Dalton said that he used the books as his inspiration, and I'm inclined to believe him.
Brosnan wasn't bad as Bond. But the problem for him was two-fold.
First, he essentially was the 90s mass market formula for the character rather than the character: GQ model looks, clothes horse, perfectly coiffed in every scene, always with a Bond quip, rarely in any real danger.
It was like the production people said, "Poll the audience for General Hospital or Monday Night Football, tell us what they think of when "James Bond" is mentioned, and then get us the actor that best fits the stereotype."
Consequently, there was not much to discover in his characterization -- he was basically Pierce Brosnan, as you'd seen him in Remington Steele, with the occasional attempt at a hard edge that increasingly seems silly after watching Craig's incarnation -- nothing that really ever separated his interpretation from pretty much the expectation that came with his casting.
The second problem was the scripts. None of his Bonds is particularly memorable. At best, they have some scenes or moments that work well. The rest is an uneven production that sometimes delights but too often just seems like going throught the motions.
The overrated Goldeneye, for instance, has that excellent scene where 007 confronts Onatopp in the sauna, and it works great. He's utterly believable in that moment as Bond, and not as Bond cliche, if that makes sense. Tomorrow Never Dies comes the closest to me for feeling like a fully realized Bond film, mostly because of its pace and style, and Brosnan again has moments, but a tedious twerp of a villain and campy minor characters give the film a schizophrenic quality.
Had one of these two problems not existed, that likely would have compensated for the existing problem, and the films would have been much better. But put the two together, and Brosnan's Bonds seem rather cartoony and never "realized."
With Craig, there is the joy of discovering Bond again. Blonde and cold-eyed, he can't rely on being the cliche because he doesn't look like what people for the last 30 years have expected Bond to look like. Muscular and "old school" masculine, he's got more in common with Connery and Lazenby than Moore, Dalton, and Brosnan. And while his two outings are not perfect, Casino Royale is easily the most "mature" Bond film we've had in decades. Even Quantum of Solace, for all its problems, attempted to stay away from devolving into simple formula.
True most of his films weren't classics but I think, as you said, they all had some great standout moments.
I think, if anything, Craig has starred in one of the most forgettable entries in the series. A lot of people go on about the "formula" Bond but QoS proved that if you go too far away from the "formula", things won't work.
To quote Martin Campbell, director of GE and CR:
"The secret to Bond is to remember it’s Bond. It’s been successful for 22 incarnations. There are a lot of elements that work, so don’t **** with them."
That's one of the problem with the Brosnan films: They are moments rather than a collective, successful whole.
Quantum of Solace was a disappointment after Casino Royale, but I don't think it was an awful Bond film, and it was one of the highest grossing Bond films of all time. In many ways, it had the most "flavor" of a Bond novel in a long time, but it's biggest problem -- other than following one of the best films in the series -- is that it was just too short to be properly developed.
Marc Forster wanted some sort of arthouse version of Bond, with too many "allusions" to previous Bond films to fill in the gaps, and he seemed to translate that into "make it shorter is better." Bad idea. His films tend to be most wanting in plot, so I understand why he might want to go that route, but a Bond film should take its time to properly be experienced and digested. But other than the brevity, it didn't stray too much from a conventional James Bond film, even if the scale didn't seem quite as properly "Bondian."
I just don't think they have aged very well in relation to many of the others. For instance you couldn't picture a character like Sheriff Pepper in todays Bond films, or even in the Bond films of the 90s.
In both films, Jack Wade wasn't all that far off at times as a kind of good ol' boy caricature, and the computer nerd by Alan Cumming as well as Dr. Kaufman were just about as campy and comicaaly as broad.
None of those characters IMO were as "cartoony" as someone like Pepper.
Kaufman certainly was. The late, otherwise great Vincent Schiavelli played him like a "Vee Vill Meck Yoo Talk" Nazi from Hogan's Heroes, and lines like "Did you call the auto club?" didn't help him. Alan Cumming was like TV's Erkle on steroids.
I will point out that rednecks were all the rage after movies like In the Heat of the Night in 1967 and Deliverance in 1972, and Live and Let Die beat much bigger comedic versions of the redneck sheriff to the punch. For instance, consider Jackie Gleason in the Burt Reynolds movies, which were huge, huge successes. Even Joe Don Baker got famous for playing Buford Pusser, a redneck sheriff who decides to start cracking heads to make his town livable.
In both films, Jack Wade wasn't all that far off at times as a kind of good ol' boy caricature, and the computer nerd by Alan Cumming as well as Dr. Kaufman were just about as campy and comicaaly as broad.
None of those characters IMO were as "cartoony" as someone like Pepper.
Kaufman certainly was. The late, otherwise great Vincent Schiavelli played him like a "Vee Vill Meck Yoo Talk" Nazi from Hogan's Heroes, and lines like "Did you call the auto club?" didn't help him. Alan Cumming was like TV's Erkle on steroids.
I will point out that rednecks were all the rage after movies like In the Heat of the Night in 1967 and Deliverance in 1972, and Live and Let Die beat much bigger comedic versions of the redneck sheriff to the punch. For instance, consider Jackie Gleason in the Burt Reynolds movies, which were huge, huge successes. Even Joe Don Baker got famous for playing Buford Pusser, a redneck sheriff who decides to start cracking heads to make his town livable.
I understand where you're coming from but I really didn't think Kaulfman was quite as bad as Pepper. Pepper seemed to be an all-out comic red-neck whereas Kaulfman had a little touch of dark sadism ("No, no, no Zis is more like a hobby, but I'm very gifted"). You could imagine him being a competent torturer who enjoyed his line of work.
I rather liked Kaufman,He was a "Character" sadly lacking in the Modern Bond Movies where The Villains are so Bland you can't tell one from the Other.
Oddjob had his Bowler, Jaws had is Teeth, Tee-Hee had his arm But who will ever forget The evil Elvis with his Hairpiece. If ever there was an Evil Hairpiece full of hatred for the Bolivian people this was surley It ) Although he did use an Odd glue as it would fall off if he tripped on some stairs,yet would stay on when an explosion blew off his trousers. :v Hope it returns for Bond 23. If it is Named as "Property of a lady " it could be a Merkin ) an Evil One of course.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
I rather liked Kaufman,He was a "Character" sadly lacking in the Modern Bond Movies where The Villains are so Bland you can't tell one from the Other. Oddjob had his Bowler, Jaws had is Teeth, Tee-Hee had his arm But who will ever forget The evil Elvis with his Hairpiece. If ever there was an Evil Hairpiece full of hatred for the Bolivian people this was surley It ) Although he did use an Odd glue as it would fall off if he tripped on some stairs,yet would stay on when an explosion blew off his trousers. :v Hope it returns for Bond 23. If it is Named as "Property of a lady " it could be a Merkin ) an Evil One of course.
I agree with you Thunderpussy - although I thought Le-Chiffe was ok. The villains in the books had a very larger-than-life quality to them (Donavan Grant, Hugo Drax, Dr No, Oddjob and Goldfinger to name a few). Kaulfman also had that.
I'd like to say that I don't know anything about real life Criminals But have watched alot of Factual shows about The Mafia and Gansters ( East end and Others ) and Every one of them Is an Individual,They all want to stand out from the others.Either in how they dress,Tattoos or their weapon of choice.So to be realistic the Bond Villians should be "Characters" and not some kind of Bland "Villains are us " of the shelf Heavys. Although it would be fun to work in the call centre of "Villains are us" dealing with complaints about how your Diabolical scheme failed because Facless Heavy #3 failed to Drop that British Secret agent in to the Shark Tank like you Told Him.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
I'd like to say that I don't know anything about real life Criminals But have watched alot of Factual shows about The Mafia and Gansters ( East end and Others ) and Every one of them Is an Individual,They all want to stand out from the others.Either in how they dress,Tattoos or their weapon of choice.So to be realistic the Bond Villians should be "Characters" and not some kind of Bland "Villains are us " of the shelf Heavys. Although it would be fun to work in the call centre of "Villains are us" dealing with complaints about how your Diabolical scheme failed because Facless Heavy #3 failed to Drop that British Secret agent in to the Shark Tank like you Told Him.
Sort of random but I was discussing with a friend last week on how a Bond villian would never hire mafia hit men to kill Bond. They would just shoot Bond. No slow moving trap which is easily escapable. )
Brosnan was a great Bond but his movies weren't that good. The only exception is GoldenEye which is just as good as the Dalton movies. I tend to speak of a Dalton trilogy. Now this is a high point of the series - especially after Roger Moore.
GoldenEye was very very very good. One the best. One that hasn't been surpassed since and never will be surpassed I think. Especially because Of David Arnold and his very weak contribution to the series.
Someone said that Moonraker was Roger moores fourth best outing - the truth is that it is the worst Bond performance ever! Moore might be a better actor than Lazenby but his performance in Moonraker is no better than the movie itself.
Tomorrow Never Dies put an end to what I usually call the Dalton era and the series hasn't risen from that point. TND is among the worst in the series.
Now I actually liked The World Is not enough. It was very well written and Brosnans performance is excellent. It had its flaws but it is better than most of Roger Moores movies. TWINE is not a masterpiece but quite decent. Great villain, great girls, Great locations, Fantastic theme song, David Arnolds best score by far, Good plot and a twisted endning with the chair scene which reminds me of Fleming. The action is a bit cheasy but apart from that I don't see whats wrong with it.
Die Another Day I don't understand. The first half of that movie is so fantastic - except for the theme song of course. But the second half whick has too much science fiction in it, sucks... What happened. THe whole thing about North Korea and Bond being a prisoner was amazing. Think they took some elements from the "The man with the golden gun" novel. You know the beginning. The movie is actually brillant all the way up to the point where the invisible car is being introduced. The rest is just pure crap. I don't understand why they did it. How the **** in hell can "Invisible car" look good on any page...? Broccoli and Wilson should have stopped it.
I agree with a lot of what you have to say about Brosnan - I think he was a fine Bond saddled with weak scripts. In my opinion, Goldeneye was the high point, and Die Another Day was at the other end of the spectrum. But there again I agree with you that DAD was pretty good for the first half or so. And I know many would disagree with me, but I even like Madonna's DAD theme song - I thought it really fit the movie (I know you haters will say "It sure did! Lousy movie, lousy theme song!", but I guess I set myself up for that one!.) Let me also mention that I think TWINE is highly underrated, and I believe it could have been Bronsnan's best Bond had it not been for the inexplicable failure of the writers to make better use of a cleverly conceived villain (Renard, who could feel no pain except the emotional pain caused by his love for Elektra), and the totally unbelievable presence of Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones. All-in-all, I would take any of Brosnan's Bonds over any of Roger Moore's.
Brosnan was a great Bond but his movies weren't that good. The only exception is GoldenEye which is just as good as the Dalton movies. I tend to speak of a Dalton trilogy. Now this is a high point of the series - especially after Roger Moore.
GoldenEye was very very very good. One the best. One that hasn't been surpassed since and never will be surpassed I think. Especially because Of David Arnold and his very weak contribution to the series.
Someone said that Moonraker was Roger moores fourth best outing - the truth is that it is the worst Bond performance ever! Moore might be a better actor than Lazenby but his performance in Moonraker is no better than the movie itself.
Tomorrow Never Dies put an end to what I usually call the Dalton era and the series hasn't risen from that point. TND is among the worst in the series.
Now I actually liked The World Is not enough. It was very well written and Brosnans performance is excellent. It had its flaws but it is better than most of Roger Moores movies. TWINE is not a masterpiece but quite decent. Great villain, great girls, Great locations, Fantastic theme song, David Arnolds best score by far, Good plot and a twisted endning with the chair scene which reminds me of Fleming. The action is a bit cheasy but apart from that I don't see whats wrong with it.
Die Another Day I don't understand. The first half of that movie is so fantastic - except for the theme song of course. But the second half whick has too much science fiction in it, sucks... What happened. THe whole thing about North Korea and Bond being a prisoner was amazing. Think they took some elements from the "The man with the golden gun" novel. You know the beginning. The movie is actually brillant all the way up to the point where the invisible car is being introduced. The rest is just pure crap. I don't understand why they did it. How the **** in hell can "Invisible car" look good on any page...? Broccoli and Wilson should have stopped it.
So I guess I am the only one in here who thinks that Denise Richards did fine. I dno't see what is bad about her. She is a very alternative girl but she has more to offer the Bond universe than Eva Green I think.
I think it's a slightly Sexist argument that Beautiful Women don't get taken seriously.So because Denise Richards is (Just my opinion ) One of the most beautifull women on the planet,She couldn't Be a nuclear scientist Because as we all know,All Female Scientists are Plain Dowdy sorts in sensable shoes. )
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
The problem that Denise Richards has is that she is just too young in the film to be taken seriously. Also her acting - at times - is questionnable.
"We're safe from the radiation - as long as the reactor coolant doesn't burst"
I'd say overall Eva Green is the better Bond girl and better actress - though I still really enjoy re-watching TWINE.
At times ? ) Richards is a terrible actress. You might as well have cast Pam Anderson. Eva Green is the superior actress but I personally don't think much of her acting either.
In fairness to Ms Richards, I don't think she was ever cast in TWINE for her acting ability.
Surely at the time niether was Ursula Andress, Claudine Auger, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Barbara Bach, Lynn Holly Johnson, Tanya Roberts, Kim Basinger, Talisa Soto, I could go on....
In fairness to Ms Richards, I don't think she was ever cast in TWINE for her acting ability.
Surely at the time niether was Ursula Andress, Claudine Auger, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Barbara Bach, Lynn Holly Johnson, Tanya Roberts, Kim Basinger, Talisa Soto, I could go on....
That's a good point chrisno1. I don't think many people expect them to be Meryl Streep.
Although Diana Rigg has proved that it is possible to be both a Bond girl and a great actress.
Several of the women on your list were just as bad as Denise Richards or worse (yes, I'm talking to you Tanya Roberts!), but that doesn't change the fact that Richards was bad, and she was the weakest link in TWINE. Nothing wrong with an attractive young woman also being portrayed as smart, but Denise Richards just didn't have the acting skills to convince me that she could be a nuclear scientist.
In fairness to Ms Richards, I don't think she was ever cast in TWINE for her acting ability.
Surely at the time niether was Ursula Andress, Claudine Auger, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Barbara Bach, Lynn Holly Johnson, Tanya Roberts, Kim Basinger, Talisa Soto, I could go on....
Comments
Quantum of Solace was a disappointment after Casino Royale, but I don't think it was an awful Bond film, and it was one of the highest grossing Bond films of all time. In many ways, it had the most "flavor" of a Bond novel in a long time, but it's biggest problem -- other than following one of the best films in the series -- is that it was just too short to be properly developed.
Marc Forster wanted some sort of arthouse version of Bond, with too many "allusions" to previous Bond films to fill in the gaps, and he seemed to translate that into "make it shorter is better." Bad idea. His films tend to be most wanting in plot, so I understand why he might want to go that route, but a Bond film should take its time to properly be experienced and digested. But other than the brevity, it didn't stray too much from a conventional James Bond film, even if the scale didn't seem quite as properly "Bondian."
I will point out that rednecks were all the rage after movies like In the Heat of the Night in 1967 and Deliverance in 1972, and Live and Let Die beat much bigger comedic versions of the redneck sheriff to the punch. For instance, consider Jackie Gleason in the Burt Reynolds movies, which were huge, huge successes. Even Joe Don Baker got famous for playing Buford Pusser, a redneck sheriff who decides to start cracking heads to make his town livable.
I understand where you're coming from but I really didn't think Kaulfman was quite as bad as Pepper. Pepper seemed to be an all-out comic red-neck whereas Kaulfman had a little touch of dark sadism ("No, no, no Zis is more like a hobby, but I'm very gifted"). You could imagine him being a competent torturer who enjoyed his line of work.
Oddjob had his Bowler, Jaws had is Teeth, Tee-Hee had his arm But who will ever forget The evil Elvis with his Hairpiece.
I agree with you Thunderpussy - although I thought Le-Chiffe was ok. The villains in the books had a very larger-than-life quality to them (Donavan Grant, Hugo Drax, Dr No, Oddjob and Goldfinger to name a few). Kaulfman also had that.
Sort of random but I was discussing with a friend last week on how a Bond villian would never hire mafia hit men to kill Bond. They would just shoot Bond. No slow moving trap which is easily escapable.
"Yeah, tell us about it..."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Well there has always been bullet zipping past 007 but when they finally have Bond in their cross hairs, the villian always insists on that delay.
Had to think....
His ankle got nicked in Thunderball during the Junkanoo chase scene. I think that's about it.
There's a great line in Family Guy about the stormtroopers in Star Wars
It was actually further up his leg. Though I agree that is the only time he has ever been shot.
Also it's kind of funny to note that in both Doctor No and Licence To Kill, everything happens to 007 except being shot.
GoldenEye was very very very good. One the best. One that hasn't been surpassed since and never will be surpassed I think. Especially because Of David Arnold and his very weak contribution to the series.
Someone said that Moonraker was Roger moores fourth best outing - the truth is that it is the worst Bond performance ever! Moore might be a better actor than Lazenby but his performance in Moonraker is no better than the movie itself.
Tomorrow Never Dies put an end to what I usually call the Dalton era and the series hasn't risen from that point. TND is among the worst in the series.
Now I actually liked The World Is not enough. It was very well written and Brosnans performance is excellent. It had its flaws but it is better than most of Roger Moores movies. TWINE is not a masterpiece but quite decent. Great villain, great girls, Great locations, Fantastic theme song, David Arnolds best score by far, Good plot and a twisted endning with the chair scene which reminds me of Fleming. The action is a bit cheasy but apart from that I don't see whats wrong with it.
Die Another Day I don't understand. The first half of that movie is so fantastic - except for the theme song of course. But the second half whick has too much science fiction in it, sucks... What happened. THe whole thing about North Korea and Bond being a prisoner was amazing. Think they took some elements from the "The man with the golden gun" novel. You know the beginning. The movie is actually brillant all the way up to the point where the invisible car is being introduced. The rest is just pure crap. I don't understand why they did it. How the **** in hell can "Invisible car" look good on any page...? Broccoli and Wilson should have stopped it.
"We're safe from the radiation - as long as the reactor coolant doesn't burst"
I'd say overall Eva Green is the better Bond girl and better actress - though I still really enjoy re-watching TWINE.
At times ?
Surely at the time niether was Ursula Andress, Claudine Auger, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Barbara Bach, Lynn Holly Johnson, Tanya Roberts, Kim Basinger, Talisa Soto, I could go on....
That's a good point chrisno1. I don't think many people expect them to be Meryl Streep.
Although Diana Rigg has proved that it is possible to be both a Bond girl and a great actress.
I think Honor Blackman did that first.
Both are gamorous and great actresses (and of course great "Avengers") but is Blackman better than Rigg??
I thought Rigg was more of the "thespian" type.
No, I am saying she proved it BEFORE Rigg. Remember Goldfinger pre-dates On Her Majesty's Secret Service by five years.
Oh I see what you mean
However I think Rigg has probably been the best "actress" overall.
Yes I agree.