Don't get me wrong; I love TWINE as it works script-wise, as a concept and a character study but the problems for me lied in the direction and pacing departments. It slowed down too much in the end and the action didn't feel as hard hitting or made such an impact on me as GE's mowing-down-of-soldiers did. It just felt...expected. Something you thought you'd seen in a Bond movie before but hadn't. I do like that the action lies heavily on the story and the characters and it wasn't just mindless explosions and death for a change.
I've made peace with the fact that it wasn't that kind of action movie. It was an actually decent Bond movie for the Brosnan era...just not worthy of the Brosnan era (it goes both ways).
I agree with you regarding the action scenes. Outside of the opening PTS most of it feels pretty pedestrian. Especially following Tomorrow Never Dies which had some of the most memorable action scenes in the franchise.
GE was, in my opinion, the Bond film that undeniably re-invented Bond as a cold-blooded killer away from the campy gentleman agent from Goldfinger onwards. Granted I understand that Timothy Dalton more or less intended that his Bond portrayal should go in this direction, however since his first film TLD was written with theoretically Roger Moore in mind, it suffers from being toned down in brutality. Yes I realize in retrospection that in many films prior to TLD Bond technically does display occasional moments of ruthless behaviour. However I never picked up on it when I was young because it was so cleverly masked and concealed behind the suave gentlemanly persona outwardly pasted upon our hero. As for LTK it does faithfully show Bond's coldness, but even then it is easily overlooked by the fact that Bond is on a revenge mission all throughout, just as he's exacted revenge at other moments such as for 009 in Octopussy for example.
That's why for me it was Brosnan's debut film GE that made me think Bond had turned into a truly different character when I saw it. His cold brutal killing of his former friend Trevelyan, grabbing him as he's about to fall, only to drop him moments later is by far the darkest thing he's ever done cementing the scene for his other three films that this Bond is no gentleman hero in the least remotely.
Well, for sure the first 15 minutes of DAD. Then it all went downhill from there, but still...
Goldeneye is probably the most obvious choice though. One of the rare times (particularly pre-Craig) that the villain is actually fleshed out and seems to have an - albeit limited - reason for his anger. And Sean Bean being dropped off a telecoms tower and then having the tower dropping on him - I mean, wow. even by Bean's standards of dying it's harsh.
TND had its dark moments. Particularly the opening scene - particularly as a child - did scare me. Stamper's obvious enjoyment and sarcastic comments during the scene really make it. I mean, sure Goldeneye had Janssen moaning like a dog in heat while killing people, but it was so OTT as to be almost funny. Stamper seemed just realistic enough to make a pretty dark intro.
Looking for the Ballantyne DAD sweater in size large. Have wanted one for so many years now. PM me abuse or more preferrably sweaters for sale.
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That's why for me it was Brosnan's debut film GE that made me think Bond had turned into a truly different character when I saw it. His cold brutal killing of his former friend Trevelyan, grabbing him as he's about to fall, only to drop him moments later is by far the darkest thing he's ever done cementing the scene for his other three films that this Bond is no gentleman hero in the least remotely.
Goldeneye is probably the most obvious choice though. One of the rare times (particularly pre-Craig) that the villain is actually fleshed out and seems to have an - albeit limited - reason for his anger. And Sean Bean being dropped off a telecoms tower and then having the tower dropping on him - I mean, wow. even by Bean's standards of dying it's harsh.
TND had its dark moments. Particularly the opening scene - particularly as a child - did scare me. Stamper's obvious enjoyment and sarcastic comments during the scene really make it. I mean, sure Goldeneye had Janssen moaning like a dog in heat while killing people, but it was so OTT as to be almost funny. Stamper seemed just realistic enough to make a pretty dark intro.
Killing both Kaufmann and Elektra while they were unarmed. However, I would say they got what was coming to them.
Kauffman was armed - Bond killed him with his (Kauffman's) own gun.