Skyfall: a surprising disappointment

Largo's Shark wrote:

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Dominic Greene gets thoroughly OWNED in the desert

Yet we don't see his death. Huge letdown.

That's something I really don't like about QOS. Bond is an assassin. He kills people for a job. He is not Batman.

Largo's Shark wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I also think of Bond not using disguises as said in FRWL. Though he does get a haircut in LALD. Bond in the airport looked a little silly to me. It actually made me think of Sacha Baron Cohen.

He looked like one of the Village People, or a customer at the Blue Oyster Bar.

Should have seen Bond and Silva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbt-sx5MDc

Dude, I LOVED the way Silva died.

Throwing knife.

I'm a fan.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Dominic Greene gets thoroughly OWNED in the desert

Yet we don't see his death. Huge letdown.

That's something I really don't like about QOS. Bond is an assassin. He kills people for a job. He is not Batman.

He made sure the guy died. In this case, that is the same as pulling the trigger, because it is about results.

He is also something beyond just an assassin by the end of QoS, as evidenced by the scene I like with the girl who wound up on CASTLE and the stud-guy.

Also, I'd seen enough of Polanski by then.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Dude, I LOVED the way Silva died.

Throwing knife.

I'm a fan.

So this Bond can throw knives and punches, but he still doesn't seem to know judo. I mean, the fights in this thing were mostly him swinging roundhouses like he was in a western. At least in the silhouette stuff the stunt guys had some better moves.

If it weren't for the William Tell bit, I think I'd find myself rooting for Silva by now. He's certainly more sympathetic than just about anyone else in the show.

He's a fucking loon.

I forget which thread it was, but somebody said that SKYFALL works because Bond films are better when done as adventure films as opposed to an action films and that's something I very much agree with. The Brosnan era got way too excessive with the Vic Armstrong stuff that they became mind numbing and forgettable. CASINO ROYALE was a return to the Bond adventure and for many that was very refreshing. Then look at QUANTUM OF SOLACE, which went back to the action stuff piling up, again becoming mind numbing and forgettable.

Hopefully with CR and SF, EON has learned to stay on that course with the rest of Craig's tenure. More adventure, less padding set pieces.

Yeah, QOS was a series of chase sequences linked together by only the most tangential of plot.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

And? It's one of the best villain deaths of any Bond film, right up there with Rosa Klebb in FRWL, Emilio Largo in TB, and General Orlov in OP.

Knife to the back?

Doesn't matter what the means is, it's how it's acted. Carver was drilled to death, but it never did much for me. Necros and Zorin (despite Walken's great laugh) were marred by that stock scream sound they used all of the time. With Silva, you feel his pain, as if the knife cut right into his spine. His final look to Bond before he collapses is brilliant.

An intimate story needed an intimate death. Silva being killed in an explosion or by machine gun fire or in some outlandish manner would have hurt the film.

Exactly. It was the death the film called for.

jet set willy wrote:

I'm amazed you would rather watch films you've seen loads of times, over a brand new film which you may actually like.

Its basically a question of supply and demand. SF is going be around for at least 5 weeks on big-screen. I saw OP today on big-screen. I may never get that chance again in my life, other than the one more showing it's getting at Tiff. I haven't seen OP on the big-screen since it was first released in 1983. I was in awe at finally getting a proper viewing again of this awesome film. Big-screen doesn't even compare to blu-ray and even a 50'' screen. For example my home system doesn't do justice to the fullsome figure of the OP girl that escorts Bond through the Octopussy quarters to meet the Queen herself, and then there is the Bond music at full blast.There is so much more to be picked up on the big-screen. It's a shame there aren't more of these Bond festivals.

These classic '60s-'80s screenings are blowing me away. It's like discovering these movies all over again, plus there is the joy of seeing them with audiences that love them too. I'll see SF when Tiff gets around to the post-Dalton films, although I do want to squeeze in the Broz films too if I can. As it is I'm going out of my mind trying to catch up with all these other screenings, and the blue-snuggers keep beckoning me back to the Tiff as well. They've cast some sort of spell on me.

Tiff, you're really missing out.

Silva looks adorable in his police hat...think I got me a new fetish for Mr.Dog to try...



Think I'll raise my 5/10 to a 6.5 for now....

I can't even rate SF as a Bond film. It might be a great film on its own merits. As a Bond film I'm giving it a zero. As a stand-alone maybe its a 10 ,but I just don't care. I saw it late last night in a packed theatre, that may as well have been a funeral home. I witnessed this psycho-drama masquerading as an Eon Bond-film, on the same day I saw OP earlier that afternoon on the big-screen. If I didn't know better, you'd never convince me the two films are from the same series, although they really aren't. SF is the latest schizophrenic manifestation of nu-Bond. It's very clear now that the conventional Bond series concluded with DAD.

The two film experiences, both with large audiences, were like night and day. The OP cinema experience was about cheers and hoots and people having a great time at a Bond-film (is this allowed anymore), as well as respectful silence when things got a little tense on screen. Stony silence, however permeated the SF screening, aside from the odd very brief, mini-outbursts at some of the many clever little witicisms which peppered the otherwise dour narrative. But generally we all watched with reverential solemnness. Only when the uttlerly implausible mock "tribute" to the GF car was introduced did the theatre breathe again, and erupt in spontaneous cheering as the familiar theme was finally able to let loose. However in quick order, we were dutifully returned to our state of vigil.

Finally it was all over, with the who-cares death of M, and with the usual, predictable, end-of-film assurances (to those that might have found the whole presentation rather off for a Bond-film) that conventional Bond was actually still very much on the table. He really didn't go anywhere. See there's the gun-barrell and the music again.Oh look, and there's that office, and looky here - there's M and MP too, although we really got you with this new MP. Whoah! That's MP! Hmmm. Did he or didn't he sleep with her?! Now the ambiguity makes sense. Pick your poison. We're not telling you. Same with Bond as bi-curious? Just a statement, or was somthing there? Silva sure seemed intrigued. You know what though -- I DON"T FRIGGIN CARE!. It's a Craig-Bond film. It doesn't matter. He could be a scientologist and closet- Druid for all I care. He may like to dress up in women's clothes too. Never mind.

Just because Fleming's Bond, Connery's Bond, Moore's Bond, Laz's Bond, Dalton's Bond, Brozzer's Bond, Gardner's Bond, Niven's Bond, Woody Allen's Bond, Seller's Bond, Mike Myer's Bond, Benson's Bond, anybody's-Bond-you care-to-name, was stridently hetero, does not mean Craig's can't be sexually ambiguous. Man, these nu-Bond filmmakers are so deep and ridque and stuff. We ticket-buying peasants are not fit to question their brilliance.

This film better win the Best Picture Oscar. It would be a shame to see a movie that devotes it's entire run-length to telling you how clever it is, to miss out on the big prize. Would be such a shame.

==

That's enough, although there's still the matter of the Bond-series degenerating into torture-porn. The Severine death - maybe the lowest and most disturbing moment in the series history. But I'm sure it was risque and deep and everything and loaded with profound subtext, even if Bond just ends up looking like a hapless prick.

Can't wait to get to the OHMSS screening next week. I think I need a GF screening too. Rog in a clown-suit might also be worth re-visiting. I feel like I need a good shower after watching SF.

You mean you didn't even like Silva? As much as I adore the Moore movies, Silva outcreeps any Moore adversary....

I thought Severine's death and the build up to it was quite good actually, but she needed more time...this 15 minute thing is just not cutting it, especially after being in our faces for the whole year.

tiffanywint wrote:

.

Can't wait to get to the OHMSS screening next week. I think I need a GF screening too. Rog in a clown-suit might also be worth re-visiting. I feel like I need a good shower after watching SF.

Oh Tiff you lucky dog. Though I've seen OHMSS on the big screen at the BFI in 2009 it's somehow still enviable to know someone's getting that chance.

tiffanywint wrote:

That's enough, although there's still the matter of the Bond-series degenerating into torture-porn. The Severine death - maybe the lowest and most disturbing moment in the series history.

What bollocks.

Largo's Shark wrote:

tiffanywint wrote:

That's enough, although there's still the matter of the Bond-series degenerating into torture-porn. The Severine death - maybe the lowest and most disturbing moment in the series history.

What bollocks.

Yeah. For the most part, her death was fairly unremarkable.

Largo's Shark wrote:

tiffanywint wrote:

That's enough, although there's still the matter of the Bond-series degenerating into torture-porn. The Severine death - maybe the lowest and most disturbing moment in the series history.

What bollocks.

Severine wasn't even stripped, so where was the porn? She was beaten though...

I thought this scene in Moonraker with Corinne Dufour was even more disturbing than Severine's death...

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

tiffanywint wrote:

That's enough, although there's still the matter of the Bond-series degenerating into torture-porn. The Severine death - maybe the lowest and most disturbing moment in the series history.

What bollocks.

I thought this scene in Moonraker was even more disturbing than Severine's death...

Indeed.

tiffanywint wrote:

a movie that devotes it's entire run-length to telling you how clever it is

This could be said for pretty much every Bond film? Especially the 60s and 70s ones?

Quote :

The Severine death - maybe the lowest and most disturbing moment in the series history

Um what...? Severine's death isn't graphic or anything and there is no onscreen torture. Besides Corinne's death I always found the sight of Andrea Ander's and Jill Masterson's corpses more disturbing.

Sorry but I think her death was meant to be disturbing. Thats the point. Silva is a heartless monster and we feel for Severin so we are upset when she dies. Would you prefer the moment made you cheer or laugh?

I think tiff's more disturbed by Bond's "a waste of good scotch" one liner.

That is who Bond is. He deals with pain and trauma using dry wit. This is like Bond 101.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Sorry but I think her death was meant to be disturbing. Thats the point. Silva is a heartless monster and we feel for Severin so we are upset when she dies. Would you prefer the moment made you cheer or laugh?

I agree and it's not like the Bond series has ever shied away from disturbing death scenes even of Bond girls.

Largo's Shark wrote:

I think tiff's more disturbed by Bond's "a waste of good scotch" one liner.

Don't see the torture porn though. In fact wasn't Fleming accused of doing that back in the day? Not sure how it is worse than him saying "he had lots of guts" with a rather jovial tone.

It might be to do with Severine being sex slave since the age of 12.