James Bond 007 film-by-film thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by mr_spenalzo, Mar 12, 2018.

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  1. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Favorite Bond films ranked:

    Thunderball (1965)
    You Only Live Twice (1967)
    Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
    Live and Let Die (1973)
    The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    From Russia with Love (1963)
    The World is Not Enough (1999)
    Dr No (1962)
    Goldfinger (1964)
    Octopussy (1983)
    Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    Licence to Kill (1989)
    A View to a Kill (1985)
    Goldeneye (1995)
    Moonraker (1979)
    The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    Die Another Day (2002)
    The Living Daylights (1987)
    For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    Never Say Never Again (1983)
     
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  2. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Henry Cavill I would be okay with. He did a good job with Napoleon Solo.
    But please no Tom Hardy or Jason Statham. I like Jason's movies but he's not Bond material.
     
  3. Spaghettiows

    Spaghettiows Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silver Creek, NY
    You Only Live Twice was, to me, the first Bond film that had just a tad too many flaws. The Japanese "conversion", as previously mentioned. I don't even know where to start on that one. The less said, the better.

    I actually thought that the space scenes in the early part of the film looked pretty decent for a pre-2001 movie. They spent a ton of money on the Volcano set, which must have looked very impressive on the big screen in 1967, but then they cheap out with segment of the space capsule burning through the atmosphere. That was one of the most laughably phony effects of the entire series. Plus, Connery obviously wanted to be doing something else.

    I really wish they would have produced On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as originally planned, as the follow-up to Thunderball. I believe that Connery might have been more engaged in that role and maybe would have stuck it out a bit longer.
     
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  4. GlamorProfession

    GlamorProfession Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tejas
    You Only Live Twice is one of my lower rated Connery Bond films. i still enjoy it though. great song! making him Japanese doesn't bother me... i get a chuckle out of it.
     
  5. NickCarraway

    NickCarraway Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gastonia, NC
    Jumping in late here so I'll add some fun trivia for each film covered up to this point, mostly focused on gadgets and wardrobe:

    DN
    Bond's watch is a Rolex 6538, a fairly early Submariner model. The movie's budget didn't allow for the purchase of an expensive watch, and Rolex declined to provide one for the film, so Cubby Broccoli lent Connery his personal timepiece. The 6538 takes a 20mm wide strap or bracelet, but Bond wears a strap that's too skinny, likely 16mm. Many companies currently make a black-and-grey striped nylon strap marketed as the "Bond NATO", but the Dr. No strap is neither a "NATO" (a designation not assigned until the late 60s) nor black-and-grey but rather black-red-and-green:

    [​IMG]

    FRWL:
    Bond's rifle which he disassembles and fits into the stock is an actual production firearm, the Armalite AR-7 survival rifle. Besides being a compact long gun, it floats.

    GF:
    Bond's grey suit, generally cited alongside the suits worn by Cary Grant in "North By Northwest" and Steve McQueen in "Thomas Crown Affair" as the ultimate in 1960s men's cinematic sartorial splendor, isn't solid grey but rather a glen plaid, made by Savile Row tailor Anthony Sinclair; the model is the "Conduit Cut" designed by Sinclair. The trousers lack both belt loops and suspender buttons; rather they are held up by Daks fasteners composed of tabs on the sides that button, connected with hidden elastic across the back.

    TB:
    A Royal Navy engineer was attempting to develop a genuine mini-rebreather when "Thunderball" was released, and contacted the producers to ask how they had gotten their device to work! (Obviously the device wasn't real, and the actors merely held their breath underwater for those shots.)

    YOLT:
    The only Bond film in which 007 drinks a stirred martini.
     
  6. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Top OHMSS I see. ;)
     
  7. Slappy9001

    Slappy9001 Senior Member

    Location:
    Kingston, PA
    Oh, I like lists. Pretty much in this order...today at least.

    From Russia with Love (1963)
    Casino Royale (2006)
    Thunderball (1965)
    The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    Dr No (1962)
    Goldfinger (1964)
    Goldeneye (1995)
    Skyfall (2012)
    The Living Daylights (1987)
    Quantum of Solace (2008)
    For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    The World is Not Enough (1999)
    Moonraker (1979)
    Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
    Never Say Never Again (1983)
    The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    Spectre (2015)
    You Only Live Twice (1967)
    Licence to Kill (1989)
    Live and Let Die (1973)
    Octopussy (1983)
    Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    Die Another Day (2002)
    A View to a Kill (1985)
     
  8. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    James Bond: Lists?

    Top five.
    OHMSS
    From Russia With Love
    Casino Royal (DC)
    The Spy Who Loved Me.
     
  9. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

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    Newport Beach
    Did I erase that one? On Her Majesties is a great movie. Should have shown up between Golden and Russia.
     
  10. Slappy9001

    Slappy9001 Senior Member

    Location:
    Kingston, PA
    Oh, I like lists. Pretty much in this order...today at least. (Forgot OHMSS before)

    From Russia with Love (1963)
    Casino Royale (2006)
    Thunderball (1965)
    The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
    Dr No (1962)
    Goldfinger (1964)
    Goldeneye (1995)
    Skyfall (2012)
    The Living Daylights (1987)
    Quantum of Solace (2008)
    For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    The World is Not Enough (1999)
    Moonraker (1979)
    Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
    Never Say Never Again (1983)
    The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    Spectre (2015)
    You Only Live Twice (1967)
    Licence to Kill (1989)
    Live and Let Die (1973)
    Octopussy (1983)
    Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    Die Another Day (2002)
    A View to a Kill (1985)
     
  11. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    James Bond: Lists?

    Top Ten

    OHMSS
    From Russia With Love
    Casino Royal (DC)
    The Spy Who Loved Me.
    Live And Let Die
    Goldfinger
    Dr.No
    Casino Royal
    Never Say Never
    You Only Live Twice
     
  12. MerseyBeatle

    MerseyBeatle Martha my dear (1995-2012)

    Location:
    Charleston, SC
    Do you not like the Craig Bond films or did you forget to list them? Just curious about their absence.
     
  13. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Forgot OHMSS as well. :)
     
  14. bostonscoots

    bostonscoots Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    On to You Only Live Twice then...

    Of Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, it can't be said these guys didn't know how to put on a really big show - and You Only Live Twice is a really big show. It's an explosion of creative imagination and heroic check signing - no expense was spared in bringing a worldwide audience the massive spectacle it had to come to expect from a James Bond movie: the exotic location of Japan, giant magnets dropping cars into the ocean, one man helicopters armed to the teeth, and a secret space program hidden in the crater of an old volcano. You Only Live Twice is the first gonzo Bond, where logic falls a distant second to having a good time (...and we've all been there - right?).

    The problem is while You Only Live Twice succeeds wildly as spectacle, it's less satisfying in terms of plot or character. No one knows this more than Sean Connery, who as James Bond seems keenly aware of how little he has to do in the movie except kiss women, hit guys, and occasionally run (something Connery obviously wasn't doing much of in his free time). Strangely, even though it was written by Roald Dahl, the screenplay offers Connery no memorable lines or retorts. Yet even doing as little as he does the jowly, overweight Connery still manages to radiate movie-star wattage and provide an impressive beat down of a sumo wrestler...using a couch. Awesome.

    Less awesome is the film's clumsy attempt to disguise Connery/James Bond as a "humble Japanese fisherman". Forget Connery not being convincing - the whole concept comes across as uncomfortably racist.

    Speaking of unconvincing, Donald Pleasance as Blofeld? Yeah, I know the original Blofeld looked too much like Santa Claus and filming had already begun, but Donald Pleasance hardly seems capable of being the leader/mastermind of the world's biggest crime organization. He poses very little threat to Connery's Bond - in a two shot with Connery, Pleasance looks like a little old lady who's cat the beefy Scotsman just rescued out of a tree. Even with trappings that scream "evil genius" - the scar, a henchman, and a pool full of hungry piranhas (as they always are in the movies) - Pleasance still can't escape being more mouse than monster. His high pitched "Kill Bond - NOW" bark to an underling never fails to make me giggle like a 10-year old.

    ...but damn if the technical team doesn't bring their A-game to the Big Show. It's one of the great oversights of cinema that production designer Ken Adam didn't win an Academy Award for his work on You Only Live Twice. Adam's production design is chief among the film's saving graces - Blofeld's hidden volcano base is one of the most imaginative and spectacular sets ever constructed for a film. Director Lewis Gilbert is smart enough to make full use of it too, and the climactic ninja battle within the volcano base is a genuine high point (as was writing "climactic ninja battle within the volcano base"). Equally worthy of praise is the cinematography, Japan looks gorgeous as the film moves from urban Tokyo to the rural picturesque islands, and particularly during Little Nellie's helicopter flight over the mountains and dormant volcanoes. The helicopter chase itself never really comes together as it should, but it's worth pointing out that with the exception of a few explosions what we're seeing is not a special effect. That's still kind of cool and in 1967, exactly the kind of technical audacity audiences that audiences flocked to Bond movies for.

    A word about visual effects: picking on the ones here is a fool's errand - it was 1967 and movies were still using the same techniques pioneered in effects driven movies like 1933's King Kong (rear projection, model photography, optical printers). This is why for the most part the early Bond movies avoided models and miniatures except only when absolutely needed (and when needed the effects work under Derek Meddings improved drastically).

    John Barry's score is easily one of his best and like the production design, elevates the movie into feeling like something grander. Nancy Sinatra's no chip off the old Frank, but manages her way through one of the lovelier Bond title songs.

    You Only Live Twice is one of those Bond movies that played like gangbusters on the Sunday Night ABC Movie ("Tonight...Sean Connery is James Bond in (pause) "You Only Live Twice"). Mom got the snacks ready and there was a solid three hours of Bond before bedtime and the start of a new school week. As an adult, well...the movie's not nearly as good as I remembered it for all the reasons I've mentioned and quite a few more. But I've come to appreciate the effort more than the film itself - Broccoli and Saltzman shot for bigger and better, and ended up landing a whole lot closer to bigger.
     
  15. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

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    Newport Beach
    Craig sucks.
     
  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Craig's films suck?
     
  17. willy

    willy hooga hagga hooga

    "Bird never make make nesht in bare tree."
     
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  18. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

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    Newport Beach
    You only live twice
    Once in your life
    And once in your dreams
     
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  19. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Always thought the theme music was better than the film itself.

    How does that grab you darlin?
     
  20. vzok

    vzok Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    You Only Live Twice is certainly an iconic Bond movie. However it's plot and structure seem based around the idea of Bond's Greatest Hits. Ideas are reworked and everything is just made bigger. But I guess from here on in all the Bond movies are reworking ideas from previous ones.

    Aki is a decent Bond girl, but her death is pointless. She is instantly replaced. Why bother? Why not just have her go through to the end of the film? Well Roald Dahl had apparently been told about the "Bond Formula". So one girl had to die.

    Bond turning Japanese (I think he's turning Japanese) must have seemed bizarre and offensive even then surely. Again it is so pointless as we see him being made up, and then slowly through the remaining scenes the disguise fades away. Weird.

    Blofeld here is iconic (well Mike Myers thinks so) however his screen time is limited and he makes little impact. He seems too weedy to be a threat. Tiger is a good ally. I like Aki, but Kissy is dull. The wedding scene is superfluous. Helga Brandt is just a weak clone of Fiona from Thunderball. As for Bond, Connery does look a bit bored sometimes, but he is still generally decent here for me.

    The space scenes hold up well. The action however seems forced. Numerous attempts on Bond come to nought, but many movie heroes constantly escape fortuitously, so it isn't a Bondism. The pace is decent up until Bond's ninja boot camp, and it loses it's way there for a while. The fight in the volcano is decent enough though.

    I agree with a lot of the posts made earlier. The hidden volcano is superb and iconic. The locations are beautiful, as is the cinematography. There are some awesome moments such as the fight on the rooftops at Kobe Docks, the fight at Osato's office, the launching of Little Nellie and the ninjas pausing on the mountain top just before attacking the volcano lair.

    Alongside the cinematography, another standout is the music. I much prefer the Nancy Sinatra title song to the last two. It is wistful and rather beautiful. The score contains many great moments: Bond's eerie "funeral", the space capsule theme, mountains and sunsets, the car chase, Kobe and Bond averting WW3. Overall superb score.

    Another mixed bag. But more pluses than the last two managed. They are basically trying to pack a lot in (put the spectacle and the money up on the screen) and in doing so it generates pace. Goldfinger and Thunderball really drifted off in the second half, whereas this one keeps going (more or less).

    Bottom half of the table again for this one.
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2018
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  21. willy

    willy hooga hagga hooga

    John Barry's 'Space March' theme is so gorgeously sinister.
    Perfect for that scary build-up before 'Chris' is snipped off and goes drifting into space. That always gave me the willies that did... :yikes:
     
  22. rufus t firefly

    rufus t firefly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    Ahh,the ABC Sunday Night Movie. That is how I saw all the old Bond films for the first time. When I became a teenage movie goer, I had late stage Roger Moore. Oh well.
     
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  23. rufus t firefly

    rufus t firefly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    Nowadays, the Bond films are only shown on Cable? Can't stream them,right?
     
  24. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    One of my lesser fav. Bond movies.

    Soundtrack is good though.
     
  25. vzok

    vzok Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Have we sidestepped Casino Royale 1967?
     
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