Bond, James Bond

I kind of think Skyfall is to the James Bond series what The Dark Knight was to the Batman series. It remained true to its roots, whilst offering a completely different approach to telling the story. As opposed to the traditional story telling of "Go to X and investigate Y", Skyfall makes the story much more personal, and even takes place mostly in the United Kingdom, Bond's home, and increases the level of threat, as opposed to taking place in a remote location.
 
I am a fan of the franchise and more forgiving than the general public. Usually I am happy if a Bond movie checks off most/all of these boxes.

1)Good Bad guy/henchman
2) Good Bond Girl
3) Cool gadget
4) Cool car chase
5) cools tunts
6) at least plausible plot

But Skyfall just went way beyond all that and might set the new formula in a similar way that Goldfinger set the "old"
formula.
 
LooseCannon said:
The Bond Blaxploitation flick.
Click to expand...
Indeed. But I love the action in this one.

I guess I shouldn't wait long with seeing Skyfall, but you know, I have a bit of a habit in which I do not have to see all the great/famous movies as soon as possible.
(Last film I saw was L.A. Confidential from 1997: brilliant film! Next movie I want to see in the theater: Interstellar)
 
I've been wondering if I should revisit all the Bond films. I've seen almost all of them, but in no order whatsoever and throughout my life, so many, many of them just blur together. I wouldn't be able to distinguish a single one from the 60s or 70s in my memory.
 
Perun said:
I wouldn't be able to distinguish a single one from the 60s or 70s in my memory.
Click to expand...
Perun, that's exactly one of the reasons why I wanted to rewatch them. Result: they felt as new films. ;)
Now that I have seen so many already, it's starting to happen again (hard to distinguish what exactly happened in which film: some scenes at least). But that's also because I took lots of time in between these films.

But while watching the films I thought it's pretty nice.

Some years back, I bought all the films seperately on DVD for 5-8 euro (not at once, but collected them over a year or so) until Golden Eye.
 
Forostar said:
For completionist reasons: Don't forget to watch Never Say Never (released 4 months after Octopussy), when the time comes, even if it is not part of the official series. :)
Click to expand...


I think I have the DVD of that, an okay movie for a remake of Thunderball ...that was a cool time to be a Bond fan, 2 movies in 1 year. Saw them both in the theater.
 
Perun said:
I've been wondering if I should revisit all the Bond films. I've seen almost all of them, but in no order whatsoever and throughout my life, so many, many of them just blur together. I wouldn't be able to distinguish a single one from the 60s or 70s in my memory.
Click to expand...
I was just thinking the exact same thing reading through this thread. Last time I saw a Bond movie was when Casino Royale came out and it really blew me away, not sure why I stopped there.
 
I can get horribly pedantic about Bond, so it's probably best I don't come back here for a while ;) , but I almost consider the Bond of each era a completely different character. As much as the Roger Moore era was terribly good cheesy fun, it became a self-parody. I like the Connery era best, slightly closer to the character and the storylines of the Ian Fleming books.

There was another non-Broccoli Bond film too, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) starring George Lazenby as Bond. Not a bad film at all, which sticks to the book plot reasonably well - that was probably the Bond book with the strongest plot. It also explains his vendetta against Blofeld and what happened with his first wife. If the Moore era is your thing, though, it's short on the one-liners and gadgets.
 
I have a soft spot for For Your Eyes Only because of the ski stunts. Can't remember what it's about though...
 
Brigantium said:
There was another non-Broccoli Bond film too, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) starring George Lazenby as Bond. Not a bad film at all, which sticks to the book plot reasonably well - that was probably the Bond book with the strongest plot. It also explains his vendetta against Blofeld and what happened with his first wife. If the Moore era is your thing, though, it's short on the one-liners and gadgets.
Click to expand...


On Her Majesty's Secret Service was an "official" Bond movie. Never Say Never Again, Casino Royale (1967) are the 2 non EON films.
 
Oh, was it? I didn't know that, I thought it was an unofficial. I didn't count the comedy Casino Royale as a 'serious' Bond movie. :p
 
I am down for watching Dr. No next week if anyone else wants to so a James Bond watch/discussion
 
I'm down for that too. Downloaded all James Bond movies (including Never Say Never Again, but not Casino Royale parody) few days ago. We could maybe do one per week... kinda like how the Priest Album discussion is done :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top