BOOK: James Bond Style. All style no substance.
Asp9mm
Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,516MI6 Agent
It’s a big tome. Splendidly massive like an encyclopaedia Britannica that ate some pies. Beautifully big and bound and well presented.
I had high hopes for this as it’s co-penned by Lindy Hemming, who by far in my opinion, got Bonds style absolutely spot on.
And when I got the box, I really wasn’t expecting such a great big heavy cloth bound book that looked so good.
On opening the book however, I quickly learned that although Lindy gives some insight into her tenure on the films, this book is mostly filled with double page spreads of weirdly chosen shots of heads, shoulders and faces, that show little of the clothes and style. With massive quotes of few words taking up whole pages, and the pages are big so the text can be read by my neighbours 200 metres away. Which is great as the neighbourhood can club together, buy one book and read it all at the same time if you rent a big field. Most of the pictures are stock that we’ve all seen before ad nauseum, with nothing much new at all apart from a few small production drawings.
The quality of many of the images are low in a small format book, but this is a big book, so they look awful. Not all of them. But a lot. And just odd choices of pictures too. Again, mostly of the actors heads showing nothing of the style alluded to in the text, what little of that we actually got. At £100 you expect Taschen level quality filled with exclusive content, anecdotes, filled to bursting with written content and stunning images of the Bond Style promised on the cover and spine and marketing blurb. Something to keep the Bond juices flowing in this barren time we are experiencing.
What you get is something else. Entirely…. something else.
No doubt “influencers” that got free copies will tell you this is the bestest of the bestest Bond books eveeer. They may be er….. influenced. I guess that’s why they got the moniker.
The thing that really annoys me though is page 7. Such a great new shot of Isabella, and it’s so blown up and low res that it makes you want to throw the whole book out of the window. But you’d need three people to do that, and they are all too busy looking for that same image on line in hi resolution.
Save your money. Bond is still dead.
At least the charity shop will do some good with the proceeds of this disappointing waste of trees.
This was a half arsed review influenced by a half arsed publication, brought to you by an uninfluenced Asp9mm.
...............
Comments
Yikes. Any redeeming qualities?
I agree with you about Lindy. He choices are aging well on the shelf.
Thanks for the review @Asp9mm ….I’ll save my money👍🏻 and the postman’s back 👀
Let me have a think on that first one and I’ll get back to you.
Lindy was brilliant. However, this is one choice that won’t be aging on my shelf. Charity shop in an hour.
Always like to take one for the team. It is a massive book. Such a waste.
Hmmm. My pre-ordered and eagerly anticipated copy shipped earlier this week and is currently winging its way across the Atlantic by FedUp and due to be delivered next Thursday. Too late to cancel, but as the nights get colder and longer, I will be in need of kindling.