one. I thought when Craig was unveiled he wouldn't be too bad, Layer Cake was good and he's done other things well. And yet, we have to reboot. Could we not have a DAFesque PTS where Craig's Bond sort of skips round pretending/undoing DAD? No. It shows a new-ish Bond in terms of how he goes about his attaining the 00.

The song is punchy and a highlight, the titles subtly different to previous ones. And then, and then, this freestyling malarkey and Madagascar. Yes, yes it's clever. No, no otherwise. Carter's a blithering idiot, Bond should've shot him first.

The curious thing is that we still have Judi Dench as M. Bond's new, Bond's back to square one and it's the same M. She is at least in fine mettle, somewhere between GE and DAD in terms of character. In fact GE M seems an one-off, there she had almost cold detachment. The Evil Queen of Numbers. The film could easily in parts be a Brosnan film. You could digitally insert him into places and it wouldn't be all that different. (I can't see him flying about Madagascar like an overactive kangaroo).

Gratuitous product placement#1 The Ford, Bahamas (includes the Sony Ericson)

But Hilly, Bond has done product placement before, yes and it's usually done in a way you're not squirming in your seat. Even one of our weekday morning chat show things said it was like being hit over the head with it. Bond needs a word with his tailor. Say, how does origin-Bond get his DB5? Well, it's not Q-Branch (we don't have Q in this film by and large. Bond his wits).
Uh-oh Bond's surfaced. Put it away man. Already a marked contrast to Brosnan and Dalton. I'm still not sure bulk was needed- you look at Brosnan in DAD, granted he'd been PoW but still looking like a man on the surface who liked a bit of class but had the brawn to kill. Craig lumbers.

A slimeball like Dimitrios shouldn't be owning a DB5 anyway. Solange ends up of course becoming the classic Bond woman, seduced, killed. Nothing changes.

Product Placement#2 Body Worlds

On one hand Bond is green enough to be caught out by Dimitrios and yet ballsy enough to kill him in the exhibition. Arnold's score has it moments but I fear I find this and QOS forgettable scores. The few parts better than the sum. Miami International is one reasonably good track but this back to basics for Bond doesn't work soundtrack wise. Let's hint maybe but as it goes along as a film, bring the theme in. That might've worked with sealing the deal with Craig. Instead we have two films where Arnold tries to be clever.

Needless cameos: Gunther von Hagens and Richard Branson (indeed, wiki says when CR was shown on BA flights they obscured the Virgin tailfins seen and cut the cameo altogether).

Nothing changes- M still raging at Bond.

Meanwhile at the Top Gear test track, some stunts, lot of action and a typical bland-grim faced goon trying to cause maximum carnage. Bond at least looks grimly satisfied at the would-be bombers payoff.

Aha, we're off to Montenegro. On one hand Eva Green is a knockout and on the other, there's something lacking with Vesper. Has the book spoilt expectations? Should it have been adapted sooner?  The interplay between her and Bond has its moments (Product Placement#3 Omega watch). In recent films you've had Bond/Frost, Bond/Christmas for example.
The DBS...It's a DB9 on steroids really. I think I once said to someone, sex on wheels. Drunk at the time probably. According to said informational site, Aston supplied two working copies known as Hero cars as the DBS was still in development but the film-makers used three modified DB9's for destruction. On one hand, relieved that a DBS didn't go the way of all Aston's as such but still, in 2006 a DB9 retailed at about 175,000 quid.

One of CR's redeeming features is the appearance and presence of Mathis. The best ally of the Craig era in some respects. Played with effortless charm and charisma Giancarlo Giannini. Now, at the same time we need to be sold on the prospective love story ahead. Anyone else twitch when Bond said he wanted Vesper to look fabulous? Then I suppose Bond is always in touch with his style side. I suddenly picture Roger Moore in this scene. The eyebrow raise, maybe smoking a cigar, the bemused expression. Or Dalton, bemused if little irritated at Vesper, smoking a fag (something I didn't say about him above. I don't smoke myself, never have but seeing Dalton smoke a cigarette felt right. Fleming's Bond probably smoked cigars from time to time but Moore's Bond made a habit of it. Looks nice, typical real life Moore but Dalton smoking fags looked right).

Le Chiffre is intriguing. The book he is a classic Fleming villain, indeed he's Patient Zero isn't he. From here on in, bookwise, the villains were grotesque in certain ways. Mads Mikkelsen is a capable actor, plays Le Chiffre with subtle menace and character but that's about it. Like some before him, Le Chiffre doesn't really inspire fear. But then that's not the idea I suppose. This is a different film to the previous decade's worth. One thing the film does well is doing its best to make a card game exciting and tense.
I've not played poker or any card game as such, I don't have a head for it (hence my efforts to include it in stories have either failed or stalled) but showing it as the main device in the film is tricky. Other Bond's haven't focused on it heavily. Thunderball, OHMSS, OP and GE mostly. Whereas in the book, this is the main thrust.
[Still, Casino ROYALE as it's ROYALE-les-eaux. I wish it had been the French setting. I know, I know]

The stairwell fight is brutal enough. Desperate, savage and it shocks Vesper, taking the veneer off her surface. This Bond bleeds. hard to say about the shower scene. It's tender in its way and I'm not sure otherwise. It's a vulnerability to a woman who ultimately betrays Bond.

M's office (prior to Bond's cardiac help) looks to be the same from DAD. Element of danger, I mean you sweat looking at it really as Bond fights to live. "That last hand...nearly killed me"...Hmm

Vesper's no.1 dress here.

The DBS crash is undeniably impressive.

The torture scene was impressive back in the day, it still makes the eyes water. I suppose Bond's "to the right", his bravado is him countering the torture but there we go.

Still a little under half an hour to go. Oh we are not done yet. We have the blasted little finger exchange and the cementing that these two are in love. OHMSS had the montage, this went a bit further. OHMSS would've been rated higher otherwise. Hello, Bond's rumbled that all is not well. Quick, after her.

(City of Lovers a decent piece, music wise)

Some of the old Bond is there when he is quite prepared it seems to shoot Vesper when he catches up. However, we then have the falling house routine. I'm sorry but this could've been slotted into a Brosnan film (flooding submarines, melting ice palaces and disintegrating planes).
Now, part of me wishes they were able to do the book's version of Vesper's death. Bond walking into her room after the event and being crushed, not that drowning isn't dramatic enough. It's chilling enough when she appears to realise at the very end it wasn't a good idea by reaching out for Bond.
The bitch line feels crammed in and comes off awkward sounding. Fine people saying Craig's Bond is apparently Flemingesque for being humourless but certain lines, funny, serious, don't come off right.

But we're still not done. Mr White of course, who's Mr White? Well, we're going to find a way of smattering it out the next few films.

5/10

I don't give a shit about the CIA, or their trumped up evidence

Quantum of Solace

I quite like the short story, it's something different for Fleming but of course would never have worked as a movie not unless it was the mid-1950s and done as a serious film that you'd expect Jack Hawkins in with Bond as a small bit role. (Indeed, I argue that now you could do a period piece TSWLM for TV).

So, in 2008 I hopped to watch QOS with friends. I left honestly feeling dizzy. Wiki quotes someone as saying "at least it wasn't Octopussy". No, Octopussy was better.

It is at least 1h41. Shortest by far of any Bond.

At the start it seems a good idea to pick up where CR left off, the obvious differences would be Craig though who's lost weight or put it somewhere else in two years. The PTS isn't too bad, the flash-cuts, the zooming in over the lake and the Aston help in their way. It's after the titles that it becomes a dizzying affair. Marc Forster is trying to be too clever. I like a stylish Bond but Skyfall did it right. OHMSS did it right. Others have before.
So, Bond has issues of course. Betrayed by Vesper, he was in love with her, there's the White business, so we'll go from there.

The titles? My sides honestly. Since seeing the film, I've watched it maybe four times (I waited ages to get it cheaply on DVD, £3 from HMV in the end) and have tried each time to go, oh it's not that bad but like TMWTGG it's hard to claw your way out of the dirt. It's little things like how the location names are done (if you're not paying attention, you're liable to miss some). The stunts are well and dandy but as with CR, the Bourne influence is clear. However, Bond sort of has to I suppose. In the gap between DAD and CR, there's been a lot that Bond has to play catch up with. The days of Bond setting the trend have dulled.

I forget how much M is in this film. Hard to imagine Bernard Lee's M going round to the house of the guy who was a double agent.

As an actor, Rory Kinnear is quite good. As Tanner, it's almost like they take the character from the book and keep the name and position but just not suggest that there's friendship. Or is this Tanner yet to become chummy with Bond?
The horrific Barbican Centre doubles for MI6 HQ (where they filmed the temporary digs in Skyfall, by St. Barts is close to Barbican by a street or two).

That dinky little Ford is mildly irritating. I'd take the 2CV please, Alex.

Mathieu Almaric is another capable actor and I wonder if in a different film would we have seen something better? There's a quiet menace to him but like Le Chiffre not an overblown villain. I guess those days died with DAD. (If we're looking back from QOS as such ignoring Skyfall/Spectre).

Technology is still at the fore as it has been for a while now, M's office all feeling quite ahead of the curve with fancy screens and the like. Imagine, in Dr No they had a whole floor dedicated to communications with machines involving all sorts and now, all of this stuff.

The opera setting is 50/50. Henchmen meeting in an unique way but then it's the gunfight. Feels too clever by far.

Mathis is a welcome return, as is Felix. There's nothing too flash about this Leiter but he at least has that friendship with Bond. Mathis' death is shocking on every level. A liked ally, a charismatic one at that, human shield without intending to and dumped in a bin. "He wouldn't care" doesn't cut it somehow. One could argue, what else was Bond to do? I'm not sure.
Of course we have Strawberry. I forget she has red hair. Shows how much I watch this film. Her death sadly seems lacking. Pastiche of Goldfinger and Craig isn't helping. M though is excellent. Dame Judi.

If there's a plot in this film it was lost a while ago. Likewise, I can never connect with Camille. Kurylenko did more with Brosnan in that film whose title slips my mind.

My interest suddenly waned around the time of the air fight (dogfight is disingenuous for this) . The final confrontations lack spark. Flash cuts, bangs, whatever.

Hold up, we're off to meet Canadian Intelligence.

Well that's all sorted out. Vesper avenged-ish, Bond's ironed out his issues, right? Next film will be good, right?

3/10

If anyone has recovered, I'm winding down Bondathon 2020 tomorrow hopefully.

Hilly Does 2020 Bond

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr No
4. The Living Daylights
5. Licence To Kill
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Thunderball
8. Octopussy
9. Goldeneye
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Goldfinger
12. Tomorrow Never Dies
13. The World Is Not Enough
14. Die Another Day
15. Moonraker
16. View To A Kill
17. You Only Live Twice
18. Live And Let Die
19. The Spy Who Loved Me
20. Casino Royale (currently 20th, 2015 placing 17th scoring 6.5/10)
21. Quantum of Solace (currently 21st, 2015 placing 23rd scoring 4/10)
22. The Man With The Golden Gun

7/10 for TWINE and DAD! Not bad Hilly! I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Bond's trajectory in the film. He doesn't fall for her as such, but perhaps there's some thought about it. By the time of the casino scene he knows something's not right, best to take it to the next gear and up the investigation, stumbling across Davidov, Kazakhstan and ultimately Renard. It's momentary lapse of entertaining the idea of settling down with Elektra that turns out to be the motivating factor in becoming an active player in the investigation - not a mere shadow waiting for Renard to appear.

And M. I like that we delve into her flaws here. What a treat it would have been if Lee had the opportunity to do so as well at some point. The strength here is that it's just enough. It doesn't overstay its welcome.

Refreshing to see DAD not get grilled. I don't agree with everything (namely Stephens' performance) but I do more or less agree with this:

Hilly wrote:

If any film could've worked, DAD had the potential in places. Had it done its best to tone down visual style and other effects, eliminated Jinx as a character, yes.

I've said it before but shave the excesses and there's a decent film in DAD. Most of its issues are cosmetic - some of the dialogue, the CGI, etc. - and easily fixed... or ignored. And besides, as one Youtube reviewer noted (in the ranking video Python posted) the CGI is horrendous, but there's really not that much of it.

I'll get to CR/QOS, GE and the other posts tomorrow. Time escaped me today.

That is intriguing to consider Bernard Lee in a similar plot. Lazenby Bond or Connery would've worked wonders. One thing perhaps amiss with not having more Lazenby films. After a revenge-driven DAF, the third film starts off with the TMWTGG novel's opening where a brainwashed Bond tries to assassinate M.

You're right of course on Bond not falling for Elektra as such.

A better Stephens performance is Kim Philby in Cambridge Spies. Nothing earth-shattering but it sets him on path to Bond and beyond. (Tom Hollander is a hoot as Burgess, captures the man well).

The reviews aren't in a hurry.

Stephens redeemed himself somewhat as Bond in the BBC Radio Fleming adaptations.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Stephens redeemed himself somewhat as Bond in the BBC Radio Fleming adaptations.

he did that. Though I alwas found it awkward when you heard the kissing.

Best Roger Moore impression: Well then gents, let's finish this, shall we?

To strive, to seek and not to yield

Skyfall

from the absolute off you have the sense we're in a different world to what came before. Having left the cinema in 2008 flat and dejected, having avoided any publicity and general threads about this film, I went into the cinema in 2012 with no expectation.

At 2h23 the longest Bond to date. It looks different, it feels different and there already it seems is an attempt at humour ("It's alright, we weren't using it").
Craig still looking at suits. The contrast to rain-ridden London seems quite fitting. I worked with a Turkish guy at retail at the time and he was a little miffed about Bond flitting about Istanbul like this. He is doing more here, Bond, than he did in TWINE.

It's reassuring to see that Bond is not the only SIS field operative with willing flagrant disregard for others in terms of willingly damaging cars, buildings etc (indeed, Moneypenny is a touch too reckless when climbing out of her Land Rover and blazing away over the heads of bystanders).

M is on fine form already ("Get after them for God's sake!"). Hmm, I wonder if CATerpillar had a sponsorship deal!? Craig does seem to have a must for construction equipment in these films.
Ooh, Volkswagen has a deal too, damn it James, their Beetles you just trashed.
At least we stopped short of: "What was that?
-James' Omega just flew past me.
-Not Rolex?
-No, definitely Omega, ma'am."

Hold up, what's this? The Bond theme creeping along and into the track. Bond's adjustment of cuffs is about right. Not quite the tie adjustment of GE or TWINE but close enough. Quick word to say this looks all well and good on blu ray. Still wondering why CEX had the half dozen copies for 50p each considering it's the 2-disc (OHMSS cost me six, DAD cost me two). No matter, it looks good.

Remember seeing this in the cinema and that moment Bond pitched backwards into the ravine and the dead silence punctuated by "agent down". Nice. Then the sound of the rain increasing. This is what happens with a half-decent director.

Personally this is one title I never skip. It's my favourite of the Craig films and the song too. Something about it. Adele has a good voice (papers this week showing her much thinner nowadays) and the titles go some way to carry the story on. Of course we're in the 50th anniversary of 007. Compared to DAD's 40th, the tributes are subtle or understated. Interesting to consider a Dalton film in 1992 for the 30th. In some respects, these titles feel like going on some kind of acid trip.

In advance, something I like about this film is it's setting. Sure we go out to Macau but it feels very firmly centred on London. It is the closest a film gets to Moonraker's generalised setting in a way. Interesting to note that Bond has his CMG in this reboot world. Is it likely he still had time to get one in his Naval service? Also noteworthy that M when she goes will get a GCMG, very high honour of course. The plot about the compromised spies is contemporary and realistic enough.

What to do when you are believed dead? Well, unlike the previous Bond, you don't stew in a PoW camp. You live the live of Riley. Entertaining the locals like a circus bear. The MI6 explosion is done rather well, closing down Vauxhall Bridge easier to do of course.

One of the better Bond/M scenes since DAD. M on the defensive as well as offensive, Bond bitter and boozed up. "We've sold off your flat." Oof. Not the bachelor pad in Chelsea!?

Good at any rate to see Bond go through the return to work stuff with shades of YOLT. Good also to see Tanner more closely aligned with Bond, debriefing him. The impassive faced chap watching Bond I will think of as a new Smithers. He's had enough of testing Q's devices, so bumped up to Human Resources.

Like the look of the temporary SIS at Smithfield. Doesn't need to be too fancy SIS HQ as it is. It was good to see Fiennes romp up in a Bond film. Decent actor and Mallory has the perfect coldness, Civil Servant character to not drop large hints that he's in line for where he ends up by the film's climax. He not only antagonises Bond but also M.
The shame about the Fighting Temeraire at the National Gallery is that it's either been moved since 2012 or was moved just for the film. It sits close to the doorway, so it's hard to stand and look properly or get a seat to study it. The first proper Q in ages.
"Please return the equipment in one piece." You really are new aren't you?

Do like that shot of Severine in the window and the Macau setting.

She's an awfully striking lady Ms Marlohe. Nice little use of the Bond theme after Bond climbs out of the rancor pit, I mean komodo dragon pit. Further good music for the shower and reveal of the island. The island itself quietly evocative and fitting in with the Bond of old.

From the off, Silva is a markedly different villain to the previous two. An actor of Javier Bardem's quality, if directed well, can be quite good to put it mildly and initially it's an undecided thought that crosses my head. I wouldn't say he's one of the best villains in the Bond world, but probably the better of Craig's, at least, better put together. I'm assuming Silva IS Spanish? Silly question but we've had Frenchwoman Eva Green play a British agent (I always assumed Vesper was British anyway, agent or not), Russian Olga Kurylenko play a Spanish-speaker...Silva's at Station H, an ex-SIS agent...maybe he's from Gibraltar.

Either way, it's an interesting debut scene. Unlike most villains, there isn't really any preamble like say Drax where Bond isn't treating him an enemy until the bird-shoot or Koskov. From the start, it's a war footing. Empire, what empire? I know, I know.
In that case maybe Silva was an Argentine conscript in '82, turned, worked as an agent.

No time to dwell on Severine's death. As it goes, you feel for her. For the first and likely only time in the Craig era, the Royal Navy come to the rescue. Just how they timed it for the right moment is beyond me (more-so considering the state of the fleet) but there we go, it's all done, we're heading home.

Now for a moment Skyfall seems to have mixed X-Men and Austin Powers with the Silva cage. All the scene lacked really was Silva managing to burst out singing: "Fly, fly M! Fly fly" before quietly getting back into his cage. Curious, he is the near opposite of Bond in terms of how he goes after imprisonment. Bond in DAD was a little bitter but accepting in his way of his fate. In a way he was just as unhappy to be in Hong Kong as M was. Silva goes opposite way, vengeance.

Got to like how it moves along after Silva's capture. No hanging around. There's posters on the Tube saying if you see something suspicious report it to British Transport Police or TFL staff, one of the posters shows a shadowy figure coming out of a staff only door like Bond does. Bond gets away with it.

If only Bond could use his wits. Get on the bloody train anyway.

(Here's a nitpick. The train that almost runs Bond down isn't a District Line train, it's a deep line one. Likewise the one he jumps on at 'Temple'. Temple is just under the surface with columns down platform. London anorak off)

The Parliamentary Select Committee is a nice touch. This is the world we live in. If anything goes tits up, you get hauled before one. I guess this PSC is a secret closed-door session.

It's the little things that are good. Where they filmed the Tube stations is both Charing Cross' disused Jubilee line platforms (the line was meant to carry on up through City east, the closure of Fleet Street's newspapers meant the line was rerouted elsewhere in the 90s, south of the river then east. So CCX's platforms are still there but never in use commercially). They took time to change the signs to say Embankment and even have the other lines' colours atop the platform signage as in reality.
Otherwise Silva's timing of crashing a train is impeccable.

All this is moot, the start of the track as Silva emerges aboveground signals the start of one of the best sequences in a Bond for ages. M's monologue juxtaposed with Silva coming closer and Bond hitting the streets. I had a shiver down my spine as the music built, as M got closer to the final line and Bond running. Then you have the enquiry shootout. First Bond, then Moneypenny and Mallory getting in on the act. Almost a quiet statement of not going unbowed or quietly. Something about Mallory's face when he presses against the wall, like a regression to his previous life in the forces. In the cinema I half expected Mallory to then cower, as if it startled him back to Northern Ireland.

DB5 for once feels right. In my head, Bond has the OHMSS bobsled back there.

Anyway, Tanner drinking in SIS HQ? Tut tut.

There's a whole missing film with Bond and M's roadtrip. Two hours of bitchiness, crankiness and humour.

As it is, we reach Scotland and the film ups a level. The camera work, the location and a faint sense we're now at the heart of Bond. Hello, I would like a fantastic legendary actor, sir.

Arise, Sir Albert Finney. With the late Finney you knew you wouldn't get anything less than the best. The only person who could get away with calling Bond a jumped up little shit. It's a classic set-up though for as long as time. Our heroes holed up somewhere, the bad guys on their way and so our heroes rely on wits, brute force and heroics to win. Be it The Alamo, Rio Bravo, Assault on Precinct 13 and anything else in history, it works well if done right. This includes the A-Team montage of getting ready for the onslaught. Had I know my music, I'd be tempted to rescore this scene with a slow version of the OHMSS theme (akin to what accompanies Bond emerging from the cable car barn).

In the cinema I thought I misheard the fucked up line. There was a ripple of noise but in hindsight it fits in with M's character by now. She's lost people in this film, had a lifetime of losing agents and now it's all coming to roost. One of the better uses of the DB5 is in this film, in the sense that they were never truly outgunned really.

Guerrilla warfare suits Bond suddenly. The fact that M is involved ups it a fraction. One assumes she was a field agent in the day.

Silva's effort is noted. Fixing loudspeakers to a helicopter.

Not the Aston. For once Craig's face works expression wise. There goes his insurance bonus.

In what has to be the biggest explosion recorded in film since the Dirty Dozen that's the end of Chez Bond. They filmed it in Hampshire I believe, on my local news, and it caused a bit of a stir. Much like Dirty Dozen where the explosion was heard in London.

I find the imagery in this film striking, feast compared to CR/QOS and the imagery gets as striking in the fields. Silhouettes, the flames, the cold and M's death.

Starting to think we should do our own Rifftrax commentary for these films. Silva's saying to Bond we should stop this running around and I said out loud, I'm starting to think you should fuck off.

Ah well. As with DAD, Bond does quite well in icy waters. To fight a chap and survive under ice shows if anything that Royal Navy training isn't a dead loss.

So, the payoff. Judi Dench's seventeen years as M have reached their end. Seven films and a reasonably fine tenure. No one will ever match Bernard Lee's eleven films (Dench might have had there been the two year-interval 2002 to 2006)  so seven isn't too bad. As far as her M went, dying seemed the logical choice. In this film the mother angle doesn't feel awkward or bad. It draws a line under things.

So, Bond has gotten issues out of his system, he has a meaningful think atop the old War Office.
We get ourselves a new M in an office akin to Bernard Lee/Robert Brown's (complete with naval painting and interestingly, one of MI6 HQ) and the Bond theme, gunbarrel and credits what could go wrong? Surely with the same director, composer and cast as Skyfall we'll be okay?

8/10

Right, time to mix myself a poorly made glass of Pimm's. I'm sure as hell not going into this sober.

I have two cats to feed

Spectre

According to my notes this is actually only my third viewing of the film.  First in 2015 at cinema, second on DVD in 2016...a lot can change in four years.

At least it starts with the gunbarrel, hello old friend. What's this? 2hrs22? Well, seems the way of things.  

Hopes were high when I slipped into the Curzon cinema in Mayfair. (Proper cinema, the foyer area feels 1930s-ish, a bar, golden fixtures and curiously, Bond actor photos about it. Whether they did it for Spectre or it's general I don't know).Mendes was back and he had just given us one of the best Bond's for a while and a financial hit that no one could believe.

Seems, it was all a bit much. It feels fantastically irksome that we got this result. If you like Spectre fair enough (someone, somewhere must) but it's irksome in that we had that success and it feels like the behind the scenes people got cocky somehow. For instance, Thomas Newman's Skyfall score wasn't too bad and yet from the PTS we get the best of Skyfall in places. The hue doesn't seem right, it feels washed out and it feels, overall, like we're trying to be too fancy and stylish.
The helicopter fight is good for the most part. Bond never has luck with copters.

Ah oh, the song...Well, I've watched all the titles on this Bondathon and I hark back to the cinema. The song made me sit up, never heard until then, sit up like someone had ran me through with a steel rod. If Skyfall's titles were the story, were our boy James up against the shadows, then God knows what Spectre's was. Some sort of erotic dream. And the song, there's high notes and there's this. All that octopus, can't we just have Maud Adams' Octopussy. No one would have known under the age of 21. Uh, we're seeing for the first time since OHMSS, previous Bond films. Say, does this mean CR, QOS and Skyfall were linked? Oh bleedin' christ...

No Bond until Craig featured as prominently in the titles as he does. Connery never did, Lazenby never got going and Moore was seen in the odd profile but it wasn't as in your face as Craig's. Dalton did briefly in LTK and Brosnan never showed his mug. Bond again flanked by women. I reckon you could slap Europe's Final Countdown over this and be nonethewiser.

M's office again. Painting of MI6 has vermooshed. It looks...dark. (Fleming's M would have the same level of contempt for the MI5-MI6 merger. Can you imagine? Bernard Lee's disdain. Robert Brown's weariness). Did M have to say Bond was grounded? A) he sounds like a parent, B) Bond is a navy man so he's on the beach. Boom.
Never mad on Andrew Scott as it is, he seems to have one setting. If you like him, fine, but the Pimm's is sinking in so I'll respect you in the morning.
Overdue holiday? What was that little shindig after Skyfall's PTS? Well, there's holiday and holiday.

The last two films up to now have at least made proper location use of Whitehall, we see Moneypenny and Bond walking through the Foreign Office's courtyard (that gate behind them should lead directly onto Downing Street opposite No.10).

Good to see that MI6 is still full of gossip. "Everyone's talking about it."
"You've got a secret...", here we go again. God I miss the old days. Everyone bitches that Lazenby's Bond was ridden by such problems, moping and Craig's makes an art form of it. When I saw M's video, sorry Judi Dench's M, I groaned inwardly. Even in death, she's back plaguing Bond. (Similarly in Solo. We're nearing the end of the film and I thought, this could be the first Star Wars not to feature a lightsaber and hey ho, not only does Darth Maul randomly appear but he randomly lights his saber).

Tanner's remark that it's cheaper to knock down than to rebuild is on the nose. During my training we were told that MacDonald House (Canada's passport/visa building in Mayfair) was knocked down as it was cheaper to knock down, build anew than simply renovate the building. The new building, a hotel probably, looks exactly like MacDonald House did).

Kind of like the fact they have a riverside entrance. Conversely, Tanner has grown massively now since QOS. There is some kind of rapport with Bond, it's not the same as Kitchen/Brosnan but it'll do for now. Either my TV is off or this film really does look off.

Lumme, the DB10. Why does 009 need this beast? Give him a ruddy DB9. I do like this scene in the sense you get to see that there are equipment for more than just Bond. Though let Aston Martin rebuild the DB5 at Newport Pagnell and leave the rest to Q-Branch. (Does anyone remember Gardner's Q'ute? Exactly).

When that chap says 009 is upstairs, I'd like a shot of him. Played by Hugh Bonneville.

Music is still too much Skyfall not enough individuality. Shades of "Shanghai Drive" to Bond's drive into Rome.

So what if Monica Belucci is the oldest Bond woman? She's a knockout. One envies Vincent Cassel.

So far the film is on a reasonably even keel. We're holding our own for now.

Onto the SPECTRE meeting. It has flashes of how they met in book and previous film. You get Waltz in a Bond and he's ruined. You ape Bond henchmen in this Batiusta bloke [sic]. Bond is so keen on the DB10 he manages to nick a car that has no ammo and is a work in progress. I find it hard to believe 009 had programmed the "My Kind of Town" song though.
Shitters, another Aston done in.

The first M/C confrontation. Come on Fiennes.

Then to Not Piz Gloria. The altitude affects you Mr Bond? Yes, it's making me grumpy. Say, Q, how did you get here?
I've seen Lea Seydoux in Blue is the Warmest Colour, I know her to be a reasonably capale actress otherwise. So here goes nothing. No alcohol in Not Piz Gloria? Bastards.

Bond's sunglasses reappear and we're off. The music is again Skyfall derivative. Shades of Granborough Road. You know, as the plane flies across the path of the cars coming out of the tunnel I'd have slipped in the Bond theme (reminiscent of LTK in either the PTS or tanker chase). For the music's faults it does at least slap in a hint of Thunderball (track is "Snow Plane"). Though the trailer used a fresh OHMSS theme, I'm glad they didn't use it for Spectre. Like Barry's 007 Theme, the OHMSS theme is old Bond.

"Don't touch me!" I saved your life you ungrateful wench. I know it's SPECTRE as my Dad worked for them. I did two weeks experience making tea for Blofled. Who? Blofeld.

Seydoux in Bond gives me hope Audrey Fleurot can do one, one day. I haven't seen her in an English speaking role but...redhead, curvaceous figure, new Bond, come on EON.

Must be me but it feels like we've ground to a halt at L'Americain.

Say what you will, Lea Seydoux walking down the aisle in that dress makes up for things. Well, until she gets knocked out by whathisname. Hinx. Hmm. Shades of Moonraker.

After that I went off to do the reviews on YouTube. It plods along, next thing we're in London, M has that 'C' line which I still chuckle at, C gets his comeuppance, SIS is destroyed, Bond gets a random shot in a chopper, Blofeld captured, Double O's reinstated and they drive off in the hastily rebuilt DB5.

I don't know chaps, Spectre feels a wasted opportunity. I gave up in parts, attention wandered. It was bloody hot tonight and I don't do heat but there we go. I'm not optimistic for NTTD, I'll see it, I'll decide but as with after QOS, I feel cheated. Spectre has randomly good spots but is too disjointed for my tastes.

4/10

That does all the same bring my Bondathon, my first in five years, to an end. So thank you for putting up with the bull, hyperactivity and whatnot. Let's be having you.

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr No
4. The Living Daylights
5. Licence To Kill
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Thunderball
8. Octopussy
9. Goldeneye
10. Skyfall (placed 10th, 2015 placed 9th scoring 8/10)
11. Diamonds Are Forever
12. Goldfinger
13. Tomorrow Never Dies
14. The World Is Not Enough
15. Die Another Day
16. Moonraker
17. View To A Kill
18. You Only Live Twice
19. Live And Let Die
20. The Spy Who Loved Me
21. Casino Royale
22. Spectre ( placed 22nd, 2015 placed 11th scoring 8/10)
23. Quantum of Solace
24. The Man With The Golden Gun

Hilly wrote:

That is intriguing to consider Bernard Lee in a similar plot. Lazenby Bond or Connery would've worked wonders. One thing perhaps amiss with not having more Lazenby films. After a revenge-driven DAF, the third film starts off with the TMWTGG novel's opening where a brainwashed Bond tries to assassinate M.

You're right of course on Bond not falling for Elektra as such.

A better Stephens performance is Kim Philby in Cambridge Spies. Nothing earth-shattering but it sets him on path to Bond and beyond. (Tom Hollander is a hoot as Burgess, captures the man well).

Yes, a Connery/Lazenby/Dalton/Brosnan version TMWTGG that includes Bond attempting to assassinate Lee's M would be something! That would naturally give way to a deeper involvement for M in the story.

BI wrote:

Stephens redeemed himself somewhat as Bond in the BBC Radio Fleming adaptations.

He's a great actor, but I don't think DAD does him any favours, sadly. He is excellent in Black Sails, and back when I watched that I thought he'd have made a better Bond than Bond villain.

Hilly wrote:

Well here we go. Those of a nervous disposition look away now

How the Hell can Bond be so stupid?

Casino Royale

law, I raved about this when it came out. Fresh air after DAD and then as the years rolled by it sort of went south. Fatigue with certain factors of this era, watching Dalton closely, and whatever.

So, here we are, the start of the neverending story, the Craig era stretching fourteen years.

The black and white PTS is an interesting choice, the best way I suppose to underline we're not in Brosnan territory anymore and we're back to square one. I thought when Craig was unveiled he wouldn't be too bad, Layer Cake was good and he's done other things well. And yet, we have to reboot. Could we not have a DAFesque PTS where Craig's Bond sort of skips round pretending/undoing DAD? No. It shows a new-ish Bond in terms of how he goes about his attaining the 00.

The song is punchy and a highlight, the titles subtly different to previous ones. And then, and then, this freestyling malarkey and Madagascar. Yes, yes it's clever. No, no otherwise. Carter's a blithering idiot, Bond should've shot him first.

The curious thing is that we still have Judi Dench as M. Bond's new, Bond's back to square one and it's the same M. She is at least in fine mettle, somewhere between GE and DAD in terms of character. In fact GE M seems an one-off, there she had almost cold detachment. The Evil Queen of Numbers. The film could easily in parts be a Brosnan film. You could digitally insert him into places and it wouldn't be all that different. (I can't see him flying about Madagascar like an overactive kangaroo).

Gratuitous product placement#1 The Ford, Bahamas (includes the Sony Ericson)

But Hilly, Bond has done product placement before, yes and it's usually done in a way you're not squirming in your seat. Even one of our weekday morning chat show things said it was like being hit over the head with it. Bond needs a word with his tailor. Say, how does origin-Bond get his DB5? Well, it's not Q-Branch (we don't have Q in this film by and large. Bond his wits).
Uh-oh Bond's surfaced. Put it away man. Already a marked contrast to Brosnan and Dalton. I'm still not sure bulk was needed- you look at Brosnan in DAD, granted he'd been PoW but still looking like a man on the surface who liked a bit of class but had the brawn to kill. Craig lumbers.

A slimeball like Dimitrios shouldn't be owning a DB5 anyway. Solange ends up of course becoming the classic Bond woman, seduced, killed. Nothing changes.

Product Placement#2 Body Worlds

On one hand Bond is green enough to be caught out by Dimitrios and yet ballsy enough to kill him in the exhibition. Arnold's score has it moments but I fear I find this and QOS forgettable scores. The few parts better than the sum. Miami International is one reasonably good track but this back to basics for Bond doesn't work soundtrack wise. Let's hint maybe but as it goes along as a film, bring the theme in. That might've worked with sealing the deal with Craig. Instead we have two films where Arnold tries to be clever.

Needless cameos: Gunther von Hagens and Richard Branson (indeed, wiki says when CR was shown on BA flights they obscured the Virgin tailfins seen and cut the cameo altogether).

Nothing changes- M still raging at Bond.

Meanwhile at the Top Gear test track, some stunts, lot of action and a typical bland-grim faced goon trying to cause maximum carnage. Bond at least looks grimly satisfied at the would-be bombers payoff.

Aha, we're off to Montenegro. On one hand Eva Green is a knockout and on the other, there's something lacking with Vesper. Has the book spoilt expectations? Should it have been adapted sooner?  The interplay between her and Bond has its moments (Product Placement#3 Omega watch). In recent films you've had Bond/Frost, Bond/Christmas for example.
The DBS...It's a DB9 on steroids really. I think I once said to someone, sex on wheels. Drunk at the time probably. According to said informational site, Aston supplied two working copies known as Hero cars as the DBS was still in development but the film-makers used three modified DB9's for destruction. On one hand, relieved that a DBS didn't go the way of all Aston's as such but still, in 2006 a DB9 retailed at about 175,000 quid.

One of CR's redeeming features is the appearance and presence of Mathis. The best ally of the Craig era in some respects. Played with effortless charm and charisma Giancarlo Giannini. Now, at the same time we need to be sold on the prospective love story ahead. Anyone else twitch when Bond said he wanted Vesper to look fabulous? Then I suppose Bond is always in touch with his style side. I suddenly picture Roger Moore in this scene. The eyebrow raise, maybe smoking a cigar, the bemused expression. Or Dalton, bemused if little irritated at Vesper, smoking a fag (something I didn't say about him above. I don't smoke myself, never have but seeing Dalton smoke a cigarette felt right. Fleming's Bond probably smoked cigars from time to time but Moore's Bond made a habit of it. Looks nice, typical real life Moore but Dalton smoking fags looked right).

Le Chiffre is intriguing. The book he is a classic Fleming villain, indeed he's Patient Zero isn't he. From here on in, bookwise, the villains were grotesque in certain ways. Mads Mikkelsen is a capable actor, plays Le Chiffre with subtle menace and character but that's about it. Like some before him, Le Chiffre doesn't really inspire fear. But then that's not the idea I suppose. This is a different film to the previous decade's worth. One thing the film does well is doing its best to make a card game exciting and tense.
I've not played poker or any card game as such, I don't have a head for it (hence my efforts to include it in stories have either failed or stalled) but showing it as the main device in the film is tricky. Other Bond's haven't focused on it heavily. Thunderball, OHMSS, OP and GE mostly. Whereas in the book, this is the main thrust.
[Still, Casino ROYALE as it's ROYALE-les-eaux. I wish it had been the French setting. I know, I know]

The stairwell fight is brutal enough. Desperate, savage and it shocks Vesper, taking the veneer off her surface. This Bond bleeds. hard to say about the shower scene. It's tender in its way and I'm not sure otherwise. It's a vulnerability to a woman who ultimately betrays Bond.

M's office (prior to Bond's cardiac help) looks to be the same from DAD. Element of danger, I mean you sweat looking at it really as Bond fights to live. "That last hand...nearly killed me"...Hmm

Vesper's no.1 dress here.

The DBS crash is undeniably impressive.

The torture scene was impressive back in the day, it still makes the eyes water. I suppose Bond's "to the right", his bravado is him countering the torture but there we go.

Still a little under half an hour to go. Oh we are not done yet. We have the blasted little finger exchange and the cementing that these two are in love. OHMSS had the montage, this went a bit further. OHMSS would've been rated higher otherwise. Hello, Bond's rumbled that all is not well. Quick, after her.

(City of Lovers a decent piece, music wise)

Some of the old Bond is there when he is quite prepared it seems to shoot Vesper when he catches up. However, we then have the falling house routine. I'm sorry but this could've been slotted into a Brosnan film (flooding submarines, melting ice palaces and disintegrating planes).
Now, part of me wishes they were able to do the book's version of Vesper's death. Bond walking into her room after the event and being crushed, not that drowning isn't dramatic enough. It's chilling enough when she appears to realise at the very end it wasn't a good idea by reaching out for Bond.
The bitch line feels crammed in and comes off awkward sounding. Fine people saying Craig's Bond is apparently Flemingesque for being humourless but certain lines, funny, serious, don't come off right.

But we're still not done. Mr White of course, who's Mr White? Well, we're going to find a way of smattering it out the next few films.

5/10

I don't give a shit about the CIA, or their trumped up evidence

Quantum of Solace

I quite like the short story, it's something different for Fleming but of course would never have worked as a movie not unless it was the mid-1950s and done as a serious film that you'd expect Jack Hawkins in with Bond as a small bit role. (Indeed, I argue that now you could do a period piece TSWLM for TV).

So, in 2008 I hopped to watch QOS with friends. I left honestly feeling dizzy. Wiki quotes someone as saying "at least it wasn't Octopussy". No, Octopussy was better.

It is at least 1h41. Shortest by far of any Bond.

At the start it seems a good idea to pick up where CR left off, the obvious differences would be Craig though who's lost weight or put it somewhere else in two years. The PTS isn't too bad, the flash-cuts, the zooming in over the lake and the Aston help in their way. It's after the titles that it becomes a dizzying affair. Marc Forster is trying to be too clever. I like a stylish Bond but Skyfall did it right. OHMSS did it right. Others have before.
So, Bond has issues of course. Betrayed by Vesper, he was in love with her, there's the White business, so we'll go from there.

The titles? My sides honestly. Since seeing the film, I've watched it maybe four times (I waited ages to get it cheaply on DVD, £3 from HMV in the end) and have tried each time to go, oh it's not that bad but like TMWTGG it's hard to claw your way out of the dirt. It's little things like how the location names are done (if you're not paying attention, you're liable to miss some). The stunts are well and dandy but as with CR, the Bourne influence is clear. However, Bond sort of has to I suppose. In the gap between DAD and CR, there's been a lot that Bond has to play catch up with. The days of Bond setting the trend have dulled.

I forget how much M is in this film. Hard to imagine Bernard Lee's M going round to the house of the guy who was a double agent.

As an actor, Rory Kinnear is quite good. As Tanner, it's almost like they take the character from the book and keep the name and position but just not suggest that there's friendship. Or is this Tanner yet to become chummy with Bond?
The horrific Barbican Centre doubles for MI6 HQ (where they filmed the temporary digs in Skyfall, by St. Barts is close to Barbican by a street or two).

That dinky little Ford is mildly irritating. I'd take the 2CV please, Alex.

Mathieu Almaric is another capable actor and I wonder if in a different film would we have seen something better? There's a quiet menace to him but like Le Chiffre not an overblown villain. I guess those days died with DAD. (If we're looking back from QOS as such ignoring Skyfall/Spectre).

Technology is still at the fore as it has been for a while now, M's office all feeling quite ahead of the curve with fancy screens and the like. Imagine, in Dr No they had a whole floor dedicated to communications with machines involving all sorts and now, all of this stuff.

The opera setting is 50/50. Henchmen meeting in an unique way but then it's the gunfight. Feels too clever by far.

Mathis is a welcome return, as is Felix. There's nothing too flash about this Leiter but he at least has that friendship with Bond. Mathis' death is shocking on every level. A liked ally, a charismatic one at that, human shield without intending to and dumped in a bin. "He wouldn't care" doesn't cut it somehow. One could argue, what else was Bond to do? I'm not sure.
Of course we have Strawberry. I forget she has red hair. Shows how much I watch this film. Her death sadly seems lacking. Pastiche of Goldfinger and Craig isn't helping. M though is excellent. Dame Judi.

If there's a plot in this film it was lost a while ago. Likewise, I can never connect with Camille. Kurylenko did more with Brosnan in that film whose title slips my mind.

My interest suddenly waned around the time of the air fight (dogfight is disingenuous for this) . The final confrontations lack spark. Flash cuts, bangs, whatever.

Hold up, we're off to meet Canadian Intelligence.

Well that's all sorted out. Vesper avenged-ish, Bond's ironed out his issues, right? Next film will be good, right?

3/10

If anyone has recovered, I'm winding down Bondathon 2020 tomorrow hopefully.

Hilly Does 2020 Bond

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr No
4. The Living Daylights
5. Licence To Kill
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Thunderball
8. Octopussy
9. Goldeneye
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Goldfinger
12. Tomorrow Never Dies
13. The World Is Not Enough
14. Die Another Day
15. Moonraker
16. View To A Kill
17. You Only Live Twice
18. Live And Let Die
19. The Spy Who Loved Me
20. Casino Royale (currently 20th, 2015 placing 17th scoring 6.5/10)
21. Quantum of Solace (currently 21st, 2015 placing 23rd scoring 4/10)
22. The Man With The Golden Gun

So Casino. Well. You're more forgiving than me, but glad you've acknowledged how poor it is. Interesting thought, it being adapted too late. Imagine if Michael Wilson managed to convince Cubby to film it for Dalton's debut? Things would have been so different. Cubby would have ensured it wasn't a generic blockbuster, and well, Maibaum would have been the man to pen it.

And yes, France would have been better than Montenegro. Keep 90% of the film there. Soak up the cultural elements of France instead of needless globetrotting which, for example doesn't even highlight the true Montenegro. What we have could be anywhere, really. Far cry from Fleming's travelogue stories.

And when you say the Venice house is something straight out of Brosnan's era, what's the implication? Curiously it was a Haggis contribution, not P&W. I think the falling house is perfectly fitting for the overblown nature of CR06. Still no good. The ice palace of DAD fits in with that film's tone.

Similarly, TMTWGG, thin as the story is, outranks CR/QOS just with its tone and contribution to the James Bond iconography. But that's why it's your ranking and not mine!

And QOS.

Good to see more appreciation for Almaric, even if the film ultimately lets him down. I find him more effective than Mads' Le Chiffre. Both actors are wasted in their respective films, sadly. Mathis is a welcome return solely for the fact that they needed to redeem themselves after royally fucking him over in CR. But then they make the mistake again by killing him off. Bad choice not to bring him back for a future outing. Perhaps to rescue Bond at the end of a mission (a la Fleming's FRWL), start the next one with Bond recovering but he's suffered from amnesia. Heads to Russia, they brainwash him, he's sent to kill M (a la TMWTGG). Boom.

The location names really never bothered me. But won't waste my time defending Quantum.

CR as a story could've been done in the sixties and remain faithful to the book in terms of setting, pacing, maybe a little bit around the edges and not be too bad. I can't help but think that modern audiences don't have attention span anymore. Today's Times writes that TV is starting to go back to 30min long episodes of things as people don't feel they have time for an hour plus for things anymore.

CR as Dalton's debut would have been incredible. Wondering who could've been Vesp.

Still, I might have sounded forgiving on it but it's plummeted in recent years. Find it incredibly tiresome.

There's no implication in the Brosnan era-comment re: the house. Just meant that this film is meant to be a serious reboot, imagining DAD never happened, streamline things and yet at the end they slap in the house falling. Brosnan's Bond, for the last three films any rate, had some kind of big climax feature or something in film: Caviar Factory, the sub, the sea-cat in TND, melting ice palace, disintegrating plane. Next thing you know, Craig is in a house falling into bits and it seems jarring with the illusion they're trying to maintain from the PTS on. That's my take.

Craig Bond's first aid knowhow might be so pisspoor, Mathis isn't actually dead

Hilly wrote:

Next thing you know, Craig is in a house falling into bits and it seems jarring with the illusion they're trying to maintain from the PTS on. That's my take.

Ah, I see. Yes, it's indeed an illusion. Can't have that half assed gritty tone if you have falling houses in Venice. Further, it's can't be as grim as the film is when Bond's task is to beat the villain by playing a game of cards with him.

Well I'm all caught up with you written reviews. Very amusing that your Spectre commentary stops about one third into the film. If you're not passionate about writing about it, even hating it, it's really done something wrong.

Sound thoughts all round. Skyfall does indeed feel very British despite the Asian settings (Shanghai, Macau, Japanese island) in the middle. Most patriotic film of the series since Tomorrow Never Dies. Before that, For Your Eyes Only or The Spy Who Loved Me?

I fear watching SF again having identified the crux of the problem that is Moneypenny's origin story now. We'll see. Bond shouldn't be that reckless. And then Moneypenny too? Eh, she should relax. Bond should give her a slap on the bottom and a cigar.

Indeed, I sort of just drifted away from it. Usually I like to see London on film and I do like M's "well we know what the C stands for" but my mind and everything else followed in wandering away.

Hmm, patriotic Bond films. You might be right including FYEO and TSWLM. TSWLM has in the background perhaps, all that is associated with the British losing a sub and then you have the Royal Navy's greatest poster boy out to find out. FYEO is national pride, get there before the Soviet. Says a great deal that when Bond is patriotic it's not quite jingoistic, flag waving stuff you get elsewhere. If Michael Bay did a Bond film I'd expect gratuitous close-ups of the flag fluttering in slow motion, a Hans Zimmer score involving a rock version of the national anthem...

I didn't pay much heed to the 'Penny origin story in Skyfall this time round. I tried to ignore it. Put my focus on Bond. It is bewildering how when she gets out of the car on the bridge, she does bang around with her gun and I never noticed until this review (as I say above), that her bullets ping off the bridge above the heads of bystanders. I mean, if Bond gets in the shit in CR for blowing up an embassy, surely Penny would have been raked over the coals by the press for effectively massacring Turks in Istanbul?

I fear a slap and cigar would breach MeToo rules. Certainly Babs would find it patronising.

I also like M's C line.

Yes, the Union Jack parachute, the Royal Navy and their employment in battle on the Liparus. The tensions between Bond and Anya perhaps personifies that between West and East, and of course Bond is the one that saves the day... keeping the British end up, naturally. FYEO, well - Bond up against the Soviets as you say, Thatcher personally congratulating Bond, the stuff on St Georges... just a general feeling of Britishness. Then TND, M's staunch belief in Bond in the PTS preventing chaos in new Russia for the General, the sinking of the Devonshire being the inciting incident (and emotionally filmed/scored) which brings a degree of disgust to Bond (his look at Carver's papers), the argument between M and Roebuck fuelled by their disagreement of the best course of action that will bring Britain's attacker down, the car briefing whistling through London streets with police escorts suggests a call to action, and of course the Royal Navy coming in on the action toward the end... As I've said elsewhere, I feel Bond wearing blue in Saigon opposite Wai Lin's red is a visual representation of Bond's patriotism. Arnold's score too, really. All In A Day's Work and A Tricky Spot for 007 particularly.

Well, if they aimed for anything with Moneypenny's story it might be equality - this woman can be just as stupidly reckless as the current Bond too.

I'm afraid you're probably right.

Sound analysis Fields, those films do have a strong streak of red, white and blue running through them indeed.

There's been a lot of chat about it here of late due to the 35th anniversary, the third anniversary of Moore's passing was recently, and yesterday was a UK Bank Holiday (granted, when you've been 'furloughed' for 2 months these things mean less) on which Bond is somewhat of a tradition ... so I slid AVTAK into the Blu-Ray player yesterday afternoon.

First of all, the stuff I unequivocally like ... Walken, Jones, Duran Duran, Barry's score, Macnee, Fullerton.

Now, the rest of it ... the pre-credits bit is fairly decent (and also the last action sequence with any dynamism about it until the City Hall fire), but even then it's undermined by the 'California Girls' gag (a pretty weak joke to start with, and then when you consider that there's far more snowboarding than 'surfing' in the sequence ... meh).

Fourteenth film in the series, and the seventh to star the by then late-50s Moore ... maybe these (and the age of the rest of the MI6 'crew') are to blame for the general, undeniable tired 'air' of View? No offence to Rog but hi-def is not a friend to his wrinkles, chin-sag and the occasions where you can glimpse his scalp through his hair.

As previously mentioned the action is either pedestrian, marred by incredibly obvious stunt doubles or both. I actually found myself annoyed that the Paris chase is backed by the Bond theme, because it doesn't seem to deserve it. The horse race, punch-ups in Zorin's stables lab and Stacey's house are nothing to get excited about (and why does Bond continue to use the shotgun on the goons even after he's told it's only loaded with rock salt?). As previously mentioned, the City Hall stuff is good ... and is then promptly undone by the following 'Keystone Kops' bullshit, seemingly there just because all Bond films MUST have a vehicle chase of some sort. Things admittedly pick up once we get to the mine (amusingly even though it's the next day, Bond and Stacey seem to rock up in the fire-truck wearing the same outfits as the night before) ... everything from there until the Golden Gate bridge is good (could do without the partial retread of the 'Oh no, not my balls!' gag from OP not least because it's a hundred times better in the previous film, but hey ho).  

The gadgetry is of a low-key enough nature to not actually merit a scene where Q hands it over to 007 ... maybe a desire to pull things back a bit after the likes of Octopussy's Acrostar and croc-sub? The less said about the not-exactly-unobtrusive surveillance robot dog-thing, the better.

The ladies ... pre-credits girl is a fairly standard Bond popsy. For all her Moore-enraging behind-the-scenes behaviour, Jones is at least a welcome attempt to shake the 'bad girl turns good' trope up a bit. Doody's Jenny Flex is pretty but mostly there for some low-level badinage with Moore. Pola is a delight ... Fullerton is gorgeous, sparky and magnificently-breasted.

Roberts' Stacey is fine ... no more, no less. She's pretty and gives good scream. But yes ... the airship, oh dear God the airship.

I think a 5 out of 10 for Moore's Bond swansong, then ... undoubtedly a film-too-far for Rog. Thank God the sorely-needed 'shot in the arm' in the form of Dalton was just around the corner.

Solid write up. Stacy being 'fine' is better than not good at all. I'm a happy man.

I must be the only one who doesn't see anything wrong with the blimp kidnapping.

5/10 is a little harsh for me but that's why it's not my post.

Hehehe, indeed sir. When Zorin's computer pegs Bond as 'Extremely Dangerous' I couldn't help thinking 'Well, maybe a while back ... ' .

Nice write up Blunty. The obvious stunt men can be quite distracting, especially in the Paris chase. That one moment in a film where Bond seems set out to do as much collateral damage as possible.

5/10 is probably where I stand. Average at best, with a few notable bits.

The real stars of AVTAK were Roger Moore's eyeballs. They were definitely working overtime.

Hilly wrote:

Nice write up Blunty. The obvious stunt men can be quite distracting, especially in the Paris chase. That one moment in a film where Bond seems set out to do as much collateral damage as possible.

It's actually possible to spot that it's 2 different guys ... the one driving when the barrier takes the top of the car off and the one driving when the back of it 'goes' aren't the same. Their wigs even seem to be different colours, for God's sake .