I’ve long said that I dislike Judi Dench as M, she was totally wrong for the part. Brosnan as Bond and Dench as M, no wonder I can’t gain much enthusiasm for that quartet of films. I can remember groaning out loud when she was announced that she was continuing as M in the Craig era. The only performance by her that I have enjoyed was in 84 Charing Cross Road, she played it in an understated fashion instead of playing to the galleries.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I will read that Shady, but I saw The World Is Not Enough on ITV HD yesterday (on telly). I didn't notice many cuts but this is one of the less nasty films. The jokes generally land unlike in any of the other Brosnan Bonds. A nice print, plonked Dad in his wheelchair in front of it, he sort of enjoyed it, but becomes clear after a while that it is visually monotonous, no real bursts of colour - this seemed the fashion for films around this time.
It is one of those films where, if you don't buy into it, it doesn't quite have much to offer in terms of plot and action, too much of the latter being a bit staged or taking place on the Pinewood lot. It does hold together as a proper movie, I think it's one of the few that didn't have redrafts up to the wire (GoldenEye) or during shooting (TND and possibly DAD).
I couldn't attend the Vue screening as my day involved a late return home, so I caught TWINE on its +1 showing on ITV.
I really dislike this movie. The more I see it, the more I dislike it - and I can't put my finger on exactly why. It probably loses something visual on a small screen, but it can't lose dialogue and the dialogue is fairly humdrum and tremendously cliched here. Purvis and Wade crop up as screenwriters and I guess this is where Bond jumps off an authorial cliff for me. It takes some going to have the love scene between Bond and Elektra read better in Raymond Benson's adaptation than it sounds on screen. All that stuff about taking pleasure in beautiful things - what is OO7 - a schoolboy poet? I think Benson wrote "I never look back" in reply to Elektra's question about how he copes with trauma. Ah, Elektra, wonderfully played by Sophie Marceau, but surrounded by a group of incompetents and superhero style uber-villains. Come on you can't become stronger as that bullet penetrates - Reynard is becoming more impervious to pain - a different affliction entirely. Rubbish. Rubbish. Rubbish. Elektra has a revenge motive and given the whole cryptic nature of the movie's plot you'd think M would spot this a mile off simply from her name. Greek myths, remember? At the funeral Bond already seems familiar with her, but Robinson isn't - why? And why is Moneypenny there? In fact, why is Bond, Robinson and half the MI6 backroom staff there at all? The opening hour of this film is a complete mess of narrative and an overblown monotonous action fest. I have come to understand that the scenes in Bilbao were originally meant to stand alone as a PTS. They should have. A bit more of a fight in the office and we'd have a reasonable 5 minute kick off. The boat chase - quite possibly one of the silliest and most yawn inducing affairs in the franchise's history - all that shooting without steering a fast moving power boat - nonsense - is quite obviously part of the main story. And while I'm about it, M orders "Stop King" but nobody does, not a single person, and its left to Bond, who is levels away from the incident to get their first. What's with all this stuff in Scotland? Judi Dench had just play Queen Victoria, was she feeling homesick? The overpopulated briefing has none of the seriousness or gravitas of the Operations Room in Thunderball. The OO-section look as if they're late arrivals at a cocktail party. Bond has his shoulder in a sling but manages to f* the female doctor and get medical clearance. A miraculous recovery which doesn't stop him skiing, fighting, running, jumping, swimming, diving and more f***ing, although the writers constantly remind us of his pain as Brosnan winces every time his shoulder is touched, punched, squeezed etc. It just becomes a cliché of each action scene. And M - queening it all over the place and delivering statements of intent like she's earned a presidential office. I hate M being removed from her office. I never liked it much in the Bernard Lee days, but at least it made sense and he never ran into the face of fire. Come on Purvis, Wade and Feirstein, - even Kinsley Amis had the good sense to have M kidnapped - the idea of M's incarceration is clearly a knock off job from Colonel Sun. Dench is just terrible in this, but she's not given the dialogue, just like everyone else. Robert Carlyle? He looks as if he's escaped from The Full Monty, his initial appearance has all the swagger of a northern man in denims and leather. I half expected him to strip. Robbie Coltrane? A desperate attempt to correct a failure in Goldeneye. The casino scene is embarrassing in humour, visual style and tension. It's not a casino scene at all, just an ogle fest. Bond is baffled. So was I. Para-hawk gliders? Dull. Dull. Dull. A silly attempt to remind us of Tracy and Bond skiing in OHMSS before Blofeld interrupts their slow burn love affair. The mystery here - or perhaps the later realisation - is how quickly Elektra is thinking, using the enclosed space of Bond's safety suit to reel her man in and deceive him into believing she's a bird with a wing down. Bond's reaction is suitable fatherly, which makes his later seduction unfathomable. Dear God. I'm not even up to Christmas Jones yet. I'm gonna stop.
Decent music but not as good as TND. Decent song, but not an exciting one. Good titles from Daniel Kleinman. Muddy photography. A decent scene when Bond first confronts and accuses Elektra. Denise Richards anyone? I still don't understand how Bond saves the day during the fight in the reactor room. I curse the Christmas jokes at the finale which go on and on and on... a bit like Christmas, or this film. Look, it's set me off again...
I keep leaving smart one-liners that lose all their effectiveness because it's the one time in six months we move onto a new page.
Diamonds are Forever
The ITV1 HD version. As usual, the clip of Bond strangling the girl with her bikini is cut, which I have no problem with.
The actor playing Willard Whyte looks like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider when he's in the helicopter approaching Blofeld's rig. This observation goes to demonstrate the folly of Lady Rose and Thunderpussy's comment that there is nothing left to say about the Bond films.
The film looked great though as some on Twitter pointed out, the 4K made the shoddy special effects more obvious.
Die Another Day on ITV1, must have been 4K but not sure, looked the same as most times.
It's watchable in a let it wash over you kind of way, plenty going on, gets too much of course, it's one of those films that really could be a three part series. Brosnan and Berry are okay together but the film doesn't have any charm to speak of and the dialogue is muffled - Tamorahi is a director who can't make the sometimes corny wordplay excusable or sparkling because his style isn't humorous.
ITV did us a favour by cutting it a fair bit, the whole scene with Bond and Jinx in bed where we got to see his first onscreen orgasm and the silly bit with Jinx and the fruit knife, all gone, also the voice over innuendo in the final scene was entirely cut so it's just Jinx and the diamond in her belly button. David Arnold recycles the romantic theme of TWINE for the final bit of romance here.
Brosnan looked like he was knocking on a bit but looked very young in that scene where he's hanging on to Graves' supervehicle over the cavernous drop, and one reviewer observed he got younger as the film went on which I think is true. For an actor not lacking in vanity you'd think he'd have got himself in better shape for his adventures. Still the youngest actor to jack it in after a long stint if you include Connery's unofficial swansong.
They could have cut the whole Graves supercar thing out really and it wouldn't have hurt.
Also point out, over the decades Bond really doesn't like the Beatles, does he? 'That's as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs' in Goldfinger and 'Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust' from London Calling in this - though not sure if that part of the song is actually used.
Graves is about the worst of Bond villains. He reminds me not so much as Rik Mayall as Kris Marshall from the sitcom My Family or Love, Actually where he is the young lad trying to get some sexual action - and ends up with TWINE's Denise Richards.
Is there an in-joke nod in DAD? At the gene therapy clinic it shows the intended physical transformation with photos - or is that for Zao? The picture looks like a young Simon Le Bonn! Not sure why simple plastic surgery wouldn't be enough to disguise oneself, not sure why both needed to disguise themselves anyway. I mean if the young Colonel survived the fall what gives, why not head back to camp, dry off with a hot toddy and spend the next year or so happily torturing Bond? No reason for him to disappear at all as far as I can see.
I'll now read Shady Tree's Review though I may make some suggestions....
Yup, the target transformation pic was for Zao. Funny you should point out its resemblance to Le Bon, because those weird looking dream-inducing masks with the coloured streamers remind me of the face-painted skiing girls in Binder's titles for AVTAK (and Binder's ice girl is tributed by Kleinman in DAD's titles, too, when he includes the ice effigy of Bond's North Korean torturess).
I'm not familiar with Kris Marshall but I do see shades of Rik Mayall in Graves, particuarly in 'The New Statesmen' (1987-1992).
I understand why Colonel Moon and Zao need to change their appearances. Zao has been committing terrorist acts and Moon would have fallen foul of his father and the military for trading weapons in an act of private enterprise - before developing Icarus and finding favour with hardliners. It's all a crock of nonsense, though!
DAD is full of incidental references to earlier Bond movies - but rather than making any difference to the film's drama the experience of spotting these is analagous to the experience of collecting trading cards.
On Jinx's opening shots: she's often compared with Honey Rider, there, because her bikini design homages Ursula Andress's in DN, but her first scene with Bond, taken as a whole, is really rather close to Fatima Blush's introduction to Bond in Nassau in NSNA ("You're all wet!" "But my Martini's still dry!") In both cases the older Bond looks ill-matched with the younger woman and the rapid mutual seduction is unconvincing ("toe-curling", in the case of DAD, as @Napoleon Plural puts it). Shot for shot, though, I'd say that the NSNA sequence is more stylish. (Fatima's water skiiing just pips to the post Jinx's sassy emergence from the waves, and in NSNA Bond and Fatima at least have mission-oriented motivations to get close at that stage: she already knows Bond as OO7, an enemy of SPECTRE, and he may have recognised her as the suspiciously violent nurse at Shrublands. By contrast, in his first meeting with Jinx, Brosnan's Bond appears to be succumbing to what he sleazily must think is just a random beachside pick-up?)
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
There's nothing new to say here. I thoroughly enjoyed it. All the bits I dislike - mainly the incidental music score, Connery's earliest filmed scenes in Jamaica where he's not quite got Bond's smoothness, the slight roughness and swiftness of the project - are there for anyone to see. All the things I love - Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, the Ken Adam sets, Terence Young's direction, Bernard Lee's M, the condensed script, all the scenes at Miss Taro's hilltop villa, Quarrel, Sylvia Trench, I could go on and on - are there to wallow in. The fact the film follows Fleming's novel with a few adjustments greatly increases my enjoyment. The print looked superb in the 4K restoration. It's a tidy and ambitious film which while it retains an almost too intense familiarity and is perhaps a few scenes short of complete success, is a far better product than many films which follow. While 'best' or 'favourite' lists are always changing Dr No sits comfortably in the top ten for me.
As a side note, during the same screening it occured to me again how sinister and beguiling Sister Rose and Sister Lily are, just one (or two) of many terrific Fleming elements in the film.
I'm still awake and buzzing from an afternoon and evening at the BFI.
I caught THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS on Saturday. This was one I missed on the Vue screenings and really wanted to re-engage with. My goodness it was terrific fun. And Dalton is brilliant in it, much better than his one note performance of LTK. Here he leads the movie with some aplomb, displaying impatience with his investigative progress, disdain for his rivals, a grudging respect to superiors; he's amusing and gentle with Q and Moneypenny, discourteous with the almost buffoon agent Saunders, he even manages to just about play the obvious Roger Moore-isms with a deftness of touch, a little glint in his eye and a slippery half-smile which tells us he knows the joke's well and truly been sold. It's one of the best Bond performances IMO and while Craig is excellent in CR, you can see where he's taken some of his inspiration from: the tardiness, the energy, the steel and also the romance. Of all the Broccoli / Saltzman movies only two ever featured genuine romance: OHMSS and TLD. Odd that both featured actors untested as Bond [Moore had spent so long playing the Saint, he could hardly be called untested].
Maryam D'Abo, who was present in the brief 20-minute Q & A with David Walliams is excellent as well, probably the best 'Bond Girl' from the 80s. She manages to give Kara a sense of innocence, while still retaining a sensual lure and a duplicitous edge - she appears to be in love with two men, uncertain which way to jump - an edge which proves to be false yet successfully shifts the narrative forward. Bond's uncertainty of her motives creates doubt in her own mind. The pair's inability to actively communicate is realistic in a manner not touched on before or since until NTTD. Again, some praise must go to Dalton for eking this performance from her. There's a real spark between them and the scenes in Bratislava and Vienna, where their relationship builds from testiness to affection, recall those moments between Lazenby and Rigg in OHMSS and later Eva Green and Craig in CR, films also underpinned by their romances.
The film has lighter moments which Dalton probably would have preferred not to have to deal with. In the contemporary context, and in a Bond film, they work well. I'm talking about the car and ski chase, the pneumatic 'pig' in the pipeline and the slightly overpitched climax. The coda is a bit cringeworthy. The trio of mismatched villains don't really work on any level, although Joe Don Baker's Whitaker is the most watchable of them. If anyone can explain the plot to me, please do, but rather like the three bad guys not gelling, the fact the plot is incomprehensible doesn't seem to matter to one's overall enjoyment.
Great photography from Alec Mills.
I like that the script retains its dark, Cold War edge even after it has dispensed with Ian Fleming's short story. The effect of war on the Afghan communities is briefly noted. John Rhys Davies' Pushkin makes a fine, dare I say better, replacement for Walter Gotel's Gen Gogol.
Best of all, John Barry returns for a final fling and bows out with a very strong score.
While the film has some irksome elements, they are more than forgivable.
David Walliams with Maryam D'Abo - still looking fabulous in her sixties - and Art Malik.
Thanks, @chrisno1 , great review of TLD and Dalton himself.
The plot as far as I understand - Whitaker has accepted Soviet money for weapons. Instead, he pays the Mujahedeen for drugs which he can sell for much more money. He then gives the USSR the weapons, leaving him with a vast profit. Koskov as a senior KGB figure has been facilitating the deal and will share in the profits, now that the Soviets believe he defected and the British believe he's back in the USSR - back, back, back in the USSR.
Thanks for that explanation @Barbel - you make it sound much more simple than it appears to be, what with diamonds, misleading defections, internal coups, the Snow Leopard Brotherhood, Necros' freedom fighters - there really is too much going on for clarity !
That's their plan, anyway, but as we know it all goes wrong courtesy of one J. Bond. It isn't handled clearly by Maibaum and Wilson (Glen just shoots their script plainly so the lack of clarity isn't his fault) and there are a couple of loose ends but to me those are small prices to pay for fairly faithful Fleming after the titles which is expanded upon in a believable manner (no stolen submarines or spaceships, for example).
I enjoyed this review; thank you @chrisno1 I actually like TLD considerably less than LTK but it's still a great watch, Dalton has some fine scenes and John Barry gives it all a massive lift!
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Just watched QoS again for the umpteenth time. A much maligned film but I just thinks it’s superb. It could do with being a bit longer and allowed to breathe a bit but still a top movie. I love the ending in Kazan, tense and poignant. The last scene with Mathis is really quite touching and then switches to ruthless. Always the mission James.
This is so weird. I was cooking late and there was nothing on the TV except another repeat of Abandoned Engineering, and I noticed ITV4 was showing Quantum of Solace again.
I started watching half-heartedly, but I was really gripped by the time the first ad break kicked in. It really is a much better product than I once believed. Yes, it is a trifle frenetic in the editing department, but that doesn't bother me as much as it did in 2008; the passage of time and the change in cinematic styles has softened this rough edge. It could do with a little more explanation here and there, particularly around the CIA's involvement and Field's sacrifice. It has been cut to the bone and I think that's why I like it. The film doesn't hang about any, it's over very fast. I enjoy the story arc evolved from Casino Royale; we essentially end Quantum with a re-enactment of Bond's opening mission in Casino, waiting in a dark room to assassinate someone, only the result is different. This shows the kind of oblique character development I like Craig-Bond to get. The talky stuff in the final three films is over wrought. Still a bit upset by the demise of Mathis. Bean seems to be a forerunner of that laughing CIA jackass in NTTD. The Perla de Dunas finale is as dumb as they come but I don't mind it. The film, like Casino before it, feels very grounded. It's also more intense [that editing again]. Greene's not a great villain. ITV censored the violence.
A couple of odd questions, which don't matter much, but I'll ask them anyway. Why do the Quantum agents, including Greene, leave the Opera? Mr White, quite sensibly, doesn't, so Bond never learns he is there which would have interested MI6.
At the end, Bond says to M "You were right about Vesper?" What was she right about? Does this refer back to the end of Casino where M explains how Vesper was turned [this doesn't exonerate Vesper] or to the discussion about the lock of hair found in her apartment [Bond says it's a bit sentimental for Vesper; she says something like 'you never can tell'] or something I've missed? What has Yusef told Bond to make him change his mind from 'The bitch is dead' to Vesper being the love of his life? Something isn't ringing right for me in this - and given how fundamental the Bond-Vesper relationship is to his character make up going forward, a line like this ought to have accessible significance.
Watched a bit of it last night, switched on at the opera scene which is very good. Odd how having watched an episode of The Saint on Talking Pictures TV which dealt with local authority corruption on the south coast, and getting tender prices rigged, we flash forward to a mega Bond movie and essentially it's dealing with the same thing as revealed in the final 15 mins!
Some odd stuff, dialogue and so on. The villain's 'balls in your mouth' threat followed by 'willing replacement' sounds like 'willy replacement'.... Dench seems to have a large role in this one. For all that, this film attempts to be grounded in reality unlike its successors. Still much preferred Craig's Layer Cake which I'd rewatched the night or so before.
Comments
I’ve long said that I dislike Judi Dench as M, she was totally wrong for the part. Brosnan as Bond and Dench as M, no wonder I can’t gain much enthusiasm for that quartet of films. I can remember groaning out loud when she was announced that she was continuing as M in the Craig era. The only performance by her that I have enjoyed was in 84 Charing Cross Road, she played it in an understated fashion instead of playing to the galleries.
I saw TWINE at a Vue cinema yesterday evening: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1048430#Comment_1048430
I will read that Shady, but I saw The World Is Not Enough on ITV HD yesterday (on telly). I didn't notice many cuts but this is one of the less nasty films. The jokes generally land unlike in any of the other Brosnan Bonds. A nice print, plonked Dad in his wheelchair in front of it, he sort of enjoyed it, but becomes clear after a while that it is visually monotonous, no real bursts of colour - this seemed the fashion for films around this time.
It is one of those films where, if you don't buy into it, it doesn't quite have much to offer in terms of plot and action, too much of the latter being a bit staged or taking place on the Pinewood lot. It does hold together as a proper movie, I think it's one of the few that didn't have redrafts up to the wire (GoldenEye) or during shooting (TND and possibly DAD).
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I couldn't attend the Vue screening as my day involved a late return home, so I caught TWINE on its +1 showing on ITV.
I really dislike this movie. The more I see it, the more I dislike it - and I can't put my finger on exactly why. It probably loses something visual on a small screen, but it can't lose dialogue and the dialogue is fairly humdrum and tremendously cliched here. Purvis and Wade crop up as screenwriters and I guess this is where Bond jumps off an authorial cliff for me. It takes some going to have the love scene between Bond and Elektra read better in Raymond Benson's adaptation than it sounds on screen. All that stuff about taking pleasure in beautiful things - what is OO7 - a schoolboy poet? I think Benson wrote "I never look back" in reply to Elektra's question about how he copes with trauma. Ah, Elektra, wonderfully played by Sophie Marceau, but surrounded by a group of incompetents and superhero style uber-villains. Come on you can't become stronger as that bullet penetrates - Reynard is becoming more impervious to pain - a different affliction entirely. Rubbish. Rubbish. Rubbish. Elektra has a revenge motive and given the whole cryptic nature of the movie's plot you'd think M would spot this a mile off simply from her name. Greek myths, remember? At the funeral Bond already seems familiar with her, but Robinson isn't - why? And why is Moneypenny there? In fact, why is Bond, Robinson and half the MI6 backroom staff there at all? The opening hour of this film is a complete mess of narrative and an overblown monotonous action fest. I have come to understand that the scenes in Bilbao were originally meant to stand alone as a PTS. They should have. A bit more of a fight in the office and we'd have a reasonable 5 minute kick off. The boat chase - quite possibly one of the silliest and most yawn inducing affairs in the franchise's history - all that shooting without steering a fast moving power boat - nonsense - is quite obviously part of the main story. And while I'm about it, M orders "Stop King" but nobody does, not a single person, and its left to Bond, who is levels away from the incident to get their first. What's with all this stuff in Scotland? Judi Dench had just play Queen Victoria, was she feeling homesick? The overpopulated briefing has none of the seriousness or gravitas of the Operations Room in Thunderball. The OO-section look as if they're late arrivals at a cocktail party. Bond has his shoulder in a sling but manages to f* the female doctor and get medical clearance. A miraculous recovery which doesn't stop him skiing, fighting, running, jumping, swimming, diving and more f***ing, although the writers constantly remind us of his pain as Brosnan winces every time his shoulder is touched, punched, squeezed etc. It just becomes a cliché of each action scene. And M - queening it all over the place and delivering statements of intent like she's earned a presidential office. I hate M being removed from her office. I never liked it much in the Bernard Lee days, but at least it made sense and he never ran into the face of fire. Come on Purvis, Wade and Feirstein, - even Kinsley Amis had the good sense to have M kidnapped - the idea of M's incarceration is clearly a knock off job from Colonel Sun. Dench is just terrible in this, but she's not given the dialogue, just like everyone else. Robert Carlyle? He looks as if he's escaped from The Full Monty, his initial appearance has all the swagger of a northern man in denims and leather. I half expected him to strip. Robbie Coltrane? A desperate attempt to correct a failure in Goldeneye. The casino scene is embarrassing in humour, visual style and tension. It's not a casino scene at all, just an ogle fest. Bond is baffled. So was I. Para-hawk gliders? Dull. Dull. Dull. A silly attempt to remind us of Tracy and Bond skiing in OHMSS before Blofeld interrupts their slow burn love affair. The mystery here - or perhaps the later realisation - is how quickly Elektra is thinking, using the enclosed space of Bond's safety suit to reel her man in and deceive him into believing she's a bird with a wing down. Bond's reaction is suitable fatherly, which makes his later seduction unfathomable. Dear God. I'm not even up to Christmas Jones yet. I'm gonna stop.
Decent music but not as good as TND. Decent song, but not an exciting one. Good titles from Daniel Kleinman. Muddy photography. A decent scene when Bond first confronts and accuses Elektra. Denise Richards anyone? I still don't understand how Bond saves the day during the fight in the reactor room. I curse the Christmas jokes at the finale which go on and on and on... a bit like Christmas, or this film. Look, it's set me off again...
Well, at least it all picks up for the next one...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I keep leaving smart one-liners that lose all their effectiveness because it's the one time in six months we move onto a new page.
Diamonds are Forever
The ITV1 HD version. As usual, the clip of Bond strangling the girl with her bikini is cut, which I have no problem with.
The actor playing Willard Whyte looks like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider when he's in the helicopter approaching Blofeld's rig. This observation goes to demonstrate the folly of Lady Rose and Thunderpussy's comment that there is nothing left to say about the Bond films.
The film looked great though as some on Twitter pointed out, the 4K made the shoddy special effects more obvious.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
https://youtu.be/b_ZeJqNt4Hk
Die Another Day on ITV1, must have been 4K but not sure, looked the same as most times.
It's watchable in a let it wash over you kind of way, plenty going on, gets too much of course, it's one of those films that really could be a three part series. Brosnan and Berry are okay together but the film doesn't have any charm to speak of and the dialogue is muffled - Tamorahi is a director who can't make the sometimes corny wordplay excusable or sparkling because his style isn't humorous.
ITV did us a favour by cutting it a fair bit, the whole scene with Bond and Jinx in bed where we got to see his first onscreen orgasm and the silly bit with Jinx and the fruit knife, all gone, also the voice over innuendo in the final scene was entirely cut so it's just Jinx and the diamond in her belly button. David Arnold recycles the romantic theme of TWINE for the final bit of romance here.
Brosnan looked like he was knocking on a bit but looked very young in that scene where he's hanging on to Graves' supervehicle over the cavernous drop, and one reviewer observed he got younger as the film went on which I think is true. For an actor not lacking in vanity you'd think he'd have got himself in better shape for his adventures. Still the youngest actor to jack it in after a long stint if you include Connery's unofficial swansong.
They could have cut the whole Graves supercar thing out really and it wouldn't have hurt.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Hehe! I saw DAD at a Vue cinema tonight and my own review is here:
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1048732#Comment_1048732
Also point out, over the decades Bond really doesn't like the Beatles, does he? 'That's as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs' in Goldfinger and 'Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust' from London Calling in this - though not sure if that part of the song is actually used.
Graves is about the worst of Bond villains. He reminds me not so much as Rik Mayall as Kris Marshall from the sitcom My Family or Love, Actually where he is the young lad trying to get some sexual action - and ends up with TWINE's Denise Richards.
Is there an in-joke nod in DAD? At the gene therapy clinic it shows the intended physical transformation with photos - or is that for Zao? The picture looks like a young Simon Le Bonn! Not sure why simple plastic surgery wouldn't be enough to disguise oneself, not sure why both needed to disguise themselves anyway. I mean if the young Colonel survived the fall what gives, why not head back to camp, dry off with a hot toddy and spend the next year or so happily torturing Bond? No reason for him to disappear at all as far as I can see.
I'll now read Shady Tree's Review though I may make some suggestions....
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Yup, the target transformation pic was for Zao. Funny you should point out its resemblance to Le Bon, because those weird looking dream-inducing masks with the coloured streamers remind me of the face-painted skiing girls in Binder's titles for AVTAK (and Binder's ice girl is tributed by Kleinman in DAD's titles, too, when he includes the ice effigy of Bond's North Korean torturess).
I'm not familiar with Kris Marshall but I do see shades of Rik Mayall in Graves, particuarly in 'The New Statesmen' (1987-1992).
I understand why Colonel Moon and Zao need to change their appearances. Zao has been committing terrorist acts and Moon would have fallen foul of his father and the military for trading weapons in an act of private enterprise - before developing Icarus and finding favour with hardliners. It's all a crock of nonsense, though!
DAD is full of incidental references to earlier Bond movies - but rather than making any difference to the film's drama the experience of spotting these is analagous to the experience of collecting trading cards.
On Jinx's opening shots: she's often compared with Honey Rider, there, because her bikini design homages Ursula Andress's in DN, but her first scene with Bond, taken as a whole, is really rather close to Fatima Blush's introduction to Bond in Nassau in NSNA ("You're all wet!" "But my Martini's still dry!") In both cases the older Bond looks ill-matched with the younger woman and the rapid mutual seduction is unconvincing ("toe-curling", in the case of DAD, as @Napoleon Plural puts it). Shot for shot, though, I'd say that the NSNA sequence is more stylish. (Fatima's water skiiing just pips to the post Jinx's sassy emergence from the waves, and in NSNA Bond and Fatima at least have mission-oriented motivations to get close at that stage: she already knows Bond as OO7, an enemy of SPECTRE, and he may have recognised her as the suspiciously violent nurse at Shrublands. By contrast, in his first meeting with Jinx, Brosnan's Bond appears to be succumbing to what he sleazily must think is just a random beachside pick-up?)
CR06 at a Vue Cinema tonight. New review here: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1049077#Comment_1049077
QOS at an Odeon Cinema this afternoon. Here's my new review of it: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1049356#Comment_1049356
SF at a Vue cinema yesterday evening. My thoughts collected here for this anniversary viewing during a solemn weekend: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1049546#Comment_1049546
SP at the same Vue cinema, as the 60th anniversary season of screenings nears its end. New review here: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1049876#Comment_1049876
DR NO at the British Film Institute.
There's nothing new to say here. I thoroughly enjoyed it. All the bits I dislike - mainly the incidental music score, Connery's earliest filmed scenes in Jamaica where he's not quite got Bond's smoothness, the slight roughness and swiftness of the project - are there for anyone to see. All the things I love - Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, the Ken Adam sets, Terence Young's direction, Bernard Lee's M, the condensed script, all the scenes at Miss Taro's hilltop villa, Quarrel, Sylvia Trench, I could go on and on - are there to wallow in. The fact the film follows Fleming's novel with a few adjustments greatly increases my enjoyment. The print looked superb in the 4K restoration. It's a tidy and ambitious film which while it retains an almost too intense familiarity and is perhaps a few scenes short of complete success, is a far better product than many films which follow. While 'best' or 'favourite' lists are always changing Dr No sits comfortably in the top ten for me.
For a rundown of my BFI experience: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1050277#Comment_1050277
If I made lists it'd be in mine, too. Nice summing up, now going to read the rundown.
True, I might also add another issue in the film is the dubbing of some of the cast.
But apart from those issues mentioned, it's a good start to the series.
As a side note, during the same screening it occured to me again how sinister and beguiling Sister Rose and Sister Lily are, just one (or two) of many terrific Fleming elements in the film.
My last new Bond film review of the 60th anniversary season is posted as follows; NTTD, seen at a Vue cinema this evening: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1050308#Comment_1050308
I'm still awake and buzzing from an afternoon and evening at the BFI.
I caught THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS on Saturday. This was one I missed on the Vue screenings and really wanted to re-engage with. My goodness it was terrific fun. And Dalton is brilliant in it, much better than his one note performance of LTK. Here he leads the movie with some aplomb, displaying impatience with his investigative progress, disdain for his rivals, a grudging respect to superiors; he's amusing and gentle with Q and Moneypenny, discourteous with the almost buffoon agent Saunders, he even manages to just about play the obvious Roger Moore-isms with a deftness of touch, a little glint in his eye and a slippery half-smile which tells us he knows the joke's well and truly been sold. It's one of the best Bond performances IMO and while Craig is excellent in CR, you can see where he's taken some of his inspiration from: the tardiness, the energy, the steel and also the romance. Of all the Broccoli / Saltzman movies only two ever featured genuine romance: OHMSS and TLD. Odd that both featured actors untested as Bond [Moore had spent so long playing the Saint, he could hardly be called untested].
Maryam D'Abo, who was present in the brief 20-minute Q & A with David Walliams is excellent as well, probably the best 'Bond Girl' from the 80s. She manages to give Kara a sense of innocence, while still retaining a sensual lure and a duplicitous edge - she appears to be in love with two men, uncertain which way to jump - an edge which proves to be false yet successfully shifts the narrative forward. Bond's uncertainty of her motives creates doubt in her own mind. The pair's inability to actively communicate is realistic in a manner not touched on before or since until NTTD. Again, some praise must go to Dalton for eking this performance from her. There's a real spark between them and the scenes in Bratislava and Vienna, where their relationship builds from testiness to affection, recall those moments between Lazenby and Rigg in OHMSS and later Eva Green and Craig in CR, films also underpinned by their romances.
The film has lighter moments which Dalton probably would have preferred not to have to deal with. In the contemporary context, and in a Bond film, they work well. I'm talking about the car and ski chase, the pneumatic 'pig' in the pipeline and the slightly overpitched climax. The coda is a bit cringeworthy. The trio of mismatched villains don't really work on any level, although Joe Don Baker's Whitaker is the most watchable of them. If anyone can explain the plot to me, please do, but rather like the three bad guys not gelling, the fact the plot is incomprehensible doesn't seem to matter to one's overall enjoyment.
Great photography from Alec Mills.
I like that the script retains its dark, Cold War edge even after it has dispensed with Ian Fleming's short story. The effect of war on the Afghan communities is briefly noted. John Rhys Davies' Pushkin makes a fine, dare I say better, replacement for Walter Gotel's Gen Gogol.
Best of all, John Barry returns for a final fling and bows out with a very strong score.
While the film has some irksome elements, they are more than forgivable.
David Walliams with Maryam D'Abo - still looking fabulous in her sixties - and Art Malik.
Timothy Dalton is severely underrated as Bond, nice review @chrisno1
What a great and terrific review! @chrisno1
Thanks, @chrisno1 , great review of TLD and Dalton himself.
The plot as far as I understand - Whitaker has accepted Soviet money for weapons. Instead, he pays the Mujahedeen for drugs which he can sell for much more money. He then gives the USSR the weapons, leaving him with a vast profit. Koskov as a senior KGB figure has been facilitating the deal and will share in the profits, now that the Soviets believe he defected and the British believe he's back in the USSR - back, back, back in the USSR.
Thanks for that explanation @Barbel - you make it sound much more simple than it appears to be, what with diamonds, misleading defections, internal coups, the Snow Leopard Brotherhood, Necros' freedom fighters - there really is too much going on for clarity !
That's their plan, anyway, but as we know it all goes wrong courtesy of one J. Bond. It isn't handled clearly by Maibaum and Wilson (Glen just shoots their script plainly so the lack of clarity isn't his fault) and there are a couple of loose ends but to me those are small prices to pay for fairly faithful Fleming after the titles which is expanded upon in a believable manner (no stolen submarines or spaceships, for example).
I enjoyed this review; thank you @chrisno1 I actually like TLD considerably less than LTK but it's still a great watch, Dalton has some fine scenes and John Barry gives it all a massive lift!
Just watched QoS again for the umpteenth time. A much maligned film but I just thinks it’s superb. It could do with being a bit longer and allowed to breathe a bit but still a top movie. I love the ending in Kazan, tense and poignant. The last scene with Mathis is really quite touching and then switches to ruthless. Always the mission James.
I concur
This is so weird. I was cooking late and there was nothing on the TV except another repeat of Abandoned Engineering, and I noticed ITV4 was showing Quantum of Solace again.
I started watching half-heartedly, but I was really gripped by the time the first ad break kicked in. It really is a much better product than I once believed. Yes, it is a trifle frenetic in the editing department, but that doesn't bother me as much as it did in 2008; the passage of time and the change in cinematic styles has softened this rough edge. It could do with a little more explanation here and there, particularly around the CIA's involvement and Field's sacrifice. It has been cut to the bone and I think that's why I like it. The film doesn't hang about any, it's over very fast. I enjoy the story arc evolved from Casino Royale; we essentially end Quantum with a re-enactment of Bond's opening mission in Casino, waiting in a dark room to assassinate someone, only the result is different. This shows the kind of oblique character development I like Craig-Bond to get. The talky stuff in the final three films is over wrought. Still a bit upset by the demise of Mathis. Bean seems to be a forerunner of that laughing CIA jackass in NTTD. The Perla de Dunas finale is as dumb as they come but I don't mind it. The film, like Casino before it, feels very grounded. It's also more intense [that editing again]. Greene's not a great villain. ITV censored the violence.
A couple of odd questions, which don't matter much, but I'll ask them anyway. Why do the Quantum agents, including Greene, leave the Opera? Mr White, quite sensibly, doesn't, so Bond never learns he is there which would have interested MI6.
At the end, Bond says to M "You were right about Vesper?" What was she right about? Does this refer back to the end of Casino where M explains how Vesper was turned [this doesn't exonerate Vesper] or to the discussion about the lock of hair found in her apartment [Bond says it's a bit sentimental for Vesper; she says something like 'you never can tell'] or something I've missed? What has Yusef told Bond to make him change his mind from 'The bitch is dead' to Vesper being the love of his life? Something isn't ringing right for me in this - and given how fundamental the Bond-Vesper relationship is to his character make up going forward, a line like this ought to have accessible significance.
Watched a bit of it last night, switched on at the opera scene which is very good. Odd how having watched an episode of The Saint on Talking Pictures TV which dealt with local authority corruption on the south coast, and getting tender prices rigged, we flash forward to a mega Bond movie and essentially it's dealing with the same thing as revealed in the final 15 mins!
Some odd stuff, dialogue and so on. The villain's 'balls in your mouth' threat followed by 'willing replacement' sounds like 'willy replacement'.... Dench seems to have a large role in this one. For all that, this film attempts to be grounded in reality unlike its successors. Still much preferred Craig's Layer Cake which I'd rewatched the night or so before.
Roger Moore 1927-2017