Roger Moore -a GREAT Bond????

LOO7K OUT · January 2007

Personally, J'adore Roger Moore as Bond. I'll stick my neck out here and say he's my favourite. May not be fashionable in 007 circles to say so, but who's with me????

backtothefold · January 2007

Sorry, I have to disagree. Bond has to be cold, in my opinion, and Moore is anything but. His take on Bond is interesting, but he's just not Bond to me. In fact, I'd say he's the worst of the Bonds. Of course, that's like eating a great meal all week and having to pick your least favorite. I'd still watch any of Sir Roger's movies any day of the week. Even TMWTGG.

stumac7 · January 2007

IMHO Moore was the worst Bond we've had. I didn't think he was very good to begin with, and then he stayed FAR too long. By the time we got to AVTAK he looked like a pensioner and it is pretty unbelievable that all these young gorgeous women still fancy him.

It has to be Connery for best bond ever.

Moore Not Less · January 2007

LOO7K OUT wrote:

Personally, J'adore Roger Moore as Bond. I'll stick my neck out here and say he's my favourite. May not be fashionable in 007 circles to say so, but who's with me????

From my point of view, it's always nice to see support for Roger Moore as James Bond. He's not popular with a fair section of the Bond community because of the generally lighter tone of his portrayal and his films. The critics almost always dismiss him (often with a snide remark), which I think is a shame because he's a better Bond than he's generally given credit for. And apart from the silliness (which accounts for a small fraction) his films are generally better than they are given credit for.

Roger may not be fashionable as 007, but he's my favourite. So that makes two of us, LOO7K OUT. :007)

Loeffelholz · January 2007

He certainly gets quite a few of these 'redemption threads' {:) I'll skip the standard platitudes I usually post when one of these pop up, and acknowledge that his tenure as Bond will likely never be equaled :v

Moore Not Less · January 2007

Loeffelholz wrote:

He certainly gets quite a few of these 'redemption threads' {:) I'll skip the standard platitudes I usually post when one of these pop up, and acknowledge that his tenure as Bond will likely never be equaled :v

) Somehow, I just knew that you wouldn't be able to resist this thread. However, I do admire your restraint.

Loeffelholz · January 2007

I'm a moth to the flame

)

Good health and long life, Sir Roger... {[]

JennyFlexFan · January 2007

Yes, to answer the question. Roger, to me, is a better Bond than Connery, who, while Bond in the novels may be this way, came off too chauvinistic and unappreciative of the women.

One poster mentions how old Moore looked and women still fancied him? Do we overlook NSNA when the ENTIRE SPA glanced at Connery when he walked in dressed in his old-man clothes? There, he looked worse at 53 in NSNA than Moore did at 57-58 in AVTAK.

Moore balanced the comedy, the suaveness and the ruthlessness perfectly (the scene with Andrea Anders, Sandor's tie-slapping, the death of Drax, kicking Locque's car off a cliff, all the anger shown after the death of Lisl and Tibbett), whenever the man was ruthless he OUT-ruthlessed all of the other Bonds. Plus, look at all the glee he took after killing a person. If that's not what you want, I don't know what is!

So yes, Roger makes every film he watches entertaining, even TMWTGG can be entertaining at times, and it's all thanks to him, while some of Connery's adventures are too boring to look at, and whenever I watch a Dalton film I usually root for the baddie, Brosnan is the only one who surpasses Moore but it's not by much.

Loeffelholz · January 2007

JennyFlexFan wrote:

Yes, to answer the question. Roger, to me, is a better Bond than Connery, who, while Bond in the novels may be this way, came off too chauvinistic and unappreciative of the women.

A common misconception. The literary Bond is quite romantic, and genuinely falls for each of the women, despite his occasional complaints about women 'getting in the way' and hanging on his gun arm...I've always viewed this as a means of rationalizing his undeniable weakness for the opposite sex.

JennyFlexFan wrote:

One poster mentions how old Moore looked and women still fancied him? Do we overlook NSNA when the ENTIRE SPA glanced at Connery when he walked in dressed in his old-man clothes? There, he looked worse at 53 in NSNA than Moore did at 57-58 in AVTAK.

Well, obviously I think Connery was a more interesting 'geezer' Bond...and his 'old man clothes' (

)

) ) were actually a spa staff uniform...The whole 'women staring lustfully at the old man' thing has always been a bit embarrassing to me, regardless of the geezer in question...

I guess the real test would be to put these gents in a room now, at 78 and 80 years old, and see who can still induce a bit of swooning...perhaps they both would {[]

Or neither ;%

blueman · January 2007

Moore fit what EON was trying to do extremely well: TSWLM comes off better then YOLT IMHO, in part due to Moore. Yeah he stayed too long, but I blame Cubby for that, can't fault Moore for wanting to stay employed.

C'mon, the 70s wouldn't be the 70s without Moore as Bond.

Loeffelholz · January 2007

No question about it.

blueman · January 2007

Of course, in bizarro world: Lazenby is Bond in the 70s; Dalton in the 80s; Purefoy in the 90s; Craig in the 00s. Woulda coulda shoulda...

emtiem · January 2007

He's not the best James Bond, but I think he was the best star the Bond movies had.
If that makes any sense!

heartbroken_mr_drax · January 2007

Moore is a great Bond, he is very versitile, seriousness, comedy and romantic.

He can be serious: Perfect Examples; Chandor in TSWLM, with Barbara at the Majaba club about his marrige, with Barbard about killing the man she loved, pulling out the bomb in the tanker, scenes with Drax, ALL of FYEO, the scenes at the circus and on the train with orlov in OP, and ALL of AVTAK.

He can be funny: Obvious

He can be suave: when hes in his tux

Otherwise i would say mistakes and errors are mainly down to Cubby or EON, esp. going thru with AVTAK and possibly OP (even tho OP is one of the best) not RM himself.

RM can also suffer from some poor screenplays esp. MWTGG

Dan Same · January 2007

Loeffelholz wrote:

He certainly gets quite a few of these 'redemption threads' {:) I'll skip the standard platitudes I usually post when one of these pop up, and acknowledge that his tenure as Bond will likely never be equaled :v

) That's great. If I didn't know any better, I would think, based on that, that you loved him.

Dan Same · January 2007

I've given more detailed answers on other threads about Moore, so I will give a (relatively) short answer on this thread. While Moore isn't my favourite Bond (I prefer Connery and Brosnan) I am, however, a huge fan of him. I think that Moore was a brilliant Bond as he was extremely suave, enormously ruthless, very tough, cool and at least five of his performances (all but TMWTGG and AVTAK) were IMO among the greatest Bond performances of all time. I also do not believe that Moore was camp or self-parodic in the slightest and I think that Moore was a much better Bond than Craig, Lazenby and Dalton (almost) put together.

So, yes, while he wasn't my favourite Bond, I do think that Moore was a truly great Bond. -{

backtothefold · January 2007

I'll say this for him. I think FYEO is a truly great Bond movie.

Matt S · January 2007

Moore is my favourite. He gave excellent performances in TSWLM, FYEO, and OP. When I picture Bond in my head, those 3 films come to mind immediately. Even in TMWTGG I thought he gave a good performance; it was the script that was lacking. In the more serious scenes in that film he couldn't have been much better. AVTAK is the same way. The script was lacking. I'm not too fond of his performance in LALD. Moore's only serious scene in Moonraker is when he gets off the centrifuge and Moore does it well. He does his best with a script that is more or less a self-parody. I like Moore's Bond because he has something of everything.

iamhere0 · October 2007

Roger Moore was, is, and always will be the best. You don't play bond for 12 years and not expect to be regarded as the best. He had the wit, charm and personality for it. His films also were the best. The actions scenes, women, etc. Simply put, the Roger Moore era was the golden age of Bond.

Sweepy the Cat · October 2007

I think he's quite underrated. FYEO is only beaten by FRWL, OHMSS & CR on my list and they are 2 entirely different bond film. after (00)7 films what do you expect. I agree he could've been a little darker like he was in FYEO but after the first couple of light-harted films it would be hard to pull off. The truth is Moore should have left with and All Time High with OP instead of a all-time low with AVTAK. Plus even though he did have a couple of bad films, they weren't all his fault. It was the producers, writers, director etc. too.

Here's to Moore -{

Napoleon Plural · October 2007

Well Roger's style is not in fashion these days, that English gentelmen thing was derived from David Niven or Stewart Granger maybe. If Hugh Grant had done action films, Moore would be more to people's current taste.

It's hard for me to comment. I grew up with and enjoyed his Bond, watching MR recently he seemed insufferably smug a lot of the time and old even then. But he wasn't so bad in AVTAK, more low key and restrained and in a minority, I didn't think he looked bad at all. Old, yes, but not knackered and stocky like in parts of FYEO and OP, where he had a Bill Grundy vibe about him!

Georgiboy · October 2007

I think Roger Moore is a GREAT Bond. I grew up watching him as Bond and he will always be the BEST to me. Although, Connery is a close second. {[]

dougie007 · October 2007

Georgiboy wrote:

I think Roger Moore is a GREAT Bond. I grew up watching him as Bond and he will always be the BEST to me. Although, Connery is a close second. {[]

As a fellow Roger Moore fan, I knew you would be on this post Georgiboy.

I grew up with Sir Roger as 007 too and its thanks to him that my interest in Bond has continued since then. He was fantastic in the role. Being from Scotland, you might expect me to go for Connery, but he doesn't do it for me. Controversial, I know.:D

Roger Moore -a GREAT Bond????

Comments