Last Bond Movie You Watched? 2.0

"Do you know how Christmas trees are grown...?"

OHMSS

having dug out the soundtrack a week or so ago I've been meaning to come round to this again. This and Skyfall are my only Bond outings this year and maybe soon I'll resume the Bondathon started around Skyfall's release (which is at TMWTGG). Somehow, without verging into well worn territory and sycophantically so, I never tire of the film. Be it the PTS with the reveal of Bond (the fantastic sound of the Bond theme), the title sequence, the barn, the escape from Piz Gloria (part of me wonders about if they had truly adapted the book. Bond waiting in his room for the moment to escape or indeed the Bond/Tracy scene in the airport) or especially that of Tracy's appearance at the ice rink.
On that note, Diana Rigg back in the day...that singular kind of beauty that hits like a thunder bolt.

Popped OHMSS on myself last week, still a fine Bond film and I'll always ponder the 'what if?' factor of Lazenby staying on board for more.

Just finished my annual festive viewing of the only Bond film that matters...



Tinsel, telly and, erm... TELLY. Don't get no better than that.

And Lazenby still kicks all kinds of arse as Bond.

I am really struggling to get into the festive spirit this year but one way or another I will be setting aside the time to sit down with my favourite Bond and Xmas movie, OHMSS, soon.

Resuming the Bondathon that came to a shuddering halt when Skyfall came out.

The Man with the Golden Gun

unfortunately it's a film that continues to linger, lurk even at the bottom (thereabouts). After a while it feels flat, uninspired in places and just plodding along. The perks to be found probably are in Christopher Lee. The comedic moments grate, JW wasn't really needed and Goodnight pointless other than eye candy.

4/10

The Spy Who Loved Me

after the former, this was a breezy bit of fun though with its drawbacks. I used to have quite the thing for Bach but nowadays it's lagged a bit, if only there was a decent actually can act actress (though what isn't too bad is Bach in the navy blue uniform and the hair toss as she takes the helmet off once on the Wayne). Stromberg is played with some menace by Jurgens but lacks much more and his death scene doesn't feel right or looks right even. The music unfortunately for, as much as I liked Hamlisch, doesn't hold up to well over time and out of the non-Barry scores thus far it edges under LALD. Seems fairly repetitive.
As always a kick seeing Shane Rimmer probably in one of his biggest screen roles with moments his voice sounding as he would Scott Tracy. Him and Moore seem to have great rapport, easy to imagine perhaps that Moore's Bond had already worked with Rimmer's CMDR previously.
The ending marred by the brief but campy Nobody Does it Better.

6.5/10

Moonraker

always an odd one since childhood when the Corinne death scene put the living daylights in me and even Jaws (I think mainly in the Rio scene in that ghastly costume). Curiously I've never minded the space element, maybe because of the model work or just seems a natural progression that for Bond to get Drax he has to go up...Anyway, it has its moments that retain a fairly serious film. The aforementioned Corinne death scene (the music, haunting), the centrifugue scene as Bond seems fairly rattled and Bond's last scene with M. However, the comic edges have a tendency to jar and mostly in the shape of Jaws (the waterfall, Venice), or even things like Chang's dressing up in that clobber and somehow getting through Venice unnoticed.
The flight into space is one of my favourite Bond scenes, the music, the build and reveal of Moonraker, that sun/shuttle silohuette shot. It's odd but MR is almost a good film.
Oh, and that redhead (Francoise Gayat)...ra-ra-ra.

A small aside is that I've wondered how all those shuttle launches haven't seem to have alerted NASA/USA, until Bond reveals Moonraker in orbit. I guess in this 'reality' the shuttles have been going on-off planet for ages.

bumping up to a 7/10

The Draxathon
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Licence to Kill
4. Dr No
5. Skyfall
6. Thunderball
7. Goldfinger
8. Live and Let Die
9. Moonraker (last rating 6/10, last placed 12th)
10. You Only Live Twice
11. Diamonds Are Forever
12. The Spy Who Loved Me (last rating 7/10, last placed 11th)
13. The Man With the Golden Gun (last rating, 4/10, last placed 21st)
14. Quantum of Solace

Watched Licence To Kill. A gritty revenge thriller and Dalton's best in his two film tenure.

Onto For Your Eyes Only.

I still quite like it much to some chagrin of others. A fairly solid Bond from Moore, not too bad Bond girl, villain and one of the best allies in the shape of Colombo. Musically hit and miss but some staggering locations and action make up for it.
Actually did laugh when Melina says "James, that's 5000 years old!" in the sub and Moore's kind of slight shrug as if to say "And?"

8.

Drive in the country-athon

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Licence to Kill
4. Dr No
5. Skyfall
6. For Your Eyes Only (last rating 8/10, last placed 7th)
7. Thunderball
8. Goldfinger
9. Live and Let Die
10. Moonraker
11. You Only Live Twice
12. Diamonds Are Forever
13. The Spy Who Loved Me
14. The Man With the Golden Gun
15. Quantum of Solace

The hell with the chagrin of others, Hilly. It's one of his best ... granted, sometimes the 80s-era humour sits a little uneasily in what is essentially a fairly gritty, down-to-earth Bond. But after Moonraker's excesses, who could have expected the series to return to the genuinely sweaty-palmed tension generated by the likes of the wreck-diving sequence or Bond's climb to St. Cyril's?

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The hell with the chagrin of others, Hilly. It's one of his best ... granted, sometimes the 80s-era humour sits a little uneasily in what is essentially a fairly gritty, down-to-earth Bond. But after Moonraker's excesses, who could have expected the series to return to the genuinely sweaty-palmed tension generated by the likes of the wreck-diving sequence or Bond's climb to St. Cyril's?  

exactly, the St. Cyril's piece is something else. Though I can never see that Kriegler fella without thinking "he's that bloke from Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo".

I purposely avoided Bibi. Not the finest hour :)

That's my little Octopussy

Octopussy

after FYEO a fairly solid outing. I tend to think of this as the first one I ever watched, balmy holiday night in Bournemouth in 1992 aged shy of seven -at least my memory of any Bonds previous is sketchy if that. Seem to recall 009 was a bit much, guess it's the clown make-up.
Nowadays I still don't mind it though the bad puns ("This should shake them off!"), the tennis gag and the bits in the jungle take the edge off unfortunately. But what there are of these there's Bond and Octopussy's scene at the palace, Bond getting one up on Grishka ("That's for 009!"), Maud Adams (ra-ra-ra), the end fight (Gobinda's reaction to being told to go outside), John Barry's music and even that moment when Bond nicks the Alfa. Above all, Vijay's death is always felt.
Moore probably should've left after FYEO, he was at the point that age is more evident than in FYEO and certainly Moonraker but imagine if James Brolin had done this or even Sam Neill or Dalton. Would it have defeated NSNA? Probably. Certainly take Octopussy over Never Say Never Again.

7.5/10

--

Damnit man there's a bomb in there-athon
1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. From Russia With Love
3. Licence to Kill
4. Dr No
5. Skyfall
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. Octopussy (last rating 8/10, last placed 6th)
8. Thunderball
9. Goldfinger
10. Live and Let Die
11. Moonraker
12. You Only Live Twice
13. Diamonds Are Forever
14. The Spy Who Loved Me
15. The Man With the Golden Gun
16. Quantum of Solace

Strangely I was just explaining the merits of the clown atomic bomb defusing scene to a work colleague earlier tonight. I think it really works, but probably only the Moore Bond could have pulled this off!

Carruthers wrote:

Strangely I was just explaining the merits of the clown atomic bomb defusing scene to a work colleague earlier tonight. I think it really works, but probably only the Moore Bond could have pulled this off!

I think this sequence works very well, the bigger problem for me is that it ends up feeling like the natural climax to the movie and what follows, the rather inept palace assault and the minutes of two strangers shuffling around the outside of a plane (undeniably great stuntwork), ends up feeling a damp squib.

Damn, forgot to mention I'd popped Skyfall on again over the Christmas break. Still undoubtedly Craig's best; I remain full of admiration at how the extremely clever writing blends his approach to the character with many elements of 'classic' Bond that have been pleasingly brought up-to-date (or like the DB5, remain pleasingly retro).

lachesis wrote:

Carruthers wrote:

Strangely I was just explaining the merits of the clown atomic bomb defusing scene to a work colleague earlier tonight. I think it really works, but probably only the Moore Bond could have pulled this off!

I think this sequence works very well, the bigger problem for me is that it ends up feeling like the natural climax to the movie and what follows, the rather inept palace assault and the minutes of two strangers shuffling around the outside of a plane (undeniably great stuntwork), ends up feeling a damp squib.

Indeed, everything after sort of feels un-needed. I have a similar feeling about LALD. Though the palace assault does offer a favourite Q moment.

"There's no time for that...later perhaps."

Yes, Bond films do tend to have tagged on endings, and this is the case with the Guy Hamilton directed films especially.

Carruthers wrote:

Yes, Bond films do tend to have tagged on endings, and this is the case with the Guy Hamilton directed films especially.

Yes it is a common problem though normally its just one throw away sequence. Unfortunately I think Octopussy (which tacks on two rather distracting sequences) and even more acutely Casino Royale (which seems to have a good 40 minutes tacked on) take the biscuit here as they arrive after what seems a much more natural end.

CASINO ROYALE shares a similar problem with it's source material, in that the last quarter of the novel is spent setting up Vesper's eventual suicide. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like there is a solid 50 pages of Bond in a hospital questioning his job, then fucking Vesper around the French countryside. Where the movie differs from the book is that it spends an hour setting up the central poker game that the novel establishes through a M briefing.

Of all the Bond movies with belabored endings, I think TMWTGG is worst. The hyped battle of paid killers ends with Scaramanga's death roughly 10 minutes before the end credits. In that time, Bond struggles with computer chips, fights a midget with a suitcase, and is nearly killed when Goodnight presses buttons with her ass. I don't think any Bond movie has a more uninteresting final stretch.

Yeah, on reflection some sort of 'missing presumed blown up' ending for Nick Nack would have been highly preferable to the stuff with the suitcase ... it's fairly wince-worthy viewed nowadays.

The only good things about TMWTGG seems to be Roger Moore's stories about it such as the one on HIGNFY.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

The only good things about TMWTGG seems to be Roger Moore's stories about it such as the one on HIGNFY.

I missed that. What was it?

Some story about Herve Villechaize during the filming. When Moore hosted Have I Got News For You.

Yes, the local 'ladies of the night' apparently made plenty when Herve was in town.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Yes, the local 'ladies of the night' apparently made plenty when Herve was in town.

Well I'm sure they were furious with him...if indeed they ever found out...

Never fear, Bond is here...

Casino Royale (1967)

with great trepidation, putting CR67 here. Until now I've never watched it all the way through but here we went. The plus' tend to be David Niven (Niv is always a delight), Orson Welles (for the money), Peter O'Toole's cameo and Barbara Bouchet (honourable mention to Joanna Pettet). Otherwise, oddly forgettable, weird and just nonsense. I know it's probably meant to be nonsense but the length of the film does no favours.

placing it in the rankings it'd likely sit bottom or jointly with QOS.

Been watching through the post-Connery films, a lot of which I haven't seen for a while.

Moore is better as an actor in LALD and TMWTGG than I remember, but they're both pretty bad movies. LALD starts okay but things just get dull and tedious from the Farm sequence onward, and TMWTGG is really only good when Sir Christopher is onscreen -- after he's dead, it's a chore. JW Pepper is of course odious in both, and the boat chases in BOTH movies go on too long and aren't as exciting as they want to be.