Thursday 15 November 2012

Kev's somewhat late Day Three review


What a pleasantly surprising start this all was! My recollection of Brosnan as Bond is that Goldeneye was good and everything else was pretty much trash barring the odd scene. So I wasn’t really looking forward to any of the Sunday morning!

Tomorrow Never Dies was actually really good and had one of the best villains for me. I’d have liked to have seen him as a modern day Blofeld, pulling the strings in the background over a couple of films. Taking him down ultimately wasn’t that exciting but it would have been really cool as an over-arching element while something else was going on. Some good henchmen in this one too with Stamper and Dr Kaufman.

The World is Not Enough surprised me. Denise Richards is actually quite good although never likely to threaten for top Bond girl spot. Some good villains, M more involved and some emotional beats that often lacked in the other films, i.e. M’s relationship with Elektra King, Bond having to kill her even though he seemed to have feelings for her, Zukovsky dying and giving up his vendetta against Bond to save the day. Really good film. I’ve been unfairly biased against it for too long.

Die Another Day wasn’t boding well when Ian told me that he was looking for a good line from the script to use as a title but couldn’t find a single one. The first half of this is actually really decent. All of the bad stuff early on is as easy to forgive as the bad stuff from any other of Brosnan’s films but then the second half is just painfully bad. It is a cliché now to blame the invisible car but the scene where he goes to collect it does seem to be the turning point in the film. A reboot and re-cast was really the only option at this point.

Casino Royale was awesome and took a few of my favourites, including best film overall. Everything just seems to have more impact than previous films. The Vesper tragedy feels earned by the end in a way that Tracey’s death in Her Majesty’s Secret Service wasn’t. You could see why he fell for Vesper whereas he just seemed to have spent more than 5 minutes with Tracey and that was enough. Beautiful locations well shot. Eva Green does swirly things to my tummy. Amazing fight on the stairs; even more brutal than Bond Vs Grant on the train in From Russia With Love for me.

Quantum of Solace was slightly better than I remember it. I was always thought it was pretty decent. It gets a bad rap for being more like an epilogue to Casino Royale which is kinda true I guess. It was a film that needed to happen though otherwise we would have just got back to the Bond formula with Bond forgetting all about Vesper.

Skyfall is amazing. Not quite topping Casino Royale for me but it’s not a million miles away. Top 5 for sure. I won’t go into too much detail seeing as I already did on the Skyfall article comments section. I will say that it almost had the best villain (and might be the best after another viewing), almost had the best Bond girl in Naomi Harris, almost had the best locations and almost had the best pre-credits sequence in terms of action. It was a brilliant end to the marathon.

I’m not sure I can put every film in order but I would say that my top 5 (best first) are:
1.      Casino Royale
2.      Live and Let Die
3.      Licence to Kill
4.      Skyfall
5.      GoldenEye

Skyfall and Licence to Kill could end up swapping places and when we do this again for Bond 24 maybe Dr No will sneak in there.

The bottom 3 from worst to ‘best’:
1.      Die Another Day
2.      Octopussy
3.      Moonraker

Sunday 11 November 2012

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" - M

***SPOILERS - Go no further if you've yet to see 'Skyfall***

Movie no 23
Skyfall
2012 - imdb (link) 


Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Cast

James Bond - Daniel Craig

Villains - Raoul Silva - Javier Bardem

Henchmen - Patrice - Ola Rapace

Bondgirls - Sévérine - Bérénice Marlohe
              - Eve - Naomi Harris
              
M - Judi Dench
Bill Tanner - Rory Kinnear
Q - Ben Whishaw
Gareth Mallory - Ralph Fiennes

Director - Sam Mendes
Writers - Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & John Logan

Theme - "Skyfall" - Adele


"You shot him in cold blood and threw him off a roof. I would hardly call that showing restraint!" - M

Movie no 22
Quantum of Solace
2008 - imdb (link) 

Seeking revenge for the death of his love, secret agent James Bond sets out to stop an environmentalist from taking control of a country's valuable resource.

Cast

James Bond - Daniel Craig

Villains - Dominic Greene - Mathieu Amalric
           - Mr White -Jesper Christensen

Henchmen - Elvis - Anatole Taubman
                - Mitchell - Glenn Foster
Bondgirls - Camille Montes Rivera - Olga Kurylenko
              - Strawberry Fields - Gemma Arterton
              
M - Judi Dench
Bill Tanner - Rory Kinnear
Felix Leiter - Jeffrey Wright
Rene Mathis - Giancarlo Giannini

Director - Marc Forster
Writers - Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Paul Haggis

Theme - "Another Way To Die" - Alicia Keys & Jack White


"In the old days if an agent did something that embarrassing he'd have a good sense to defect. Christ, I miss the Cold War." - M

Movie no 21
Casino Royale
2006 - imdb (link) 

In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

Cast

James Bond - Daniel Craig

Villains - Le Chiffre - Mads Mikkelsen
           - Mr White -Jesper Christensen

Henchmen - Alex Dimitrios - Simon Abkarian
                - Carlos - Claudio Santamaria
                - Mollaka - Sébastien Foucan
Bondgirls - Vesper Lynd - Eva Green
              - Solange Dimitrios - Caterina Murino
              
M - Judi Dench
Villiers - Tobias Menzies
Felix Leiter - Jeffrey Wright
Rene Mathis - Giancarlo Giannini

Director - Martin Campbell
Writers - Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Paul Haggis

Theme - "You Know My Name" - Chris Cornell


"As I learned from my predecessor, Bond, I never joke about my work." - Q

Movie no 20
Die Another Day
2002 - imdb (link) 

James Bond is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul who is funding the development of an international space weapon.

Cast

James Bond - Pierce Brosnan

Villains - Gustav Graves - Toby Stephens
           - Colonel Moon - Will Yun Lee
Henchmen - Zao - Rick Yune
                - Mr Kil - Lawrence Makoare

Bondgirls - Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson - Halle Berry
              - Miranda Frost - Rosamund Pike
              
M - Judi Dench
Moneypenny - Samantha Bond
Q - John Cleese
Charles Robinson - Colin Salmon
Damian Falco - Michael Madsen

Director - Lee Tamahori
Writers - Neal Purvis & Robert Wade

Theme - "Die Another Day" -Madonna

"I'm looking for a submarine. It's big and black, and the driver is a very good friend of mine." - Zukovsky

Movie no 19
The World is Not Enough
1999 - imdb (link) 

 James Bond uncovers a nuclear plot when he protects an oil heiress from her former kidnapper, an international terrorist who can't feel pain.

Cast

James Bond - Pierce Brosnan

Villain - Victor Zokas (aka Renard) - Robert Carlyle
Henchmen - Gabor - John Seru
                - Bullion - Goldie
                - Cigar Girl - Maria Grazia Cucinotta

Bondgirl Villian(!) - Elektra King - Sophie Marceau

Bondgirls - Dr Christmas Jones - Denise Richards
              - Dr Molly Warmflash - Serena Scott Thomas
              
M - Judi Dench
Moneypenny - Samantha Bond
Q - Desmond Llewelyn
R - John Cleese
Bill Tanner - Michael Kitchen
Charles Robinson - Colin Salmon
Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky - Robbie Coltrane



Director - Michael Apted
Screenplay - Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Bruce Feirstein

Theme - "The World is Not Enough" - Garbage

Kev's quick day two review

A real mixed bag. Although there was what I think must surely be the worst of the series in Moonraker and then Octopussy, we also had some quality. A View to a Kill has held up surprisingly well. Licence to Kill is so good that it makes me want to visit that alternative dimension where Timothy Dalton got to make a trilogy of films where he lost Tracey and then hunted down Blofeld.

A few changes to my favourites list...

Pam Bouvier from Licence to Kill is by far the most capable Bond girl of the series. During production, all of these films come out with lines about how the Bond girl is on the same level as Bond and it’s always rubbish with them typically dribbling over themselves by the end so that Bond can save them. Pam wasn’t quite on Bond’s level but they didn’t have to ‘de-power’ her to make Bond look better.

For villain, Zorin is the perfect blend of the tones in Bond films. He’s funny, almost stupidly so, but he is absolutely mental and seriously dangerous. I’ve never really questioned the balloon’s mini bar full of dynamite at the end. What else would Zorin have in his mini bar? Walken is fantastic. I’d be very happy if they decided to bring him back as a modern day villain.

Xenia Onatopp knocks Jaws off of the top spot for henchman. I clearly like my Bond villains on the insane side which surprises me as I’d have assumed before this weekend that I like them more grounded. She feels even more dangerous than Jaws because apart from not jacking in this whole villainy game for love, she feels like she is out of control of herself every time she even gets the chance to be bad. You just wouldn’t be surprised if instead of delivering Bond to her boss, she accidentally killed him.

My memory might be a bit cloudy but I think Brosnan had the best pre-credit sequences. Goldeneye is brilliant although I could do without the one liner intro for a new Bond. Some outstanding stunts (you couldn’t pay me to jump off that dam), nice set pieces and some emotional resonance that plays out through the rest of the film. Can’t see anyone touching that.

On a side note. We’ve seen the importance of a strong support crew if you’re going to spend 3 days doing literally nothing other than sitting still and watching films. Three whole meals yesterday. Enchiladas for dinner (with chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert), pizza for lunch and blueberry pancakes shaped to spell ‘007’ for breakfast. Outstanding work support crew!

Dreading this morning. My memory of Brosnan’s films is that they just get worse and worse. I’m just hoping that all these reviews of Skyfall calling it one of the best are true!