which is the best James Bond movie?

"seen" = "scene"

Yeah, I get where you're coming from with the overacting, I just really went for it, in the same way that I loved, say, Helena Bonham-Carter's preposterous I AM CRAZY VILLAIN hamming in the Harry Potter flicks. Feels like if any series can go slightly beyond the danger line of campiness it's Bond.

Agreed about the tacked-on "boys with their toys" stuff - sort of felt like someone cooked it up in the script at some point and then they lost the scene where it made sense to use it, and kept it anyway...didn't really grow organically out of the scenes it was in.

ie leave it out ffs it's a bond movie

You can't talk about limits to over-the-top-ness in Goldeneye. It's as goofy as Moore's goofiest movies. Famke is the right kind of exciting over-the-top and matches the very entertaining and batshit insane action scenes well.

xps Nahh, it totally could have been cool if it had just made sense. Part of me wonders if an earlier version had a scene where both Bond and Trevelyan were pulling crazy MI6 gadgets on each other, Trevelyan with an old model laser pocket protector and Bond with the latest grenade foundtain pen, having some kind of standoff. Like, there are ways that "toys" fit pretty nicely in a Bond movie! But the whole deal with Trevelyan is that he's somehow over all the cool-factor spy-gadget stuff, so somehow it becomes just Bond and a Russian guy yelling at each other for no reason when they're on the same side.

ahh, famke's great. it's scorupco who's 100% forgettable. i was saying this in the skyfall thread but I rewatched G-eye on tgiving and it really didnt hold up for me in the slightest... its just a roger moore movie with a fresh coat of paint (not-so-fresh coat these days)

Roger Moore movies are pretty fun though! If nothing else, Goldeneye looks better than those, and a couple of the sequences (again, pretty much the tank chase and the cold open) seriously up the ante on action-packedness, cinematography, and a general sense of physicality and convincingness. For me anyway.

I am trying to think of a Bond movie that I outright disliked... maybe You Only Live Twice? Aside from that one, they've all been fun to ZOMG WAU

Roger Moore movies are pretty fun though!

some are fun, some are shit.

Oh, man, the introduction of Xenia Onatopp was mind-blowing to a 15-year old.

Yeah, also, file that under "puns that you had missed."

Also, one thing that bothered me about the tank chase was the finale: when Bond's about to reach the bad guys, they jump on a train, which immediately departs. The train is traveling at a high speed, so you'd think the bad guys managed to escape, but then they see that the tank is waiting for them in a tunnel ahead! How the hell did Bond manage to drive the tank there and place it in a tunnel well before the train got there? Even if it's a Bond movie and the laws of physics are malleable, it would've been nice to at least get some explanation how Bond got there before the train.

train had to stop at watford junction and abbot's langley

I am trying to think of a Bond movie that I outright disliked... maybe You Only Live Twice?

on a board that prides itself on insane challopry this is maybe the insanest thing i have ever read

YOLT out

NV are you boggling at disliking #YOLT or only disliking that one?

"only" i think but ctfo disliking it more than any non-Connery flicks or Thunderball or Diamonds or even Dr No is just kerrrazy

i half-rewatched goldeneye recently and the tank scene bothered me in an odd way, kinda breaking my suspension of disbelief in the james bond universe (why this moment and not countless others, i don't know) - if you find yourself explosively plowing through the streets of st petersburg in a tank, then you have to admit that you're really a bit shit at being a spy.

Yeah he really is a woefully conspicuous espionage agent. Similarly it bothers me a bit how he so rarely uses an alias. Is there not some master criminal message board on which folk can be advised to shoot in the head anyone who introduces himself as "Bond, James Bond"?

Seems like most master criminals Bond comes into contact with end up dead so maybe it's not an issue for him. Really what he's saying when he introduces himself is "I WILL END YOU".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gPBO0CM78

Not knowing much about lol Britishes pronunciation when I first saw "View To A Kill," discovering that what I was hearing as "Sinjin Smythe" was spelled "St. John Smith" really blew my mind.

Similarly it bothers me a bit how he so rarely uses an alias.

There is a feint at this in "Casino Royale" when Bond checks into the hotel under his own name:

Bond : "Look, if Le Chiffre is that well connected he knows who I am and where the money's coming from. Which means he's decided to play me anyway, so he's either desperate or he's overly confident. But either way, that tells me something about him. And all he gets in return is a name he already has."
Vesper : "And now he knows something about you. He knows you're reckless. Take the next one, there isn't enough room for me and your ego."

FWIW I didn't actually mean "You Only Live Twice", I meant "Never Say Never Again"

i half-rewatched goldeneye recently and the tank scene bothered me in an odd way, kinda breaking my suspension of disbelief in the james bond universe (why this moment and not countless others, i don't know) - if you find yourself explosively plowing through the streets of st petersburg in a tank, then you have to admit that you're really a bit shit at being a spy.

Yeah, this bothered me too... Also, he's plowing through the centre of the Russian capital, destroying statues and historical buildings and stuff, and all he gets after him is a couple of cop cars, instead of the army or SWAT teams or whatever. Okay, maybe I can live with that, but not with the fact that Bond, the master spy, couldn't come up with a better way to chase the bad guy. As thrilling as that scene was, it felt like it put there purely for the "HELL YEAH!" factor, they didn't much care whether it fits the character of James Bond.

Sorry, I got that wrong, it was not the Russian capital in Goldeneye (though it's still the former capital, and the second most important city); I guess I conflated it with The Bourne Supremacy in my head.

the tank chase has a ton of killer money shots, but overall it's pretty incoherent. it's also weirdly lacking in exuberance - i think that might be due to the scoring, which is some of the worst ever in a bond picture. still one of the highlights of G-eye tho

Man, I forgot how mean Live and Let Die is.

Watched it the other week, it's a pretty unhinged film. The most convincing Bond performance from Moore by some way though.

Also, the most assholish Bond has been in any of the films.

And that's saying something.

Exactly.

I recently caught up with two Moore's that I hadn't seen, or at least don't remember ever having seen before: For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy. The former is not especially memorable or clever, but I kind of enjoyed it anyway: I'm a sucker for both skiing and underwater footage, and the movie has plenty of both. The Thatcher gag at the end had my husband and I howling. I'm under the impression that this one is not a favourite among Bond purists, but it kind of seems like the best possible Bond movie from the early 80s starring an actor who was clearly starting to age out of the role. Plus, the Sheena Easton song is actually kind of pretty.

Octopussy pretty much sucks, though. If, arguably, not as bad as A View to a Kill, it is certainly a whole lot duller. The clown stuff is cringe-worthy, and the last hour of the film is brutally sluggish, not even delivering much in the big, climactic action sequence. That saw-blade yoyo thing was pretty cool, though.

for your eyes only is awesome, partially for how much it breaks with bond traditions and also reduces the plot to pretty simple espionage. the underwater scenes are v gorgeous

octopussy's first half is p good but it loses a lot of steam when they get to the circus

i'm a moore apologist though, and i like a view to a kill

Biggest disappointment re: Octopussy, though? That the theme song wasn't also called "Octopussy."

"all time high" slaps tho

FYEO is underrated - the closest in spirit to the novels of the Moores.

I'm always baffled by FYEO love online, it seems to score high in a lot of lists and stuff, but to me it was like sketching out the idea of a "back to espionage basics" Bond without actually making a good espionage movie. The gap between Moore and stunt doubles is VERY apparent, the stuff with the teenage figure skater was creepy, the rock-climbing climax was distractingly nonsensical, and the opening Blofeld But Not In So Many Words bit was just like a fuck-you, and totally gratuitous so they had to really *want* to give the fuck-you. Also the song is terrible, somehow I can never remember the exact melody of the hook even right after listening to it.

the stuff with the teenage figure skater was creepy

Yes. Also, did they ever establish that the villain wasn't really her uncle? 'Cause if not, it just got a whole lot creepier.

no mention of the Smershpod yet so..
https://soundcloud.com/smershpod

oh i mean... it's Goldeneye. obviously

I will be rewatching Octopussy next week! Loved it (alone among the Moores) in '83.

all I remember of that besides the clown thing and the exhausted theme song was being bored as hell. maybe some dingy, flatly-lit footage of bond talking to people, in some interiors...? very hazy.

doctor c i acknowledge all of your criticisms but also you failed to mention that score-wise it's the DISCO BOND

oh i mean... it's Goldeneye. obviously

― flappy bird, Thursday, July 20, 2017 11:23 AM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

goldeneye is terribly paced. i remembered it as more awesome than it actually was

best bond is ohmss and i'd probably say spy who loved me is second

The highs of Goldeneye are series highs tho, and so many of them are terribly paced that that almost doesn't even apply.

Last time I tried to watch OHMSS it was soooooo slooooooooooow

re: goldeneye, i am so tired by the time bond drives a tank through saint petersburg. and that's like, what, the halfway mark?

imo *prepares for no one to agree with me* the best brosnan movie is the world is not enough

the action in ohmss is filmed and edited so beautifully that who gives a shit how slow it is, i love slow

omg TWINE is in my bottom five of all bonds ever. DAD gets a bad rap and there is some very dumb stuff in there but at least you have halle berry and that cool swordfight and.... okay that might be about it but still. the only pleasure TWINE has given me is chuckles over the bad guy's ludicrous gimmick that a bullet in his brain is causing him to become more and more impaired and ineffective as the movie goes on. the rest is sooooooo forgettable and generic and dull except for how terrrrrible denise richards is. honestly i kinda think Tomorrow Never Dies is the sleeper hit of that bunch - jonathan pryce as rupert murdoch! handcuffed-together motorcycle chase antics with michelle yeoh! properly cartoonish torturer henchmen! a genuinely diverting afternoon's entertainment, though you'd probably still be better off watching Supercop and pretending Jackie Chan is actually playing James Bond in a surprise recasting decision post-Dalton.