Top 10 Lamest Action Scenes
Napoleon Plural
LondonPosts: 10,467MI6 Agent
Ooops, typed this one out and it's now disappeared! It was a good one too! Ah well. Mods, can you delete this thread?
UPDATE: You can see my list on page 4 or click on:
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/index.php?topic=29640&cpage=4
and scroll about half way down!
UPDATE: You can see my list on page 4 or click on:
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/index.php?topic=29640&cpage=4
and scroll about half way down!
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Comments
My vote is for the ski chase from TWINE. Rubbish!
That was no 4! {[]
Okay, everyone... pitch in and see if can guess which featured on NP's list... I'll write it up again tomorrow. It will be like Macca having to do Sgt Pepper from scratch again but still... Now my mate's PC is playing up and I can't do it...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Staying with AVTAK: the car chase in Paris, where the car is cleanly severed in half...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
The Car being picked up in YOLT
The finale of DAF and TMWTGG
A Couple of scenes in FYEO (Along with cheesy music)
AVTAK fire engine chase
LTK Pre-Creds
The entirety of DAD
In my opinion, the low point of the entire Bond series
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I dunno; I don't mind that too much- there is at least some spectacle (and the bus jump is pretty impressive), and the ski bit is fine (why is the beach boys music any worse than playing the silly triumphant Bond theme?), but if I had to pick one from AVTAK I'd say the fire truck chase is just rubbish- it gets in the way of the plot, is hugely stupid, has no reason for happening and is utterly cringe-worthy. How can an action scene slow things down?
On that subject, although it's not actually bad, I'd happily lose the sinking house from Casino Royale. It's not all that great and just makes the end of the film even further away just at the point where you want resolution.
Otherwise: the Hovercraft chase from DAD; shot from a mile away and they're all going so slowly. The ice chase is just the same- there's just no interest if they're sliding around with no obstacles; at least the ice dragster bit has a bit of tension. Live and Let Die is filled with pretty dull ones too (apart from the boat chase, natch, although that could be snappier).
The warehouse fight with the two thugs, Bond and Sir Godfrey. Also, the ninja fight in LTK was somewhat embarassing. CGI surfing in DAD too.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
...Well, I rather like the Bond theme, and don't really find it silly---even at its most triumphant B-)
I like 'California Girls' as well (and most of the Beach Boys' tunes---although what we heard in AVTAK was an abysmal cover); I just don't think it works (at all) as music in what is supposed to be an action sequence...it was at that point, during my first (and only) cinema viewing of AVTAK, that I actually thought I heard James Bond's 'death rattle.'
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
10. Taxi chase in India
09. Double decker buss
08. Venice boat chase
07. Fire Engine chase
06. Boat chase in Golden Gun. "20,000 Bucks!"
05. Mrs. Bell-"Same time tomorrow, Mrs. Bell?
04. Oil Rig battle in Baha, California
03. "Just Another drop in the Ocean"
02. Bond and Tibbet fighting two guys in warehouse
01. Fight in Stacey Sutton's house with rock salt shot gun
But then think of the Bond theme's use in, for example, the tank chase in GoldenEye. It's there to bring a smile to your face- Bond is so ridiculously heroic that the music is revelling in it and laughing at his OTT superhero actions with us (in a good way- I'm not saying that any of this is bad; it's just provoking a fun reaction). The Beach Boys music is doing just the same; it's a fun tune that plays, not to be action music, but to make us smile because Bond is beating the bad guys and making it look fun. It just seems like the same thing to me: the Bond theme, with blaring trumpets is silly and over the top (and it's supposed to be) and the California Girls track is doing exactly the same, albeit with added pun factor
Ooh; good point. Just about the most important difference between Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker (which are sort of twins) is that all of Moonraker's action sequences are rubbish
Sort of like Tomorrow Never Dies and World is Not Enough: TND has great action (with the exception of the climax) whereas TWINE has a load of bad ones. Even the boat chase, which is mainly good, is a bit too long and very episodic: sort of feels like a Road Runner cartoon with one little set piece followed by the next- it doesn't really flow.
Well, the situations in which it is played might be silly, that's a given. But I don't find the theme itself silly, as you seem to. To me, 'California Girls' is wildly inappopriate for use during a Bond action sequence; the Bond Theme isn't.
That's okay, though; we merely disagree {[]
To me the Bond Theme is simply an effective piece of music---a trademark---essentially unchanged since we first heard it over the opening titles of DN. Only the context varies
That said, I still find the notion of a 56 year-old Bond snowsurfing to be---well---lame, and it would certainly figure prominently in my own personal list of Top 10 Lamest Action Sequences.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Well it's not an entirely serious piece of music, if you see what I mean. It's brassily overblown, triumphant, fun jazz, which isn't exactly the theme of a deadly serious secret agent
I'm not using 'silly' as a negative judgement at all. It is great action music, but it's on the fun end of the spectrum so we only get it when Bond's being amazing and invincible: imagine if they'd used the Bond theme when 007 was escaping from the mountain in OHMSS- all of that lovely tension that the OHMSS theme builds would be gone.
Fair enough; but you can see how they're aiming to produce the same effect, though? It's less an action sequence than a joke; and I don't actually mind it so much. The tank chase is basically a big (more successful) joke too- and that's not a negative comment at all; it's very funny!
Same for me; I'm just saying what it's effective at
Just makes it funnier for me! I loved all those ladies swooning for the Rogster- everyone knew it was vaguely ridiculous and that's what made it great!
If there's one moment of AVTAK I love it's when the MI6 bunch are lined up at Ascot: Q, M, Bond, Moneypenny and Tibbet- the cast of a global multi-million dollar blockbuster action movie and they're a bunch of British actors with not one of them under 50! Marvellous!
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I always thought the boy yelled 'baht' which is the currency of Thailand. At today's rate, 20,000 baht would be about $630.
Anyway, yeah that action sequence is lame.
Bad
The boat chase in TMWTGG
The fire engine in AVTAK
The CGI surfing in DAD
The sinking house in CR
Everything in MR
Bond dressed like a clown in OP
I liked others didn't
Everything in TWINE except the parahawks (seemed forced).
DAD pre credits
LTK precredits
Picking the car up in YOLT
Best two action scenes ever, drum roll please, both from the same movie, Bond's escape from Piz Gloria in OHMSS and the attack on Piz Gloria including Bond chasing Blofeld down the mountain. Wonderfully shot, one gets a true sense of danger.
Well...any such list is naturally contingent upon what one wants from a Bond film. Those who really enjoy the enhanced (in my view, excessively OTT) comedic aspects of the character might not mind it at all. As I said, for me, this---and the fire truck chase---was as close to 'death' as Bond's actually ever come
For me, there's a definite limit on how 'in your face' the yuk-yuks ought to be; I prefer the humour to be more character-based, and less broadly-played. For instance, I actually liked the TMWTGG boat chase---including the bit where he chucks the kid over the side of the boat, since that conveyed an aspect of Bond's character that I can appreciate, even in my least favourite interpretation of the role; go figure. Another example is the slide whistle over the AMC spiral jump: love the jump (which itself is admittedly outrageous), hate the slide whistle.
It's all in where the creative team-of-the-moment decides to draw that fine line
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I just wanted to chime in and say that I think the boat chase in Thailand is cool; it's the circumstances that precipitate it that are stupid! Hip doesn't notice Bond didn't get in the car? Not much of a cop if he can't keep track of three other people!
I can't really add anything to this thread as far as new lame sequences, but I do agree about the unwanted effect of the music during the snow boarding and the whistle during the barrel roll - they take you right out of the films. I also think the car pick-up in YOLT was distracting because it has such a long set-up that you actually have time to think about how it would never work!
I do not like the Venice boat chase, and I am also not crazy about the Bond and Chang(or whatever his name is) fight. I do not agree that all of Moonraker's action scenes are rubbish. The fight between Bond and Jaws on the cable car is undeniably spectacular. The skydiving scene and second boat chase in the Amazon are also good with great stunts. The scene when Bond and Holly are shooting the globes in Moonraker 5 had potential, but it isn't good because it's predictable. It is no surprise that Bond and Holly were going to have trouble trying to blow up the third globe. The predictability of the scene makes it lose tension.
Yeah definitely. In fact it's pretty much one big chase from the ski escape right up until the avalanche, and it's the most tense action sequence out of all of the Bonds; he's really got to get away.