@Marker briefly said he loved his rewatch of OHMSS and seeing it was on Boxing Day morning on telly, I caught it but can't share his love. For a happier review from some years back, here's the time I caught it at the Prince Charles cinema.
It repays undivided attention on the big screen but I don't enjoy it on telly. With the best will in the world, I found it boring and switched off at the nadir, when Bond talks to Draco in his office about Tracy, it's dead in the water. I think they knew that scene was duff and tried to edit it to bits so it makes even less sense and smother Barry's music on it.
Early locations are dull imo, I'd prefer it if they stuck to Marseilles and the South of France as in the book as I think it has a seedy cinematic glamour. Does it specify it's Portugal in the film? Maybe they do in the pre-credits with M and Q, but... Marseilles et al is a place where interesting and bad things might happen but Lisbon has the aura of tax haven where people go not to make money but to accrue it, to see it build interest and the same goes for Berne later, of course. It all seems so middle-aged and unsexy and while I've gone to Piz Gloria after seeing this, I've never had any desire to go to Lisbon. It has no on-screen buzz and the film just doesn't interest me despite the sporadic fist fights, the sexual charge that we should see between Bond and Tracey as she resists him and messes him around just isn't there on the telly. The film has that awful boring feel of a lot of late 60s movies, there isn't the happy expectancy of the earlier Bonds, the flirtatiousness. There is also something ill-inducing about it - seeing it aged 8 on the telly I was indeed off sick for a fortnight afterwards. Even the Barry music in Piz Gloria, it's a bit odd.
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@Marker briefly said he loved his rewatch of OHMSS and seeing it was on Boxing Day morning on telly, I caught it but can't share his love. For a happier review from some years back, here's the time I caught it at the Prince Charles cinema.
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/49302/last-bond-movie-you-watched/p30
It repays undivided attention on the big screen but I don't enjoy it on telly. With the best will in the world, I found it boring and switched off at the nadir, when Bond talks to Draco in his office about Tracy, it's dead in the water. I think they knew that scene was duff and tried to edit it to bits so it makes even less sense and smother Barry's music on it.
Early locations are dull imo, I'd prefer it if they stuck to Marseilles and the South of France as in the book as I think it has a seedy cinematic glamour. Does it specify it's Portugal in the film? Maybe they do in the pre-credits with M and Q, but... Marseilles et al is a place where interesting and bad things might happen but Lisbon has the aura of tax haven where people go not to make money but to accrue it, to see it build interest and the same goes for Berne later, of course. It all seems so middle-aged and unsexy and while I've gone to Piz Gloria after seeing this, I've never had any desire to go to Lisbon. It has no on-screen buzz and the film just doesn't interest me despite the sporadic fist fights, the sexual charge that we should see between Bond and Tracey as she resists him and messes him around just isn't there on the telly. The film has that awful boring feel of a lot of late 60s movies, there isn't the happy expectancy of the earlier Bonds, the flirtatiousness. There is also something ill-inducing about it - seeing it aged 8 on the telly I was indeed off sick for a fortnight afterwards. Even the Barry music in Piz Gloria, it's a bit odd.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I watched Spy last night. I had forgotten how quiet the film is and how dry the humour is compared with some of Moore's other outings.
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