| Author | Message | ||
     Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.104.40 |
Just got back from the little Penistone Paramount. The best Bond film I've ever seen. Sharp editing, engaging characters, great locations and enjoyed the plot - didn't want it to end. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.11.130 |
Hey, no fair! Why does your country get to see it first? | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.104.40 |
 don't know but I had a brilliant time watching it - drove home too quickly too. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
I believe Tony was unimpressed by it, I'm afraid. Anywone read the short story? Talk about making a tale fit a brand! The tale itself is about a married woman's affair and her husband's revenge. The only part for Bond in the piece is as the person being told the story! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.104.40 |
I've never been keen on the Bond films but I was impressed with this one. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Last Bond I saw at the cinema was VIEW TO A KILL. Ole Rog. I enjoyed it. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.104.40 |
Craig is the best Bond | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I've come to learn that if Tony doesn't like a film I'll probably love it. Craig became the best Bond ever after only one film, IMHO. Casino Royale was magnificent. I'm pleased to here, Ally, that you rate this one highly. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.141.80 |
Anywone read the short story? Talk about making a tale fit a brand! The tale itself is about a married woman's affair and her husband's revenge. The only part for Bond in the piece is as the person being told the story! Treated similarly to THE SPY WHO LOVED ME then! Casino Royale was magnificent. Nah. Couldn't cope with seeing Woody Allen in a Bond film. Oh... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.104.40 |
Honestly Zed - get to see it ASAP. I'm still buzzing from it a few hours later...unusual for me. I haven't a clue what you are talking about Mark but don't want to give spoilers. It is nothing like that short synopsis at all. All they have used is the title. Go see it. | ||
| Simon_b (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Looking forward to seeing this. I lost interest in the Bond films after LICENSE TO KILL (though I still think Timothy Dalton was an underrated Bond) because I just thought... well... that kind of stuff's good when you're a teenager, really. But CASINO ROYALE was the first new Bond film I really wanted to see. Caught it on DVD, finally, last month- and it truly is superb. You could take the Bond 'brand' off the film and it'd still be a cracking thriller in its own right. I plan on seeing QUANTUM OF SOLACE ASAP. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.104.40 |
Go tomorrow Simon! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Sheesh! I LOVED Casino Royale so much it was like a religious experience seeing it - it might well be the best Bond film, in fact. Thus I think it was inevitable that the follow-up would be a step down, which it was. It was technically superb, everyone was so skilled, but it just felt a little one-note for me compared with CR. I was very moved by that filmed and cared for a lot of the characters, and the action didn't weigh it down. But this one felt like a nod too many to the pared-down Bournes, and Bond himself felt a little distant to me compared with the previous film. It's good, but not great. I would watch it again, though, so don't hold me to this (and if it means anythng my stepson and his girlfriend thought the same as me). It also made me wonder if Bond's name in Japan is 'Scenic Fight Man'. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I saw a film last night called TAKEN with Liam Neeson. Talk about OTT. It was fun, though, and moved like a toilet door after the owner's had a vindaloo. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Yeah, I heard that. A friend said it passed the test of not sending him to sleep. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.70.163 |
I actually liked how Bond was portrayed more this time. I went out expecting to have fun and I did I'm usually very hard to please. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.184.172 |
I was going to see Quantum of Solace today, but there were too many people, so I saw Tropic Thunder instead, which was a lot of fun. I didn't recognise Tom Cruise in it until about half way through the film! Robert Downey Jr. was particularly good. Great fun. I also saw the trailer for The Good, the Bad and the Weird, a new South Korean film by Kim Ji-woon, one of my favourite directors (he made The Quiet Family and A Tale of Two Sisters). It looks great! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.198.181 |
"James Bond is not an action hero." http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081111/REVIEWS/81112 9989 | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
"He is an attitude. Violence for him is an annoyance. He exists for the foreplay and the cigarette. He rarely encounters a truly evil villain. More often a comic opera buffoon with hired goons in matching jump suits." So, Ebert is obviously a fan of the Moore-era Bond. perhaps he sould go back and read some of the books. Of course Bond is an action hero: he's our action hero, not some silly American wanabbe in a vest.  | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.11.219 |
"He rarely encounters a truly evil villain." SPOILERS Leaving aside the main villain. The general has raped tortured and killed...so that is okay then? | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
And Craig makes him a believable killer. The look on his face as he pins the hitman down on the Haiti balcony, waiting for him to die through blood loss, businesslike, uncaring... maybe even a little bored. Bond should scare us. He is someone that we find ourselves wishing we could be and then realising what a broken, empty, shadow of a man we've just wished ourselves into. The films are finally matching the character I always had in my head. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Ditto, Guy. Ebert knows nowt about Bond...but he is American... | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
Yes Americans rather like heroes. We don't, we like mentally brittle, brutal fuck ups. It's the English way. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.3 |
All our great comedy characters are also highly flawed. It's in our British sensibility. | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
We don't like perfection do we? If Superman is the atypical American hero I'd say ours was Jack Carter. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.205.26 |
I thought Ebert was spot on with "Violence for him is an annoyance." "Bond should scare us. He is someone that we find ourselves wishing we could be and then realising what a broken, empty, shadow of a man we've just wished ourselves into." Not much fun, is it? Why by loyal to badly written books? Why empathise with a dead-eyed killing machine? | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
The Moore films were fun, yes but I find the cold and disturbed notion of Bond far more interesting. I can get fun in lots of places, 'interesting' is more precious! I also think your missing the point with the loyalty comment. I get pleasure out of the recent characterisation not because it is similar to the books but just because it is enjoyable to me. I would prefer it this way were the books markedly different. I empathise with him because he is more than just a dead-eyed killing machine, he is a man that has had he misfortune -- and life -- to have become one. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.236.222 |
While the previous Bond looked too much like a doll - no real danger - this one has the looks of a Post Office clerk. And that pout! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.205.26 |
Guy, to be clear, I was in part responding to Zed's comment: "So, Ebert is obviously a fan of the Moore-era Bond. perhaps he sould go back and read some of the books." And while I'm at it, the Americans deserve credit for inventing/perfecting the action picture and imperfect protagonists (in film noir). "...this one has the looks of a Post Office clerk." Is that a good thing? I'm not sure what a post office clerk looks like. I wouldn't go as silly as the Moore era, but I thought that although Brosnan was just okay as Bond, it was in his era that the balance of elements of the films was perfect (except for the last one, perhaps). His Bond had that iciness, too, at times. There's no getting away from it. Bond IS fundamentally silly. I guess it's a matter of taste but I find it difficult to take seriously brooding character insights in a film where the lead character self-defibrillates in a car park. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Not much fun, is it? Why by loyal to badly written books? Why empathise with a dead-eyed killing machine? On the other hand, why not? My favourite Bond was Lazenby, so just ignore me anyway... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
the Americans deserve credit for inventing/perfecting the action picture and imperfect protagonists (in film noir). I am with you on that one, though. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.236.222 |
My favourite Bond was and is Connery. It's time they brought him back. If they can CGI Yoda the way they did in the last Star wars, they can do it  | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
While it's tempting just to laugh and call you buffon my sweet McMahon I'm genuinely intrigued... Why is Lazenby your favourite? Proto: Bond is fundamentally silly, yes but then that to me is the challenge of all great escapist fiction - to make it seem real. The more absurd the plot, the more you have to work to make me go with it. There's nothing sillier in Bond than there is in a man being haunted by the malevolent spirit of a silent movie comedian. Just as I want Ramsey to take his idea and make me believe it -- to unnerve me -- I want Craig (and Haggis, Broccoli et al) to suspend my disbelief so that I can be thrilled by it all. That's the aim. The moment you acknowledge the impossibilities in any escapist fiction you either break it or you turn it into spoof. The more real Craig is, the better -- for me -- the Bond. The Americans did create the Noir 'hero' it's true. I suppose my point was more that Americans relish the perfect hero where as the English don't. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
OHMSS is the best Bond film by far - quite brutal, has the great love affair and Telly Savalas on the oil rig - and I loved Lazenby's couldn't-care-less attitude. I will add that Daniel Craig is my favourite now. For all the reasons you state above, Guy. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.236.222 |
"Telly Savalas on the oil rig . . ."  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.21.168 |
I think bond is like a lonely knight. At his heart he is very decent but because he's a bit sad he gives into all his minor urges. He's kind of like the terminator, being ruthless. But he's not heartless, not at all. Anyone who thinks that really hasn't watched the films properly or read the books. I must admit I love the books. Such tasty places. Erm, Telly wasn't on an oil rig! He was up a mountain. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.141.80 |
He was, with Joanna Lumley... | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
It was the delectable Charles Gray on an oil rig of course, discussing the arse-cheeks of Tiffany Case, in Diamonds are Forever. Savalas was up a mountain, curing ladies of their chicken allergies. None of that should be true in any right-thinking Bond film and yet it is. I also love OHMSS Gary, but Lazenby? Not so much... he had his moments but unfortunately most of them were using George Baker's voice. Still: 'It's alright officer, it's alright... you see, we have all the time in the world...' Not a dry eye in the house. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.236.222 |
"Tiffany, dear . . . Aren't we showing more cheek than usual?" (to an aide) "Such nice cheeks, too. If only they were brains, hm?" Utterly magnificent. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.236.222 |
OHMS has a magnificent score, arguably the best of all Bond films. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.21.168 |
I got a frisson watching Quantum when there was this place under the ground. It was the closest the new movies have come to that surreality of the old series. I used to love that as a kid, when this very straight guy was confront by something so jarringly dreamlike. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Oh, aye. Up a mountain. What's the difference, really? I have favourite scenes from the Bond films more than I cherish a single favourite film. Diamonds are Forever (2nd best car stunt ever; Wint and Kidd, gay assasins))is great, too. Dr. No.(Raquel's bikini; vicious fights). Goldfinger (gold paint; great villian). Thunderball (underwater battles). Live and Let Die (voodoo!). The Man with the Golden Gun(best car stubt ever; Christopher Lee). The list is endless... | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
I know what you mean, as a kid I often used to watch the pre-title sequences on their own like mini episodes. The Living Daylights is still the best for me, Timothy Dalton though... the second best Bond! Not a popular view, I know. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.21.168 |
I've been thinking on this. I wanted Bond in a better film. To just see him fight is a waste of him. It was the bits between the fighting in the previous film that made it so good and ensured it did so well. This movie is what I feared would happen. | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.39.57.151 |
I don't think you're necessarily wrong there Tony, we could certainly have had more talking between the brutality and it would have made for a better film. Let's hope the final film in the 'trilogy' offers a bit more. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.3 |
I've yet to see QoS, but I take it there's a third part planned then, Guy? Is it obvious there'll be a continuation of the story arc, or is there a degree of assumption in what you said? I think I'll try to get to see it next week. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMoJRLStD9c | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.41.184.22 |
Steve, it's obvious there will be a continuation yes but not so much that you get a wishy-washy end. Do try and see it next week or I'll get very cross with you. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.12 |
That video's hilarious. I like those guys. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.77.87.195 |
Joe Cornish and Adam Buxton are ace. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.124 |
Saw Quantum of Solace last night & I have to say I loved it. Whether I was just in the mood for something cruel, ruthless, vicious, with a genuine sense of style I don't often find in these movies (the shoot out to Tosca was just brilliant), or whether it's actually just A Good Film the test of time and rewatching will bear out. I loved almost everything about it (sadly that theme tune lacked substance) - even the locations were splendid, and although some of the visual compositions betrayed the fact that I presume the director honed his skill directing car adverts I forgave him because he had me on his side almost from the start. I'm not even a big fan of action sequences as I always feel detached from them, but these were so well put together they swept me along and I felt really involved. And I also loved that there was an nod in there to the old fashioned style Bond gags but you had to watch the credits to realise it. Marvellous. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.125.69 |
Excellent, John! I spent last night watching ROME and THE DEVIL'S WHORE. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
I just like the fact that every tabloid film columnist had to go to the dictionary at least twice to make sense of the title. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.163.241.252 |
I just like the fact that every tabloid film columnist had to go to the dictionary at least twice to make sense of the title. I read that as 'tabloid fifth columnist'... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Yay! http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20110112/ten-bond-to-return-to-big-screen-ea4616c.htm l | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.22.203 |
Good news indeed. Here's hoping it lives up to its predecessor. The Quantum organization has to come back, too! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.120.83 |
I thought that QoS was, sadly, as bad as most people said it was. It also had a jarring anti-environmental chip on its shoulder. The baddie (Greene!) has an environmentally-friendly eco-lair one and he's killed by being forced to consume a container of oil. With all the possible bad 'uns in the world, I thought this a very odd choice. We've been misinformed and BP and the MI6 are the good guys, it seems. Maybe Clarkson should be the new Q. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
I thought the bad guys were pretending to be green - there was the bit about them keeping water away from the Mexicans at one point, I think. I didn't like The Quantum Menace first time but loved it the second. It was a blizzard of sound and texture and tension, all yummily in the right order and pattern for it to be really effective. Sometimes that's just enough for me. Bum dadda, diddi bum, di dadda di bum! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
'Why empathise with a dead-eyed killing machine?' I like that searching for the soul in things, mind. I love plots where people fall in love with robots. I love robots, to be honest.  |