(Photo by United Artists/courtesy Everett Collection. A VIEW TO A KILL.)
You know his name. You got his number. Since 1962, James Bond has been the spy whose reputation precedes him: As international man of mystery, as guru of gadgets and espionage thrills, and as the agent who never encountered a boundary – country, or personal space – he couldn’t sneak across.
The Ian Fleming adaptations started with a bang: Dr. No remains among the best-reviewed of 007’s movies, bringing forth that first legendary era of Sean Connery suited up as the debonair rogue that women crave and men aspire to be in vain. Case in point: 1967’s Casino Royale had no less than six James Bonds within its spooferifous walls, none holding a candle to the Con’. The non-comic caper is the worst-reviewed James Bond movie, and was produced outside of franchise gatekeepers Eon.
As celebrated was Connery’s reign was – the late actor’s films occupy three of the top five slots on this list – the sun sets on every empire, and thus was ushered in the age of the Lazenby. A mild administration for George, yes, with only 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service released, though Certified Fresh.
Then it became time to move over for Roger Moore, who offered a lightly winking and intelligent Bond for those burned-out ’70s times. Three of his movies are Rotten, three are Fresh, and one is Certified Fresh. Not bad, and he even traveled into space.
In 1981, Connery came back for non-Eon Bond Never Say Never Again, just as HQ was hiring Timothy Dalton for the job. Dalton’s Bond: Cool and menacing, and his films The Living Daylights and License to Kill are praised by modern fans for their dark, grittier take on the spy game. It’s something Daniel Craig would pick up on in the future, but with a bigger budget and fewer a-ha theme songs.
Pierce Brosnan brought back the sophisticated sex appeal, as the best Bond in the not-so-greatest movies. GoldenEye was intoxicating Certified Fresh fun, while the three that followed are all Rotten.
After Austin Powers took the piss out of the franchise for a decade, Eon turned to resurrecting James Bond as the brooding, brutish hulk we have today. Casino Royale was a return to form, Daniel Craig’s sneer and occasional smile calibrated to the modern cynical viewer. Skyfall was likewise Certified Fresh, but there was not so much critical love for in-betweener Quantum of Solace and the most-recent Spectre of 2015.
Six years passed until No Time To Die, the longest wait between Bond movies. At 15 years, Craig holds the record for longest uninterrupted on-screen ownership of Bond, but Connery spread his appearances as Bond across 21 years. Now, we’re reaching into the classified files for every James Bond movie ever ranked by Tomatometer!
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Dr. No celebrates its 60th anniversary!
If you’re looking to watch all the James Bond movies in order, you’ll hit the good stuff right away: All the Sean Connery movies in his first run are classics of the franchise. Before hitting Connery’s departure from the 007 role in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, you’ll encounter George Lazenby’s solo entry (1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and 1967’s comedy spoof Casino Royale, which was made outside of Eon Productions, the company founded to steer Bond from the book to the big screen.
Roger Moore took on the mantle from 1973’s Live and Let Die to 1985’s A View to a Kill, with Connery returning one last time in the non-Eon Never Say Never Again in 1983.
Timothy Dalton appeared twice as Bond to close out the ’80s with The Living Daylights and License to Kill.
After six years, the longest period between switching lead actors, Pierce Brosnan debuted with 1995’s GoldenEye, and exited with 2002’s Die Another Day.
2006 saw the introduction of Daniel Craig as the latest Bond in town with Casino Royale, and he will be retiring with the long-delayed No Time to Die. With its 2021 release, Craig will hold the record for longest continuous actor to represent Bond.
Continue on to see the full list on how to watch all the James Bond movies in order! —Alex Vo
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Thor: Ragnarok only needed to get a 67% on the Tomatometer to improve upon The Dark World‘s score. Looks like all this franchise needed was some new zeal and New Zealand director Taika Waititi because Ragnarok is currently scoring way higher than that, which inspires this week’s gallery of 24 most improved movie sequels by Tomatometer!
Box office is hitting the lowest numbers since the red alert days of Glitter. And this weekend doesn’t look to turn things around, unless Tulip Fever draws the Waldenbooks crowd out of hiding and makes $200 million (conservative estimate) by Sunday. Let us avert our eyes then, away from contemporary misery and back to a more joyful era: 1977! The gilded year of Atari 2600s, 65 cent gas, and guillotine executions, when Disco Demolition Night was still but a twinkle in some blue collar slob’s eye…
The in-flight movie on our ’77 trip is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the landmark extraterrestrial drama that’s re-releasing in theaters this week for its 40th anniversary. The Certified Fresh trophy we made from mashed potatoes and sent to Spielberg’s office went unanswered for some reason, so instead we’ll be commemorating the moment with our gallery of the 24 best-reviewed movies (with at least 20 reviews) of 1977! How many have you seen?
Movies can transport you from your life for a little while, but did you ever let the movies transport you in life? Every country and virtually every way of life has been captured on film, so it’s rather irresistible to catch the travelling bug from the silver screen.
Today, let Rotten Tomatoes be your travel guide, as we present 10 places whose architecture, landscape, and beauty have given life to some famous movies in history. Navigate the cities below and fire up your wanderlust!
What is your top movie vacation spot?
Friday’s Gods of Egypt may have drawn early criticism for its mostly white cast, but moviemakers have always viewed the country with a fantastical bent. From biblical stories to historic archaeological delights to springboards into tall science fiction tales, this week’s 24 Frames takes a look at all that, along with modern and true-to-life depictions of Egypt as it is today.
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Bond, James Bond is back. His 26 movies over 53 years have created a long legacy of international espionage, daring escapes, stellar gadgets, and, yes, beautiful women. Celebrate the release of Spectre with our 50 favorite Bond girls throughout history.
I end my epic journey today with a writeup of Quantum of Solace, the follow-up to 2006’s Casino Royale that continues the story of a heartbroken Bond out for revenge.
Well, here we are. After 24 whirlwind days in the world of James Bond, I’ve come to the final movie thus far in the franchise, Quantum of Solace. It’s been a remarkable experience, and I’m actually kind of sad it’s over, but all good things must come to an end. Brace yourselves, and be warned that while I’ve kept this writeup spoiler-free, you may still want to refrain from reading it until after you’ve seen Quantum of Solace.
I’ve mentioned here and there over the course of this series that watching all of these Bond films has helped me to understand the film universe of 007 on a much deeper level. There are things that I’ve come to expect from a James Bond movie, regardless of who the actor was and during what era the movie was produced. These things are the tried and true elements of the Bond persona, and while one may argue this persona has strayed heavily from its source material, one cannot deny that the silver screen Bond has established a sort of mythology all his own. I think some of you can see where I’m going with this.
Casino Royale effectively upended this mythology and sought to establish a new identity for 007. Not only was he rewritten to be darker and more ruthless, but the transformation was made complete by the controversial casting of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Daniel Craig, arguably less dashing than his predecessors but with a rugged face more suited for the brutal killer Bond would become. At the same time, Casino Royale retained a bit of charm, a pinch of humor, and enough of the familiar conventions that I had come to know and love as distinctly “James Bond.”
With all of this in mind, I also had certain expectations when I finally took my seat to watch Quantum of Solace, but again, my expectations were thoroughly challenged. I don’t want to get into specific details, because I’m not a film critic, and I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone who has yet to see the film. But while I generally liked the movie, I enjoyed it for very different reasons than Casino Royale, and truthfully speaking, I was left with somewhat of a bittersweet aftertaste.
First of all, QoS is action packed. And I mean wall-to-wall, relentless, grimy, cathartic action. The very beginning of the movie plunges the audience into a high octane car chase, the pre-credit spectacle, and the remainder pauses only briefly to expand the plot. It wasn’t always easy to tell what was going on, what with the jittery camera work, but every knuckle to the jaw resounded with a visceral crunch, every gunshot popped with fury, and every fall to the ground vibrated through my back. Bond is just as ferocious, thrusting his body into countless perilous situations and emerging victoriously with an intense glare on his face and a smattering of dirt caked onto his clothes.
However, aside from a couple of allusions to the Bond franchise (including an obvious homage to Goldfinger), the movie suffers from a lack of signature Bond elements. Though the gadgets, one-liners, massive lairs, Q, and Moneypenny were also absent in Casino Royale, that film still felt like a Bond film because of the nature of its characters and the structure of the story. Quantum of Solace, on the other hand, sports a relatively straightforward script and, despite the promise of a continuing revenge plot, one gets the sense its plot points exist solely to provide context for the explosive action sequences. Bond is also more stoic than ever, with precious few lines of dialogue and little development of his character beyond “I’m pissed off, and someone’s gonna pay!” Whether or not it’s more faithful to Ian Fleming’s novels is moot; because the 007 of the silver screen had been established for forty years, I think it’s somewhat understandable for some fans to be distraught over this.
But this is the double-edged sword. I gained a greater appreciation for Casino Royale after having watched all of its predecessors; this is not necessary to enjoy Quantum of Solace. It’s a hard-hitting action movie that doesn’t require one to be a die-hard Bond fan to indulge in its visceral thrills, so I think fans of action flicks in general will be able to appreciate it on some level, despite it having a thinner plot and no deep connection to the previous installments. This is pure adrenaline, and if that’s all you’re after, it may suffice. If you want more than that, you’ll probably be disappointed, and those simply looking forward to James Bond wreaking havoc will have a better time.
I’ve enjoyed being able to experience all these films with you all, and I never expected to engage you as much as I did in discussing these films. From Dr. No to Quantum of Solace, a whole new universe was opened up to me, and I now have an affection for these films I never would have had before. Thanks for following along with me these past few weeks, and for those of you who have asked if we’ll do this again: yes, based on all of your support for this series, we are currently discussing doing another one, though nothing is finalized.
On a final note, also due to comments many of you have made, here are a few favorites (ane one least favorite) of mine:
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Daniel Craig is the new 007, and he is one determined agent. He’s grimy and dark, but stylish and sensitive. And he’s really good at killing people.
I am going to be honest here: the first and only time I saw Casino Royale two years ago, I was underwhelmed by it. Yes, I had certain ideas in mind about what Bond was like, and when Daniel Craig was chosen as the new 007, even I balked and thought, “I can’t see how he fits into my perception of James Bond.” When my friends all returned from a viewing, however, and told me how much they loved the movie, and how incredible Craig was, I decided I would give it a chance. At the time, I was disappointed, and I don’t honestly recall why. I also retained very little from that movie, which is a testament to how little I cared for it. So, when I re-viewed it last night, I was blown away by how wrong I was.
Initially, I completely forgot that Casino Royale was meant to be a reboot of the franchise, so when the opening scene makes mention of Bond just recently being granted “double-0” status, it immediately jogged my memory. Similar revelations would occur later in the film when Bond “acquires” his classic Aston Martin DB5, and when he meets Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) for the first time — since I finally had some context, I reacted to this meeting with a giddy, “Ohhh, that’s Felix Leiter!” This was a giddiness I didn’t experience the first go-round, and it would characterize several moments throughout the film for me.
There were some things I noticed in Casino Royale that recalled elements from the series as a whole, and these were again things I didn’t pick up on without the full context. First of all, while the early parkour chase scene was incredibly shot and choreographed, it demonstrated a continuance of Bond’s habit of recklessness, as he not only destroys an entire construction site in Madagascar, but also storms into the grounds of an embassy and shoots an unarmed man on camera. Next, there’s also the disposable mistress-of-a-bad guy who he beds for information and who ultimately gets iced. Then, there’s the sophisticated nemesis who’s not only asthmatic but also sports a freaky eye that “weeps blood.” I don’t point these out as flaws; on the contrary, they are dutiful homages to the franchise that reassure us we are indeed seeing James Bond, however different in tone he might be, and I was able to appreciate them in a way I couldn’t when I first saw this movie. When Bond puts on a tux for the first time, for example, and his theme music rises in the background, I cracked a warm smile.
Then there’s the Bond girl, Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, who plays a crucial role in the film and provides the kind of sexual tension only a few other Bond girls have been able to manage. Her conversations with Bond were some of the most fun dialogue in the movie, and her role was written convincingly enough that when Bond eventually falls for her, I bought it wholesale. The twist at the end adds an even deeper level to her character, making her one of the best Bond girls, period, if not the best.
I also enjoyed M’s role in Casino Royale. Every time I thought to myself, “Gee, that was careless of him,” or “There goes Bond’s libido again,” M pretty much echoed my thoughts and spat them directly at Bond herself. She plays the voice of reason in the movie, and she let me know that the writers were aware of many of the things I’d seen in the previous Bond movies and that this new Bond was bucking the system anyway. This only further reinforced the idea that Bond does not live in an alternate universe of loose logic and no consequences; he simply doesn’t care, and he’s going to do whatever he damn well pleases anyway. In other words, Bond is a badass.
Daniel Craig makes an intimidating 007, but he is not without humor, and Casino Royale isn’t all blood and brooding. The action sequences are all pretty impressive, though some are better than others, and they are spaced out nicely by important plot elements that are engaging to watch in their own right. However, I thought Le Chiffre was a so-so villain, and I can understand some of the criticisms I’ve heard about this movie taking inspiration from the Bourne series. But I don’t fault the makers of Casino Royale for wanting to take Bond in a new direction, because it feels more in line with what modern moviegoers are looking for in an action film. Audiences are smarter and more discerning now than ever, so it makes sense to reboot the franchise with material that hits harder. With all of this in mind, be sure to come back tomorrow for my thoughts on Quantum of Solace.
Favorite line: “Now the world’s gonna know you died scratching my balls!”
Favorite moment: I loved the parkour chase. I thought it was breathtaking even the first time I saw it, and rewatching it last night was no different.
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We come to the end of the Pierce Brosnan era, and he exits the Bond universe in a flurry of silliness.
When I went to the video store to pick up my last two rentals in this series, the guy ringing me up said, “How are you gonna rent Die Another Day and Casino Royale at the same time? Casino Royale was off the hook, but Die Another Day has an invisible car!” With that over-the-counter assessment in mind, I set off to embark on the wild ride that is Die Another Day, the final Pierce Brosnan installment and one that would yield more scribbles in my notebook than any other thus far.
The opening action sequence is the first one in a while that failed to impress me. There are hovercrafts and exploding diamonds, and it was novel (if not ridiculous) to see Bond surfing his way onto a North Korean beach, but it wasn’t very exciting. It’s also the first time we don’t see Bond escape at the end of the preliminary scenes, and as the opening credits roll by to an awful Madonna song, we see glimpses of Bond’s life in captivity, slowly transforming into Robinson Crusoe. When the song dies down and a scraggly Bond is trotted out before a North Korean general, you almost expect him to be carrying a volleyball with a face painted on it.
Usually, I can forgive lapses in logic if the execution of the story is strong enough to merit it, but this was not often the case in Die Another Day. Take, for example, the first encounter that Bond has with the central villain, Gustav Graves (played by Toby Stephens). Graves is practicing a bit of fencing in what appears to be a fancy private studio when Bond comes strolling in — we’re not even clear how either of them got here, as the last scene has Graves on his way to meet the Queen, with Bond standing in the audience as Graves drives away. Bond sidles up to the fencing instructor, played by Madonna, and after a mere exchange of names, she offers to introduce him to Graves. Why? Who knows?
Then, after the ensuing introduction, Graves and Bond engage in a friendly fencing match — okay, fine. But after Bond ups the ante with a controversial diamond from Graves’s company, Graves insists they raise the stakes, fence with real swords, and choose a winner based on who draws blood first. They do so, and everyone simply watches for about 5 minutes before Graves’s assistant steps in and stops the fight. This makes absolutely no sense. If I walked into a private gun range where Bill Gates was engaged in target practice, then challenged him to a duel at twenty paces with live ammunition, and nobody did anything to stop us, that MIGHT come close to what took place in the aforementioned scene.
If you can, with good conscience, chalk these up to subtle, innocent oversights, then consider what else Die Another Day offers. There’s the poorly constructed set pieces that look like they were built by high school drama teams in their garages; there’s Q branch’s incredible leaps in technology, like a seamless virtual reality battle simulator and the infamous invisible car; there’s Bond surfing on a tidal wave caused by a collapsing glacier; there’s Graves’s ice palace and electrified Nintendo Power Glove. I’m sorry, but when did they bring Joel Schumacher in to direct a Bond movie?
And what about the acting? Well, in all honesty, it wasn’t that bad, but there also isn’t a whole lot of opportunity for actors to emote in any of these Bond films. The “acting” here mostly consists of thinly veiled (emphasis on “thinly”) double entendres, lots of scowling, some screaming, and a few lines of expository dialogue. What’s sad is that, even with such a simple script, there is still room to screw it up, which Halle Berry (as Jinx) does on numerous occasions. Now, this might be personal bias, but I wouldn’t place Berry much higher than Denise Richards, and I never have, Oscar win notwithstanding. I have never thought she was a great actress, and she did nothing to convince me otherwise in this movie, so it was pretty much par for the course.
Overall, I thought this was an absolutely ludicrous and unnecessary addition to the Bond series. It felt like they hired the writers of the James Bond Jr. cartoon series to pen the script for Die Another Day because everyone else was too busy working on movies that actually required some logic. However — and this is a big “however” — if you’re able to turn your brain off completely, or if you’re the type of attention-deficit viewer this movie was obviously aimed at (and which I can be from time to time), it will certainly keep you occupied for a couple of hours. It’s silly, it’s inane, it’s excessive, and sometimes it’s even downright stupid, but when you break it down, it pretty much follows the same formula shared by many of the Bond films, so if you rent it, you know what you’re getting into anyway.
Favorite line: Zao: “Who sent you?” Jinx: “Yo momma.” This, ladies and gentlemen, is quality dialogue.
Favorite moment: There’s a touching scene at the end when Graves reveals his true identity to his father, the aforementioned North Korean general. The audience already knows this, and as the general enters the room, Graves is standing with his back turned to him. He turns to face his father, but all suspense is ruined when we see he’s wearing a ridiculous pair of goggles to match his Power Gloves. I actually laughed out loud.
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The World Is Not Enough continues Bond’s signature antics with nothing particularly new to offer. I didn’t think it was as bad as some have said, but it probably wouldn’t make it into my top 10 either.
Twenty films in, and my affection for James Bond only grows. The first thing I want to say before I begin is that I absolutely love the James Bond theme music. As the gun barrel spiral zeroes in on Bond in the intro before The World Is Not Enough, we hear a slightly updated version of the music, and not only is it an iconic tune, but it’s just great music, period. It’s a testament to John Barry’s talent that the same music could be used for every Bond movie, with few changes, and still sound great; it never gets old. I can’t say the same for some of the theme songs that have accompanied a few of the films, but while I’m not a Sheryl Crow fan, I thought her song for Tomorow Never Dies actually wasn’t too bad, and Garbage’s song for The World Is Not Enough was even better.
It seems they’ve finally settled Brosnan comfortably into the role of 007, as evidenced by the first handful of scenes. The pre-credits opening again sets the standard impressively high for action throughout the movie, with its improbable boat chase and freefall from a hot air balloon. Once placed in physical therapy for his injuries, Bond also recalls his skeevier days by sleeping with his doctor in exchange for a clean bill of health, allowing him to return to active duty. Then we have the obligatory Q Branch scene, albeit a sad one, as Desmond Llewelyn seems to be bidding us farewell as Q. I really loved his character, but I understand his need to pass the torch, as he was starting to resemble a muppet. I’m happy with the choice of John Cleese as his successor, though his introduction signals the beginning of a goofier Q than we’ve come to know, and I’ll definitely miss Llewelyn.
I was pleased with the idea that Sophie Marceau’s character, Elektra King, was one of the two central villains. This is, more or less, what I was referring to a few movies ago when I speculated how neat it would be to incorporate a female nemesis. I suspected early on that she was playing Bond for a fool, but there was enough intrigue in the plot to make me question my decision once or twice. Her counterpart, Renard (played by Robert Carlyle, who I like) was sufficiently menacing, but I thought he was somewhat underused. Unfortunately, while Marceau and Renard are both great actors, in my opinion, to have both of them share bad-guy duties ensured that neither of them really shone as the true villain.
The action, as I’ve mentioned, was very good yet again, though I’m noticing a few things. First of all, there are key elements that a Bond movie must have to be a Bond movie. At first I identified these elements simply as motorized chases, but I’ve come to expand on that. The chase must be either in a car or in a boat, and in the rare case will incorporate a chopper. Secondly, there is the option of having a winter sports chase, typically on skis, that results in at least one enemy falling to his or her death (on a side note, all rich people are expert extreme-skiers). Lastly, the final battle must always be so long that it becomes laborious and unexciting, which was the case for me in TWINE.
I am enjoying watching the relationship between Bond and the new M develop. Judi Dench’s M is a very different M than that of Bernard Lee. While Lee was constantly shaking his finger at Bond and treating him in much the same way that Q did, like a father giving his son a noogie, Dench plays the role with a much more serious tone. In addition, I believe TWINE is the first Bond film to involve M in the plot significantly, and I think this helps to elevate her character beyond a simple paper pusher sending Bond out on all these crazy missions.
Having said all of this, there is nothing particularly notable about The World Is Not Enough. It’s fairly typical, as far as Bond films are concerned, and nothing new or particularly earth shattering is introduced. And, of course, it had its faults; there’s Bond throwing out puns and one-liners like there’s no tomorrow, and there’s the casting of Denise Richards – I didn’t have a problem with her claiming to be a nuclear scientist, but I did have a problem with her atrocious acting, and even this isn’t something I haven’t seen before. To be honest, I took very few notes while watching this movie, because there wasn’t a whole lot to remark on. Overall, I was underwhelmed, and while the production quality of the Bond films has increased dramatically over the years, I feel that they’ve lost something in the way of charm, and with only two more films to watch, I find myself more drawn to the earlier installments.
Favorite line: “He’s no atomic scientist.” — Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones (what is this, a blaxploitation film?) when Bond is discovered impersonating a scientist. Oh the irony…
Favorite moment: It’s a sentimental one. I almost choked up when Bond turned to Q and said, “You’re not retiring any time soon… are you?” and Q descended out of view, saying, “Always have an escape plan.” You’re my boy, Q!
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Brosnan returns as 007 in Tomorrow Never Dies and blows up a lot of stuff. At least, that’s what I remember the most.
I found Pierce Brosnan enjoyable as James Bond, and thought GoldenEye was pretty good. I made a comment yesterday about how I noticed every first film from each of the actors to portray 007 has been of a higher caliber, and it makes sense. If you’re going to introduce a new actor, you want to present him in as palatable a way as possible, with a tighter script, exciting stunts, impressive set pieces, and pretty women. I felt that Tomorrow Never Dies was a decent follow-up to GoldenEye, and I came to another realization of mine about the Bond films as a whole.
Specifically, I realized that what prevented me from enjoying some of the older Bond films — and what simultaneously entertained me — was the fact that the production quality of those films was a bit dated. If you’re going to make a grand spy thriller with larger-than-life scenarios and characters, you need to have the budget and the technology to make it look real. While I’m sure the special effects were convincing for audiences at the time, as someone who’s watching them now for the first time, I found that they were just passable, if not hilariously obvious. Now that the Bond films have entered the 1990s and beyond, I’m starting to see a more impressive quality in them, and it’s helping me to forgive some of the other faults.
The biggest bone I had to pick with Tomorrow Never Dies was the sinister premise at the heart of the story. A media mogul (Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver) is willing to risk nuclear war between two world superpowers, just so that he can obtain “exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next 100 years?” Come on, now. That’s absurd, even by Bond standards. Sure, one could argue that this simply proves how insane Carver is, but that would be kind of a copout. I think it’s more accurate to say that after 18 movies based on the same formula, the idea people were just running out of ideas.
Having said that, I thought the action scenes were well done, even thrilling at some points, and I think that’s very important for any movie that thrives on its action. Bond is as destructive as ever, and the police never seem to be around when baddies are committing such atrocities as flying a helicopter, blades angled to the ground, through a crowded pedestrian thoroughfare. Similarly, when Bond essentially breaks into Carver’s headquarters and starts blasting away at the employees there, we conveniently forget that he’s the one trespassing, and every time a scientist or paper pusher hits the floor, we cheer. But to his credit, Bond really kicks some tail, and that’s really all we want to see anyway.
Refreshingly, the women are again more than mere eye candy or reasons for Bond to flex his romantic muscle (no pun intended). I suppose that’s arguable when it comes to Teri Hatcher’s Paris Carver, but her relationship with Bond is convincing enough for me. The more impressive one is Michelle Yeoh who, like Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me, holds her own just as well as Bond does. She’s got her own gadgets, her own hi-tech hideout, her own arsenal, and her own set of combat moves to rival him. She makes a nice partner for Bond, and it would be neat to see her as a recurring collaborator for him, much like Felix Leiter. I’m fairly certain that doesn’t happen, but I think it would have worked.
As for the villain, I like Jonathan Pryce but I didn’t like him in this role. It’s difficult for me to see him as a villain in the first place, but I think he suffered even more from the ridiculous premise. It’s hard for me to take him seriously when he’s menacingly wringing his hands about tricking England and China into destroying each other so he can… get ratings. His henchman, Stamper, is a beast, like a genetically manufactured superman. But he doesn’t do much aside from the ordinary henchman duties, so he’s not particularly fun to watch.
Overall, I thought Tomorrow Never Dies was okay. The best thing about the movie was its action sequences, which were all very spectacular and well constructed. The acting was by-the-books, as were the story and the villains, so there weren’t any surprises, bad or good. Brosnan is definitely less cheeky than Roger Moore, but he retains some of the charm of Connery, and just a smidge of Dalton’s ruthlessness. Back when this came out, I probably would have gotten excited about it, enjoyed it in the theater, and promptly forgotten about it soon after.
Favorite line: “Pump her for information.” — M says this to Bond about Paris Carver. Nuff said.
Favorite moment: Michelle Yeoh is captured by Stamper and brought before Carver. When she attempts to strike out at him, Carver does his best kung fu impersonation, which goes on for a couple seconds too long, and then spits out, “How pathetic.” Yes, indeed, how pathetic.
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After two gritty films with Timothy Dalton as 007, Pierce Brosnan resurrects the series from a 6-year sleep with 1995’s GoldenEye. I liked the film, and I felt it was tightly produced. Read on for more.
The opening of GoldenEye sets a rather thrilling tone for the rest of the movie, and it continues the trend of incorporating mind-boggling stunts at the outset of each Bond film. The leap off the edge of the dam is exhilarating, and Bond’s subsequent break-in to the weapons facility is convincingly executed. Now that we’re officially in the mid-90s, the production quality is top notch and, unlike many of the previous entries, holds up relatively well compared to the action we see today.
Pierce Brosnan exudes the same kind of charisma that Roger Moore did, except that Brosnan is a little smoother and a little less stiff. All traces of the Dalton Bond seem to have disappeared here, and the first quarter of GoldenEye definitely felt like a return to the old Bond formulas. In fact, in the traditional chase scene wherein Bond meets Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp, we see him driving his classic Aston Martin DB5. And with Onatopp, we also have a return to the suggestive female names.
Later on, we’re introduced to the new M, played by Judi Dench. Allusions to her “predecessor” are made in passing, and the villain, Janus (Sean Bean), a former MI6 agent himself, mentions the fact that the “new M” is a woman. I think this was an effective transition from one M to another, and since Judi Dench is so good in the role, it didn’t bother me at all.
In fact, the acting all around is pretty solid in GoldenEye. Onatopp is a little excessive at times, and Alan Cumming is surprisingly unconvincing as a super hacker (you’d think he’d fit perfectly in a role like that), but I really felt everyone else delivered. Even Izabella Scorupco, who plays Natalya Simonova, eventually proves herself, after the first half of the movie had me thinking she’d be another one of those disposable Bond girls we hardly remember. There’s also another new Moneypenny, and while she’s fine in her 5 minutes on screen, the attempts to recreate the sexual tension that existed between Lois Maxwell and Sean Connery or Roger Moore fell far short. They weren’t clever or witty so much as cold and even a little acerbic.
The sinister plot at the heart of the story is somewhat unimportant, but Sean Bean and Famke Janssen make a mean pair. Onatopp’s rather unique “skill” is… interesting, if a bit silly; I pictured her threatening to squeeze the life out of Professor X and screaming, “Call me… the Thighmaster!” And Sean Bean, well, he’s yet another one of those actors who just looks like a bad guy; I think it’s his beady, scheming eyes. He’s quickly offed (par for the course, really) in the first few minutes of the movie, but his name shows up second in the opening credits, so it’s clear he’ll come back into play at some point. And when he does — as the film’s central villain — he’s convincing enough to make his ridiculous motives sound genuine, unlike, say, Drax, who just looked like he spent a lot of time reading Marie Claire and snacking on popcorn chicken.
In general, the action was put together very well, I thought. There were moments of utter chaos that harkened back to the recklessness of Roger Moore’s Bond, particularly during the tank chase (side note: if you’ve ever wondered if you can drift in a tank, the answer is yes), but for some reason, I reveled in the mass destruction. The set pieces were impressive, and the fistfights were choreographed well, especially compared to the early 007 films. I think these were elements that really blossomed with the Dalton films, but here it’s quite apparent that a lot more money was spent on hardware (tanks, choppers, etc.) and special effects.
Overall, I thought GoldenEye was a tightly crafted Bond movie. I’ve obviously learned by now to suspend my disbelief to enjoy these, so I had few qualms with continuity or logic here. The story, while not the most creative, moved along at a pretty even pace, which kept me engaged for the most part. And seeing Brosnan operate as Bond really shed light on precisely how grim Dalton was in the role, which is not to say that was a bad thing at all. I think it’s fascinating to see what each actor brings to 007, and I look forward to what else Brosnan can offer.
Favorite line: “No, you’re supposed to die for me.” — Perhaps Janus had some encounters with Goldfinger during his MI6 days.
Favorite moment: Bond and Simonova are trapped inside a stolen chopper as missiles are about to destroy them. In a desperate effort to escape, Bond starts swinging his head furiously, attempting to press buttons with his forehead. Eventually he finds the Eject button, but the imagery was hilarious.
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In his second and final Bond film, Timothy Dalton continues to portray a serious Bond. Find out whether or not I would miss him.
While there are some nutty elements in the opening scenes of Licence to Kill, it’s immediately clear that this would be a darker film. Timothy Dalton returns for his second and final turn as James Bond, surveying every situation through cold, narrow eyes, and the central villain, Franz Sanchez (played by Robert Davi, aka the guy who also tried to kill the Goonies) makes a menacing debut, executing his girlfriend’s lover-on-the-side and brutally whipping her for her transgression. So when the scene ends with Bond and Leiter parachuting down to Leiter’s wedding ceremony, the shift in tone threw me off.
But once that’s over and Maurice Binder’s trademark opening credits roll through, we dive right into the story, and more violence ensues. Temporarily captured for drug trafficking, Sanchez manages to escape by paying off a DEA agent and subsequently raids Leiter’s home, murders his wife, and feeds Leiter to sharks. When the latter took place, I found myself visibly disturbed, not because the scene was particularly gory, but because I was shocked at the possibility of Leiter being killed. He survives, luckily (and yes, unrealistically), and when Bond is denied the opportunity to go after Sanchez, he storms off to embark on what amounts to a revenge story.
This is a striking departure from the plots of previous Bond films, which mainly focused on sinister masterminds with ambitious plans for world domination. Licence to Kill, despite the international intrigue it eventually develops, is pretty much about Bond on a rampage to fulfill a personal vendetta — more evidence of the pure justice that Dalton’s Bond seems to embody. And to be honest, I thought that was kind of cool.
Also, I liked the idea of Bond presenting himself as an ally to Sanchez in order to get closer to him; I thought that this storyline played out realistically. When I wondered what would happen when Bond and Dario (a very young Benicio Del Toro), one of Sanchez’s henchmen, later ran into each other again, the results were also realistic. In fact, this movie had me in its clutches for most of its duration because I felt that the smattering of classic Bond camp was, for once, welcome relief from the gritty plot.
Robert Davi was excellent as Sanchez, I thought. He’s one of those actors who seems to play villains with a certain relish, like he enjoys being sadistic and manipulative. Though he doesn’t have a particularly imposing physical presence, he makes you believe he’s capable of evil things. He might not punch you if you insult him to his face, but he’ll smile and wait two weeks until you’re attending your daughter’s college graduation and send three thugs to gun down your entire extended family while you’re celebrating. Unfortunately, I didn’t think much of Talisa Soto as Sanchez’s woman, Lupe; Carey Lowell — while only slightly more convincing as an actress — at least made the bravado of Pam Bouvier fun to watch alongside Bond. And it’s nice to see Q, lovable old fart that he is, scuttling around and taking more of an active part in the story.
The story lost steam when Wayne Newton appeared as a cult leader, complete with a pyramid HQ set piece. In a film that seemed relatively grounded in reality and violence, the final scenes felt very out of place to me, and what could have been a great movie ended up being just good. After an hour and a half of plotting, double-crossing, and manipulation, the last thing I wanted to see was an 18-wheeler doing a wheelie and Wayne Newton fleeing from an exploding pyramid with a bag of money in his arms. It’s not that I don’t think Bond should be campy; I just don’t think it worked so well here.
Favorite line: “Looks like he came to a dead end.” — Bond says this about a double-crossing DEA agent who’s been skewered by a forklift.
Favorite moment: Late in the movie, Lupe bursts into the hotel room where Q and Pam are preparing to leave the Bahamas, and when she confesses to Pam that Bond spent the night with her, Q rolls his eyes and breaks up the inevitable catfight. I just like that Q is sort of a (grand)father figure to Bond. I can picture him feeding pigeons and giving butterscotch candies to little kids.
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Today we come to the fourth actor to play 007, Timothy Dalton. I found his portrayal to be very different from those of his predecessors, and I liked him in the role.
With the Roger Moore era now at a close, I was eager to see what Timothy Dalton would do with 007. I believe my childhood perception of James Bond’s image came from Dalton’s portrayal of Bond, even though I never watched either of his films; The Living Daylights is the first Bond movie I personally recall opening in theaters, and his look was immediately recognizable to me. Plus, after Moore’s elderly antics in A View to a Kill, I was ready for a fresh face.
I knew, of course, that Dalton was the next Bond, so his first appearance on screen wasn’t the big dramatic reveal it could have been. What did surprise me was that, despite my expectations, the opening scenes of The Living Daylights were pretty standard fare. Another impressive skydiving sequence begins the festivities, and then it jumps right into the action. After the mysterious killer Bond is pursuing drives an exploding jeep off a ramp and into the ocean, we find Bond climbing aboard a yacht, where a scantily clad woman on a cell phone is telling someone how she wishes for a “real man.”
But as the movie went on, I began to see the stark difference between Dalton and Moore. In fact Dalton was very different from Connery, too. Moore was obviously a more jolly Bond, if smug, dropping one liners left and right and prancing about more so than strutting; Connery was a smooth-talker, arrogant and commanding, but honestly kind of a jerk. Dalton, however, is stoic, with an ideal face for scowling, and he seems less flippant, less coy. With Dalton’s Bond, what you see is what you get, and I liked that. Whatever it may imply about my own personality, I felt that, of all the Bonds so far, Dalton is the one I’d probably get along with the best. Because, you know, I regularly pal around with British spies.
With the end of the Moore Era also came the end of Lois Maxwell as Ms. Moneypenny, so I want to say something about her. I really liked her as Moneypenny. Throughout the series, I believed that her interactions with 007, as brief and sporadic as they were, reflected a unique chemistry that was seldom found in the Bond girls he went to bed with. In fact, very early on I determined that Moneypenny would have made the perfect wife for Bond, if he ever settled down. Of course, Tracy Di Vicenzo changed all that, and I actually sympathized with the melancholy Moneypenny at their wedding. But Lois Maxwell has been replaced by Caroline Bliss, and she doesn’t quite achieve the same rapport with Bond. I shall reserve final judgment on her until I see more of her.
While Dalton himself was a more serious, heart-on-his-sleeve 007, The Living Daylights wasn’t without its measure of camp. The chase sequence in his new Aston Martin (the most beautiful Bond car since his DB5, in my opinion) includes an enemy car getting sliced in half by a laser, as well as Bond dragging a cabin across a frozen lake before gunning it and bursting through its doors. The end of that scene, to top it off, has Bond and his female companion, Maryam D’Abo’s Kara Milovy, escaping down a snowy slope on a cello case. But there are only a few such scenes, and Dalton never winks at the audience, so to speak, like Moore did; his demeanor seems to say, “I know this looks ridiculous, but I have a mission to complete!”
Overall, I really enjoyed The Living Daylights. Perhaps some of you were right in guessing that after 7 Moore films, I’d find Dalton to be refreshingly somber. But aside from his personality, I also felt that Dalton’s Bond acted more like a spy here, squeezing information out of Kara Milovy and utilizing misdirection as effectively as his exploding key fob. You could also sense palpable frustration and anger at times, which made Bond a bit less godlike and helped ground the film. Overall, I would say I’d rank this in the upper tier of Bond films so far, and I’m looking forward to Licence to Kill.
Favorite Line: “Stuff my orders!… Tell M what you want. If he fires me, I’ll thank him for it.” — Bond says this to his partner when he’s questioned about deliberately missing a sniper shot at Kara Milovy. This happens near the beginning of the movie, and it was the first indication to me that Dalton would be a different kind of Bond.
Favorite scene: Towards the end, as Bond is attempting to steer a rogue plane down a runway, Kara comes running up from behind and hugs him, grasping his head and muffling his face. Bond is visibly annoyed and you can hear him say “Kara!” in a tone that implies “Get the hell off of me! Can’t you see I’m trying to fly a plane here?”
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After showing signs of aging in previous films, Roger Moore finally takes his last turn at playing Bond. Read on to see how much it affected my viewing.
I don’t know if Roger Moore knew this was going to be his last Bond film or not, but it doesn’t seem as if he cared, because there’s nothing particularly outstanding or notable about A View to a Kill. At the same time, strangely enough, I actually didn’t think this installment was quite as unwatchable as I was made to believe. Maybe my judgment was clouded by just a little bit of wine from an election night get-together, or maybe my expectations were so low that I could only be pleasantly surprised. Yes, this movie was laughably bad, but for some reason, I really didn’t mind. Go figure.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Roger Moore is officially eligible for the senior discount at Denny’s. You can see the loose skin dangling from his neck like a Christmas turkey, and when a stunt double isn’t doing the dirty work for him, he looks a little… tired. Even his libido seems to be on the downswing; he flirts with girls, sure, but we no longer see him forcibly storming his way into their pants. And let’s face it, at his age, that would just be creepy.
Another sour point I’ll mention is the choice of women in the film. Stacey Sutton (played by Tanya Roberts), who does have the most incredible eyes, is absolutely horrendous, on par with Rosie Carver in Live and Let Die. May Day (Grace Jones) is fine as a henchwoman of few words, blessed with superhuman strength — I’m willing to accept that. But she flips a sudden 180 very late in the movie (arguably warranted), and don’t even get me started on the love scenes. When central villain Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) has May Day pinned to the floor in a sparring match and cranes his neck in for a sloppy kiss, it’s like watching Ellen DeGeneres make out with Wesley Snipes.
I did like Walken as Zorin, though, and I’m not just saying that because it’s hip to like Walken. His idiosyncrasies make for perfect villain material, and when Bond calls him psychotic, you almost believe it more, specifically because it’s Christopher Walken — of course he’s crazy. As a matter of fact, if someone told me that he was the product of genetic experimentation gone wrong, like Zorin, the world might actually make more sense. He doesn’t quite play up to his potential, but he was believable, I thought.
As for the campy elements, there were plenty of over-the-top scenes. There’s 007 snowboarding down a mountain to the soundtrack of “California Girls;” driving literally half a car down a motorway during a chase; engaging in a video game-style horse race, complete with moving obstacles and roughhousing opponents at his side. And what in the name of all that is holy was the fire truck scene all about? That was downright absurd, from start to finish.
Now, after all this, you’d expect me to say that I hated this movie, right? Well, I can’t justify it — I can’t even really explain it — but at the end of the day, I was actually sort of entertained. Stupidity abounds in A View to a Kill, subplots disappear without a trace, logic and physics are tested to the extreme, performances are dubious, and there’s little action to get excited about. I can’t even say that these loony elements are what endeared the film to me, because that wouldn’t be entirely true. For whatever reason, however, the two hours just flew by for me. Next comes a new Bond, which is exciting, so it’s with a rather numb heart that I bid farewell to the Roger Moore era.
Favorite line: This is Zorin finishing a line spoken by May Day — “What a view…” “…to a kill!” I still don’t know what that means, but bonus points for using the film’s title in the dialogue.
Favorite moment: It probably has to be the make out scene between Christopher Walken and Grace Jones, because I couldn’t help wondering what their spawn would be like… Quite possibly the greatest world leader history has known. Either that, or the most eccentric UFC champion ever. Hell, maybe both.
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Never Say Never Again is the second and last “unofficial” Bond film I’ll be watching, and I’m rather thankful for that. It was everything I expected it to be, and less.
After 13 films establishing distinct characters, it was immediately off-putting to me to see different actors portray M, Q, and even Ms. Moneypenny in Never Say Never Again. It was odd enough to see Blofeld portrayed by three different actors in three consecutive “official” Bond films, so you can imagine how I felt when essentially everyone was replaced by unfamiliar faces. I couldn’t help but look upon the establishing scenes of the movie with a little bit of disdain, and my initial thoughts were that it felt like a pretender to the franchise, which, of course, it basically is. On top of all this, my opinion of the movie was not helped by the fact that I found myself constantly comparing it to Thunderball.
Next, while I had been warned about Connery showing his age here, I wasn’t expecting the movie to address this issue head-on, alluding to Bond having recently spent more time “teaching, not doing” and sending him off to a wellness clinic. But while he certainly looks much older, he still looked fitter than Roger Moore has appeared, and he handled his action scenes pretty effectively. So that wasn’t as much of an issue as I expected it to be.
I also really enjoyed the performance of Klaus Maria Brandauer as Largo. His quirky mannerisms, his sporadic pauses in speech, the tangible sourness lurking beneath his charm and sophisticated accent… I bought it, and I thought he was actually one of the better Bond villains, one that had a little more charisma and personality than, say, Drax, Stromberg, or even the original Largo. Largo’s hench(wo)man, however, I didn’t really like. Barbara Carrera eats up her role as Fatima Bush, but I didn’t find her threatening, and I felt the effort to portray her as a steamy, psychotic vixen was overwrought. I mean, her undoing came as a direct result of her need to be acknowledged by 007 as the greatest lover he ever had, and that’s just asinine. Interestingly enough, I found out later that she received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, so that just goes to show what I know, right?
This brings me to my bottom line: there were actually some enjoyable elements in Never Say Never Again, but there were far more things I took issue with than not. Kim Basinger, 1980s sexpot that she was, is completely forgettable as Bond girl Domino. The video game showdown, while it may have been novel at the time, looks silly now. Several points were either glossed over or left unexplained, like the shark-magnet device (how did that work, exactly?) and the speedy discovery and disarming of the warhead “under” Washington D.C. (and how’d he get it “under” there in the first place?).
All things considered, I’ll take Thunderball over this any day. I am going to go ahead and say that this was the “Bond film” I enjoyed the least so far, and I’m glad it’s not officially included as part of the franchise. However, I’m also willing to concede that my opinion of it might have been different if it was the first Bond film I ever saw, or if I hadn’t seen Thunderball first. It simply didn’t feel like a Bond film without the standard intro, without the iconic theme music, without the regular cast, and that inevitably caused me to dismiss it early on.
Favorite line: “I hope we’re gonna have some gratuitous sex and violence.” — Q to Bond when Bond is reinstated for duty.
Favorite moment: Bond poses as a masseur at a spa and basically fondles Domino all over as he probes her (no pun intended) for information. When the real masseuse appears and Domino figures out that the old man sliding his hands all over her backside was a fraud, she simply smiles and shrugs it off.
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Roger Moore’s 007 got in touch with his serious side for For Your Eyes Only, but he returned to his tongue-in-cheek campiness with Octopussy. It didn’t entirely work for me.
Even as someone who hadn’t seen any of the Bond movies, I was always aware of the existence of Octopussy. I remember giggling about the title with my peers in grade school, even though few of us had any idea what it was about. I was, therefore, looking forward to satisfying my admittedly subdued curiosity about this famous entry in the Bond franchise, and having been warned of its campy content, I sallied forth, finally to throw some context behind a childhood joke.
Before I get into Octopussy, however, I feel I need to share a minor epiphany I experienced while watching it. Much has been made of the silliness of the Roger Moore movies, and what I’ve seen so far has only confirmed those claims. For me, at least, I think the reason why I generally didn’t mind the goofier aspects of the Connery films as much was because I felt they were mostly unintentional — by-products of the outdated production quality and spotty acting. By comparison, the Roger Moore films are quite self-aware, embracing the lighter tone with joy, and a little too “cute” at times. As a result, while they are certainly on the campy side, they haven’t quite tickled my funny bone in the same way. It’s almost like watching a comedian laugh at his own jokes.
In Octopussy, the camp is ramped up, but it doesn’t really get bad until Bond lands in India, where he’s immediately greeted by a snake charmer, his Indian contact, playing the James Bond theme music on his flute. Some time later, the pair is engaged in a tuk tuk chase wherein a tennis racquet is wielded as a weapon, and nearby onlookers swivel their heads left and right as if watching a match. That chase culminates in a fistfight that takes place among such characters as a sword swallower, a hot coal-walker, a man who sleeps on a bed of nails, and a fire juggler, all of whom come into play as Bond summarily defeats his pursuers. Not too much later, 007 is chased through the jungle, where he not only tames a tiger by telling it to “sit,” but also swings through the trees literally screaming like Tarzan. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, ladies and gentlemen.
Maud Adams (aka Andrea Anders from The Man with the Golden Gun) resurfaces here as the title character, and at first I thought, “This is refreshing; a female nemesis!” This seemed to be reinforced by the fact that she was identified only by her voice in her first few scenes, similar to him-whose-name-we-shall-not-utter. But of course, she merely turns out to be a pawn for the true villain, much in the same way that Colombo was in F or Your Eyes Only, and at the end of the day, she’s just another dame with a crush on 007. I thought this was unfortunate, as I saw it as a wasted opportunity to explore a new angle for Bond villains.
Let’s talk about the real bad guys, then. Louis Jordan plays Kamal Khan, who gets the most screen time of all the villains but is probably the dullest one. Then we have Khan’s henchman Gobinda, who also does very little besides crush dice, sneer at Bond, and furiously escort him from room to room (he does swing a sword and kill people off screen from time to time, but it’s very unexciting). Much more interesting are the peripheral villains: the knife-wielding circus twins, who look like Martin Short’s deadlier cousins; the yo-yo saw wielding thug-for-hire; and the rogue Russian general who’s always on the brink of an aneurysm. They add a spark of danger whenever they appear and, in my opinion, effectively contribute to the chaos of the movie.
The story here is somewhat negligible and, as with many of the others so far, only serves as a backdrop for witty banter and expansive action sequences. It’s just unfortunate that I didn’t find the action to be particularly memorable, save for the amazing stunt work atop Khan’s plane. The tuk tuk chase is a bit too silly to be exciting, the jungle hunt seems slapped together, the train sequence — while an interesting setup — is slow and laborious, and the final battle between Octopussy’s acrobatic female army and Khan’s underlings would feel just as much at home in The Naked Gun.
There isn’t a whole lot to love about Octopussy. Sure, there’s an abundance of bizarre and/or inane moments that had me grinning and shaking my head, and yes, the women are all nice to look at. But at the heart of it, even a silly movie needs a decent story to support it, or the interest simply will not hold up. This one unfortunately spends too much time on goofy gags and subpar action to keep me munching my popcorn.
Favorite line: “Go out and get him.” — Khan says this to Gobinda, as Bond is clinging to the top of their plane. Good help is so hard to find.
Favorite moment: Q getting some love from a gaggle of Octopussy’s femme fatales after he lands a hot air balloon on a baddie who had a gun trained on them.
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After several Bond films establishing the Roger Moore brand of 007, he takes a turn for the (more) serious with For Your Eyes Only. It was both good and bad for me, in different ways.
For Your Eyes Only was the first Bond film in a while that didn’t offer me a whole lot to poke fun at, which is sort of a double-edged sword for me. On the one hand, it can be said that For Your Eyes Only was a more solid film, with a tighter story and relatively brisk pacing, which makes for an enjoyable overall experience. On the other hand, it’s been great fun to spot the quirky elements of these movies and point them out, and it’s almost less entertaining when there’s nothing like that for me to write about.
Let me start by saying that I thought I was in for more of the same kind of silliness I saw in Moonraker when the opening scene for For Your Eyes Only played out. As Bond takes what he believes to be a company chopper to meet M, we discover that it’s actually a setup masterminded by none other than Ernst Stavro Blofeld, whose whereabouts I rightfully had been curious about after his mysterious off-screen “death” in Diamonds Are Forever. We don’t get to see Blofeld’s face here, nor do we hear his name explicitly uttered, but we know it’s him, since he’s got his cat, his distinct attire, and his bald head (he must have decided the full head of hair didn’t suit him after all).
When Bond drops Blofeld off the helicopter and down a massive smokestack, I had two thoughts: 1) Is he really dead, or is this simply a reintroduction of his character?; and 2) If he’s really dead, that was the lamest way to end an unfinished storyline that I’ve ever seen. Of course Blofeld and SPECTRE don’t make another appearance in the movie, so I’m led to believe I was supposed to take that scene to be the end of the Blofeld era. Just Bond tying up loose ends, as it were. That, I must admit, was a rather disappointing end for a nemesis that previously had played such a huge part in the Bond universe.
We are then, of course, introduced to the central intrigue of For Your Eyes Only: the recovery of a crucial missile control device aboard a sunken British spy vessel that fell victim to an unfortunate accident at sea. The usual cast of characters is introduced, including the potential villain, his henchmen, and the women Bond will inevitably seduce and discard. Except, the latter doesn’t really happen en masse, as has been the trend. While Bond does bed one of his adversary’s mistresses (thereby turning her to his side and eventually leading to her death, of course), there are two prominent female characters who Bond, surprisingly, treats with a modicum of respect.
The first is Bibi Dahl, played by Lynn-Holly Johnson, who is an aspiring figure skater. She, like many other Bond women, throws herself at 007, breaking into his hotel room and lying naked in his bed, but for whatever reason, he decides that she’s not bone-worthy. What is it about her, precisely, that keeps him from wrapping her up in his libido? She does act somewhat childish, but it’s not entirely clear how old she’s actually supposed to be, and she’s certainly not less attractive than many of Bond’s other women. I thought it was interesting that the good people behind the Bond films chose to include a girl who Bond was unwilling to take advantage of. Lecherous man-whore that he is, even Bond has his limits, it seems.
The main Bond girl of the movie, however, is Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), who has an agenda of her own against the main villain. While Bond works alongside her for much of the movie, he is surprisingly light on the sweet nothings and seductive advances. I thought this worked to move the plot along more efficiently, and in some ways it also made their eventual coupling more believable. Oh yes, that’s right, they do end up together, but only at the very end… at sea… again.
The one other thing I’ll say about For Your Eyes Only is that I was pleasantly surprised by the twist (Kristatos is the real villain). In any other film, I would have seen it coming a mile away, but because I had become so accustomed to the straightforward story lines in these Bond films, I wasn’t expecting anything even remotely out of the ordinary. This, and a few very exciting action setpieces, helped me to enjoy the movie, though it was certainly different in tone than Moore’s previous outings. I thought it was a great addition to the canon, and some of you were right; I could have easily seen Sean Connery in the role.
Favorite line: “Everyone knows it builds muscle tone.” — spoken by Bibi Dahl as she lies naked in Bond’s bed, hoping to convince him to join her. I’ve tried that line, and it doesn’t work.
Favorite moment: For once, it’s not a silly one – I really enjoyed the ski chase. At first, I thought, “Great, not another one of these.” But the scene got progressively better, culminating in a thrilling pursuit down a bobsled run. Really impressive stunt and camera work.
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Today’s offering is Moonraker, the 1979 Bond film that took the British superagent into space. Read below to see if I found it to be great entertainment or a silly addition to the fanchise.
Well, you all warned me about Moonraker, so what can I say? It was everything I expected it to be. At first, I was under the impression that the movie as a whole would be over the top, and while it did have its share of ridiculous scenarios early on, I didn’t really feel that it felt out of step with the previous three Moore offerings. Then, in the last 45 minutes or so, things really got out of hand.
Let me start from the beginning again. First of all, the stunt that opened The Spy Who Loved Me was so breathtaking that I wasn’t sure they’d be able to match it. Boy was I wrong. The skydiving scene before the credits of Moonraker most definitely takes the basejump of Spy and elevates it, literally, to a new level. And, it’s helped by the presence of Jaws, who returns from the last movie, and some excellent cinematography that had me repeating to myself, “How did they pull that off?” Very impressive, Mr. Bond. Very impressive.
After this stellar sequence, the story begins in earnest, and we get what ultimately amounts to many of the same elements we’ve seen in the Bond franchise thus far. Since I’ve noticed these in almost every film, I’ll just say here that I’ll try to keep the obvious things out of my writeups from here on out, in order to keep from becoming repetitive. I’ll just assume that Bond needs little in the way of romantic ammunition to sleep with any woman, that he will continue to walk boldly right into the hands of all of his adversaries, that all of said adversaries will be sophisticated gentlemen, and that he will engage in various motorized chases for extended periods of time.
Speaking of which, we have not one, but TWO boat chases in Moonraker, both of which culminate in some ridiculous vehicular transformation. The first chase ends as Bond flips a switch in his Venetian gondola and converts it into a hovercraft, driving it onto land and into a public square — very subtle. The second boat is ultimately lost off a waterfall, but not before Bond flies away into the sky, using its roof as a hang glider. I will give credit to the minds behind these films: they are… imaginative, to put it lightly.
Of course, most everything in the first hour and a half or so is relatively standard Bond fare, and none of it prepares the viewer for an extended encounter in space, of all places. Interestingly though, I noticed at least two subtle references to earlier space films in Moonraker (there may have been more, but I only caught these): When Bond meets Drax during a quail hunting excursion, the end of the hunt is signaled by a servant who blows the first three notes of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” most famous for its use by Stanley Kubrick in his sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Later in Moonraker, a scientist enters a secret laboratory by entering a 5-digit numeric keycode, the musical tones of which echo the same five notes that are used to communicate with alien intelligence in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
If the subtlety of these two references was lost on most, there was still a quite blatant “homage,” I suppose, to Star Wars in the final scenes that take place on the space station. After Jaws is turned away from the dark side, as it were, we see Bond, Holly Goodhead (the requisite tongue-in-cheek name), and Jaws facing off against Drax. With all of Drax’s underlings pointing their laser guns at the trio, they bear a striking resemblance to Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca (Ha! Jaws is CHEWbacca – get it?). That was cute.
In conclusion, yes, I didn’t feel that Moonraker was particularly good, but it wasn’t the ridiculousness of the latter part of the movie that did it for me. I was more let down by the fairly textbook proceedings that preceded the grand finale in space; very little of those events was novel or inventive. In fact, I might even go so far as to say the last half hour was somewhat refreshing after having to sit through the by-the-numbers storyline. A few films ago, I wondered to myself, “When will they run out of ideas?” I just hope it hasn’t already happened.
Favorite line: “I think he’s attempting reentry, sir.” – Spoken by Q when visual contact is made with 007’s shuttle, and they all get a good view of Bond and Goodhead making zero gravity love.
Favorite moment: How do I choose just one? Perhaps the pigeon doing a double take at Bond’s gondola-hovercraft; or Jaws’s first encounter with his pigtailed soul mate; or the swordfight in the glass shop (that must have been fun to film); or Jaws getting bustled away mid-fight by revelers in Rio, only to throw up his hands as if to say, “What the hell; might as well go along with it!” Precious moments, all.
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I’ve heard and read that The Spy Who Loved Me is widely considered one of Roger Moore’s best Bond films. With that in mind, my expectations were raised a bit, and this may have affected my opinion of it as a whole.
First of all, Happy Halloween! I almost felt like dressing as Dr. No today, but I couldn’t find my black robot hands. Having said that, I feel like I may now disappoint some of you who have been regularly reading this series; while I did think The Spy Who Loved Me was better than The Man with the Golden Gun, I didn’t find it to be overwhelmingly so. In fact, I’d probably put it just slightly below Live and Let Die. I do, however, see that Roger Moore is feeling very comfortable in the role of James Bond, and the producers seem to have settled into how they’d like to portray Moore’s brand of 007 — fun, self-aware, unapologetic.
I really enjoyed the opening of this one as well. First, the way they introduce Anya Amasova, or Agent XXX (played by Barbara Bach — much nicer to look at than Vin Diesel or Ice Cube), immediately foretells the fact that she’ll be a great match for Bond, whether as an ally or adversary. Following this, there is a chase on skis, not dissimilar to the one in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It isn’t as impressive at first, with more of a reliance on greenscreen cinematography, but the culmination of the chase in an utterly breathtaking basejump, followed by Bond’s parachute opening up to reveal the British flag, gave me goose bumps. That… was… awesome.
On to the rest of the film: When the character of Karl Stromberg (Curd Jurgens — great name, by the way) is first introduced, I immediately noticed a few things. Of course, it’s apparent that this will be the main supervillain of the movie, and again he’s classy and sophisticated, as they all have been. Secondly, he is, I believe, the fourth one with a penchant for pet sharks. I don’t know if this was regularly written into the books, but maybe Fleming did some secret market research on evil masterminds. I will be sorely disappointed if I find out Osama Bin Laden isn’t hiding away in a luxury bunker under one of the Philippine Islands, sipping Dom Perignon, solving expert level sudokus, and shoveling chum to a school of great whites.
And, of course, Stromberg’s got his menacing underlings, in the form of Sandor, a cross between Don Rickles and The Thing, and the steel-grilled Jaws, aka Brendan Fraser on steroids. After a brief stint imitating Lawrence of Arabia, Bond encounters Sandor and easily dispatches him by tossing him off a building — I’m not even sure why they bothered to include him. Jaws, on the other hand, is a formidable opponent, surviving a veritable stoning, a tumble from a train, an impossible car crash, gunshots to the teeth, and, quite ironically, an underwater showdown with the aforementioned sharks. And he’s the one henchman (so far) who isn’t defeated or captured by Bond in the closing moments of the film. He’s quite special, in more ways than one.
As for the Bond girl, a role that has been largely uninteresting for the past few movies, Barbara Bach is certainly nice eye candy, but more so than that, she’s the first Bond girl since Tracy di Vicenzo (who, incidentally, is briefly mentioned here) to really offer 007 a challenge. Every time he seems to have the jump on her, she’s one step ahead, and the casual one-upmanship between them adds a level of entertainment that wasn’t really there with, say, Solitaire or Tiffany Case. On a somewhat related note, I need to start keeping track of how many of these films end with Bond making out with a woman at sea.
Of course, this installment wasn’t without its inexplicable moments of nonsense. The Q branch workshop beneath the Egyptian ruins feels like something out of Looney Toons, and the music takes a turn for the silly when Bond and Amasova are fleeing through the desert in a stolen van. The Lotus chase scene was video game-like; they manage to lose a motorcycle on their tail, only then to be chased by a car, after which a helicopter appears, and when our heroes escape the chopper by driving the Lotus off a pier and transforming it into a submarine, they’re harassed by frogmen and armed mini-subs.
Despite the goofier elements of the movie, I think it did a rather admirable job of staying with the story and offering some solid entertainment. There were things that absolutely did not work for me, but the overall sentiment was that it probably would have been great summer fun for me, had I not been a developing fetus in my mother’s womb. I understand that Moonraker is universally pooh-poohed, so a part of me is actually excited to witness it for myself. It can’t be that bad, can it?
Favorite line: “There’s a first time for everything.” — spoken by Bond as he’s disarming a nuclear warhead. I wish I could approach situations like that just as nonchalantly.
Favorite moment: Late in the movie, Bond and an army of rescued submarine crewmen attempt to breach the control room of Stromberg’s ship. As they stress over how to break through, one sailor steps up and volunteers to lead the charge. I thought to myself, “Wait, should I know this guy? Who is he?” And as the brave sailor rushes forth and gets wasted immediately, I thought, “Oh right. He’s the expendable extra they used to demonstrate how impregnable the control room is.”
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Roger Moore made a very good Bond debut with Live and Let Die, so today’s film, The Man with the Golden Gun, would show me how well his portrayal would hold up.
One thing I’ve noticed about the two Roger Moore films I’ve seen so far is that, yes, while they are more playful and light in tone, they seem to have ramped up the action and stunts. In other words, they are closer to what a blockbuster film as we know it today might be, and perhaps they were, in fact, the trendsetters for the big action pieces we regularly see at the theaters. Having said that, I thought The Man with the Golden Gun started off promisingly, but quickly became a bit dull and ended up disappointing me overall. I had a better experience with Live and Let Die, but I’m also already comfortable with the sort of Bond that Roger Moore will be.
As I mentioned, the beginning scenes gave me high hopes for the remainder of the film. The first thing that set my heart aflutter was the appearance of Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize, better known to me as Tattoo from the TV show Fantasy Island), dressed in a butler’s outfit and carrying a tray of champagne to an attractive woman sunbathing on a beach. So far, so good. As he approaches the woman, no less than Christopher Lee steps out of the surf to join them. Finally, as if Tattoo, a beautiful woman in a swimsuit, and Christopher Lee weren’t enough, we soon get a close-up of Lee’s chest, which reveals the curious presence of a third nipple! Throw in a shootout amidst carnival games and funhouse attractions, and I’m not sure I could have conceived a better intro if I was on acid.
Now, I won’t go so far as to say it was all downhill from there, but the movie certainly failed to maintain the same kind of entertainment value for its duration. The plot focuses on an assassin-for-hire, Francisco Scaramanga (Lee), who takes over a Chinese businessman’s shady enterprises to take control of some form of advanced solar cell, but the movie often loses sight of its plot and spends too much time on Bond-centered vignettes. The martial arts school scene, the boat chase immediately following, and the car chase (impressive as it was), are all examples of this. Pure action for the sake of action, which I suppose is not always a bad thing, especially when you have muscle cars doing barrel rolls over rivers and transforming into auto-planes.
I also thought the reappearance of Sheriff Pepper from Live and Let Die was completely unnecessary. I didn’t find his comic relief to be all that relieving in the first Moore film, and I didn’t find him any more endearing or enjoyable here. His role also smacked of a bit of racism, what with his calling all the Asians he encountered “pointy-heads,” but in a film where a Chinese tycoon lives in Thailand and displays statues of Japanese sumo wrestlers in his garden, I suppose that’s to be expected.
All the usual Bond conventions are present as well. There are cutesy names like Mary Goodnight and Chew Me; Bond conspires with his enemy’s mistress, Andrea Anders (played by Maud Adams), to defeat him; Scaramanga treats Bond to first class service, including a full tour and explanation of his evil toys; and his enemy’s henchman (Nick Nack, in this case) reappears in the final minutes after his boss has been defeated, only to be easily handled by Bond. These are not criticisms by any means; in fact, they are more like a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea, reminding me I’m at home in familiar territory.
The Man with the Golden Gun wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t think it was one of the stronger Bond films either. The action, superfluous as it was, actually managed to wow me on a couple of occasions, and Christopher Lee is probably one of the most capable actors to be featured in any installment thus far. Bond himself also showed a bit of his “old” self, manhandling an uncooperative Anders a bit and playing “bad cop” for the first half of the film before settling back into his charming ways. I thought the movie could have done without Sheriff Pepper, as I mentioned, and the final duel between Bond and Scaramanga was so poorly shot and edited, in my opinion, that I wasn’t really able to follow along, making it rather less exciting than it should have been. It seems a good number of people enjoyed The Spy Who Loved Me, so hopefully that will yield a better viewing for me.
Favorite line: Tossup between “I’ve never killed a midget before, but there can always be a first time,” and “He must have found me quite titillating,” the latter being spoken after Bond applies a prosthetic third nipple to fool someone into thinking he’s Scaramanga.
Favorite moment: This has to be when Scaramanga escapes the car chase by attaching giant wings to the top of his car and flying off. Bond stares up at the sky with a look on his face that almost made me think he was going to say, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?”
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James Bond gets yet another makeover with a third actor, Roger Moore, in Live and Let Die. Read on to see what I thought about the 8th official film and Moore’s performance as 007.
Whether it was due to my own personal lowered expectations or the subpar quality of Diamonds Are Forever, my first experience with a Roger Moore film turned out to be rather pleasant. As I stated with George Lazenby, it was certainly different, but it was pleasant nonetheless. Yes, Live and Let Die did have its unbelievable moments, and yes, it did get silly, but there were enough other redeeming qualities to allow me to enjoy it.
The first thing I noticed, partially because I’ve been paying attention to it in every film thus far, is that this was the first entry in the Bond series where 007 is hatless in the classic intro. Maybe it was because we had officially entered the 70s (a fact that would be strongly reinforced by other elements of Live and Let Die) and fedoras were no longer chic, but maybe it was also a way to tell audiences subtly, “We are entering a new era of James Bond.”
I really enjoyed the title song as well, something I haven’t touched on yet. I understand there are those who have great affection for some of the earlier Bond title songs, but this was the first one I heard that I felt could have stood on its own merits. Not only that, I thought I detected something distinctly Beatles-esque about it, so I wasn’t surprised to discover it was by Paul McCartney and Wings.
Then Roger Moore makes a rather anticlimactic debut screen appearance as Bond, lying in bed with an Italian agent. I thought it was effective to introduce him so nonchalantly, as the grand reveal of George Lazenby in OHMSS felt a little too cheeky to me. Overall, as I did with Lazenby, I found Moore to be an acceptable Bond. I will admit it took me a little while to become comfortable with his slighter build and gentler demeanor; he felt classier, if not as smooth as his predecessors. For me, the progression of Bond from Connery to Lazenby to Moore was a gradual transition into the more gentlemanly Bond that I had always imagined in my mind, so ultimately I was willing to accept it and move on.
As for the quality of the film itself, I was prepared for the camp, so I wasn’t surprised by the goofier elements. The African-American stereotypes that inundate especially the early scenes didn’t shock me as much as they would have otherwise; I was willing to accept the idea that a crime boss might rely heavily on tarot readings; and I hardly batted an eyelash at the oddball scenes of comic relief (the bug-eyed flight student woman, for example). I did little more than chuckle dismissively when the incredible boat chase later in the movie devolved into The Dukes of Hazzard on water.
Speaking of which, the action in the movie is very watchable, particularly the aforementioned boat chase. The only problem I have with them was that the bad guys in Live and Let Die have to be some of the worst drivers ever. They’re flying motorcycles off ramps and dying, veering off roads and into rivers, plowing into parked planes at full speed, throttling boats into trees and cop cars. In short, they’re conveniently handicapped in judgment when they’re behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. Nice for the action choreographer, but a little nonsensical nonetheless.
Jane Seymour is Solitaire, the tarot reading Bond girl who works for the film’s villain, Mr. Big (played by Yaphet Kotto), and another “bad girl turned good” by Bond. I didn’t recognize her at first, because I’d never seen her at this point in her career; she’s fairly stunning here. On top of that, she’s one of the few Bond girls with legitimate acting chops, which is more than I can say for the other Bond girl who gets significant screen time, Rosie Carver (played by Gloria Hendry). Geez Louise, she could not act her way out of an invisible box. It’s absolutely embarrassing to watch her on screen, and I was almost relieved when she was finally offed by the silliest voodoo scarecrow I’ve ever seen.
In conclusion, while Live and Let Die was a far cry from the earlier Connery films, I still found it more enjoyable than not. I can see that Bond will be defined by a very different tone now, and it seems the makers of the films are fairly self-aware about this. If they’re willing to push things to the limit, fine, I’m willing to match them step for step and go along for the ride. I am well prepared to receive the rest of the Roger Moore films, so I say, “Bring it on!”
Favorite line: “Get me a make on a white pimpmobile!”
Favorite moment: Mr. Big, who in my opinion is an interesting but relatively forgettable villain, is engaged in the final struggle with Bond. Bond forces a special capsule into Mr. Big’s mouth, causing him to expand like Professor Klump, float to the ceiling, and explode. Wow.
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After relinquishing the Bond throne to George Lazenby for one film, Sean Connery makes his return to the role in Diamonds Are Forever. Read on to see my reaction to the latest installment.
Wow. With so much to talk about, where do I begin? Diamonds Are Forever was by far my least favorite Bond film to this point, and I don’t mind saying that right up front. Everything, from the dialogue to the choice of locale to the Bond girl, were, in my opinion, subpar to the rest of the series. Even Connery himself, who hasn’t been the same Bond to me since he first blew me away with his slickness and bravado in Dr. No, seems to walk through the part nonchalantly. He isn’t James Bond so much as he’s just a dude who happens to be the main character. And that’s sad.
Furthermore, what in the world happened to Connery in the four years since he made You Only Live Twice? He’ll always be the mighty Sean Connery, but in Diamonds, his hair is graying, he’s gained weight, and he doesn’t have the same sparkle in his eye. Maybe the advent of drab ’70s fashion had something to do with it, or maybe he spent too many late nights partying it up with his groupies. Seeing him appear for the first time on screen in Diamonds, I was reminded of former NBA star Shawn Kemp, who finished a season cut early by a player strike looking fine, but returned the next year looking like Big Daddy Kane’s reflection in a funhouse mirror.
So let’s start at the beginning. I cannot express to you the exasperation I felt upon seeing that Blofeld had not only lost the eye scar this time, but decided to take on the appearance of Mr. Henderson, Bond’s first contact in You Only Live Twice, who received a knife in the back and, presumably, died. Did they simply assume I would have forgotten? Or did they think I’d forgive the offense if they just explained that Blofeld had gotten cosmetic surgery and found a way to clone himself? This is even before the opening credits roll, people.
So Bond sends Blofeld “to Hell” in that opening sequence, but of course we know that’s not the last we’ll see of him. It turns out the Blofeld Bond killed was a clone (of course), and the real Blofeld has assumed the identity of a reclusive Las Vegas hotel owner, and he’s holed up in the penthouse with yet another clone (with his very own cloned cat!); by this point, I’d pretty much given up on the movie. When Blofeld finally “dies,” we don’t even see it, so who knows if he’s going to show up again, maybe next time as Dr. No, or Pussy Galore, or Hulk Hogan. And I haven’t even mentioned Blofeld’s narrow cross-dressing escape a la Mrs. Doubtfire…
The cutesy names are back in spades… in Diamonds. The main Bond girl’s name is Tiffany Case, but there’s also a brief appearance from a Plenty O’Toole, as well as two gymnast assassins named Bambi and Thumper (adorable). And Tiffany is the only one who’s passable; the others are all terrible actresses. Terrible! I inclined to believe they drove to Vegas, picked up a few girls off the street, and said, “Hey, wanna be eye candy for the new Bond film?” To be fair, the men aren’t much better (Mr. Willard Whyte in particular).
There were just too many things I just couldn’t accept or comprehend about Diamonds are Forever. Bond balancing a car on two wheels, a voice masking device, the oddness of Blofeld’s two homosexual hitmen (one of whom eerily resembles a white, human version of Rowlf from the Muppets), Blofeld’s inexplicable refusal to kill Bond on several convenient occasions, etc. I’m curious to know exactly how much of this nonsense was in any of Ian Fleming’s books. Also, I expected to enjoy the campiness of the sillier Bond films, but after having seen this, I’m starting to wonder if that’ll be the case at all. I may just emerge from the Roger Moore years more frustrated and befuddled than entertained, and this worries me.
Favorite line: “You handle those cubes like a monkey handles coconuts.” Uh, what?
Favorite moment: When Bond escapes from a poorly conceived attempt to bury him in the desert and shows up at Blofeld’s headquarters in the middle of the ocean, what does Blofeld say? “Put him in the brig!” And “the brig” turns out to be a storage room with a hatch in the middle of the floor, allowing Bond to escape and wreak havoc with a crane.
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