Watching all the James Bond movies (SPOILERS) (1 Viewer)

[benbess]

Excellent list!

Christopher Lee is great in The Man With the Golden Gun. Even though I'm a fan of Moore, for this movie I once almost wondered if Lee could be Bond. I haven't rewatched The Man With the Golden Gun since the 1990s iirc.

I pretty much agree when it comes to OHMSS. It's interesting how back in the 1970s and 1980s this movie wasn't as highly regarded by Bond fans. But in the last twenty years or so it's risen to the top five in many people's rankings.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

James Bond Theory: The Rock Is Sean Connery's Real Final 007 Movie

Did Michael Bay make a James Bond movie?

screenrant.com

Thanks for that link, interesting read that I had never seen before.

 

[benbess]

Critics Debate: Is ‘No Time to Die’ a Triumph or a Letdown? And Where Does the James Bond Series Go From Here?

The release of "No Time to Die" marks a crucial turning point for James Bond. Variety critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge discuss.

variety.com

Owen Gleiberman: ...."Consider how the ending of “No Time to Die” completes the James Bond films. Think of how many of those movies, over 60 years, reference death in the title. “Live and Let Die.” “Tomorrow Never Dies.” “Die Another Day.” “You Only Live Twice.” The essence of James Bond, as a character, is that he lives every day on the edge of death — and that he embraces that precarious and existential state of being. It’s what liberates him. (It’s what makes him, in the earlier films, a libertine.) But the reason he accepts death is that he knows he’d be dying for a higher purpose: MI6, Britain, Western Civilization. He’s the knight of the postwar world, and he lives out its freedoms and its pleasures. But he’ll die, at any moment, for that life he believes in protecting. And that’s why what he does at the end of “No Time to Die” feels right. It’s not a change of character. It’s a quintessentially Bondian move. He embraces death…as an act of saving."

 

[benbess]

A few have been upset about what happened to the doll Dou Dou in NTTD. But this 1-minute video gives hope that Dou Dou lives...or can be reborn.




Or....

Oscar Goldman:

"Dou Dou—a doll, barely alive.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild Dou Dou.
We have the technology.
We have the capability to make the world's first bionic doll.
Dou Dou will be that doll.
Better than it was before.
Better. Stronger. Faster."

 

[benbess]

No Time to Die: All your biggest questions answered (major spoilers)

Daniel Craig's Bond finale is on DVD and Blu-ray now. Let's dive into the classic 007 Easter eggs, Greek mythology and explosive moments of No Time to Die.

www.cnet.com

"....What is Heracles?
Heracles was the Greek name for the hero of antiquity called Hercules by the Romans. Persecuted by the goddess Hera, Heracles infamously killed his own children and was forced to perform 12 labors as a penance. The legend chimes with the ending of the film. A villainous centaur tricked Heracles' wife into giving the hero a poisoned shirt that burned his skin, similar to how the bioweapon kills a person it touches. Once poisoned, Heracles built his own funeral pyre and was incinerated, just as a poisoned Bond chose to be blown up. The similarity doesn't end there: Heracles' human body burned, but his godlike self rose to Olympus to live on. And while Daniel Craig's version of the character may die, the character of James Bond is eternal."

 

[Sam Favate]

Christopher Lee is great in The Man With the Golden Gun. Even though I'm a fan of Moore, for this movie I once almost wondered if Lee could be Bond. I haven't rewatched The Man With the Golden Gun since the 1990s iirc.

Christopher Lee absolutely could have been James Bond. He would have been excellent - he'd be a more serious and deadly Bond, more Daniel Craig than Roger Moore. I doubt that's something the producers wanted at the time.

Interesting fact: Lee was related to Ian Fleming. They were step-cousins. He's also the only LOTR star to have met JRR Tolkien. The guy had a fascinating life.

 

[benbess]

Going back to mythological parallels, I read one interpretation that the plots of several James Bond movies are in a way like Theseus going into the labyrinth to get the minotaur—and then escaping back out. Part of why NTTD has been controversial for some fans is that obviously it doesn't follow that last part.

 

[benbess]

As Bond fans know, in 1983 there was competition between two Bond films, with Sean Connery starring in a so-so sort-of Bond movie called Never Say Never Again. That year's release from Cubby Broccoli doubled down on Roger Moore, in the trailers changing the usual Roger Moore as 007 to Roger Moore IS James Bond. I remember being amused by this at the time, and imagining that taken literally Moore had almost been erased/taken over by Bond.



This movie, directed by John Glen, is actually one of my guilty favorites. It avoids some of the silliness that infused the Bonds of the 70s, but is still somewhat more over-the-top when compared to For Your Eyes Only.

 

[Tommy R]

Octopussy > Never Say Never Again

Connery is actually REALLY good in NSNA, and gives a WAY better performance than his previous two “last” Bond films. And Klaus Maria Brandauer was a great Bond villain. The rest of the film is hot garage.

 

[Worth]

Octopussy > Never Say Never Again

Connery is actually REALLY good in NSNA, and gives a WAY better performance than his previous two “last” Bond films. And Klaus Maria Brandauer was a great Bond villain. The rest of the film is hot garage.

Barbara Carerra is the best thing in the film. When she dies, the movie never recovers.

 

[Sam Favate]

We recently watched Octopussy and NSNA in the process of showing my kids the Bond films. Octopussy hasn’t aged that well, with some racist depictions and one liners, but it is head and shoulders above NSNA, which looks cheap by comparison (even the music sounds cheap).

I remember being so excited in 1983 that these two movies were coming out within a few months of each other, and my friend and I were convinced that Connery being back was going to be awesome and would make the EON series look bad. We were so wrong.

 

[benbess]

 

[benbess]

Before the movie came out the song by Billie Eilish didn't do that much for me, but now I feel how it fits the movie well.

 

[benbess]

 

[benbess]

 

[benbess]

I think Adele's Skyfall would be my choice for #1 Bond song, and the new Billie Eilish song would probably be in the top 5 too, but this musical list is still pretty good from my pov.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

James Bond Theory: The Rock Is Sean Connery's Real Final 007 Movie

Did Michael Bay make a James Bond movie?

screenrant.com

So, rewatched The Rock today, which I've always liked as one of the greatest action movies ever, in the light of this Bond connection, and while it is surely nonsense, it makes the movie even better.
So many good lines in it.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

We recently watched Octopussy and NSNA in the process of showing my kids the Bond films. Octopussy hasn’t aged that well, with some racist depictions and one liners, but it is head and shoulders above NSNA, which looks cheap by comparison (even the music sounds cheap).

I remember being so excited in 1983 that these two movies were coming out within a few months of each other, and my friend and I were convinced that Connery being back was going to be awesome and would make the EON series look bad. We were so wrong.

Well, shoot me, but I think NSNA is Sir Seans best Bond movie.

 

[benbess]

Well, if The Rock might be thought of as an alternate universe James Bond movie, David Bowie's Cat People from 1982 gets my vote for an alternate universe James Bond-ish song.

 

[Tommy R]

They missed their chance for Bowie to do a Bond song. That would have been great!