What is your most favorite 007 movie and why?
Kelly Robinson
will not respond to them. Y'all already know what I think (heh) is the
best Bond movie and I thought it would be cool to get a consensus as to
who thinks which movie is the best of them all.
For example, you think "Octopussy" is the best Bond movie of them all.
That's fair. Why did it strike you as being the best?
Well, you know the style of Bond movie I like the most. You know that I
like Dalton's style the best because his most accurately portray's the
character of Bond in the movel. However, I am compelled to admit that
"The Living Daylights" has some similarities to "For Your Eyes Only" and
despite how good it is, :Licence to Kill" doesn't have the same
continual/constant grab, emotion, and suspense as "For Your Eyes Only".
Therefore "For Your Eyes Only" is my choice of best-of-all Bond movie.
(my pro-Dalton fan would probably kill me if he read this message!)
Skull 5215
of the others.
Ben Corby
Number 3: TWINE. This might be a little premature, I mean, after TND, what
*wouldn't* we consider one of the best ever? Still, I think it's earned this
place- check through earlier posts and you'll find why I say this.
Number 2: OHMSS. This is one of the best Bonds, hands down, and has the best
girl (Diana Rigg), the best Blofeld (Telly Savalas), and the worst Bond (George
Lazenby). Still, even Lazenby's shortcomings can't ruin this incredible film,
and would we really have that great "This never happened to the other fella."
line without him? Unfortunately this film was partly ripped off by FYEO, which
I can easily live without.
Number One: FRWL. The movie that was so blatently ripped off by FYEO (more so
than OHMSS) is *the* best of the series. Sean Connery still hadn't grown
entirely into the role, but his second go-round with the PPK was better than
Moore's or Brosnan's, with Dalton being perhaps the sole exception. I'd take
Kerim Bey over Columbo any day, and this film's fight scenes are some of the
best-placed and most memorable of any film's. Period. This is clearly the
film that the rest of the series has struggled to live up to.
--
"That's my story and I'm stickin' to it"-
Ben "You Only Live Twice" Corby
http://members.aol.com/strykerbc/index.html
********
"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to live! What do you think, idiot?"
-Goldfinger's original line
barr...@my-deja.com
only five Bond films that are recognizably adapted from an entire Ian
Fleming novel (the others, of course, are DN, GF, TB and OHMSS) and
arguably from the best of the bunch. (The novel's only real competition
for that title, IMHO, is OHMSS.) The movie adapts the book well, making
the changes it did for one of two good reasons: to update the book to
1963 (i.e. the use of SPECTRE as the group behind the conspiracy, rather
than the already dated notion of Russian villians for sheer villiany's
sake) or to make the movie more cinematic (the protracted fight on the
Orient Express, and the helicopter and boat sequences at the end.) The
gadgets and movie series trademarks that would start taking over the
films with GF had not yet become intrusive and the film was driven
instead by fascinating characters (Kerim Bey, Red Grant, Rosa Klebb,
Kronsteen, the still unseen and sinister Ernst Stavro Blofeld and a
cool but still human-scale James Bond), a sense of exotic, pervasive
danger and a plot straight-forward enough not to get lost in the
set-pieces but subtle enough to hold the viewer's (or THIS viewer's,
anyway) interest.
And then there's the cast! Whew! I love Tim Dalton's protrayal
of 007 and Pierce Brosnan did a terrific job in TWINE but for my money
nobody makes me BELIEVE in Bond, James Bond like Connery in his prime
and this was definitely his prime. And then, just for dessert, they
throw in Robert Shaw, Lotta Lenya, Pedro Armendariz, the gorgeous
Daniela Bianchi and of course Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond
Llewelyn, all of them at the top of their game.
The winnah, and still champeen-- From Russia with Love!
Just for the record and because it's probably been a good minute
and a half since someone's posted a "My Ranking of the Bond Movies":
Just after FRWL comes
GF--There's a reason this movie became the template for the
series-- it's damned good! The trite, over-blown, cliches of later,
poorer Bond (and other) films started life as the new, exciting, clever
inovations of this film and they hold up here because they were done
WELL.
OHMSS--Like FRWL and GF (and to lesser extents DN and TB) this
one's relatively undiluted Fleming. It eschews the bloat and
over-reliance on gadgets of its two predecessors and returns Bond to his
original human dimensions. Terrific script, direction, action sequences
and supporting cast.
Second tier, solid, entertaining movies (order shifts
continually)--
TLD
LTK
TWINE
DN
Third tier, good Bond movies with flaws that make me wince
TB--Bloat sets in on the Bond series.
FYEO--Lynn-Holly Johnson is like fingernails on a blackboard.
Then there's the OTT pre-credit sequence, the lame ski chase, the lamer
zamboni scene. And yet, it's Moore's best movie.
GE--Lose the tank chase and the machine guns and this one moves up
a tier.
NSNA--James Bond playing video games?? Puhleese!
TSWLM--A good movie in the service of a really silly plot. All
this and Jaws too.
Then there's the dregs. All of these (well, most of 'em anyway)
have a few redeeming features, like the elevator fight and the car chase
in DAF, the disarming of the bomb in OP, the centrifuge and the lab
scenes in MR and the pre-title sequence in TND. But mostly, they're
pretty bad. In more-or-less decending order
DAF
YOLT
OP
TND
MR
AVTAK
MWTGG
LALD
Jeez, this got long. Sorry bout that. Anyway, that's my two
cents worth.
Barry King
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
JLuallin
The Living Daylights is my one of my favorite Bond films for several reasons.
First of all this is not the usual "Bond saves the world!" plot, but rather a
"week in the life" of James Bond.
TLD has all the right ingredients and chemistry between actors. In addition,
the music is (in my opinion) the best ever composed in the Bond series. But
what makes this story line believable is a credit to a superb performance on
the part of Timothy Dalton. This guy is believable and looks like a
professional killer.
Bond is on assignment to aid and protect a Russian informant (a KGB double
agent, who ultimately double crosses Bond). In the end, of course, the good
guy wins. Add to this some romance (with just one girl, for a change), the
best music score, great action, beautiful cinematography, and you've got a
great James Bond story.
This Bond film is a sleeper, probably because T. Dalton is not as well known as
Connery, Moore or Brosnan. TLD is definitely a crowd pleaser - I highly
recommend it!
Rhino
shaken, not stirred, and added:
>Ok- my top three are here:
>
>Number 3: TWINE. This might be a little premature, I mean, after TND, what
>*wouldn't* we consider one of the best ever? Still, I think it's earned this
>place- check through earlier posts and you'll find why I say this.
>
>Number 2: OHMSS. This is one of the best Bonds, hands down, and has the best
>girl (Diana Rigg), the best Blofeld (Telly Savalas), and the worst Bond (George
>Lazenby). Still, even Lazenby's shortcomings can't ruin this incredible film,
>and would we really have that great "This never happened to the other fella."
>line without him? Unfortunately this film was partly ripped off by FYEO, which
>I can easily live without.
>
>Number One: FRWL. The movie that was so blatently ripped off by FYEO (more so
>than OHMSS) is *the* best of the series. Sean Connery still hadn't grown
>entirely into the role, but his second go-round with the PPK was better than
>Moore's or Brosnan's, with Dalton being perhaps the sole exception. I'd take
>Kerim Bey over Columbo any day, and this film's fight scenes are some of the
>best-placed and most memorable of any film's. Period. This is clearly the
>film that the rest of the series has struggled to live up to.
I think I'd go for the same choices as Ben - and for pretty much the
same reasons - maybe I'd swap TWINE with LTK but it would depend on
mood, and I've only seen TWINE once so far
I'm not so sure I agree about FYEO ripping off either OHMSS or FRWL
though - the main storyline ingredients are directly from Fleming's
short story Risico and it's arguably Moore's most Bondian Bond - sure
he was good in TSWLM but I think FYEO just beats it
--
/\ Visit The Emporium @ www.rhino.org.uk
\/ James Bond, Carry On Films, The Prisoner, Blondie
/\ Black Adder, Hammer Horror, John Wyndham, Trivia
\/ James Herbert, Alexander Dumas and much more
Sophie's Legs - WOW! (ŠRhino)
GeorgeBailey2
JLuallin <jlua...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19991203134929...@ng-fn1.aol.com...
series - the escape from the Russian air base.
I have to admit that I prefer LTK and FRWL just a tad more.
AABA
say it?--downright DULL. A large part of the problem is Pierce Brosnan,
who consistently fails to engage as 007. Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton
"had it", but Brosnan is just not believable in the role. At the root of
it, he is a smallish man with no chest, small arms, and beady eyes. It is
no coincidence that in his two previous Bond outings, the climactic
hand-to-hand fight scenes (which have been kept to a minimum since he
became Bond--have you noticed?) have been filmed on unlevel ground,
grappling around on suspended machinery. The director is no fool. He can
see through the camera that Brosnan fighting anyone of large stature is
just plain ludicrous. In TWINE, Brosnan comes up against a terrorist who
appears to have been hand-picked to be even smaller than he is, and a
woman. Some challenge.
Sean Connery was a large man, not a huge man. When he squared off
against a Red Grant, an Oddjob, a sumo wrestler, it was obvious that he
was outclassed in size, and would have to use his wits as well as his
brawn to triumph. The tension in those battles came from seeing how he
managed to pull it off, and Connery almost always made it look believable.
Brosnan doesn't look like he could win in a fight with Steve
Buscemi. No wonder his fight scenes have been reduced to a few
well-choreographed moves that come and go in the blink of an eye.
Brosnan is only part of the problem, though. The Bond series seems
to have forgotten how to make an engaging action sequence. The
parasail--ski chase scene in TWINE is outclassed by every other ski chase
sequence in any other Bond film, including Roger Moore's one bit of glory
in the pre-credit sequence of TSWLM. Have they forgotten how to build
tension and create interest in any sort of outcome? With the exception of
the inflatable ski-jacket (at last, a piece of spy equipment that is used
in a plausible way), the whole sequence is sorely lacking in originality
and, yes, BORING.
The pre-credit sequence had its moments, particularly in the Swiss
bank, but once the boats hit the water it's all over. Bond's boat was
fast, all right, but it was all the stunt-driver could do to keep it from
capsizing as it zoomed across the larger boat's wake. Once again, no
engagement, no blocking, no sense of letting the audience in on whatever
the hell the PLAN was. Compare that scene to the boat chase in FRWL,
which was ingenious in its pacing and outcome. Even the boat chase scenes
in LALD, one of the weakest films in the series, were stronger than
TWINE's. I think the producers have gotten too caught up in the
state-of-the-art hardware to notice that they are spending more and
getting less.
Then there is the ending. Well, what can one say about a Bond movie
where the big climax takes place aboard a submarine with three people on
board? Wait, I think I have it--yes---BORING. I'm not saying that there
need to be some sort of huge set-piece finale in every Bond film, although
I must admit that I favor them (GF, YOLT, DN, and LTK are among my
favorites for this very reason). But if you're going to set a climax on a
small and controlled space like a submarine, at least milk it for the
inherent tension of its claustrophobic quality. I couldn't help but think
of how much better the submarine location was used in The Hunt for Red
October, or even The Abyss. If it's not exciting, why put it in a Bond
film? It's a sorry state of affairs when TWINE's action scenes make you
keep thinking of other, better films.
TWINE and TND both are gorgeous, glossy, and utterly vacuous and
unengaging. One could argue that Pierce Brosnan has the same qualities as
an actor, but it's not all his fault. The Bond series needs to return to
the more earthy realism of Connery and Dalton, and the more realistic
situational setups of Ian Fleming--or choke on its own slickness.
--
Remove "nospam" to reply. Unless you have some incredible opportunity to offer, of course.
s-er...@webtv.net
I must admit that I resented Dalton being pushed out in favor of
Brosnan. In fact,with both Dalton & Barry permanently gone, I had
decided to call it an era(only saw GE on tv)
But did see TND in the theater (only because Michelle Yeoh was in it) &
found that Brosnan wasn't that bad.(still prefer Connery or Dalton
though)
<< climactic fight scenes(which have been kept
to a minimum since he became Bond >>
The way I see it,there hasn't been a decent fight scene since the
elevator fight in DAF to TND where Michelle brought in her own team to
do her's.
But other than that, they have been all but non-existent in Brosnan's'
films.
I don't think one can blame the "bungee jumper" (my nickname for
Brosnan) for that.
It's just that today's stunt guys (unlike Bob Simmons & his
contemporaries) don't know how to choreograph fight scenes. To them, a
fight scene is a backhand punch, a head butt,(that's gotta be the
stupidest looking move in films) & fake, phony looking "hollywood"(not
to be confused with Hong Kong martial arts which are great) martial
arts.
CB(countryboy)
s-er...@webtv.net
I'm in total agree ment with your other point on the series in general,&
would add that it is true of most American/hollywood films today,not
just the Bonds.
JD Wiseman (John Moore)
I personally think the fight at the end of GE may be one of the best in the
series. The only one much better is the Train fight in FRWL, though there
are a couple of odd edits in that.
jd
s-er...@webtv.net
From an actor's point of view I can understand why this isn't Sean's
favorite Bond(why oh why didn't' you stick around for OHMSS),but from a
fan's POV,it's got all the excitement one could hope for.
As stated elsewhere,this not just my favorite Bond film,but my favorite
film of any kind.
An outlandish story line handled in a "Serious" manner thus making it
believable.
Awesome action that keeps you on the edge of your seat till the
spectacular climax.
Who could forget the fight with pro wrestler Peter Maivia! (One of the
best fights in the entire series)
One hair raising escape after another,giving it the feel of one of those
old cliffhangers from way back when on steroids.
Incredibly haunting & beautiful score & title song by Barry.(who else)
One of the most beautiful of all Bond girls in the person of Mie Hama!
If you want brilliant characterization,emotional drama & all that kind
of stuff,then watch,FRWL,OHMSS,GF or LTK(at the least)......but.....
If you want to be thrilled & chilled by a wildly fantastic tale told
seriously & not for laughs,or just go along for the ride & have a great
time for a couple of hours then,"Twice is the Only Way to Live!"
CB(countryboy)
Adam Stone
it is a great movie, well-directed and generally well-acted. I am a bit
biased because I think Dalton was the best Bond. He is the most realistic of
all the Bond's and is definitely the best actor to play Bond yet. Also
another reason: Carey Lowell!!!
Kelly Robinson <is...@groovyshow.com> wrote in message
news:3845BCFE...@groovyshow.com...