James Bond

[Magnum Valentino]

Yeah that's license to kill. Benicio Del Toro's in that one.

This thread's really given me the notion to watch Living Daylights which, when I think about it, I can't remember sitting all the way through despite owning the complete collection for years (possibly on multiple formats).

Goldeneye probably my favourite.

[Bad Ambassador]

Licence to Kill has been called the best Mission: Impossible film, because it's much more like the TV series than any of the Cruise films, with Bond inflitrating Sanchez's operation to bring it down from the inside. Very dark and grim as well, more so than any of the Craigs, but does manage to balance it with some lovely humour - mostly thanks to Q being a field agent for a change. Probably had the best reaction from any of the ones I saw at the 2022 revival screenings.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Leiter doesn't die there. His bride does, and he's severely maimed (he's also mutilated in one of the books, except that the missing limbs appear to grow back progressively in the next books).

License to Kill is actually one of the many attempts by the producers to deliver the "revenge" story that Fleming had written.
In the books, You Only Live Twice is the direct sequel to OHMSS, and deals with James Bond, now a widower overwhelmed by grief, who's failed to find Blofeld for months. He gets reassigned to the diplomatic section (and is now agent 7777) and sent to Japon, where he's asked to help the Japanese on some off the books mission, which makes him discover Blofeld's lair.
As they had already adapted YOLT before OHMSS (the film bears very little resemblance to the book outside of the setting and the name of the characters), it made less sense to complete the arc with a different actor and the audience tastes had moved towards light entertainment, they didn't make Diamonds Are Forever about Bond being obsessed with killing Blofeld. But LTK is some kind of revenge by proxy, Quantum of Solace is Bond getting revenge for Vesper's death (losing the feeling of doom that's all over YOLT, Fleming's last completed novel), and No Time to Die actually uses a few elements from Fleming's book.

The Living Daylights has a pacing issue for its ending, as it returns to Tangiers after the big Afghanistan set pieces.

[sevendaughters]

From Russia With Love is probably the most satisfying from start to finish, then Casino Royale.

It's an unfair comparison but since reading a load of le Carre and seeing all the TV versions of his stuff, Bond looks stupid and anachronistic. Some of the films are fine guff, but some of them hold up as badly as Carry on or On The Buses.

[Bad Ambassador]

Octopussy does the same, returning to India after the lengthy sequence chasing down the bomb in Germany, but the action goes on for quite a bit longer, with the siege, gunfight, horse chase and fight on a plane.

From Russia with Love always sits oddly with me, not just because of the horrible outdated sexual politics - more so than in most of the films, anyway - but because of the plot being an obvious trap, Bond and M agreeing its an obvious trap, going for it anyway and then being surprised it's a trap. It makes Bond look like an idiot and undermines the whole movie.

[famethrowa]

i attempted a rewatch a few years ago but i abandoned it halfway through. they are simply too slow and long.

As they said in the excellent James Bonding podcast "well, the pacing of movies has changed somewhat in the last 40 years"

lazenby's poor acting

Everyone's always very polite about it, but my god he is terrible. Totally out of his depth, had to be overdubbed for half the movie, the only thing he does ok is losing his mind at the end of it all.

[Toki]

Quantum of Solace is Bond getting revenge for Vesper's death (losing the feeling of doom that's all over YOLT, Fleming's last completed novel)

Quantum is about Bond putting duty ahead of his personal feelings and not allowing himself to get his revenge, even though that's what everyone else in the movie (as well as the audience) thinks he's going for. Andrew Ellard did a great video laying out this case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuHUdyCydaE
If you have the time (it's over an hour), it's a good analysis of what does and doesn't work and why.

Goldeneye was the first Bond I saw, so that's probably what I'd recommend if you want to become one of the world's most casual Bond fans.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Everyone's always very polite about it, but my god he is terrible. Totally out of his depth, had to be overdubbed for half the movie, the only thing he does ok is losing his mind at the end of it all.

Yeah he's good at the emotional payoff, and the fight scenes, but is otherwise shite. Zero charisma. But the film as a whole is ace (could do without a few cringy moments like "he had a lot of GUTS!" during the really dated looking ski chase scene).

Goldeneye is good (although I rewatched recently and didn't like it as much as I thought, partly due to Alan Cumming who I can't stand in anything) but the other Brosnan ones are pretty poor. I didn't find Brosnan believable as an action man but he was otherwise a good Bond, wasted on those ridiculous films.

QoS I quite like, probably my 3rd fave of the Craig era. And it's nice and short.

[famethrowa]

Maybe you lads are made of tougher stuff than me, but there's a few deaths in the movies that really upset me. Firstly Mrs Bond of course, then the poor girl (and parrot) in For Your Eyes Only who has to watch her parents gunned down by a rogue seaplane, but mostly poor old doomed Tilly Masterson. Obviously a sophisticated, intelligent girl, but radicalized by the pointless murder of her beloved sister, and eventually cruelly struck down by a hat.

I even feel sorry for Bibi Dahl, she's just a talented ice skater trying to do her best and enjoy her youth, but she gets kidnapped and smacked around for her troubles. Plus I'm not sure if James ever did get her that ice-cream.

[Egyptian Feast]

poor old doomed Tilly Masterson. Obviously a sophisticated, intelligent girl, but radicalized by the pointless murder of her beloved sister, and eventually cruelly struck down by a hat.

And it's all Bond's fault her sister died in the first place. He's worse than VD.

[famethrowa]

And it's all Bond's fault her sister died in the first place. He's worse than VD.

he was too busy throwing shade on the Beatles to look out for her

[checkoutgirl]

From Russia With Love
Casino Royale (2006)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Yeah I'd go along with those. Traditionally was never a Bond fan at all and saw it as naff but age has softened me to it and now quite enjoy the Sunday afternoon nostalgia factor.

And Moonraker and Jaws are pretty cool. I reckon Craig is the best Bond overall, he's got the lot. Only Quantum was disappointing.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

And it's all Bond's fault her sister died in the first place. He's worse than VD.

Check Daniel Craig's track record with his love interests. The only one from the first three movies who survives is the anonymous Turkish woman who doesn't even have a line in Skyfall.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Yeah he's good at the emotional payoff, and the fight scenes, but is otherwise shite. Zero charisma. But the film as a whole is ace (could do without a few cringy moments like "he had a lot of GUTS!" during the really dated looking ski chase scene).

Steven Soderbergh put it out best.
There are glimpses of a good, possibly a terrific, performance from Lazenby, but he's too often asked to do it exactly as Connery would. Hence the one-liners that don't work in his mouth. The whole sequence where he poses as the genealogist could also have been tightened without anything of merit getting lost.

https://extension765.com/blogs/soderblog/a-rambling-discourse

As a result, he's basically Sean Connery's jovial stunt double put there as a placeholder.
But what also happened, "thanks" to him, is that everybody in the crew who had doubts about the franchise surviving with this actor, delivered their best. Ken Adam isn't here, but his replacement delivered the Piz Gloria sets. John Barry wrote his best score. The photography is ace. Apart from the male costumes (that fluffy shirt...), everything is basically great.

[famethrowa]

There are glimpses of a good, possibly a terrific, performance from Lazenby, but he's too often asked to do it exactly as Connery would.

It is a bold experiment... can you remove one of the world's most famous actors from one of the most famous characters ever, and replace him with a total unknown novice who's never acted in a film before? Turns out, well yes, kind of.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

It was not an experiment, it was basically the end goal by Saltzman and Broccoli. They assumed that the franchise would deliver monster hit after monster hit, and that they had been the ones who made a star out of Sean Connery rather than Connery who had defined Bond. For the next one, they wanted to be sure that the actor wouldn't show the same independent spirit, by securing a longterm contract with Lazenby that would make him their puppet, financially and in real life. When Lazenby saw the draft, after the completion of OHMSS, there were dozens of pages listing what he was supposed or not to do, including the fact that he couldn't be seen in a public place unshaven, stuff like that (and guess what he did for the premiere). Lazenby felt rightfully trapped.

Then, after Thunderball, the box office for Bond started to go down. The audiences were getting saturated with spy movies and Bond knockoffs. Broccoli and Saltzman also spent a lot, separately, on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Battle of Britain, which both lost money. OHMSS having dwindling results compared to YOLT had to be expected, but for the producers it was a reality call.

[Jim_MacLaine]

The Best of Bond

Goldfinger
OHMSS
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Living Daylights
Goldeneye
Casino Royale

[greenman]

Much as I love Connery and Moore, my absolute favourite is Living Daylights. Exciting, brand new hard as fuck Bond, rock of Gibraltar and other 00 agents in the pre-creds, fairly unproblematic lady-wise (only one Bond girl cos AIDS, oh unless you count her from She Devil, and new sexy Moneypenny), great supporting cast with Joe Don Baker, Jeroen Krabbe, Art Malik (the motherfucking TALIBAN on our side), superb theme song incorporated brilliantly into the soundtrack, original M and Q. Boss motor. Happy memories of it coming out and seeing it on video. L2K was my first cinema Bond, it's great too. Dalton was awesome, respect to him for giving it his all and bowing out gracefully.

Goldeneye might be my second favourite as it ticks many of the same boxes.

My fantasy Bond is an eighventies Lewis Collins run. If he'd taken over for  Eyes Only thru View, maybe with an Elvis Costello s/t, Sting as a baddie, that kind of thing. I can just see it.

Yeah remains my favourite classic(pre Brosnan) Bond, i think it benefits strongly from having basically the same team which had done the latter Moore run with with Dalton giving it a bit more edge. I always see it mentioned that Dalton hated the comedy but thats not the impression I get at all, seems like he's really relishing it.

You could argue the main villians arent really that threatening but there certainly fun and Nercos I think ends up as one of the best henchmen who's allowed to take a much bigger role than normal to provide the threat.

Licence to Kill I always thought struggled a bit with the same team not really being suited it to, probably needed someone like Michael Mann to give it more the style to match the plot.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Lazenby is far better than he has any right to be. A virtual amateur, he does carry the film through and fits in the part. Although Diana Rigg deserves the lion's share of the credit for that film and when she reappears later on you audibly gasp with relief.

I'm always surprised whenever OHMSS comes up as the best ever when it arguably has the least capable Bond, stays on a mountain far too long and has a really rubbish sub-plot about genealogy.

For some reason, Octopussy is bloody awful but A View To A Kill is brilliant and they're very much sides of the same coin. I couldn't eke out even ironic joy from Octopussy but AVTAK ticks every box. Completely bonkers but the highlight is Moore and McNee sneaking around a kitchen in blousons. As Mark Gatiss' dad remarked when seeing this scene -"If the Secret Service is in the hands of these buggers, God help us."

[Dex Sawash]

The one where it looks like bond does a dodgy sex thing

[greenman]

Lazenby is far better than he has any right to be. A virtual amateur, he does carry the film through and fits in the part. Although Diana Rigg deserves the lion's share of the credit for that film and when she reappears later on you audibly gasp with relief.

I'm always surprised whenever OHMSS comes up as the best ever when it arguably has the least capable Bond, stays on a mountain far too long and has a really rubbish sub-plot about genealogy.

For some reason, Octopussy is bloody awful but A View To A Kill is brilliant and they're very much sides of the same coin. I couldn't eke out even ironic joy from Octopussy but AVTAK ticks every box. Completely bonkers but the highlight is Moore and McNee sneaking around a kitchen in blousons. As Mark Gatiss' dad remarked when seeing this scene -"If the Secret Service is in the hands of these buggers, God help us."

I have always suspected when it came out and the general late 60's vibe was part of the reason OHMSS was ranekd quite as highly as it was, something which really seemed to happen during the Britpop era espeically.

Not watched it in quite a few years but Octopussy to my memory is a bit messy with the stuff in India being a bit too cheesey for its own good, the opening and the nuke circus stuff I remember quite liking though.

View To A Kill does I think feel like the series is updating itself a bit, not quite so keen on going over the same ground and generally feels a bit more open to 80's culture. As said the horse stuff ends up a bit dull in places but Walken is one of the best Bond villains and gets plenty of screen time to help carry it.

[beanheadmcginty]

Rosamund Pike's hairline is distracting

Glad I'm not the only one who was mesmerised by this. I've never seen hair on that part of someone's forehead before (not counting werewolves)

[famethrowa]

I have always suspected when it came out and the general late 60's vibe was part of the reason OHMSS was ranekd quite as highly as it was,

It's funny how it gets a bit trippy and has little freakout parts, spirit of the age and all that

Not watched it in quite a few years but Octopussy to my memory is a bit messy with the stuff in India being a bit too cheesey for its own good, the opening and the nuke circus stuff I remember quite liking though.

seemed a bit too self-deprecating to have Bond literally dressed as a clown for the heroic finale?

View To A Kill does I think feel like the series is updating itself a bit, not quite so keen on going over the same ground and generally feels a bit more open to 80's culture.

Zorin's computer! Grace Jones' haircut! Marvellous.

[studpuppet]

It's The Spy Who Loved Me all the live long day.

A bit like Abba's best song being Knowing Me, Know You, despite the Partridge connotations and the 'Oh but Pete 'search history' Townsend says SOS is the best pop single ever!'.

Why?

- Best sets
- Best henchman
- Best Moore performance (comedy plus not too old yet)
- Best gadgets/cars (plural - the Esprit yes, but also the Mk4 Ford Cortina and a Sherpa van)
- Best opening scene...
- ...which cuts to the Best Bond song
- It's got Shane Rimmer in it
- Bet you didn't ever notice it, but Kurt Jurgens has WEBBED HANDS

Honourable mention for Live & Let Die, which just loses out because the Kananga Balloon.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

So, that's where my blow-up doll came from.

[shiftwork2]

62-81 and you're golden Bosto, although the prospect of sitting through Thunderball fills me with a strange dread.

Kananga balloon or pigeon double-take?  I see we've got some Bonding fans in the thread!

[dissolute ocelot]

View to a Kill is the best Bond because it's the first Bond I saw in the cinema. It would be improved if you removed Roger Moore, but can't have everything.

Rest of Moore Bond is shite as actual cinema but fun as some kind of Get Smart! movie series. Dr No is boring too.

[Small Man Big Horse]

it's Live and Let Die. cheers

dontpaintyourteeth was clearly right with his first reply, and I'm outraged that everyone isn't agreeing with him. I'd also recommend Moore's diaries from when he was making the film, which detail just how insanely dangerous the stunts were, it's a fascinating and also funny insight in to how the film was made, and Moore's very self-deprecating and aware of his limitations as an actor too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/007-Diaries-Filming-Live-Let/dp/0750989807

[Magnum Valentino]

Yeah I love that book, and all his others.

[Egyptian Feast]

Live and Let Die is a banger. One of my top three easily (the other two probably being the previous couple - yes, I love Diamonds Are Forever AKA Bond: The Vegas Years).

The pre-titles sequence is my favourite of the series - the guy at the UN being killed by a sound effect, the New Orleans 'funeral', a bit of Voodoo and then you have skulls exploding with flames to the sound of Wings. What an opening!