Just blew my discretionary budget for the next month and bought 4 Bond BlueRay DVDs at Best Buy. $10 each you get a (from all accounts) a beautiful clean version of Bond with tons of extras and a Skyfall tix. I'm so broke of late but this deal was too good to pass up. Hell I dont even have a BlueRay player yet but I just printed out 4 Skyfall tixs. I'll steal my brothers BlueRay and have a nice marathon right before we make a family outing of Skyfall in two weeks.
Bought 4 out of my Top 5: Goldfinger, Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, Casino Royale.
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
I think Craig is great, and I didn't mind the story of Quantum, but the way the movie is directed makes it almost un-watchable for me. The action scenes are almost incomprehensible, totally wasted.
There was a lot of shaky Epilept-O-Rama camera work in there, wasn't there? I hate that trend. It's my biggest complaint about the otherwise awesome Bourne movies, too. I can't watch your movie if it gives me motion sickness!
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
Personally, I'd love to hear the CGS crew's thoughts on Bond (films, novels, comics, etc). I'd be interested to know what people think is the best movie, theme, novel, villain. If I had to choose just one, it would be Goldfinger. I still love just about everything in that movie. Connery is the top 007 and I hate to say it but Brosnan was better as Remington Steele.
If that's your feeling on Brosnan, than maybe you don't want us to do an episode. LOL
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
Myself, I have DEEP love for Casino Royale for two reasons:
1) It was a solid updating of the novel, and kept to a LOT of the novels' plot points. I remember a friend of mine saying he didn't like it, and his reasons were all of the things from the novel.
2 ) It furthered my theory that Bond is an identity that is given to a secret agent and not an actual person's name.
I never saw the Brosnan films until a few years ago, when I bought the complete Bond films on DVD and watched them all. I was surprised by how fast things drop off after Goldeneye. The rest of the films all feel like they should work, but there's always something that holds them back: a weak villain in Tomorrow Never Dies; ridiculous Bond girl in The World Is Not Enough; And Die Another Day has both those problems, plus a boatload of others.
Quantum suffered from the writers' strike. It desperately needed at least one more pass on the script to pull things together. It feels more like an extended ending to Casino Royale than its own film.
I know On Her Majesty's... has its fans, and I appreciate the grittier approach they attempt, but I still can't get over the silliness of the plot (hypnotizing attractive socialites to go back and sabotage food supplies) and the whole Blofeld not recognizing Bond even though they met at the end of the last film. The book has the same silly scheme, but manages to avoid the other problem by taking place before You Only Live Twice. Since they shot them out of order, I'm not sure how the film could have handled that better, aside from junking much of the plot. Plus, since Connery ends up returning next film to exact revenge on Blofeld, I can't shake the feeling that Majesty would have been more powerful if Connery had done it.
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
It's a bit of both.
Brosnan's portrayal, IMO, is barely better than the weakest Moore movies. Cavalier is a good description, but not the dangerous kind of cavalier that you'd get from Connery, but more of a "heh heh, I said cunning linquist. Get it" style that you would expect from Beavis.
Combine that with poor scripts and dialog that worked too hard at trying to be clever and his Bond falls flat and that's all before they sell Astin Martin out for a freaking BMW Cubby Broccoli and Ian Fleming had to be spinning in their graves).
Dalton, on the other hand, brought what I read as a much darker and angrier Bond (I've only read a couple of the Fleming novels, but he just felt more true to the ones that I have read).
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
It's a bit of both.
Brosnan's portrayal, IMO, is barely better than the weakest Moore movies. Cavalier is a good description, but not the dangerous kind of cavalier that you'd get from Connery, but more of a "heh heh, I said cunning linquist. Get it" style that you would expect from Beavis.
Combine that with poor scripts and dialog that worked too hard at trying to be clever and his Bond falls flat and that's all before they sell Astin Martin out for a freaking BMW Cubby Broccoli and Ian Fleming had to be spinning in their graves).
Dalton, on the other hand, brought what I read as a much darker and angrier Bond (I've only read a couple of the Fleming novels, but he just felt more true to the ones that I have read).
I can see some of that with his last 4 movies, but I thought GoldenEye showed the different levels of Bond & one of the best Bond movies.
Dalton had a great darkness, but he didn't look like Bond. He lacked that charisma even Lasenby had.
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
It's a bit of both.
Brosnan's portrayal, IMO, is barely better than the weakest Moore movies. Cavalier is a good description, but not the dangerous kind of cavalier that you'd get from Connery, but more of a "heh heh, I said cunning linquist. Get it" style that you would expect from Beavis.
Combine that with poor scripts and dialog that worked too hard at trying to be clever and his Bond falls flat and that's all before they sell Astin Martin out for a freaking BMW Cubby Broccoli and Ian Fleming had to be spinning in their graves).
Dalton, on the other hand, brought what I read as a much darker and angrier Bond (I've only read a couple of the Fleming novels, but he just felt more true to the ones that I have read).
I can see some of that with his last 4 movies, but I thought GoldenEye showed the different levels of Bond & one of the best Bond movies.
Dalton had a great darkness, but he didn't look like Bond. He lacked that charisma even Lasenby had.
M
You raise a point regarding Goldeneye. It was, however, Cubby's last Bond film prior to his death. It was also originally intended to feature Dalton, but he was unavailable when they were ready to film.
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
It's a bit of both.
Brosnan's portrayal, IMO, is barely better than the weakest Moore movies. Cavalier is a good description, but not the dangerous kind of cavalier that you'd get from Connery, but more of a "heh heh, I said cunning linquist. Get it" style that you would expect from Beavis.
Combine that with poor scripts and dialog that worked too hard at trying to be clever and his Bond falls flat and that's all before they sell Astin Martin out for a freaking BMW Cubby Broccoli and Ian Fleming had to be spinning in their graves).
Dalton, on the other hand, brought what I read as a much darker and angrier Bond (I've only read a couple of the Fleming novels, but he just felt more true to the ones that I have read).
I can see some of that with his last 4 movies, but I thought GoldenEye showed the different levels of Bond & one of the best Bond movies.
Dalton had a great darkness, but he didn't look like Bond. He lacked that charisma even Lasenby had.
M
You raise a point regarding Goldeneye. It was, however, Cubby's last Bond film prior to his death. It was also originally intended to feature Dalton, but he was unavailable when they were ready to film.
Wasn't the Living Daylights actually written for Bronsan before the contract for Remington Steele renewed?
There is a definite difference in tone from GoldenEye to the other 3 movies. There was a more seriousness that I enjoyed. The scene where Bond is on the beach thinking about killing 006 reasoning "it's what keeps me alive" is one of my favorite Bond scenes ever. In fact, I'd say this adds more weight to Craig's Bond when he has similar scenes (for me.)
When I was reading Under the Hood, there is a scene in the BatCave when Alfred has a monologue about Batman preparing for his fight with the Red Hood by detaching his prior relationship to get the job done. That scene reminded me about that Bond scene in GoldenEye.
I'm a huge bond fan! I'm looking forward to skyfall. You know they got the 'bad' one out of the way with quantum.
Even so, I'd take Quantum over any of the Brosnan movies, which I'd put barely above A View to a Kill and well below the much wrongly maligned Dalton films.
I will say that I've felt like both Casino and Quantum suffered a bit from some decompression. Casino was at least 20-30 minutes too long.
Are you ranking Bronsan on his portrayal of the character or the movies he was in? Bronsan for me is the best Bond. He was able to encompass the best qualities of the prior Bonds. Granted, he really only got one good movie (GoldenEye is one of my favorites, mostly because I like the idea of 006 as the villain), but came across as a cavalier, cool, collected covert op.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
It's a bit of both.
Brosnan's portrayal, IMO, is barely better than the weakest Moore movies. Cavalier is a good description, but not the dangerous kind of cavalier that you'd get from Connery, but more of a "heh heh, I said cunning linquist. Get it" style that you would expect from Beavis.
Combine that with poor scripts and dialog that worked too hard at trying to be clever and his Bond falls flat and that's all before they sell Astin Martin out for a freaking BMW Cubby Broccoli and Ian Fleming had to be spinning in their graves).
Dalton, on the other hand, brought what I read as a much darker and angrier Bond (I've only read a couple of the Fleming novels, but he just felt more true to the ones that I have read).
I can see some of that with his last 4 movies, but I thought GoldenEye showed the different levels of Bond & one of the best Bond movies.
Dalton had a great darkness, but he didn't look like Bond. He lacked that charisma even Lasenby had.
M
You raise a point regarding Goldeneye. It was, however, Cubby's last Bond film prior to his death. It was also originally intended to feature Dalton, but he was unavailable when they were ready to film.
Wasn't the Living Daylights actually written for Bronsan before the contract for Remington Steele renewed?
There is a definite difference in tone from GoldenEye to the other 3 movies. There was a more seriousness that I enjoyed. The scene where Bond is on the beach thinking about killing 006 reasoning "it's what keeps me alive" is one of my favorite Bond scenes ever. In fact, I'd say this adds more weight to Craig's Bond when he has similar scenes (for me.)
When I was reading Under the Hood, there is a scene in the BatCave when Alfred has a monologue about Batman preparing for his fight with the Red Hood by detaching his prior relationship to get the job done. That scene reminded me about that Bond scene in GoldenEye.
M.
IMDB has it going the opposite way, indicating that Dalton was still intended to be Bond but was unavailable when Goldeneye finally went into production (the 6 year gap between it and Living Daylights being the longest in Bond history). Granted, IMDB trivia is still basically a wiki and subject to potentially incorrect information if not actual disinformation.
ETA: Per IMDB: Brosnan was considered for Living Daylights prior to it going to Dalton - he (Dalton) was busy filming Brenda Starr with Brooke Shields. Dalton, however was considered and apparently turned down the part for OHMSS (felt he was too young), DAF (again turned it down - still felt that he was too young), FYEO (again turned it down - no script at the time) and again for Octopussy and AVTAK (prior commitments at both). IMDB goes on to suggest that Dalton was initially unavailable for Living Daylights and that Brosnan was the alternate (Remington Steele was being cancelled (and then not cancelled), Cubby made the decision that Remington Steele and James Bond could not coexist with the same actor and went back to Dalton.
Quick opinion on Skyfall: Very good movie. Craig is a great Bond and Skyfall is a great movie. I highly reccomend it. Had all the iconic touches including one of my favorite underused; death by animal. I do have to put a caveat out there. The stakes just seem to be getting too high. Much like Doctor Who of the past few seasons, every story is so epic, so important to the mythos. Skyfall felt unnessecarily epic in scale. It was a nice reset of status quo, honoring the past, heading for the future but what's next? Still it was a high quality film and easily entered my personal Top Ten.
Comments
Bought 4 out of my Top 5: Goldfinger, Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, Casino Royale.
I'm not anti-Craig because of his blonde hair, but he still wouldn't have been my first choice to continue the role. He is doing an excellent job, but the movies just feel like British Bourne movies. Originals copying a copy, just doesn't overly impress me (another example: remake of Knight Rider, which was a copy of VIPER, which was a copy of the original Knight Rider.)
M
M.
1) It was a solid updating of the novel, and kept to a LOT of the novels' plot points. I remember a friend of mine saying he didn't like it, and his reasons were all of the things from the novel.
2 ) It furthered my theory that Bond is an identity that is given to a secret agent and not an actual person's name.
Quantum suffered from the writers' strike. It desperately needed at least one more pass on the script to pull things together. It feels more like an extended ending to Casino Royale than its own film.
I know On Her Majesty's... has its fans, and I appreciate the grittier approach they attempt, but I still can't get over the silliness of the plot (hypnotizing attractive socialites to go back and sabotage food supplies) and the whole Blofeld not recognizing Bond even though they met at the end of the last film. The book has the same silly scheme, but manages to avoid the other problem by taking place before You Only Live Twice. Since they shot them out of order, I'm not sure how the film could have handled that better, aside from junking much of the plot. Plus, since Connery ends up returning next film to exact revenge on Blofeld, I can't shake the feeling that Majesty would have been more powerful if Connery had done it.
Brosnan's portrayal, IMO, is barely better than the weakest Moore movies. Cavalier is a good description, but not the dangerous kind of cavalier that you'd get from Connery, but more of a "heh heh, I said cunning linquist. Get it" style that you would expect from Beavis.
Combine that with poor scripts and dialog that worked too hard at trying to be clever and his Bond falls flat and that's all before they sell Astin Martin out for a freaking BMW Cubby Broccoli and Ian Fleming had to be spinning in their graves).
Dalton, on the other hand, brought what I read as a much darker and angrier Bond (I've only read a couple of the Fleming novels, but he just felt more true to the ones that I have read).
Dalton had a great darkness, but he didn't look like Bond. He lacked that charisma even Lasenby had.
M
There is a definite difference in tone from GoldenEye to the other 3 movies. There was a more seriousness that I enjoyed. The scene where Bond is on the beach thinking about killing 006 reasoning "it's what keeps me alive" is one of my favorite Bond scenes ever. In fact, I'd say this adds more weight to Craig's Bond when he has similar scenes (for me.)
When I was reading Under the Hood, there is a scene in the BatCave when Alfred has a monologue about Batman preparing for his fight with the Red Hood by detaching his prior relationship to get the job done. That scene reminded me about that Bond scene in GoldenEye.
M.
ETA: Per IMDB: Brosnan was considered for Living Daylights prior to it going to Dalton - he (Dalton) was busy filming Brenda Starr with Brooke Shields. Dalton, however was considered and apparently turned down the part for OHMSS (felt he was too young), DAF (again turned it down - still felt that he was too young), FYEO (again turned it down - no script at the time) and again for Octopussy and AVTAK (prior commitments at both). IMDB goes on to suggest that Dalton was initially unavailable for Living Daylights and that Brosnan was the alternate (Remington Steele was being cancelled (and then not cancelled), Cubby made the decision that Remington Steele and James Bond could not coexist with the same actor and went back to Dalton.