Catching up with the Bond movies

Tindie

I have never seen one James bond movie in full, even my sister as seen one of his movie, she not fan of movies really.

I seen a few, in bits, I think older ones, look more funny then the new ones,

I am thinking for whole of April to watch all James bond movies! ,

if I fall back in April, I can catch up on Four day weekend for Easter

As anyone seen all James bond movies?

And is Casino Royale (1967) not a part of the series?

krudler

The original Casino Royale isn't a "real" Bond movie, same as Never Say Never Again. I've seen them all, some a great, some are perfectly watchable, others are complete tosh. Rather than watching them all watch:

Goldfinger
Thunderball
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Live And Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
Licence To Kill
Goldeneye
Casino Royale

They're the best ones imo

Lemming

You forgot Dr. No (being the original bond movie and all), and on a personal taste note, I always quite liked "From Russia with love", and "The Living Daylights"; granted the latter had some silly stuff in it, but both felt very 'Cold War' espionage to me.

king size mars bar

Got the box set of all the bond films ever made, class!

pixelburp

krudler wrote: »

The original Casino Royale isn't a "real" Bond movie, same as Never Say Never Again. I've seen them all, some a great, some are perfectly watchable, others are complete tosh. Rather than watching them all watch:

Goldfinger
[...]

UTV are repeating the Bonds in order, and as it was a sofabound day I watched Goldfinger fully for the first time in years, possibly not since I was a kid. Honestly, time hasn't been kind to it at all; in fact I thought it was downright awful in places, particularly the third act - the Fort Knox set-piece. I also saw Diamonds Are Forever in full; good god.

I try my best to ignore the often-mentioned chauvinism as merely symptomatic of that era, but I found it hard to take much of the rest seriously at all. It's funny because the Moore era is frequently criticised for being incredibly camp & cheesy, yet watching Goldfinger the camp was clearly there already; I guess because Connery played the role straight it was easier to ignore. Then Moore came along, played with tongue in cheek and so the camp was then impossible not to spot...

krudler

Diamonds Are Forever is appalling, cracking title song aside. I forgot about The Living Daylights, it's a pity Dalton didn't get another shot at the role, Licence To Kill was way ahead of it's time, having Bond as a cold blooded bastard not a wisecracking gent.

Scotty P

krudler wrote: »

Diamonds Are Forever is appalling, cracking title song aside. I forgot about The Living Daylights, it's a pity Dalton didn't get another shot at the role, Licence To Kill was way ahead of it's time, having Bond as a cold blooded bastard not a wisecracking gent.

God bless you, Sir. Not many have the chutzpah to give Dalton his dues for that film.

Seen it in the old Screen cinema on Eden Quay (Laughter Lounge now).

Most enjoyable Bond film for me though, would have to be A View To A Kill ~ some great popcorn moments. Was a joy to see on the big screen when just a young teen.



The Bond films of the 80s always had scenes that you would end up talking about at school, but the newer Bond films never really had that cool factor. Course, it's far harder to impress an audience today than it was back then I expect. A car flipping on it's side and accessing and inaccessible alleyway, or a man using crocodiles as stepping stones, or driving half a car around Paris or a whole one underwater.. were all jaw dropping at the time.

Speaking of jaws, easily my favourite Bond villian:

3rdDegree

Funny this thread should pop up now. License To Kill on blu-ray just arrived in the post today. Ordered it for a tenner the other day. Loved Dalton as Bond. Really liked the fact that he was so vicious. And that truck on two wheels before CGI is pretty impressive!

The only regret with that movie is the stupid title. Originally it was to be called "License Revoked". But a survey in the States showed that too many people didn't know what the word "revoked"meant. Shame. Twas a great title.

Blazer

Yeah Dalton was very underrated including by myself who were used to the wisecracking Moore and Connery.
It was only when I read the books later that I realized that Dalton was much closer to Fleming's vision of Bond and changed my view of him.
Loved him in Chuck..thought he was absolutely brilliant in it.

krudler

Blazer wrote: »

Yeah Dalton was very underrated including by myself who were used to the wisecracking Moore and Connery.
It was only when I read the books later that I realized that Dalton was much closer to Fleming's vision of Bond and changed my view of him.
Loved him in Chuck..thought he was absolutely brilliant in it.

I thought Dalton was excellent in the role, he looked like he'd kill you at the drop of a hat, which is exactly what Bond should be like. I'd always have a bit of a soft spot for the Moore films purely from growing up watching them every other bank holiday on ITV or something but you can't take any of them seriously.

Adamantium

Casino Royale was the only Bond film where everybody was Human, but still iconic and "their" characters. The perfect reboot and the film I needed but didn't know I wanted/or was possible.

Amazing, unexpected 4th act that reminds me of Red Dead Redemption, in terms of how tragic it is. "The job is done and the bitch is dead" is a cold and flawless line. Has to be on of the best deliveries ever. The guy's Notebook.

Eva Green is a huge part of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtWiTpZL8FE

I thought it would be an amazing RARE case where a series that has mired for years in mediocrity, becomes ALIVE and goes in a bold direction. Then they squandered that vision in QOS and Skyfall.

One of my favourite movies ever.

Tindie

krudler wrote: »

The original Casino Royale isn't a "real" Bond movie, same as Never Say Never Again. I've seen them all, some a great, some are perfectly watchable, others are complete tosh. Rather than watching them all watch:

Goldfinger
Thunderball
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Live And Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
Licence To Kill
Goldeneye
Casino Royale

They're the best ones imo

Thanks (everyone), Well every tine I get into a series, end up watching whole series. lol

Are there few stand alone movies in the series?

krudler

Tindie wrote: »

Thanks (everyone), Well every tine I get into a series, end up watching whole series. lol

Are there few stand alone movies in the series?

They're basically all standalone movies, a few elements carry over like a few villains.

krudler

Adamantium wrote: »

Casino Royale was the only Bond film where everybody was Human, but still iconic and "their" characters. The perfect reboot and the film I needed but didn't know I wanted/or was possible.

Amazing, unexpected 4th act that reminds me of Red Dead Redemption, in terms of how tragic it is. "The job is done and the bitch is dead" is a cold and flawless line. Has to be on of the best deliveries ever. The guy's Notebook.

Eva Green is a huge part of it




I thought it would be an amazing RARE case where a series that has mired for years in mediocrity, becomes ALIVE and goes in a bold direction. Then they squandered that vision in QOS and Skyfall.

One of my favourite movies ever.

Green was excellent in it, a Bond girl who wasn't just there for T and A and actually had some depth to her. It's a pity Skyfall tried to shoehorn so many references and nods to the previous films in, undoing all the good stuff from Casino Royale that managed to work the typical Bond tropes in but in a new and exciting way.

whoami1

Tindie wrote: »

Are there few stand alone movies in the series?

Not quite sure what you mean here. Every film can be watched on its own, without having seen any previous film. However, the following films refer to previous events:
Quantum of Solace is a direct sequel to Casino Royale
Licence to Kill and For Your Eyes Only make reference to events in On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger makes some oblique references to events in From Russia with Love and Dr No
From Russia with Love makes reference to events in Dr No
Moonraker has a returning villain from The Spy who Loved Me
The Man with the Golden Gun has a returning minor character from Live and Let Die
GoldenEye acknowledges a character change from previous films

LuckyLloyd

A View to a Kill was brilliant. Walken chewing scenary left and right; Moore in full on upturned eyebrow glib mode; a gloriously bizarre plot revolving around the flooding of Silicon Valley (along with other nazi scientific experiement nonesense); epically dumb finale involving a fist fight on the top of the golden gate bridge (that started in a zeppelin blimp).

I mean, come on!! It's magnificent.

Duggy747

A film I somehow love because of it's barminess, Walken is brilliant in it as a complete dickhead. :pac:

TheDoc

I got the collection on DVD there last Christmas, unfortunately havnt gotten around to cracking into them.

I've seen them all countless times over in reality, I used to love coming home from training into RTE 2 to watch them.

Dalton and his two movies are definitely my favorites. I never took to the cheesy stuff of Moore or Connery, but enjoyed them none the less. Dalton made Bond feel more real to me. There was emotion, there was anger and just a sinister look about him.

I think his qualities of Bond really only took light when the world moved away from the fantasy and moved into the more grounded reality with the fad of Nolans Batmans meaning everything had to be "darker". And then obviously we had the new set of Bond films.

I don't honestly mind Craig that much, I'm enjoying him as Bond, but it's funny to think the direction they have gone now and the requirements they've decided on to "modernise" Bond, was something already done by Dalton who was looked over for years.

I remember reading he was offered the part way before he took it, but refused because he felt he was too young and inexperienced for the role. Which is a pity, I've little or no time for the Moore ones, and they could have all been Dalton

beauf

I like most of the bond film but watching the older once now you're looking at them very much out of their context. As such they seem very dated vs a movie based in reality. The move to a darker more real bond has a side effect of removing all futuristic gadgets and props that were such a feature of the older movies. As such the new bonds movies are not very different to a dozen other action movies that get released every year.

Red Nissan

I was eight when Dr No Came out, but I think I was 10 when I first saw it. Brilliant chatter for the schoolyard.

I would have been an avid fan until Moore took over, for me that was the death of Bond. In recent years Timothy and Daniel rather revived my interest.

As a present I got the box set up to Quantum Of Solace. and indeed did watch them all from beginning to end.

I find I now, with age, rather like the various styles and Moore brought a unique presence to the charactor, even if a little comical best line "A secret agent, a secret agent, on WHO's side?" ~ and Brosnan was convincing too, never saw Brosnan on the big screen as Bond.

FunLover18

I love Bond threads, they can be so divisive!!

Personally I would recommend all the Connery Bonds except Diamonds Are Forever, which is terrible. You Only Live Twice is also iffy but as a kid the storming of Blofeld's lair was the best thing I'd ever seen.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is brilliant and I have to agree with Kermode that the score is the best piece of Bond music.

Of the Moore era ... god, I really am not a huge fan of Roger. Live And Let Die is worth watch, but they really do become a parody of themselves.

I enjoy both Dalton films, but I could actually take or leave Brosnan.

Casino Royale and QoS are musts and they absolutely have to be watched together in one sitting. QoS gets a lot of slack but I love it and think it works perfectly. It's my favourite Craig Bond. Skyfall was such a disappointment, not nearly as good as everyone else seems to think

ButtersSuki

3rdDegree wrote: »

The only regret with that movie is the stupid title. Originally it was to be called "License Revoked". But a survey in the States showed that too many people didn't know what the word "revoked"meant. Shame. Twas a great title.

Would be hard to imagine Gladys Knight singing "I've had my licence re-voked".............:pac:

Starting the marathon this weekend on Blu Ray (box set present to myself) from Dr. No.......

I will be in full on THIS mode:

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

Casino Royale is my fave, but the Dalton's aren't far behind. I don't get why people rate Skyfall as highly as they do though, for me it's just silly.

billyhead

Agree with a lot of the previous posters. Dalton was a very good bond and played the roll perfectly. Should have been in more bond films. Licence the Kill was my personal favourite followed by You only live twice

Red Nissan

billyhead wrote: »

Agree with a lot of the previous posters. Dalton was a very good bond and played the roll perfectly. Should have been in more bond films. Licence the Kill was my personal favourite followed by You only live twice

It was his choice, the studio wanted him, he mumbled something about pigeon holing and declined. Pity that.

epic_boner

krudler wrote: »

Green was excellent in it, a Bond girl who wasn't just there for T and A and actually had some depth to her. It's a pity Skyfall tried to shoehorn so many references and nods to the previous films in, undoing all the good stuff from Casino Royale that managed to work the typical Bond tropes in but in a new and exciting way.

Diana rigg from OHMSS was also independent and strong

OHMSS is the best film of the series IMO despite having a poor lead actor in lazenby , he did bring an incredible physicality to the role however

Temaz

The books are essential reading!

Kunkka

krudler wrote: »

The original Casino Royale isn't a "real" Bond movie, same as Never Say Never Again. I've seen them all, some a great, some are perfectly watchable, others are complete tosh. Rather than watching them all watch:

Goldfinger
Thunderball
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Live And Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
Licence To Kill
Goldeneye
Casino Royale

They're the best ones imo

This


Although I liked Skyfall

Tindie

I just seen my first James bond movie in and I started with Dr. No (1962)

I really enjoyed, I did think before, that the whole movie would feel a bit out dated but it didn't, maybe just one scenes, the rest of the movie was fine.

I enjoyed the plot and how the movie flowed!

FunLover18

Tindie wrote: »

I just seen my first James bond movie in and I started with Dr. No (1962)

I really enjoyed, I did think before, that the whole movie would feel a bit out dated but it didn't, maybe just one scenes, the rest of the movie was fine.

I enjoyed the plot and how the movie flowed!

I wish I could be watching them again for the first time.

I love Doctor No.

"You've had your six."

doc_17

When I think of Bond I think of Casino Royale and Craig. Everything else pales in comparison for me

Red Nissan

doc_17 wrote: »

When I think of Bond I think of Casino Royale and Craig. Everything else pales in comparison for me

Good. I think of Peter Sellers and his naked women, banned as a kid so I was very attracted to it, it is rubbish though, do roger that, an impressive performance from Craig.

loyatemu

FunLover18 wrote: »

I love Bond threads, they can be so divisive!!

Personally I would recommend all the Connery Bonds except Diamonds Are Forever, which is terrible. You Only Live Twice is also iffy but as a kid the storming of Blofeld's lair was the best thing I'd ever seen.

YOLT is the quintessential Bond movie surely - amazing theme tune & score, Bond gets "killed", scenes in space, martial arts, the villain's lair is a hollowed out volcano for god's sake! If you were only ever going to watch one Bond movie, YOLT is probably the one to go for.

pixelburp

loyatemu wrote: »

YOLT is the quintessential Bond movie surely - amazing theme tune & score, Bond gets "killed", scenes in space, martial arts, the villain's lair is a hollowed out volcano for god's sake! If you were only ever going to watch one Bond movie, YOLT is probably the one to go for.

And its screenplay was written by none other than Roald Dahl, which surely goes a long way to explain why the film was so batty...

Oafley Jones

3rdDegree wrote: »

Funny this thread should pop up now. License To Kill on blu-ray just arrived in the post today. Ordered it for a tenner the other day. Loved Dalton as Bond. Really liked the fact that he was so vicious. And that truck on two wheels before CGI is pretty impressive!

The only regret with that movie is the stupid title. Originally it was to be called "License Revoked". But a survey in the States showed that too many people didn't know what the word "revoked"meant. Shame. Twas a great title.

The Dalton films are a perfect antidote to the flared Safari suited silliness of Moore, but in no way is licence Revoked a better title. It just conjures up images of Bond getting to grips with public transport after being pulled over for having one too many vodka martinis in the blood system.

Kunkka

I think the best movie out of the lot is Goldfinger to be honest. Out of all of them I think it ages the best.

Alfred Borden

Casino Royale is my favourite but admittedly havent seen them all so will have to go about fixing that. Skyfall was brilliant imo but the villain was rubbish in it.

LuckyLloyd

Live and Let Die is a great one imo. Was a significant departure for the film series in terms of broadening the racial scope and narrowing the intentions of the central villian. Some great action sequences; a memorable climax; and some wonderful supporting characters such as the hick Louisiana sherrif.

Kunkka

Indeed Lloyd it was Moore's best outing by some distance, JW was also great craic.

beauf

I think you're very hard on Moore. The Bonds of that era were classic.

longhalloween

GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies are great film.

Apart from Michelle Yeoh saying her name when ever she hit anyone.

YEOHHH!!

LuckyLloyd

Goldeneye was great. Superb reboot. The rest of the Brosnan era is utter tripe though imo.

longhalloween

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The rest of the Brosnan era is utter tripe though imo.

How can you say that about Christmas Jones and Madonna? :pac:

I rewatched Goldeneye a few months back and it hasn't aged very well. Bar s few fun set pieces and a good villain it really is utter tripe. The kind of generic and bland nonsense that just got worse with the follow ups.

loyatemu

beauf wrote: »

I think you're very hard on Moore. The Bonds of that era were classic.

first 3 Moore films are all pretty good - after that though, urgh.

krudler

Deleted User wrote: »

I rewatched Goldeneye a few months back and it hasn't aged very well. Bar s few fun set pieces and a good villain it really is utter tripe. The kind of generic and bland nonsense that just got worse with the follow ups.

It's also got probably the worst musical score of any Bond, Eric Serra's stuff in Leon and The Fifth Element suited the film but it had no place in a Bond movie, especially afer Michael Kamen's superb Licence To Kill score. luckily David Arnold got the series back on track with some outstanding music.

beauf

loyatemu wrote: »

first 3 Moore films are all pretty good - after that though, urgh.

I still like them.

The Brosnan ones are the weakest IMO. I still like them though.

Tindie

April 2nd Second bond movie

From Russia with Love (1963)

I really enjoyed the first bond movies, even with some out dated scenes but the sequel, which seem to had a much bigger budget then the first.

This movie takes a while to get going and first half hour I found the movie really slow, I just could not get into it.

There were some decent actions here and there in throughout this movie, I really enjoyed those scenes in the movie.

There were some decent effect in this movie, with that helicopter car chase scenes was good for it's time.

I did find some parts of the movie a bit dull, after some actions, the movie calm down again and I found middle part of movie even more slower then first half hour.

I did enjoyed the fight scenes in train, A lot more better then fight in the first movie, it wasn't over to fast.

I really enjoyed the last 15 minutes of the movie, those scenes were really good and great way to end the movie.

5/10

PS: I got hour into Goldfinger (1964) (As it was late 00:45am) So far , I think it's the best yet!

Kunkka

I envy you watching Goldfinger for the first time!

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Looper007

Still think Casino Royale and Skyfall are two of the best since the 60's. Loved OHMSS, Goldfinger, Dr No and FRWL. For me Connery and Craig are the way Bond should be played. I know Moore's Bond has fans but I hated the high camp and wink to the camera plus he never kicked ass. Dalton I admire his performance The Living daylights and LTK while I admire them just never went through with the darkness like Craig's Bond films did. Also Dalton lacked the sly humour. Brosnan, Goldeneye is very good thanks to the villians, his other Bond's sucked but did pull in the Box office. He never went out and gave his own spin on Bond, he tried to mix Connery with Moore instead of Brosnan take on Bond.

Now onto my favourite Bond since Connery, Craig just oozes that coolness sadly lacking since Connery's early Bond's plus since Lazenby he's the best Bond fighter on screen, his fights look like they hurt. Casino Royale is the best Bond film. Full Stop. IMO Bond for the first time is not superspy but a flawed man who you actually care for. Craig's performance is simply stand alone, even Connery can't come close. Mads Mikkelssen is a great Villian and Eva Green gives the best performance give by a Bond girl. It shut up the doubters and without doubt made Bond legit again.

QOS gets a lot of hate but I think it's underrated, it's flawed no doubt but Craig hold the film together, Bond is pretty brutal as the fights in this really hit home. The First 20 minutes, the Opera house scene and the last fight out are all excellent. Olga Kurylenko gives a good performance and nice spin on a Bod girl, giancarlo giannini gives a touching performance as Mathis and his

Death is probably one of the rare touching moments in Bond history

. mathieu amalric's Dominic isn't a great villain and the film sadly lacks a henchman that Bond could have a brutal fight with. I think a lot of people hate how dark and bleak the film is so unlike the Glamour filled and fun times of past Bond's. I think this is the closet you get to a Art House Bond film.

Skyfall is without doubt the best Shot Bond film to date, great work from Roger Deakins. Javier Bardem gives a great performance. Craig is as great as always. Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naoime Harris are great additions. berenice marlohe is one of the most striking Bond girls ever. But the film belongs to Judi Dench all the way. I love the ending in the Scottish home of Bond, shows why Bond is the best agent. I never understood why a few dislike Skyfall but for me Craig has done an awesome Job along with all the creative people behind it to make Bond an Event again.

Oafley Jones

Not the biggest fan of Skyfall, but there's something about the ending scene that I love. It's completely striped of all the modernity. It could have been taken from Dr. No. That, and Fiennes wonderfully high waisted trousers.