Worst Bond Director
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Posts: 31MI6 Agent
Who is, in your book, the absolute worst Bond director? For me, it has to be Guy Hamilton. I love Goldfinger and LALD, with LALD being in my top 5, but my god, the man pushed out what I believe are the two worst films in the whole series: DAF and TMWTGG. I've heard him in interviews and he seems like a cool guy, and he is a great director, but I feel like DAF and TMWTGG are just on a whole other league of awful.
Obviously, Lee Tamahori and Marc Forster are contenders, but:
1.) They both only did 1 film.
2.) The first half of DAD was fantastic, it's only really after the sword fight do things turn bad.
3.) QoS was a decent turn-off-your-brain action flick, heavily flawed but good outside of the Bond franchise.
DAF: A few good jokes, but still a pretty dull and boring film. My initial hatred comes from the fact it ignores OHMSS, but even when I forget about that, it still isn't good on it's own merrits.
TMWTGG:
Can't decide what it wants to be. One moment it excellently executes a tough, serious spy moment, the next there's a Bond eating a gold bullet and making a remark about it coming out the next day. One moment there's a chilling death of a troubled character, the next there's a slide whistle accompanying one of the best car stunts in film history. I love it when TMWTGG does the serious spy-thriller aspects because it does them extraordinarily well, but it's brought down by horrible comedy that isn't funny but rather embarrassing. Pepper's comic relief in LALD was a bit over the top at parts, but that's because he's an over the top character and the film didn't go overbaord with using him. TMWTGG does. Then there's the flying car, the sub-plot involving the solar agitator that becomes the main focus (when the main focus should have been Bond vs. Scaramanga), the third worst Bond girl (only good by Christmas Jones and Jynx standards), and Scaramanga is one of the best villains in the series! It's too bad he's in such a bad film. There's also too much missing potential here, which makes it a disappointment. On it's own, though, it's still a really bad movie, even beyond just Bond films.
Sorry about my rambling, haha. What are your opinions, everyone?
Obviously, Lee Tamahori and Marc Forster are contenders, but:
1.) They both only did 1 film.
2.) The first half of DAD was fantastic, it's only really after the sword fight do things turn bad.
3.) QoS was a decent turn-off-your-brain action flick, heavily flawed but good outside of the Bond franchise.
DAF: A few good jokes, but still a pretty dull and boring film. My initial hatred comes from the fact it ignores OHMSS, but even when I forget about that, it still isn't good on it's own merrits.
TMWTGG:
Can't decide what it wants to be. One moment it excellently executes a tough, serious spy moment, the next there's a Bond eating a gold bullet and making a remark about it coming out the next day. One moment there's a chilling death of a troubled character, the next there's a slide whistle accompanying one of the best car stunts in film history. I love it when TMWTGG does the serious spy-thriller aspects because it does them extraordinarily well, but it's brought down by horrible comedy that isn't funny but rather embarrassing. Pepper's comic relief in LALD was a bit over the top at parts, but that's because he's an over the top character and the film didn't go overbaord with using him. TMWTGG does. Then there's the flying car, the sub-plot involving the solar agitator that becomes the main focus (when the main focus should have been Bond vs. Scaramanga), the third worst Bond girl (only good by Christmas Jones and Jynx standards), and Scaramanga is one of the best villains in the series! It's too bad he's in such a bad film. There's also too much missing potential here, which makes it a disappointment. On it's own, though, it's still a really bad movie, even beyond just Bond films.
Sorry about my rambling, haha. What are your opinions, everyone?
Comments
DAF is prob the one film out of the entire EON series that I rarely view. Mainly due to
1) The intro being terribly naff (How they went from OHMSS to that is beyond me)
2) Connery out of shape and past it (kind of spoils his legacy in a way)
Sometimes I view DAF as the start of the cheesy EON era heavily associated to Moore. Just watch the intro, poorly slapped together and naff.
QOS gets off to a poor start with the dreadful editing of the car scene. I hope we see DC in a decent car chase scene before he retires. CR was too brief and QoS a mess
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And yeah, forgot to mention, QoS was too fast paced but an even larger problem in the film is the writing. It is the worst written Bond film. Even though it doesn't have the cheesey dialogue from the 70s, most of the script doesn't feel right. For everything the character say, it's acted well, but doesn't go together well. An example is when M says to Bond "You look like hell. When's the last time you slept?" only for Bond to not reply and M to immediately talk more giberish about the plot. There really should've been more of a pause between M and Bond in that scene, as in a situation like that you would wait at least two seconds before you realise the persona you're talking to has nothing to say about your remark. The writer's strike at the time really ruined some extra potential QoS had.
Why? Just how many reasons do you need?
Purvis and Wade had scripts and ideas. Then Tamahori came along. The reason he got the job was that he convinced Babs and Mickey G that they had to move with the times. The old fashioned stuntwork should be jettisoned for cgi that quick editing was the way forward.He admits to appearing to the MTV generation.
"Whoa dude, Bond is surfin, look at him shredd!!, "whoa dude, thats the guy from fast and the furious bro", "cgi rawks!", "Halle Berry is hot, I wanna bone her", "LOL, keeping my tip up! Thats funny dude..", "Look at those sweet cards bro!", "whoa, Bond is surfing dude.."
He is also on record that the Bonds were like the Carry On films so got Purvis and Wade to do rewrites and submitted godawful dialogue ever committed to a Bond film. No wonder Brosnan looks unhappy.
One day Tamahori will be put on trial for sins against Bond films. Along with Michael Apted.
I agree.
It's funny this thread was made, a while back I remember starting a thread with the exact opposite subject of who the best Bond director is.
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In this respect, the worst of them has been John Glen. Of his Bonds, two are very good -- For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights -- two are middling -- Octopussy and Licence to Kill -- and one awful -- A View to a Kill. His problem is that he is so pedestrian. There is not much imagination shown in his technique. He also gets mundane performances from too many actors. Taliso Soto and Tanya Roberts were not just awful, they were painfully so. Other actors are uneven, too. Guy Hamilton, for instance, was smart enough to imitate Blake Edwards with his 1960s films, but by the 1970s, he had lost a lot of his sense of imagination. But he still managed to pull good performances out of his actors, and there is still more creativity to his films than Glen's. Some films -- Die Another Day and Quantum of Solace, for instance -- may pale in comparison to better Bond films, but their parts are still greater than the whole, whereas in Glen's films that's often not the case.
Sorry but Lee Tanahori is the worse especially for that "cgi surfing" scene. The worse Bond scene in history. And easily avoided or jettisoned. It should never have been allowed.
John Glen gave us human interaction not to mention good performances from Carole Bouquet, John Rhys Davies, Stephen Berkoff and Robert Davi
Foster has his own style of shooting and editing so the Bond people knew, what they've been buying upfront.
QoS but is not bad directing - the directing and editing is just not my taste.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Not firing on all cylinders yet )
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
CR67.
I am agreeing with Higgins. Some of the shots were superb. And besides - Forster was Austrian.
When was the last time that this did happen? Last Millennium? :v
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Where have gone the good times where every post of mine was highly controversal?
Am I loosing my edge?
In Forster's defense, his QoS trailer #1 was excellent - probably the best 007 trailer ever!
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Don't worry Higgins, you'll post something silly soon, this run of
Coherent thought, can't last !
He was born in Germany and grew up in Switzerland
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
In the 70s we had a terrorist group RAF that killed and/or kidnapped rich and influencial people and they where in fear of that so they moved to Switzerland.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I was going to do something about the RAF causing trouble before..
..... But I won't.
Maybe we should talk about the RM or Roger Moore?
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
We have, ready to go into action when needed. Raising an eyebrow in
Some of the worlds danger hot spots. Telling innuendo filled jokes, and
Shagging anything that moves, as bullets fly over head !
It's what made Britain Great !
Too bad that only Sir Roger could make a living from it
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Your pm inbox is full!
Did TP spam you again with his "Art Collection"?
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
We are talking about TP, don't forget
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
There are some great articles on cars and the books of
Jean-Paul Sartre.