embarrassing moment in FYEO
alabamabondfan
Posts: 23MI6 Agent
Well,I'm still working my way through all the Bond films for the first time. Today i tried to watch FYEO. It was pretty awful from the get-go. Even though the PTS was cool and they FINALLY got around to avenging Tracy's death........Bond didn't look angry enough to me. Seems if he'd been grieving her for years, he'd have been more cruel.
But later on, when the figure skater is in his bedroom. That whole scene was probably the silliest, most embarrassing thing I've seen in the Bond films so far. The girl looked like she was about 16 and Roger Moore looked about 55. Not to mention the actress that played the figure skater couldn't act her way out of a paperbag.
This movie is right up there with YOLT as the worst of the Bond films for me. With all the terrible reviews I've read about AVTAK, I'm almost scared to watch that one.
Does anyone agree with me on FYEO?
Maybe I'll like it better in a few years if i ever decide to watch it again.
But later on, when the figure skater is in his bedroom. That whole scene was probably the silliest, most embarrassing thing I've seen in the Bond films so far. The girl looked like she was about 16 and Roger Moore looked about 55. Not to mention the actress that played the figure skater couldn't act her way out of a paperbag.
This movie is right up there with YOLT as the worst of the Bond films for me. With all the terrible reviews I've read about AVTAK, I'm almost scared to watch that one.
Does anyone agree with me on FYEO?
Maybe I'll like it better in a few years if i ever decide to watch it again.
Comments
As an adult, I can't stand Bibi. I can't stand that scene. I dont know who the genius was that thought that it actually had any merit being in a Bond film. Did the people telling the story feel the need to tell the audience that, "Bond is a womanizer, but a womanizer with limitations?"
You nailed it Alabamabondfan, it's an embarrassing moment. The other thing I hate about FYEO is that cheesy music that plays throughout the ski chase - it ruins the whole thing -and that chase would have been so good without it.
That said, FYEO does have some fantastic scenes. One scene that I have always liked was the scene with Bond and Milena tied up on the boat getting ready to be trolled through the shark infested waters. She looks at Bond and says, "I didnt think it would end like this." and he looks down at her and very calmly replies, "We're not dead yet." That is just spot on for a Bond response IMHO.
IMO, FYEO and YOLT are up there together, but not as horrible Bond films. I think that both of them bring a lot to the series. Both of them have annoying moments in them, but so does every other movie you watch. I agree that Blofeld deserved a more cruel death, but aside from that part, the rest of the movie was just about perfect.
Very very true {[]
I dont find FYEO embarrasing at all, it has so many good elements, but yes when there is an embarrasing moment it is embarrasing. Only ones to me would be the hockey players and thats about it.
The PTS is forgettable though.
"Better make that two."
I don't find FYEO embarassing either. It's one of the better films of the series. Bibi Dahl is annoying, but then she is rather a spoilt brat. Bond's rejection of her advance makes perfect sense to me, it's not embarassing at all. Neither is the Maggie Thatcher parody at the end of the film, I find it amusing. A lot of fans complain about "Blofeld's" demise down the chimney stack, but I actually enjoy the PTS.
I do agree with those who say that the music during the ski chase spoils that sequence. And the attack of the hockey players is spoilt by the "humour" of them all ending up in the net. A shame because it begins in such a brutal fashion.
Plus, in the case of FYEO, I think the benefits (a great performance by Moore, some cool action scenes, a moment that finally proves to the cynics just how ruthless Moore can be, a really good title song IMO and an intelligent plot that more than makes up for the second half of MR) more than outweigh the negatives. IMO FYEO was the best Bond film of the 80's and the second best Bond film (after GE) post-TSWLM.
FYEO isn't bad but it does tend to be, along with the Brosnan films, among the most overrated Bond films IMHO. I don't hate it but I'd actually like to read more bad reviews of it to counterbalance some of the overpraise I think it gets. You're right that Bond should have been more serious when dispatching the villain responsible for his wife's death and that Bibi Dahl moment might have been more at home in MR or AVTAK but not in a supposedly more "serious" Bond film.
In retrospect, FYEO was a Bond film in transition. The series was moving away from the lighthearted comedic Bonds of the 1970s and towards the more serious Bonds of the Dalton films and CR. However, it seems a bit "inbetween" these 2 types of Bond filmmaking in FYEO. Personally speaking I'd rather a Bond film be "all out" fantasy/lighthearted like TSWLM, DAF and MR or "all out" serious like TLD, LTK and CR but to each his own.
I personally love FYEO, the best Moore flick. (IMO)
I agree... it does have faults:
I think the pre-credits is sorely out of place and has nothing to do with the film. But they are action filled!
Bibi IS annoying, but Connery-Bond would have followed through with finding her in his room.
The end (Thatcher) is embarrassing.
Even with these faults, it's the best Bond since OHMSS.
LOL :v
But true.
"Better make that two."
my apologies to JennyFlexFan. :)I'll wait until I've seen AVTAK to make any judgments.
Funny, lots of people seem to hate DAF but it is one of my favorites so far. The women in the film were awesome (2nd only to Thunderball) and Connery seemed much more inspired in this role than in YOLT.
It seemed stupid to me that Bond had been made to be such a playboy and then the writers put in this scene with an oversexed teenager just so we can see that Bond does have enough morals to turn down the underaged??? The ice cream line was funny but the scene was still bad and the actress weak imho.
I've only seen the first 15 minutes of Moonraker. I'm going to watch it next and then AVTAK. I've tried to watch them in sequence but have skipped ahead and gone back a few times.
I'll go ahead and give my vote for best Moore Bond film as LALD. I loved this movie. TMWTGG wasn't bad either. TSWLM was ok. I'd like to see what FYEO and AVTAK could have been like with a younger Bond.
I think this is an awesome message board by the way.
Yes, it's full of plot holes big enough to drive a cement truck through -however, some parts are very enjoyable.
I'm old and I forget names now lol, but in TMWTGG when Moore is with Scaramanga's girl (her name is the one I forget -little help appreciated there board members) and he has her arm twisted up behind her back she says to him, "You're hurting my arm." His response is, "I'll break it unless you tell me where Scaramanga is." -It actually looked like Moore meant every word of what he said -and that for me is one of the few moments where Moore came off looking like a Fleming Bond.
But this thread is about FYEO -and coincedentally enough this movie also shows Moore in a Flemingesque Bond moment. It's when he kicks "The Dove's" (there goes my crappy memory again- sorry) car off the side of the cliff and heartlessly kills him when he could have just as easily saved him. If Moore could have displayed a more consistant edge like that when he played Bond I'm sure he would be a much more popular Bond than he is now.
There are a few silly its ie Blofelds demise and the Thatch bit at the end (see, I'm an eighties boy and we always referred to her in that derogatory way) but it really is a first class script from Richard Maibaum and Michael Wilson.
I like the way everyone is given a background. Its an ensemble piece. We get to know Melina's idyllic life brought up on a ship sailing around the sunny Meditterranean with a loving family which is brought to an end so brutally. The shock of your world ending with an assassins bullet. And they dont portray her as a drooling loon out for revenge she does it coldly and with controlled fury that is believable. Easily as good as Barbara Bachs Anya Amasova..
Bu the minor characters are well written - Jacoba Brink was a previous world class figure skater alluded to by Bond. Kriegler is a defector, Locque a murderer who escaped prison and the WWII rivalry background of Kristatos and Colombo. Even the bit part of Lisl von Schlaf is good with her not really being an Austrian countess but a Livepudlian fraud.
It really is first class stuff. Just as good as Casino Royale.
Scaramanga's girl in TMWTGG is Andrea Anders. She is portrayed by the delightful Maud Adams.
"The Dove" in FYEO is Emile Leopold Locque. He is portrayed by Michael Gothard.
I would agree that he is fun to watch, and it looks like he is having a good time, but DAF still sucks.
"Better make that two."
I agree with all this but again must reiterate that I believe the Blofeld scene is symbolic of cartoonish elements in the series being dropped for now, hence it's silliness is deliberately satirical...as for it not being a cruel enough death, I think dropping a man in a wheelchair into a smokestack, to shattered bones and a burning death, is fairly cruel.
Having just watched DAF a couple days ago, I have to say it stands alone because it is the only Connery Bond with a distinctly seventies feel. The police chases foreshadows JW Pepper, who happens to be an element I take with a grain of Mrs. Dash and get a kick out of. After watching DAF what I walked away thinking about is, man, Wynn and Kidd are two of the creepiest creeps in any film ever!
There is one thing in FYEO that makes me cringe each time I see it. It's a small thing, but I can't help but notice it every time. In the Q lab sequence, Bond witnesses a man's cast swing open and smash a dummy's head sitting in a chair. I'm constantly aware that the effect is pulled off by simply having a second individual slide his arm from behind the wall and underneath the actor's arm in front of the wall. A simple trick, but glaringly bad once you notice it.
I notice that everytime, and that whole Q scene is boring. I love FYEO though
"Better make that two."
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I didn't realise until watching the DAF DVD special features that Bruce Glover, (Mr Wint), was the father of the extremely eccentric Crispin Glover. That explains so much.
Yup, there's nothing like dating a woman who could kick the hell out of you.