As much as I like the film I have to say Die Another Day is the worst Bond film in history....It went way of course and the storyline got just a little bit too unreal.
AVTAK, because Roger was just too old. Sorry Roger, nothing personal.
I'll just leave it at that...nothing more to add, really...except...
Hi JFF!
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Sorry sir Roger, I'm sure you are a nice person, but MR and AVTAK are the worst Bond films ever!
DAD was a serious misstep, but it's a masterpiece compared those two.
Moonraker, for me , was the low point of the series. It was made to capitalize on the success of Star Wars and while it succeeded financially, I found the movie a great let down.
The redemption of Jaws and the kitsch love story with 'Dolly' is easily the campiest bit of nonsense the Bond team ever dreamed up. Jaws was a psychotic professional killer who ripped the throats out of his victims with his teeth.
Yet, his fall into a circus tent, his crash on the cable car, indeed every crash, smash and electrocution he ever suffered that should have killed him, make him more Wile E. Coyote than true villain. Exploding bolos, Uzi-laser guns, an anaconda that looks more like a muppet make this multi-million dollar film look like a grade B sci-fi spoof made on a shoestring budget. Roger Moore is overweight and Bernard Lee in his final Bond film is made to wear that ridiculous gas mask.
The film is undignified, unfunny, boring and pointless. It's single redeeming feature is the elegantly sung Moonraker theme by Shirley Bassey.
Moonraker is not only the low point of the Bond franchise it is a bad film period-{
I agree it's the most obviously camp-heavy, especially considering the massive amounts of dough dropped on it, although I think DAF actually out-camps it in performance, or at least comes close.
Kinda hard to single out the worst Bond film when there are quite a few worthy candidates--sadly. Does the Muppet Movie franchise have these kinda problems? Angry 5th graders really ticked about how Kermit comes across in THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER, or the dodgy special effects in THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTEN, or the lame script for A MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL? I mean there's the original, then there's all those crass knock-offs...sigh.
Heh, coming from me thats a big thing; I think Rocky V is about the worst movie ever made. Die Another Day was just soooo bad. Wooden acting, horrid lines, the gadgets...ugh. The plot is a weak DAF (movie) + MR (book) effort; I could have a better one in a weekend, its just a bad film. Its a shame P.B. had such bad scripts, he could have been an overall decent Bond if they kept them as good as GoldenEye.
Heh, coming from me thats a big thing; I think Rocky V is about the worst movie ever made. Die Another Day was just soooo bad. Wooden acting, horrid lines, the gadgets...ugh. The plot is a weak DAF (movie) + MR (book) effort; I could have a better one in a weekend, its just a bad film. Its a shame P.B. had such bad scripts, he could have been an overall decent Bond if they kept them as good as GoldenEye.
Sorry if I came on a bit strong, blueman. I'm afraid I never saw the muppet movies you mention.
I was just very disappointed in Moonraker. I suppose it's no secret that I have always favored Fleming's novels to their movie counterparts, but for the most part I have been been able to find something enjoyable in most of the films. But Moonraker was a terrible film.
I was embarrassed for the cast, especially the usually wonderful Michael Lonsdale. I will always remember him from Day of the Jackal. I was very gratified with Casino Royale since at least the spirit of Fleming's work is being taken more seriously. After Die Another Day I was really ready for a change. I've had quite enough of space based killer satellites and multi-national maniacs trying to take over or destroy the world. James Bond is a fascinating,
character. It's not necessary to turn him into a cartoon.
Oh no need to apologize jade--read some of my rants if you want OTT, lol. I've never liked cartoon Bond, and while Moore has a couple of nice moments in MR I couldn't even make it halfway through that film last time I tried to watch it, for exactly the reasons you state. And the muppet stuff was just me riffing on fanboy attitudes, mine included. No worries. {[]
Moonraker, for me , was the low point of the series. It was made to capitalize on the success of Star Wars and while it succeeded financially, I found the movie a great let down.
The redemption of Jaws and the kitsch love story with 'Dolly' is easily the campiest bit of nonsense the Bond team ever dreamed up. Jaws was a psychotic professional killer who ripped the throats out of his victims with his teeth.
Yet, his fall into a circus tent, his crash on the cable car, indeed every crash, smash and electrocution he ever suffered that should have killed him, make him more Wile E. Coyote than true villain. Exploding bolos, Uzi-laser guns, an anaconda that looks more like a muppet make this multi-million dollar film look like a grade B sci-fi spoof made on a shoestring budget. Roger Moore is overweight and Bernard Lee in his final Bond film is made to wear that ridiculous gas mask.
The film is undignified, unfunny, boring and pointless. It's single redeeming feature is the elegantly sung Moonraker theme by Shirley Bassey.
Moonraker is not only the low point of the Bond franchise it is a bad film period-{
Interestingly enough, this "bad film period" was praised as the "best Bond film since Goldfinger" by no less of a critic than Vincent Canby of the New York Times. This "terrible Bond film" also outgrossed every Bond film made since(adjusting for inflation of course) and every single 1980s Bond film without even having to adjust for inflation. So in a way, MR tends to get the last laugh on its critics.
Back to topic at hand, the real winner for the title of Worst Bond Film Ever! is (no offense, Jenny Flex Fan but I have to pick) A View To A Kill. It's script is basically a stale rehash of GF as well as little plot elements from earlier, better Bond films(i.e., PTS with Bond battling Russians on skis-TSWLM,
Bond spying on villain at his French chateau-MR,
Bond dallying with beautiful Russian spy-FRWL and TSWLM both, the list goes on). Now Bond films made both before and since have been guilty of this, but with AVTAK you feel that Richard Maibaum and Michael Wilson didn't even try. Add to that, Moore is clearly too old for the role at this point and it shows, John Glen's direction is as tired as Moore, Tanya Roberts is the whiniest Bond girl ever and the whole thing just runs on and on. It's watchable thanks to some nice locations, some impressive stunts, John Barry's music and some good supporting performances from Patrick MacNee, Alison Doody and Fiona Fullerton but it's bottom-of-the-barrel Bond for me. How folks can prefer AVTAK to MR(which for all its faults at least featured a younger Moore in his prime, an intelligent and brave heroine who was neither too whiny nor too butch, and fast paced direction by Lewis Gilbert) is beyond me.
Interestingly enough, this "bad film period" was praised as the "best Bond film since Goldfinger" by no less of a critic than Vincent Canby of the New York Times. This "terrible Bond film" also outgrossed every Bond film made since(adjusting for inflation of course) and every single 1980s Bond film without even having to adjust for inflation. So in a way, MR tends to get the last laugh on its critics.
DAD made a fat wad of cash, yet it sucked too. Some critics even praised it as a great Bond film. Go figure. The general public--critics included--have a much different slant on Bond than the fanboy/girl network IMO. EON seemingly has always understood this, and has never shied away from putting out real crap as Bond product. Nice to see Babs stepping away from that in her first parentless offering, here's hoping she stays the course created with CR.
BTW, has anybody nominated the film that will end the series yet...?
Interestingly enough, this "bad film period" was praised as the "best Bond film since Goldfinger" by no less of a critic than Vincent Canby of the New York Times. This "terrible Bond film" also outgrossed every Bond film made since(adjusting for inflation of course) and every single 1980s Bond film without even having to adjust for inflation. So in a way, MR tends to get the last laugh on its critics.
I agree with you that MR is nowhere near as bad as some people think it is, but really, the amount of money it has made is irrelevant. Some great films (Citizen Kane for example) are not particularly commercially successful, while some terrible films (such as the upteenth horror remake) are hugely successful on a commercial level.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
LazenbyThe upper reaches of the AmazoPosts: 606MI6 Agent
edited April 2007
Moonraker is a great Bond movie that takes a lot of flak primarily because it has a few really lame elements-- which in my opinion don't detract from its great qualities (which include Moore in his prime, a great villain, the awesome centrefuge scene, top-tier score, and the whole outer space theme, which I personally quite enjoyed). MR is easily my favorite Moore effort (which still only places it at #7 on my list) and imho it's the best film between the masterpiece OHMSS and Casino Royale. One day if I ever take up digital editing I'm going to cook up a version of that film with all the slapstick Jaws crap and the "Bondola" scene edited out so you all can see what a wonderful film is really lurking beneath.
MR is easily my favorite Moore effort (which still only places it at #7 on my list) and imho it's the best film between the masterpiece OHMSS and Casino Royale.
Really? So you think it's better than TSWLM? (Which it was enormously similar to.)
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
Interestingly enough, this "bad film period" was praised as the "best Bond film since Goldfinger" by no less of a critic than Vincent Canby of the New York Times. This "terrible Bond film" also outgrossed every Bond film made since(adjusting for inflation of course) and every single 1980s Bond film without even having to adjust for inflation. So in a way, MR tends to get the last laugh on its critics.
I agree with you that MR is nowhere near as bad as some people think it is, but really, the amount of money it has made is irrelevant. Some great films (Citizen Kane for example) are not particularly commercially successful, while some terrible films (such as the upteenth horror remake) are hugely successful on a commercial level.
Oh, I agree that box office has no effect for me on the entertainment or artistic quality of a film. For example, Hitchcock's Vertigo was a commercial failure on initial release but it's been a favorite film of mine ever since I first saw it. And I prefer Timothy Dalton's Bond to Pierce Brosnan's Bond and we all know that can't be because of their relative commercial box office takes of their films.
That stated, I think it's great that the much maligned and highly underrated MR at least benefited from being one of the series' biggest financial hits. I guess MR gets the opposite consolation prize from say OHMSS which was a commercial flop(relative to the Connery Bonds, that is because it was still a box office hit compared to non-Bond films of its time) but is now (rightly) very highly rated by Bond fans.
Moonraker is a great Bond movie that takes a lot of flak primarily because it as a few quite really lame elements-- which in my opinion don't detract from it's great qualities (which include Moore in his prime, a great villain, the awesome centrefuge scene, top-tier score, and the whole outer space theme, which I personally quite enjoyed). MR is easily my favorite Moore effort (which still only places it at #7 on my list) and imho it's the best film between the masterpiece OHMSS and Casino Royale. On day if I ever take up digital editing I'm going to cook up a version of that film with all the slapstick Jaws crap and the "Bondola" scene edited out so you all can see what a wonderful film is really lurking beneath.
Let us know when you prepare it because I'd really love to see it, Lazenby. Like how you have a MR reference for your location.
Special mention for DAD, the film that crashed the franchise for the first time in 40 years. Utter drek, makes my head hurt thinking about it. Once you bring in invisible cars, that's the end. You can't uninvent that stuff, all you can do is wipe the slate clean and start again - which they did, with CR.
I do sometimes wonder if it wasn't deliberate on someone's part, to make it so OTT that CR would be the natural sucessor.
Special mention for DAD, the film that crashed the franchise for the first time in 40 years. Utter drek, makes my head hurt thinking about it. Once you bring in invisible cars, that's the end. You can't uninvent that stuff, all you can do is wipe the slate clean and start again - which they did, with CR.
I do sometimes wonder if it wasn't deliberate on someone's part, to make it so OTT that CR would be the natural sucessor.
DAD hands down. I have no desire to ever see it again. This is something I can not say about any other Bond flick.
"A View to a Kill" was pretty sorry stuff. I always thought they should have killed off Moore and let Patrick Macnee carry the rest of the movie.
"Die Another Day" wasn't much better ...at a certain point the human brain becomes numb from watching too much stupidity, both those films were very "numbing"
"Casino Royale" has no business being as good as it is based on the track record of the piffle that preceeded it.
Die Another Day is without a shadow of doubt, the worst Bond film ever made. What I don't like about it is that it broke a few traditions, and some of the gadgets are a little far fetched. It seems to have taken gadgets as their priority, rather than a feasible and entertaining storyline. Yes, it was well acted, the action and SFX were first class, but there wasn't much of a plot to speak of. Also, Bond and Moneypenny are close, but they're not that close! I don't care that it was merely a simulation, it shouldn't happen. Despite Moneypenny being disappointed that she's never had James, she always kept their relationship semi-professional. The Bond-Moneypenny kiss transcended that boundary, and I thought it was totally unacceptable.
And what the hell is with Bond being captured for 14 months? What happened to the ingenious James Bond who always had escape plans A through to Z, always with a gadget that somebody failed to detect? The hero of the film is being made to look weak and incompetent. Sure, Bond isn't meant to be perfect, and he does have some weak points, but incompetence isn't one of them. At the point when Bond was released, I was thinking, if they're going to kill him, just get it over and done with. James Bond being captured, has lost all integrity, all dignity, they may as well finish him off. I have no idea what the writers were thinking when they scripted that one.
Die Another Day is complete and utter trash. To date, this is the only Bond movie I have not seen more than once, and it will stay that way.
Die Another Day is without a shadow of doubt, the worst Bond film ever made. What I don't like about it is that it broke a few traditions, and some of the gadgets are a little far fetched. It seems to have taken gadgets as their priority, rather than a feasible and entertaining storyline. Yes, it was well acted, the action and SFX were first class, but there wasn't much of a plot to speak of. Also, Bond and Moneypenny are close, but they're not that close! I don't care that it was merely a simulation, it shouldn't happen. Despite Moneypenny being disappointed that she's never had James, she always kept their relationship semi-professional. The Bond-Moneypenny kiss transcended that boundary, and I thought it was totally unacceptable.
And what the hell is with Bond being captured for 14 months? What happened to the ingenious James Bond who always had escape plans A through to Z, always with a gadget that somebody failed to detect? The hero of the film is being made to look weak and incompetent. Sure, Bond isn't meant to be perfect, and he does have some weak points, but incompetence isn't one of them. At the point when Bond was released, I was thinking, if they're going to kill him, just get it over and done with. James Bond being captured, has lost all integrity, all dignity, they may as well finish him off. I have no idea what the writers were thinking when they scripted that one.
Die Another Day is complete and utter trash. To date, this is the only Bond movie I have not seen more than once, and it will stay that way.
I agree with everything that you said. Although IMO AVTAK and TLD are worse, I certainly agree with you that DAD is trash! I really hate this film. In fact, along with AVTAK and TLD, it is one of only three films which if it were on TV, I can't guarantee that I would watch it. I do own DAD on DVD, but it's not exactly an official DVD, so I didn't pay much money for it, thank goodness. )
The thing about Bond's failure to escape was that, while I wasn't at all happy that he had been captured, I could perhaps have accepted it if he had escaped. But his failure to do so implies that if he not been rescued he may never have gotten out at all.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
I don't really mind about that much, no worse than Bond turning traitor after brainwashing in the novel Golden Gun. Hardly the worst part of the film, though depressing. I guess it was to 'explain' why Bond wasn't around to stop 9/11, a sort of nod to that.
Well really, there are only a few candidates. Even A View To A Kill and Moonraker have some enough plus points to save them. AVTAK has some hugely enjoyable performances from Christopher Walken, Grace Jones and Patrick Macnee and whilst Roger was showing his age, there's nothing wrong with his performance. Some half decent action setpieces in it too. Moonraker's biggest flaw is the amount of awful comedy in it- other than that, I don't think I would really be considering it to be as bad as it is, because it's kind of serviceable otherwise.
But I can't really say the same about TMWTTGG and DAD. Die Another Day was the first Bond film I saw in the cinema- I was about 14 at the time- and didn't really care much about it after I saw it either way but then I got the DVD and goodness, it was BAD. And for me it gets worse on repeated viewings- the double entendres are probably the worst ever written for the series and there are some really poor performances- Halle Berry and Toby Stephens especially. The opening had promise but after about the first 30 minutes it's unbearable, imho.
TMWTTGG still holds the position of being the worst Bond film ever for me, though. What had the potential to be a terrific idea was ruined by hamhanded execution, atrocious comedy and rather flat action sequences. Only Roger and Christopher Lee, plus maybe Maud Adams, salvage this mess and that's not really enough, imho.
I go a bit against the grain, here. For me the worst Bond film is DAF. There are just so many ridiculous things in this film that make is absolutely painful to watch. Even Blofeld is ridiculous. There's not a single thing I can even think of about this movie that would make me want to watch it again. It's just awful.
Comments
Nice analogy!!
I'll just leave it at that...nothing more to add, really...except...
Hi JFF!
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
DAD was a serious misstep, but it's a masterpiece compared those two.
The redemption of Jaws and the kitsch love story with 'Dolly' is easily the campiest bit of nonsense the Bond team ever dreamed up. Jaws was a psychotic professional killer who ripped the throats out of his victims with his teeth.
Yet, his fall into a circus tent, his crash on the cable car, indeed every crash, smash and electrocution he ever suffered that should have killed him, make him more Wile E. Coyote than true villain. Exploding bolos, Uzi-laser guns, an anaconda that looks more like a muppet make this multi-million dollar film look like a grade B sci-fi spoof made on a shoestring budget. Roger Moore is overweight and Bernard Lee in his final Bond film is made to wear that ridiculous gas mask.
The film is undignified, unfunny, boring and pointless. It's single redeeming feature is the elegantly sung Moonraker theme by Shirley Bassey.
Moonraker is not only the low point of the Bond franchise it is a bad film period-{
I agree it's the most obviously camp-heavy, especially considering the massive amounts of dough dropped on it, although I think DAF actually out-camps it in performance, or at least comes close.
Kinda hard to single out the worst Bond film when there are quite a few worthy candidates--sadly. Does the Muppet Movie franchise have these kinda problems? Angry 5th graders really ticked about how Kermit comes across in THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER, or the dodgy special effects in THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTEN, or the lame script for A MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL? I mean there's the original, then there's all those crass knock-offs...sigh.
Heh, coming from me thats a big thing; I think Rocky V is about the worst movie ever made. Die Another Day was just soooo bad. Wooden acting, horrid lines, the gadgets...ugh. The plot is a weak DAF (movie) + MR (book) effort; I could have a better one in a weekend, its just a bad film. Its a shame P.B. had such bad scripts, he could have been an overall decent Bond if they kept them as good as GoldenEye.
Heh, coming from me thats a big thing; I think Rocky V is about the worst movie ever made. Die Another Day was just soooo bad. Wooden acting, horrid lines, the gadgets...ugh. The plot is a weak DAF (movie) + MR (book) effort; I could have a better one in a weekend, its just a bad film. Its a shame P.B. had such bad scripts, he could have been an overall decent Bond if they kept them as good as GoldenEye.
I was just very disappointed in Moonraker. I suppose it's no secret that I have always favored Fleming's novels to their movie counterparts, but for the most part I have been been able to find something enjoyable in most of the films. But Moonraker was a terrible film.
I was embarrassed for the cast, especially the usually wonderful Michael Lonsdale. I will always remember him from Day of the Jackal. I was very gratified with Casino Royale since at least the spirit of Fleming's work is being taken more seriously. After Die Another Day I was really ready for a change. I've had quite enough of space based killer satellites and multi-national maniacs trying to take over or destroy the world. James Bond is a fascinating,
character. It's not necessary to turn him into a cartoon.
Piece. Of. Junk.
Interestingly enough, this "bad film period" was praised as the "best Bond film since Goldfinger" by no less of a critic than Vincent Canby of the New York Times. This "terrible Bond film" also outgrossed every Bond film made since(adjusting for inflation of course) and every single 1980s Bond film without even having to adjust for inflation. So in a way, MR tends to get the last laugh on its critics.
Back to topic at hand, the real winner for the title of Worst Bond Film Ever! is (no offense, Jenny Flex Fan but I have to pick) A View To A Kill. It's script is basically a stale rehash of GF as well as little plot elements from earlier, better Bond films(i.e., PTS with Bond battling Russians on skis-TSWLM,
Bond spying on villain at his French chateau-MR,
Bond dallying with beautiful Russian spy-FRWL and TSWLM both, the list goes on). Now Bond films made both before and since have been guilty of this, but with AVTAK you feel that Richard Maibaum and Michael Wilson didn't even try. Add to that, Moore is clearly too old for the role at this point and it shows, John Glen's direction is as tired as Moore, Tanya Roberts is the whiniest Bond girl ever and the whole thing just runs on and on. It's watchable thanks to some nice locations, some impressive stunts, John Barry's music and some good supporting performances from Patrick MacNee, Alison Doody and Fiona Fullerton but it's bottom-of-the-barrel Bond for me. How folks can prefer AVTAK to MR(which for all its faults at least featured a younger Moore in his prime, an intelligent and brave heroine who was neither too whiny nor too butch, and fast paced direction by Lewis Gilbert) is beyond me.
DAD made a fat wad of cash, yet it sucked too. Some critics even praised it as a great Bond film. Go figure. The general public--critics included--have a much different slant on Bond than the fanboy/girl network IMO. EON seemingly has always understood this, and has never shied away from putting out real crap as Bond product. Nice to see Babs stepping away from that in her first parentless offering, here's hoping she stays the course created with CR.
BTW, has anybody nominated the film that will end the series yet...?
Oh, I agree that box office has no effect for me on the entertainment or artistic quality of a film. For example, Hitchcock's Vertigo was a commercial failure on initial release but it's been a favorite film of mine ever since I first saw it. And I prefer Timothy Dalton's Bond to Pierce Brosnan's Bond and we all know that can't be because of their relative commercial box office takes of their films.
That stated, I think it's great that the much maligned and highly underrated MR at least benefited from being one of the series' biggest financial hits. I guess MR gets the opposite consolation prize from say OHMSS which was a commercial flop(relative to the Connery Bonds, that is because it was still a box office hit compared to non-Bond films of its time) but is now (rightly) very highly rated by Bond fans.
Let us know when you prepare it because I'd really love to see it, Lazenby. Like how you have a MR reference for your location.
I do sometimes wonder if it wasn't deliberate on someone's part, to make it so OTT that CR would be the natural sucessor.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
"Die Another Day" wasn't much better ...at a certain point the human brain becomes numb from watching too much stupidity, both those films were very "numbing"
"Casino Royale" has no business being as good as it is based on the track record of the piffle that preceeded it.
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
And what the hell is with Bond being captured for 14 months? What happened to the ingenious James Bond who always had escape plans A through to Z, always with a gadget that somebody failed to detect? The hero of the film is being made to look weak and incompetent. Sure, Bond isn't meant to be perfect, and he does have some weak points, but incompetence isn't one of them. At the point when Bond was released, I was thinking, if they're going to kill him, just get it over and done with. James Bond being captured, has lost all integrity, all dignity, they may as well finish him off. I have no idea what the writers were thinking when they scripted that one.
Die Another Day is complete and utter trash. To date, this is the only Bond movie I have not seen more than once, and it will stay that way.
The thing about Bond's failure to escape was that, while I wasn't at all happy that he had been captured, I could perhaps have accepted it if he had escaped. But his failure to do so implies that if he not been rescued he may never have gotten out at all.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
But I can't really say the same about TMWTTGG and DAD. Die Another Day was the first Bond film I saw in the cinema- I was about 14 at the time- and didn't really care much about it after I saw it either way but then I got the DVD and goodness, it was BAD. And for me it gets worse on repeated viewings- the double entendres are probably the worst ever written for the series and there are some really poor performances- Halle Berry and Toby Stephens especially. The opening had promise but after about the first 30 minutes it's unbearable, imho.
TMWTTGG still holds the position of being the worst Bond film ever for me, though. What had the potential to be a terrific idea was ruined by hamhanded execution, atrocious comedy and rather flat action sequences. Only Roger and Christopher Lee, plus maybe Maud Adams, salvage this mess and that's not really enough, imho.
Worst bond film: CASONO ROYALE.
Good Action film, but everyone agrees with me its just not Bond!!!