Bond, James Bond

Moore was great. Not his fault that when he was Bond, the franchise had been running so long that the screenwriters were starting to take their own chances with the Bond character. Straying from Flemming's original bond and trying to develop him into something that would be successful in the movie climate of the 70's and early 80's.

But like visually and character wise, I think he was a great bond!
 
I have to admit I got a bit tired with the Moore era, it ended up like self-parody. But that said, it was starting to drift into cliches anyway towards the end of the Connery era, and the Moore films are lot of fun - the sheer spectacle went up a notch, and the gadgets and one-liners were a major attraction.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
Moore was great. Not his fault that when he was Bond, the franchise had been running so long that the screenwriters were starting to take their own chances with the Bond character. Straying from Flemming's original bond and trying to develop him into something that would be successful in the movie climate of the 70's and early 80's.
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This. I think that Moore was really unlucky in that regard. However, if the first one is Moonraker, I will try to watch it and comment on it some time soon.

EDIT: I remember really not liking this one, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
 
Moonraker is one of the most OTT ones, easily. Funnily enough, Moonraker was also the most far-fetched of the books, as far as I'm concerned, although the plot couldn't have been more different, and was quite pedestrian by comparison.
 
OTT?

I don't know if Moonraker would be a good start. We could do the movies by Bond actor though. Do the Moore movies and start out with Live and Let Die like @Brigantium proposed...or do the Brosnan movies and start with GoldenEye etc...
 
Spy Who Loved Me is probably my favorite Moore movie, Live and Let Die is my favorite theme song ... and a good movie
 
Moore was Bond when I was a kid. Most people say Connery is the definitive Bond, but it actually took me a loooong time to see Connery that way. Moore had his own kind of smooth.

Also loved Moore in Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds, who could have been Bond...

Albert R. Broccoli asked Reynolds to play James Bond, when Sean Connery left the franchise, but turned the role down, saying "An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done."[18] Broccoli offered the role to another non-Briton, Australian George Lazenby.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Reynolds

I didn't know that until a few nights ago, when I randomly surfed into that Wiki article.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Moore was Bond when I was a kid. Most people say Connery is the definitive Bond, but it actually took me a loooong time to see Connery that way. Moore had his own kind of smooth.

Also loved Moore in Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds, who could have been Bond...
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Same here, Moonraker was the first one I saw in the theater. I think he (and Brosnan) stayed on for 1 too many films. Which is why I hope Craig does one more and calls it a Bond career.
 
Well, I wasn't born yet when Moonraker came out but my parents must have watched it later because I remember those images of Jaws and his teeth and Bond battling him in space from my childhood. In that sense it's probably the one I remember the most from my childhood. Most of the other Bond movies I only know from watching them much later :)
 
Moonraker was also the first Bond film I saw (& I saw it in the theater). Don't know if it has aged well. A year prior to Spectre releasing, I watched all the Bond films (including Never Say Never) with my son so when we saw Spectre, he would be well versed in Bond. During that year, he got hooked on the Bond video games.

Skyfall & License To Kill are probably my favorites.
 
I hope I don't irk the board gods with resurrecting an old thread, but I just watched a Bond marathon this weekend (had family in town, and needed something innocuous on in the background). I know that Dalton doesn't get a lot of love, but after watching Living Daylights again, I forgot how good of a Bond movie it was (I don't usually reach for it in my Bond collection) - I thought he was a good balance between Connery's dispassionate suave and Moore's cheekiness, the globe trotting plot was good, the girl wasn't an idiot, and the finale was entertaining.

I was pretty disappointed with Spectre (I didn't get a chance to see it in theaters)....maybe because it followed the very awesome Skyfall. I always gets bummed when Bond movies move too fast with a byzantine plot and an underdeveloped villain.
 
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soundwave said:
I know that Dalton doesn't get a lot of love, but after watching Living Daylights again, I forgot how good of a Bond movie it was (I don't usually reach for it in my Bond collection) - I thought he was good balance between Connery's dispassionate suave and Moore's cheekiness, the globe trotting plot was good, the girl wasn't an idiot, and the finale was entertaining.
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Thank you! I didn't mind Timothy Dalton at all, as a throwback to the Bond of the books. The opening scene of Bond refusing to kill the cellist and instead scaring 'the living daylights' out of her is close to one of Fleming's short stories. The rest was written specifically for screen but at the time a refreshing change from the high camp of the Roger Moore era, I thought - that eventually descended into self-parody.
 
That's what I was thinking - it was a nice change to go back to a more Flemming-esque model after Moore's goofy antics (although I should note that I do enjoy the Moore movies - they're cheesy, but they were a big part of my cinematic experience as a kid so I'll always have a soft spot for them).

Also on Living Daylights; I really liked the intro at Gibraltar (one of my favorite intros in the entire series).
 
I will say that the cello escape sequence was corny...and I don't think they fleshed out Whitaker enough to make him a truly intimidating bad guy, but everything else works really well for me.

I think License to Kill was good, but it just got overwhelmed at the Summer US Box Office with juggernauts like Batman and Indiana Jones, so Dalton never got a decent chance...plus the break with Bond storytelling tradition rankled a few folks (my mom, a Bond aficionado, hated it with a passion, as did all her friends). I thought it was an interesting change of pace. Oddly enough, Craig would popularize "dark Bond" years later. Sucks for Dalton.
 
Watched A View to a Kill on TV today before football started (haven't watched it in years and didn't really pay much attention to it during the recent marathon I had). I know Moore gets a bad rap, and this movie certainly has issues, but there is something almost comforting about his take on Bond - it's silly spy fantasy popcorn entertainment that's nice to have on in the background (it's not too dark/violent for the kids, but there is enough action to be interesting). I think you have to be in the right mood/mindset to watch it.

Having said all of that, the girl in this one was terrible.
 
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