Then again I cant watch more then 10 mins of Casino royale 67
I love how it's so mish-mash...it's just all over the place, but in a good way...plus the music is superb -{
I can't help but enjoy it, despite myself...and I have the Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass vinyl that has 'Casino Royale'---one of my favorite songs of all time. Guaranteed smile every time I hear it.
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
start it where Peter Sellers character is introduced and its a little better
some great individual sequences, specifically the Look of Love sequence in Vesper Lynn's apartment ... if you just showed somebody that, they'd assume it came from a much better film
too bad Sellers walked off the job before they completed his storyline though, otherwise you could just turn it off before Woody Allen appears and you'd actually have a close adaptation of Fleming's plot
great soundtrack all the way through, not just Herb Alpert but Burt Bacharach who wrote it and Dusty Springfield
Wikipedia claims the soundtrack album has a reputation as an audiophile classic, suitable for demonstrating top end hi-fi's ... I agree my own copy of the LP does sound good, but not really complete without shag carpet and aquarium
Agree with Potts, it's awful from the beginning and the whole tiresome Bond has a stutter thing kills it.
Tune in 40 mins it and it's better. The Sellers thing is funnily covered in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers with Geoffrey Rush. The songs are great but that naff thing where Coop is acting out seducing enemy spies is imo toe curling.
Yes Casino 67' Is completely, utterly, and totally cooked. Without question one of the most, if not the most, bizarre and nonsensical film that I ever seen. Chaos. Man the 60s had some mental stuff going on ) Obviously if one were to include is in the official canon then it would unquestionably be the weirdest. But I just can't bring myself to do it so it's still Diamonds for me. Moonraker and Live and Let Die are also pretty weird )
BIG TAMWrexham, North Wales, UK.Posts: 773MI6 Agent
An interesting but bizarre thread in itself. Isn't 99.9% of Bond weird? That's the nature of it all - heightened reality.
Metal hands, razor sharp bowler hats, laser beams, shark pools, piranha pools, hollowed out volcanos, voodoo, three nipples, steel teeth, gold painted girls, etc, etc. The list can go on & on.
Even the more 'sensible' Bonds (e.g. FRWL, OHMSS, FYEO, LTK) have their fare share of whacky affectations.
As Timothy Dalton says most amusingly in TLD, "You don't find too many normal people in this business, Q."
An interesting but bizarre thread in itself. Isn't 99.9% of Bond weird? That's the nature of it all - heightened reality.
Metal hands, razor sharp bowler hats, laser beams, shark pools, piranha pools, hollowed out volcanos, voodoo, three nipples, steel teeth, gold painted girls, etc, etc. The list can go on & on.
Even the more 'sensible' Bonds (e.g. FRWL, OHMSS, FYEO, LTK) have their fare share of whacky affectations.
As Timothy Dalton says most amusingly in TLD, "You don't find too many normal people in this business, Q."
Well I suppose you could stretch that sentiment and say that most of cinema is weird ) With space westerns such as Star Wars, serial killer sharks in Jaws, and split personality hoteliers (Psycho) all relatively weird and silly concepts. I suppose when one would say "weird" it's strictly within the context of the series. As most of those features you've mentioned are relatively standard and regular elements of the series (overblown villian, lair, gadgets, scenarios etc), the question is really about what are the films in the series that stand out from those series tropes and are truly unique or left of field. LALD is a great example which many have mentioned. The supernatural and blacksploitation elements of the film are not at all regular series tropes and thus it makes that entry quite an odd one. But you are of course right, the series is all heightened reality and is not your usual every day stuff
That's why I have to go with Skyfall. It's the most unbondian of all the films.
There is but one sequence that really is what we would expect of a Bond film. The Macau sequence. The rest is either something else like TDK or totally unusual for Bond like the whole Skyfall sequence.
M dying is probably the weirdest part of plot ever in a Bond film.
Q as hipster nerd and being a total failure at it is another element that would better suit any other common spy/political thriller but Bond. Desmond must have turned in the grave.
No main Bond girl. That's probably the greatest sin, it's bloody Mommy (Dench) who is Craig's "love" interest in this film.
Ironically what is jarring the film most for me (Silva) is the one thing that is typically Bond. OTT acted clownesque villain. Like in TND or DAF for instance.
Octopussy is pretty weird.
All those bright colours, the circus, and a fantastical vision of India, like something out of Sinbad the Sailor
as well as two different palaces, there's that Cleopatra-style barge
and Bond chased as the prey in a colonial hunting game, complete with elephants
I've never been to India, but does this film really represent it accurately? it seems more like a westerners fantasy vision of Victorian-era exoticism ... aside from the two local agents, brown skinned people are relegated to extras in the market scenes, while white skinned outsiders whup it up in style
then there's all this jiggly-delic sex comedy going on, even as we're supposed to accept the title character as an empowered equal to our hero ("two of a kind")
all this in the follow-up to back-to-basics, true-to-Fleming For Your Eyes Only ... even the scenes set in grey coldwar Berlin are dominated by the circus colours
Thunderbird 2East of Cardiff, Wales.Posts: 2,818MI6 Agent
all this in the follow-up to back-to-basics, true-to-Fleming For Your Eyes Only ... even the scenes set in grey coldwar Berlin are dominated by the circus colours
I don't understand John Glen's motivation for OP coming off the heels of FYEO and also going head-to-head with Connery in NSNA.
What I would expect is a tougher, more gritty film, with minimal humor.
Don't get me wrong, I think OP whups FYEO soundly in almost every category. (Better villains, better score, better action etc)
However, I can at least understand where FYEO was coming from in trying to get back to basics. No clue what they were trying to do with OP other than make a wildly entertaining Bond film with no restraint.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
I don't understand John Glen's motivation for OP coming off the heels of FYEO and also going head-to-head with Connery in NSNA.
I think Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in between, and was a big influence on Octopussy. The market chase in particular resembles a similar scene in the Indiana Jones movie, the bit where Karen Allen gets kidnapped. But Raiders... did the market chase better, and the whole film works better. I think later scenes in NSNA are also influenced by Raiders..., that film also gets very swashbuckly.
We know Raiders... incorporated the Bond films amongst its influences, alongside the old movie serials. Raiders... even has scenes in a submarine base that look like The Spy Who Loved Me! so maybe Octopussy was paying tribute to its own stylistic protege.
We know Raiders... incorporated the Bond films amongst its influences, alongside the old movie serials. Raiders... even has scenes in a submarine base that look like The Spy Who Loved Me! so maybe Octopussy was paying tribute to its own stylistic protege.
Don't forget that Octopussy seemed to influence later Indiana Jones films Temple of Doom and Last Crusade.
(The gross out dinner scene and the circus train to name a couple examples)
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
I agree DAF is pretty weird. I don't think it's the worst but it's the one that feels the least like a Bond movie. That makes it somewhat entertaining though, when you're feeling a little bored with the typical Bond-formula film you can always pop it in for a little change of pace.
I agree DAF is pretty weird. I don't think it's the worst but it's the one that feels the least like a Bond movie. That makes it somewhat entertaining though, when you're feeling a little bored with the typical Bond-formula film you can always pop it in for a little change of pace.
"Feels least like a Bond movie" depends on what you're used to for Bond films. I grew up watching the 1960s and 1970s Bond films, so compared to those I find that LTK, GE and Craig's first three films feel least like Bond films. They don't feel like DAF, but they don't feel like the 1960s Bond films either. And for the kids today who first saw Craig as Bond, they must be very confused when they watch ANY of the other Bond films. Though when I was young I always thought of DAF when I thought of Bond films, I also thought it was weird. The gorilla part especially!
I've been thinking about this a little lately. The series has thrown up a few films with some very strange and quirky moments! So I was wondering what people had as their strangest Bond film? I would have to say that I find Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker to be the two weirdest, with Diamonds nudging for the top spot. I quite like it, but I just think its bizarre!
What do you guys think?
I haven't read through this whole thread but just had to do an impulse response -- there is no "weirder" movie in the Bond canon than MWTGG, and that is the only possible answer to your question. It's basically the Drive-In Bond. Hell, the scene where Bond goes to the c#ck fight is practically stolen from an actual drive-in movie, Wonder Women, which came out the year before.
OHMSS is the wierdest Bond film. Girls getting hypnotised, psychadelic sound effects, Ruby, Irma Bunt in bed and scaring Bond, Bond talking to a St Bernard.
Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"
I've been thinking about this a little lately. The series has thrown up a few films with some very strange and quirky moments! So I was wondering what people had as their strangest Bond film? I would have to say that I find Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker to be the two weirdest, with Diamonds nudging for the top spot. I quite like it, but I just think its bizarre!
What do you guys think?
I haven't read through this whole thread but just had to do an impulse response -- there is no "weirder" movie in the Bond canon than MWTGG, and that is the only possible answer to your question. It's basically the Drive-In Bond. Hell, the scene where Bond goes to the c#ck fight is practically stolen from an actual drive-in movie, Wonder Women, which came out the year before.
Not sure it's weird, just not very good, now OHMSS is weird in my view but very good. It's my Birthday today and it will be my afternoon movie before going out for Dinner.I know it's not everybody's cup of Darjeeling, but it is mine. I love it's oddness.
Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
I've been thinking about this a little lately. The series has thrown up a few films with some very strange and quirky moments! So I was wondering what people had as their strangest Bond film? I would have to say that I find Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker to be the two weirdest, with Diamonds nudging for the top spot. I quite like it, but I just think its bizarre!
What do you guys think?
I haven't read through this whole thread but just had to do an impulse response -- there is no "weirder" movie in the Bond canon than MWTGG, and that is the only possible answer to your question. It's basically the Drive-In Bond. Hell, the scene where Bond goes to the c#ck fight is practically stolen from an actual drive-in movie, Wonder Women, which came out the year before.
Not sure it's weird, just not very good, now OHMSS is weird in my view but very good. It's my Birthday today and it will be my afternoon movie before going out for Dinner.I know it's not everybody's cup of Darjeeling, but it is mine. I love it's oddness.
An afternoon of viewing OHMSS, sounds like the perfect birthday treat Happy returns -{ -{
Moonraker IS the weirdest Bond. It's made so much on a whim that until 1 year before release people thought they were going to watch FYEO in 1979
I'm forced to disagree. "A whim" is putting matters too strongly. It was made to capitalise on the success of both the previous Bond film TSWLM and the then-current Star Wars, and succeeded financially on a grand scale. Granted, FYEO was announced at the end of TSWLM but only die-hard Bond fans (such as me, who did notice) would have cared.
I think I replied to this before, but DAF is definitely the weirdest. I dunno, a lot of it just seems trippy. And Blofeld in drag is bizarre, even for a more comedy-esque bond film. Furthermore, the fact that this is a Connery film is the icing on the cake for it to all feel odd and out of place for Connery's Bond. Not that I don't like the film. But it sure is weird.
Diamonds Are Forever for me as well. Not only is the film surreal and tripped-out (why does Blofeld need all those doubles, anyway?) but it's written out of Bond history: the Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only is clearly the Telly Savalas incarnation, permanently crippled from his bobsleigh neck injury. Constructing any sort of cohesive timeline for the Bond films is virtually impossible, but based on that evidence one could argue that Bond suffered a breakdown after Tracy's death and merely imagined the events of DAF.
Comments
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
some great individual sequences, specifically the Look of Love sequence in Vesper Lynn's apartment ... if you just showed somebody that, they'd assume it came from a much better film
too bad Sellers walked off the job before they completed his storyline though, otherwise you could just turn it off before Woody Allen appears and you'd actually have a close adaptation of Fleming's plot
great soundtrack all the way through, not just Herb Alpert but Burt Bacharach who wrote it and Dusty Springfield
Wikipedia claims the soundtrack album has a reputation as an audiophile classic, suitable for demonstrating top end hi-fi's ... I agree my own copy of the LP does sound good, but not really complete without shag carpet and aquarium
Tune in 40 mins it and it's better. The Sellers thing is funnily covered in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers with Geoffrey Rush. The songs are great but that naff thing where Coop is acting out seducing enemy spies is imo toe curling.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Metal hands, razor sharp bowler hats, laser beams, shark pools, piranha pools, hollowed out volcanos, voodoo, three nipples, steel teeth, gold painted girls, etc, etc. The list can go on & on.
Even the more 'sensible' Bonds (e.g. FRWL, OHMSS, FYEO, LTK) have their fare share of whacky affectations.
As Timothy Dalton says most amusingly in TLD, "You don't find too many normal people in this business, Q."
Well I suppose you could stretch that sentiment and say that most of cinema is weird
That's why I have to go with Skyfall. It's the most unbondian of all the films.
There is but one sequence that really is what we would expect of a Bond film. The Macau sequence. The rest is either something else like TDK or totally unusual for Bond like the whole Skyfall sequence.
M dying is probably the weirdest part of plot ever in a Bond film.
Q as hipster nerd and being a total failure at it is another element that would better suit any other common spy/political thriller but Bond. Desmond must have turned in the grave.
No main Bond girl. That's probably the greatest sin, it's bloody Mommy (Dench) who is Craig's "love" interest in this film.
Ironically what is jarring the film most for me (Silva) is the one thing that is typically Bond. OTT acted clownesque villain. Like in TND or DAF for instance.
All those bright colours, the circus, and a fantastical vision of India, like something out of Sinbad the Sailor
as well as two different palaces, there's that Cleopatra-style barge
and Bond chased as the prey in a colonial hunting game, complete with elephants
I've never been to India, but does this film really represent it accurately? it seems more like a westerners fantasy vision of Victorian-era exoticism ... aside from the two local agents, brown skinned people are relegated to extras in the market scenes, while white skinned outsiders whup it up in style
then there's all this jiggly-delic sex comedy going on, even as we're supposed to accept the title character as an empowered equal to our hero ("two of a kind")
all this in the follow-up to back-to-basics, true-to-Fleming For Your Eyes Only ... even the scenes set in grey coldwar Berlin are dominated by the circus colours
Weird 'off kilter' - DAF
Weird 'insane' - CR-67
Weird 'Scary' - LALD.
*I'm in my forties and all that voodoo stuff still scares the crap out of me!
I don't understand John Glen's motivation for OP coming off the heels of FYEO and also going head-to-head with Connery in NSNA.
What I would expect is a tougher, more gritty film, with minimal humor.
Don't get me wrong, I think OP whups FYEO soundly in almost every category. (Better villains, better score, better action etc)
However, I can at least understand where FYEO was coming from in trying to get back to basics. No clue what they were trying to do with OP other than make a wildly entertaining Bond film with no restraint.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
We know Raiders... incorporated the Bond films amongst its influences, alongside the old movie serials. Raiders... even has scenes in a submarine base that look like The Spy Who Loved Me! so maybe Octopussy was paying tribute to its own stylistic protege.
Don't forget that Octopussy seemed to influence later Indiana Jones films Temple of Doom and Last Crusade.
(The gross out dinner scene and the circus train to name a couple examples)
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
8. TMwtGG 9. AVtaK 10. TSWLM 11. SF 12. LtK 13. TND 14. YOLT
15. NTtD 16. MR 17. LaLD 18. GF 19. SP 20. DN 21. TB
22. TWiNE 23. DAD 24. QoS 25. DaF
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Lazenby 5. Craig 6. Brosnan
"Feels least like a Bond movie" depends on what you're used to for Bond films. I grew up watching the 1960s and 1970s Bond films, so compared to those I find that LTK, GE and Craig's first three films feel least like Bond films. They don't feel like DAF, but they don't feel like the 1960s Bond films either. And for the kids today who first saw Craig as Bond, they must be very confused when they watch ANY of the other Bond films. Though when I was young I always thought of DAF when I thought of Bond films, I also thought it was weird. The gorilla part especially!
I haven't read through this whole thread but just had to do an impulse response -- there is no "weirder" movie in the Bond canon than MWTGG, and that is the only possible answer to your question. It's basically the Drive-In Bond. Hell, the scene where Bond goes to the c#ck fight is practically stolen from an actual drive-in movie, Wonder Women, which came out the year before.
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
Not sure it's weird, just not very good, now OHMSS is weird in my view but very good. It's my Birthday today and it will be my afternoon movie before going out for Dinner.I know it's not everybody's cup of Darjeeling, but it is mine. I love it's oddness.
An afternoon of viewing OHMSS, sounds like the perfect birthday treat
I'm forced to disagree. "A whim" is putting matters too strongly. It was made to capitalise on the success of both the previous Bond film TSWLM and the then-current Star Wars, and succeeded financially on a grand scale. Granted, FYEO was announced at the end of TSWLM but only die-hard Bond fans (such as me, who did notice) would have cared.
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
Moonraker
A View To A Kill
Die Another Day
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby