Could a Fan Edit save any dodgy Bond Films?

chrisisall

Of the four or five Bond films on the bottom of my list, I feel like maybe only Moonraker could be saved... well, not so much saved, but lifted up to the Octopussy level, at any rate.
I feel that if all the scenes with Jaws could somehow be removed, except for the first scene, which could be re-edited to make it seem like he fell to his death, that the whole movie would be almost acceptable.

What do you think?
And do you have any losers on your list that you think an edit could help?

Napoleon Plural

But a lot of fans just hate the whole space aspect anyway, so you can't get rid of that.

For me, I'd reedit FYEO, as it tries to be a serious movie, but has silly MR bits in it anyway, and I'd cut the whole Bibi scene - it's not relevant to the plot - and any visual slapstick, dub in a John Barry score over the top. Cut Moore smirking as he drops Blofeld down the chimney.

There is a fan edit of NSNA out there by Blofeld's Cat, it's okay but still a bit of a made for TV movie. It has mostly John Barry music over it.

Moore Than

chrisisall wrote:

I feel that if all the scenes with Jaws could somehow be removed, except for the first scene, which could be re-edited to make it seem like he fell to his death, that the whole movie would be almost acceptable.

I'd certainly remove Jaws from the PTS and cut all the scenes between him and Dolly. I wouldn't remove him completely. For example, I quite like the humour when he goes through security, and particularly like the alleyway scene during the carnival when he is walking toward Manuela. Just about the only time in the film when he has any real menace.

Moore Than

Napoleon Plural wrote:

But a lot of fans just hate the whole space aspect anyway, so you can't get rid of that.

I am probably in a minority here in liking the space aspect of Moonraker...... for the most part anyway. I particularly enjoy the reveal of Drax's space station with John Barry's masterful music, Drax's speech, and the Space Shuttle chasing the globes into the Earth's atmosphere. However, I do not enjoy the laser fight.

Thunderpussy

I glad someone put their head up first, I also enjoyed the space sequence in Moonraker.
Love SiFi movies so I didn't find it as Harrowing as some, and given it was all done by
Old school techniques. I think it was brilliantly done.
Although I do agree less Jaws and some of the silly humor could be cut.
From watching many Fan made trailers on youtube, I think the Fans sometimes do a far
better job on them.

Napoleon Plural

Ah, that's a more charming picture you've got there TP. Good old Steed.

Jarvio

With DAD I'd use proper stunts (or at least better CGI), get rid of the matrix-like slow-mo bits, and re-cast Jinx. I'd also change a few script lines, and lose some of the cheesy stuff. This would make the film a lot better IMO. (There's not much I could do about the invisible car though ) But even so, DAD would be higher on my list if this happened.

I hate the space stuff in MR, so it's always gonna rank low for me, but if the awful jaws love scenes were removed then it would possibly rank a place of two higher.

As for NSNA - delete it from history!

Napoleon Plural

CR needs lightening up, so at various moments I'd dub over the Herb Alpert theme to give it a saucy vibe, in the torture scene for instance, to go well with Craig's 'little itch down there' joke, then do a mash up for some of the scenes, a bit of Peter Sellers and of course, The Look of Love.

chrisisall

Thunderpussy wrote:

I glad someone put their head up first, I also enjoyed the space sequence in Moonraker.
Love SiFi movies so I didn't find it as Harrowing as some, and given it was all done by
Old school techniques. I think it was brilliantly done.
Although I do agree less Jaws and some of the silly humor could be cut.
From watching many Fan made trailers on youtube, I think the Fans sometimes do a far
better job on them.

"Here's to us." Left a terrible, terrible taste in my mouth for decades. X-(
And I thought the space stuff was rather lovely also.

WordsAndDreams

I actually just watched MR last night and took some notes as to what I would change. Here's some of the more significant things I thought of, it mostly involved removing things:

-PTS
-Keep Jaws in the PTS
-Remove the circus shots and circus music
-Try to make it look like Jaws dies

-Gondola boat chase
-Remove the knife throwing guy and the coffin stuff
-Remove the smaller boat being cut in half (at least the comedy bits of it)
-Completely remove the hovercraft gondola part

-After M, Bond, and the Minister visit the former Drax Lab
-When Drax is on the phone, remove the line where he says, "If you can get him, of course"
-Keep the previous line though where he says, "We need a replacement for (henchman's name)"
-Remove the Jaws airport scene
-The combination of these things should make the reveal of Jaws in the clown outfit more menacing and surprising

-Cable Car Fight
-Remove the Jaws in love part at the end
-Potentially remove this entire fight as it kind of sucks, but still have the cable car stop, forcing Bond to zip-line down.

-At the Mi6 Safehouse
-Remove the western music on the approach, replace with one of the other MR pieces
-Remove Bond looking into the room with the two guys sparring
-Remove the shots of the laser guy, it gives too much away to the space battles coming up and seems really out of place

-Jungle Boat Chase
-Cut Jaws out of this sequence entirely
-Again, it should make Jaws look more terrifying when Bond looks up at him while in the snake pool in the next scene

That's pretty much were I stopped, because I got bored but those where most of the things I thought of. There were some smaller things like changing the keypad sounds and removing some small lines to have some conversations drag on less. I'd also try to clean up some of the comedic relief parts, as a lot of them are just terrible. I'd try to downplay the Jaws Dolly thing as much as possible, but it would be harder to do towards the end (though not impossible).

SpangledWeb

Three small sound edits come to my mind:


TMWTGG - Remove the slide whistle from what is a pretty cool barrel-roll car jump over the river.

OP - Remove the Tarzan scream when Bond is swinging on the vines during the hunt.

AVTAK - Remove 'California Girls' from the snowboard sequence.


I think these would actually help each film quite a bit, considering how small the changes would be.

chrisisall

SpangledWeb wrote:

OP - Remove the Tarzan scream when Bond is swinging on the vines during the hunt.

LOL, I would remove a few swinging shots as well. )

vanguard

Napoleon Plural wrote:

But a lot of fans just hate the whole space aspect anyway, so you can't get rid of that.

For me, I'd reedit FYEO, as it tries to be a serious movie, but has silly MR bits in it anyway, and I'd cut the whole Bibi scene - it's not relevant to the plot - and any visual slapstick, dub in a John Barry score over the top. Cut Moore smirking as he drops Blofeld down the chimney.

There is a fan edit of NSNA out there by Blofeld's Cat, it's okay but still a bit of a made for TV movie. It has mostly John Barry music over it.

I recorded FYEO on TV from when the mine hit the St. George's. No need for the PTS.

Thunderpussy

I wish they could re-edit QOS, slow some of the intercutting and put in
at least one Close up ( to show how Bond flips that chasing boat ) :v

jasper_lamar_crabb

What people need to remember about Moonraker is that, as daft as it is, it was made with a great deal of style and panache. Compare that with recognised turkeys like Diamonds are Forever and A Vew to a Kill which are just shoddy.

Jimmy Bond

I would love to see GE either the David Arnold score from the video game. Or maybe with the John Barry score from "The Specialist". Either one would be a far beter alternative to the Eric Serra score.

DAD could benefit from certain ommisions, most obviously the CGI stuff and invinsible car.

With CR, I'd definitely cut out any all references to Bond being a rookie, post-credits. Keep the pre-title as a flashabck, basically.

And of course, NSNA could benefit from having the established EON Bond elements. A fan on youtube is doing a mock-Barry version of a score for NSNA and I'd love to watch the film with that in mind. However, I could settle for Legrand's score if the fan-edited film added the necessary Bond elements throughout, too.

caractacus potts

both the gondola chase and the firetruck chase could be discretely snipped from their respective films without affecting the plot in the slightest, and would significantly reduce the stoopidity factor.
Two of my least loved Moore-era zany chases serve absolutely no purpose except to pad running time.
Unfortunately the airplane flight school chase is structurally necessary to explain how Bond got away from Mr Big's men.