Moonraker

[Blumf]

Aye - this has morphed into the 'Roger Moore Movies on ITV on a Sunday Afternoon' thread.

Well, it's The Living Daylights next Sunday, with that there Timmy Dalton.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Without checking IMDB, isn't the creative team behind The Living Daylights basically the same as the folk responsbile for A View To A Kill?  Talk about from the ridiculous to the sublime.

[Blumf]

Same director, same screenplay writers, same editor (well one extra guy on TLD), same production designer.

Much prefer AVTAK though.

[CaledonianGonzo]

To broaden the appeal of TLD to those who grew up in the Moore era they should have kept in the sequence where Bond escapes across the rooftops of Tangiers on a magic carpet.

[SavageHedgehog]

The five 80s Bond films were all by the same director from the same screenwriters [nb]Pedant's note: Octopussy had some help from George McDonald Fraser, and people more versed in his work than I say you can tell[/nb], yet if you told someone each came from a different team I'd doubt they'd disbelieve you. Unsure if that speaks ill or well of them, John Glen in particular, but for a period generally considered their creative nadir I'd say at least it's interesting.

[greenman]

The five 80s Bond films were all by the same director from the same screenwriters [nb]Pedant's note: Octopussy had some help from George McDonald Fraser, and people more versed in his work than I say you can tell[/nb], yet if you told someone each came from a different team I'd doubt they'd disbelieve you. Unsure if that speaks ill or well of them, John Glen in particular, but for a period generally considered their creative nadir I'd say at least it's interesting.

Up until Licence to Kill turning into a bland Miami Vice ripoff I actually find a lot of the appeal of this era is how closed off from the taste of the time it is. The same team keeping to roughly the same formula quite apart from what the rest of Hollywood was producing at the time.

[Tapiocahead]

I was not entirely concentrating on Octopussy last week - but it seemed that having deactivated the bomb in the circus in Germany they then decide to go and get the baddy at his lair in India and rather than take a SWAT team or the Indian Army he takes a load of half naked female acrobats from the circus to carry out the raid.. Is that a fair summary?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Not forgetting Q in a Union Jack hot air balloon.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The title of the film alone is worthy of a raised eyebrow.

Might have posted these before, but anyway for those who don't know, James Brolin was originally cast for Octopussy, but Never Say Never Again getting Connery put paid to Roger Moore leaving the franchise. Here are his screen tests though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhkUWMJoccQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksjXilVYIxw

Would have been interesting to see him in the role.

[SavageHedgehog]

Up until Licence to Kill turning into a bland Miami Vice ripoff I actually find a lot of the appeal of this era is how closed off from the taste of the time it is. The same team keeping to roughly the same formula quite apart from what the rest of Hollywood was producing at the time.

There is a little crossover between Octopussy and the Indiana Jones films I'd say. I suspect Raiders of the Lost Ark influenced it, and if it didn't influence Temple of Doom they both came up with rather similar "yuck! Foreign food!" dinner sequences. A View To a Kill "borrows" from Superman, but that was a whopping 7 years old by then.

Supposedly Bridgette Nielsen's character in Beverly Hill Cop II was moddled on Grace Jones in View.

[Revelator]

The five 80s Bond films were all by the same director from the same screenwriters [nb]Pedant's note: Octopussy had some help from George McDonald Fraser, and people more versed in his work than I say you can tell[/nb], yet if you told someone each came from a different team I'd doubt they'd disbelieve you. Unsure if that speaks ill or well of them, John Glen in particular, but for a period generally considered their creative nadir I'd say at least it's interesting.

Fraser's screenplay was mostly unused (apparently one early draft of Octopussy had Spectre as the villains, while another had Goldfinger's brother Monsieur Diamant, who would have been played by Gert Frobe), but yes, the 80s Bonds are unified in having been directed by John Glen and scripted by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson (who now co-produces the series). If people view those years as the creative nadir of the series, they're flat-out wrong. There's only one real stinker from that era (A View to a Kill) and the real creative nadir of the series was the lower-budget films scripted by Tom Mankiewicz in the early 70s.

After The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker the filmmakers knew they couldn't go any farther in lavish self-parody (TSWLM swipes from You Only Twice while MR swipes from TSWLM), so they went back to the roots of the series, Fleming's work, hence For Your Eyes Only and the Dalton years. There were many hiccups along the way, including the Goldfinger-atavism of AVTAK, but even Octopussy borrows the intricate scheme-concocted-by-multiple-villains structure of From Russia With Love. Alas, the public wasn't ready (it was too busy going through a Stallone/Schwarzenegger phase) until the Craig era, so we had to make do with uneasy Connery/Moore hybrids of the Brosnan years. 

I know many regard Licence to Kill as "a bland Miami Vice ripoff" but it strikes me as the last Bond film of the classic era (the last production Cubby Brocolli really supervised, and Maurice Binder's last 007 too) and still underrated. Far from bland, it was the most violent film of the series and features Dalton at his seething best, superb stuntwork and action sequences (capped by the still-impressive truck chase) which arise from the demands of the plot instead of filling time, a story that aptly combines Yojimbo with Fleming's Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun, and Robert Davi's charismatically Sanchez (one of the very best Bond villains). Kamen's music fails to rise to the film, but that's the only major demerit.

[CaledonianGonzo]

That winking fish, though.

I agree about that truck sequence. It's fucking nails.

I know the Dalton movies underperformed - LTK in particular - but didn't the Moore Bonds of the 1980s make a heap of cash.

[SavageHedgehog]

Relatively speaking they all did OK, but I believe the last three 80s films are the three least attended Bond films of the lot [nb]I think even including the 67 Casino Royale[/nb], and this was part of a downward trend throughout the whole decade, including Never Say Never Again. For Your Eyes Only saw a notable drop-off from Moonraker, and Octopussy sold fewer tickets than alleged flop OHMSS. Of course, this is during a period where film attendance was down as a whole.

[mothman]

The title of the film alone is worthy of a raised eyebrow.

Might have posted these before, but anyway for those who don't know, James Brolin was originally cast for Octopussy, but Never Say Never Again getting Connery put paid to Roger Moore leaving the franchise. Here are his screen tests though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhkUWMJoccQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksjXilVYIxw

Would have been interesting to see him in the role.

I've been meaning to look for these, so thanks for that. But crikey, he doesn't half look - and sound! - a lot like Lazenby. I wonder if that played a (subconscious) part in the Never Say Never Again jitters that led them to bring back Moore instead? I feel Bond should have shorter hair, though.

[Brundle-Fly]

Life really didn't get any better for a thirteen year old in 1979 than to see the cover of this issue arrive on the doormat that sunny Saturday morning...

[Brundle-Fly]

There's something magnificent about the way TSWLM takes such a ludicrous premise and (up to the last moment) plays it with a straight face. It was a big thing for me, and I think I know what you mean if you're referring to the soundtrack albums: Spy had a gorgeous big gatefold LP full of pictures of exciting moments from the film.

After seeing TSWLM at a cinema matinee in Hastings, 1977, I begged my parents to buy the soundtrack LP for me that same afternoon from Woolworths, because I knew it was the closest I could get to re-experience this life changing hour and a half.

Great score, but I do remember being a bit pissed off that the best still of Jaws was on the gatefold crease in the middle.

Thus ends Looks Familiar with Denis Norden.

[greenman]

Honestly I'v never really understood AVTAK being viewed as a total flop, it shifts back towards the more over the to self parody of the 70's but I think does so quiet effectively and in Walken has one of the best villians of the series.

Really though for me the whole the Moore era was very consistent, nothing you could call a real classic perhaps and the tone changed significantly over different films but all of them were pretty effective at what they attempted.

[monkfromhavana]

Honestly I'v never really understood AVTAK being viewed as a total flop, it shifts back towards the more over the to self parody of the 70's but I think does so quiet effectively and in Walken has one of the best villians of the series.

Really though for me the whole the Moore era was very consistent, nothing you could call a real classic perhaps and the tone changed significantly over different films but all of them were pretty effective at what they attempted.

I think there are 2-3 you could say were "classics" - Golden Gun, Live & Let Die, TSWLM. Kill being a near miss

[greenman]

"Classic" in that case would mean blockbusters of the quality of say Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Terminator 1&2, Aliens or Lord of the Rings although I spose you could argue no Bond really reaches that level. I wouldn't personally have any Moore Bond as the very best of the series either(Skyfall, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye) but equally there was nothing that failed to the degree of Die Another Day, partly because I think the Moore era avoided Hollywood "blockbuster by committee of coked up execs".

[El Unicornio, mang]

I've been meaning to look for these, so thanks for that. But crikey, he doesn't half look - and sound! - a lot like Lazenby. I wonder if that played a (subconscious) part in the Never Say Never Again jitters that led them to bring back Moore instead? I feel Bond should have shorter hair, though.

He reminds me a lot of Christian Bale, who I think was also having his name mentioned when they were looking for a new bond after Brosnan. Not sure he's charismatic enough though.

Sam Neill also did a screen test, for The Living Daylights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfGz-_iI23g

[kidsick5000]

He reminds me a lot of Christian Bale, who I think was also having his name mentioned when they were looking for a new bond after Brosnan. Not sure he's charismatic enough though.

Bale was highly dismissive of Bond in an interview [nb]that I did with him just before Batman Begins[/nb].
Pretty much regarded it as a joke and only saw it in regards of the later Moore films ie a very conspicuous secret agent who everyone has heard of.

[gatchamandave]

My goodness - no disrespect to those who find something of value, but who in their right mind looks at the Sam Neill test real, and then casts James Brolin ? 

Now, I like him in things, but honestly, he has man boobs ( as do I, let me admit) and plays it too self-mocking. He'd have killed the franchise stone dead.

[El Unicornio, mang]

My goodness - no disrespect to those who find something of value, but who in their right mind looks at the Sam Neill test real, and then casts James Brolin ? 

Brolin was testing for Octopussy, Neill for Living Daylights. Personally I'd choose Brolin over Neill anyway though.

[gatchamandave]

Brolin was testing for Octopussy, Neill for Living Daylights. Personally I'd choose Brolin over Neill anyway though.

You would ? Why ?

Brolin is a fun actor whose work I enjoy - seen him in Castle ? Nice.

But like his character in that, in that audition he comes over, to me, as a really good Matt Helm. The Hamilton Matt Helm at that, rather than Dino' s boozy interpretation. I'd like to see more...but not as Bond.

But I'd love to know what more Brolin orientated folks think.

[biggytitbo]

Shame they didn't consider Nicholas Lyndhurst - The Piglet files proved he had what it took spy wise and he had a built in fan base the others couldnt touch.

[El Unicornio, mang]

You would ? Why ?

Neill just doesn't give off any Bond vibes, to me. He's not hunky/dangerous/charming enough. I think Brolin has those qualities, at least moreso than Neill.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

The limited range of Clive Owen would be eminently suited to a straight adaptation of the original books, set in their original period. Won't happen now that the Craig reboot has occurred.

[Dex Sawash]

I used to think that bloke who played Dr Bashir on Deep Space 9 would make a good Bond if a brownish was going to happen.

Not sure why I thought that, must have had a bit of a crush.

[greenman]

I used to think that bloke who played Dr Bashir on Deep Space 9 would make a good Bond if a brownish was going to happen.

Not sure why I thought that, must have had a bit of a crush.

The names Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi, Alexander Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi.

[SavageHedgehog]

I used to think that bloke who played Dr Bashir on Deep Space 9 would make a good Bond if a brownish was going to happen.

Not sure why I thought that, must have had a bit of a crush.

There was a Bond parody episode with him in the lead role. That probably helped