Bond 25: No Time To Die

[Heartofice]

In general I think the Bond franchise is made up of a handful of good movies, a massive fistful of mediocre forgettable movies and a few truly awful ones. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

24 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I presume you'd put it much higher?

I think you could rank it as high as four.

7 minutes ago, Fez said:

Dr No gets credit for being the first movie. But it's a slow, plodding movie for the most part. Bond is primarily doing spycraft, which would be great except he's not good at it in the movie. It's missing a lot of the elements that make a good Bond movie; and, unlike From Russia With Love, it doesn't make up for those missing pieces by being absolutely brilliant.

Making it realistic. And I’ve never felt like Dr. No was slow. I think it’s the second best of the original run after Goldfinger.  

I haven’t watched From Russia With Love in a long time, but my memories of it were being slow and having an unrealistically complicated plot device.

[Nictarion]

Glad to see all the praise for From Russia With Love. 

Not going to make an entire list, but Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, GoldenEye, and Casino Royale, are definitely my favorites. 

Others are fun, but those are the truly great ones, imo. 

[Zorral]

In Die Another Day Bond isn't called a spy, but an assassin, which is an interesting change for the franchise -- was that kept up when we get to Craig?  I don't recall, as I wasn't paying this intentional attention, and they are seen far apart.

As far as Die Another Day, once Bond escapes from the psychiatric ship-prison, which seems to be anchored in Hong Kong's harbor -- didn't M say she was sending him to the Falklands? -- he finally gets a haircut and shave and replaces his bespoke wardrobe, and -- ye olde Bond is Back! along with his clothes, hair and body's untouchability by bullets, etc.  So why wasn't he able to escape from NK's prison?  They took away his power with his suit, and in reversal of Samson, his hair and beard were not cut?

Off he goes to Havana, which initially does look at least like the actual Malecón, which means some very fancy buckjumping CGI, plus many locations in and around Cadiz, Spain, and once in Hawaii! standing in for Cuban locations. 

I found this interesting just because I know Cuba so well, so had fun pinpointing why it wasn't really Cuba, but nobody else would, surely. Also no frackin' way would any individual be able to operate with gun power and mayhem in 2002 Cuba, just no frackin' way.  It was also fun for me, all these meta back references to Dr. No, the first one, which in the context are also sad, because this really isn't Bond's world any longer. Incidentally, the producers were quite consciously shouting back to Dr. No, as this was 40th anniversary since Dr. No was released in the theaters.

https://www.gq.com/story/how-die-another-day-almost-blew-up-the-james-bond-franchise

As this really isn't Bond's world any longer, it's as though the writers at this point just throw the duty to, you know, plot, out the window.  There seems to be nothing that bridges - connects one action scene of shoot, drive, dive, fly, blow up, smash, punch, etc. to another.  Nor do we even know why this is all happening. Of course, I'm still at the half-way point.

However, it's the historical cultural - political context commentary of New World Order these films provide -- whether intentional or not -- that are of interest to me.

 

[Veltigar]

Casino Royale is my favorite by a mile. Also love Goldeneye, The World is not enough, Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. Ranking those last four is difficult though.

For me the worst Bond run is Roger Moore's tenure. Can't really think of any of his flicks I enjoyed. Die Another Day is also bad, but in an enjoyable way. Craig's output is also terrible besides CR. Spectre sucks balls and walks back on most of the interesting stuff CR did, QoS is just a mess and Skyfall is one of the most overrated movies of the last couple of years.

[Nictarion]

23 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Casino Royale is my favorite by a mile. Also love Goldeneye, The World is not enough, Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. Ranking those last four is difficult though.

For me the worst Bond run is Roger Moore's tenure. Can't really think of any of his flicks I enjoyed. Die Another Day is also bad, but in an enjoyable way. Craig's output is also terrible besides CR. Spectre sucks balls and walks back on most of the interesting stuff CR did, QoS is just a mess and Skyfall is one of the most overrated movies of the last couple of years.

Skyfall is far better than World Is Not Enough lol. Can’t believe you’d even mention it along with those other four. 

I’m not the biggest fan of the Moore Bond’s, but I do like Man with the Golden Gun for Christopher Lee. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Nictarion said:

Skyfall is far better than World Is Not Enough lol. Can’t believe you’d even mention it along with those other four. 

Every ranking I've seen online has it as a bottom third movie in the franchise. It's so lifeless. 

Skyfall is tricky for me because I saw it way after all the hype. It's not bad, but it didn't live up to it, plus it ruined my theory as I've said before. 

[HexMachina]

My favourites are probably From Russia with Love, Casino Royale, License to Kill. And then Goldeneye takes a place here for the campy hilarity rather than being a particularly great film. (Xenia Onatop  and Hagrid  boris!)

Worst, Die Another Day, Moonraker, Octopussy, You Only Live Twice for me. With the caveat i haven’t seen some of them in a while so i might just be forgetting how bad they were.

 

Eta: poor Rosamund Pike, wasting her time in that wreck of a film. And Halle Berry really isnt a bad actress, but she certainly has ended up in some real duds. Will always love her Razzie speech though

[Zorral]

Just watched the last third of No Time To Die.  Woo, was that ever -- well, it was over the top, action-wise.  But nobody cares, right?  And that virtual reality bit with Moneypenny. No.  Just NO!  Ych.

So.  The diamonds?  They were to finance it all or something?  But the mine is a fake, the Big Bad says.  So, wot?

 

[HexMachina]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Just watched the last third of No Time To Die.  Woo, was that ever -- well, it was over the top, action-wise.  But nobody cares, right?  And that virtual reality bit with Moneypenny. No.  Just NO!  Ych.

So.  The diamonds?  They were to finance it all or something?  But the mine is a fake, the Big Bad says.  So, wot?

 

You mean Die another day, No Time to Die is the new one released in April

[Zorral]

27 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

You mean Die another day, No Time to Die is the new one released in April

You're so right.  I cannot sort out all these days and dies, much less even remember the titles!  Even when I look at them, written down, with their dates.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Dr No is kind of icky. It’s heaviky inferred Honey is gang-raped by the guards (No sends her away saying the ‘men can keep her amused’ or words to that effect) and when we see her again she’s tied to the ground missing her trousers.

And after that plus the near-death, does Bond get her back to Kingston for medical attention? No, he maroons them in a boat so they can have sex.

Plus it has the woman and the black man whittering on about dragons.

[Veltigar]

22 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Skyfall is far better than World Is Not Enough lol. Can’t believe you’d even mention it along with those other four. 

I’m not the biggest fan of the Moore Bond’s, but I do like Man with the Golden Gun for Christopher Lee. 

 

20 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Every ranking I've seen online has it as a bottom third movie in the franchise. It's so lifeless. 

Skyfall is tricky for me because I saw it way after all the hype. It's not bad, but it didn't live up to it, plus it ruined my theory as I've said before. 

1. The World Is Not Enough has Denise Richards in her prime + a female lead villain + the last turn of Hagrid

2. Skyfall is an overrated and uninspired mess. The only good thing about it is the theme song.

[Rhom]

2 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

 

1. The World Is Not Enough has Denise Richards in her prime + a female lead villain + the last turn of Hagrid

2. Skyfall is an overrated and uninspired mess. The only good thing about it is the theme song.

"I was wrong about you... I thought Christmas only comes once a year."

[Veltigar]

Just now, Rhom said:

"I was wrong about you... I thought Christmas only comes once a year."

One of the top contenders for greatest final line in movie history. I can only think of Casablanca and Some Like it Hot as worthy competitors 

[Fez]

I thought The World Is Not Enough was pretty good actually, as can be seen by my list having at #8 (and I think after #10 the movies are all pretty mediocre or outright bad). Yeah Denise Richards was whatever, and there were some cringe-y lines. But there was a lot of good stuff there too. Brosnan had a decent combination of fun scenes and tough scenes; without ever getting too goofy or too grim.

Robert Carlyle was an excellent henchman; Sophie Marceau had a solid heel turn (and it was cool seeing the main villain be female); Desmond Llewelyn had a good send off as Q (even though it wasn't known it would be his final performance when they filmed); and it was fun seeing Robbie Coltrane's character again. I always like it when recurring characters (outside MI6) show up in these movies.

It's not amazing or anything; but its a competently made fun time.

[RumHam]

38 minutes ago, Fez said:

I thought The World Is Not Enough was pretty good actually, as can be seen by my list having at #8 (and I think after #10 the movies are all pretty mediocre or outright bad). Yeah Denise Richards was whatever, and there were some cringe-y lines. But there was a lot of good stuff there too. Brosnan had a decent combination of fun scenes and tough scenes; without ever getting too goofy or too grim.

Robert Carlyle was an excellent henchman; Sophie Marceau had a solid heel turn (and it was cool seeing the main villain be female); Desmond Llewelyn had a good send off as Q (even though it wasn't known it would be his final performance when they filmed); and it was fun seeing Robbie Coltrane's character again. I always like it when recurring characters (outside MI6) show up in these movies.

It's not amazing or anything; but its a competently made fun time.

Like Goldeneye I also have a soft spot for it because of it's N64 game. It wasn't made by the Goldeneye people but it had a pretty good campaign and great multiplayer. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Veltigar said:

 

1. The World Is Not Enough has Denise Richards in her prime + a female lead villain + the last turn of Hagrid

 

She looks too much like my mom for her to do anything for me.

[Rhom]

11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

She looks too much like my mom for her to do anything for me.

Is your mom single?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

8 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Is your mom single?

She's 65 and her husband is the size of The Rock.