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The James Bond Series

sandman

By sandman,
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sandman

sandman

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The James Bond movie series is one of the most popular on the planet. For better or worse it is part of our movie heritage. He is iconic to the point of absurdity. Yet what do people think of the movies? I am a big fan of the series and was wondering if there are others or if everyone only likes Casino Royale (the prevailing opinion on many an internet forum).

Do you have a favourite Bond? For me its a toss up between Dalton and Brosnan with Dalton just edging it for his performance in Licence to Kill. Craig is my poorest Bond, although I do quite like him. But he doesn't look like Bond to me. I might be a hetrosexual male but I just don't think he is very good looking and cant remember anyone ever considering to be before he got the role. I think Moore is massively under-rated, I for one really like his take on Bond, particularly in A View to A Kill and The Spy Who Loved me.

As for favourite movie, I think Goldeneye has it all and Bean is my favourite baddie of the series. It all has a good plot, very tight direction and excellent action scenes. At the time it seemed a bit tame compared to True Lies, but now I much prefer GE.

My facvourite Bond moment (or rather 10 minute bit) is the start to Licence To Kill. The wedding, the rushing off to get sanchez and the paruchute jump - its all perfect and just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

As for poorest movie, well I quite like Die Another Day (in fact I much prefer it to TWINE), think that Moonraker is great before it goes into space and Diamonds Are Forever is actually rather good. No, the worst one is poor old Quantum of Solace - its just edited in such a way that I get a headache and there is no sense of peril. The plot is boring although I do like the Opera scene. The script is dire and even Judi Dench cant save it.

Favourite Director? I like the way that John Glen got better with every movie and Lewis Gilbert was very good in making Lazenby seem like Bond when he really shouldnt have, but I think Martin Campbell is the best. Apart from the sublime Goldeneye he managed to make Craig seem credible as Bond AND make a game of cards incredibly exciting.

So, is Bond still relevant today? Does that matter one bit? Will Bond movies continue forever? Who is your favourite Bond Girl? (mines probably Denise Richards) What about your worst theme song?

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Smoothy

Smoothy

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Do you have a favourite Bond? For me its a toss up between Dalton and Brosnan with Dalton just edging it for his performance in Licence to Kill. Craig is my poorest Bond, although I do quite like him. But he doesn't look like Bond to me. I might be a hetrosexual male but I just don't think he is very good looking and cant remember anyone ever considering to be before he got the role. I think Moore is massively under-rated, I for one really like his take on Bond, particularly in A View to A Kill and The Spy Who Loved me.

Roger Moore. I don't care what the purists say, for me he was the most entertaining Bond. I like all the other Bonds though (Pierce Brosnan was pretty good I thought, although he looked old in Die Another Day, but then again so did Sean Connery in his last one), apart from George Lazenby, who I don't even acknowledge.

As for favourite movie, I think Goldeneye has it all and Bean is my favourite baddie of the series. It all has a good plot, very tight direction and excellent action scenes. At the time it seemed a bit tame compared to True Lies, but now I much prefer GE.

For years it was Licence To Kill but I just watched it recently and I have to say I think I prefer the other films, even the Daniel Craig films. So now I don't really have an absolute fave but props to Roger Moore ones like The Spy Who Loved Me ("Try reverse, that's backwards") and Moonraker.

As for poorest movie, well I quite like Die Another Day (in fact I much prefer it to TWINE), think that Moonraker is great before it goes into space and Diamonds Are Forever is actually rather good. No, the worst one is poor old Quantum of Solace - its just edited in such a way that I get a headache and there is no sense of peril. The plot is boring although I do like the Opera scene. The script is dire and even Judi Dench cant save it.

On her Majesty's Secret Service, by miles. Shit film, shit Bond, shit everything.

My facvourite Bond moment (or rather 10 minute bit) is the start to Licence To Kill. The wedding, the rushing off to get sanchez and the paruchute jump - its all perfect and just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

Despite not being my absolute fave film, I still like Licence To Kill and it still has one of my most fave lines in it - Benicio Del Toro "We gave her a nice honeymooooooooooooooooooon!" :lol:

Who is your favourite Bond Girl? (mines probably Denise Richards) What about your worst theme song?

I like them all :wub: but I do like Halle Berry especially.

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Smoothy

Smoothy

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Do they? If they do, then they're totally blinkered - it's rubbish. I heard that Licence To Kill was the one considered the closest to Ian Fleming's Bond.

And as for Bond girl, you hate on Halle Berry but love Denise Richards? Come on :lol:

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mdn2

mdn2

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I've always liked Brosnan as Bond, it's just a shame his films (Goldeneye excepted, of course) were pretty average-to-crap. I never really liked Moore, although For Your Eyes Only is probably my favourite of the series.

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El Pibe

El Pibe

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Favourite Bond often has a lot to do with who was 'your' Bond. I remember going to see The Living Daylights at the cinema for a friend's birthday party. I absolutely loved it and fell in love with Bond after that outing. So Dalton has a special place in my heart and I'd love to have seen him have a go at Goldeneye.

Brosnan, I think, would have been an excellent Bond if he'd have just had better material to work with. Goldeneye was great, TND good, and then the rest just awful with Die Another Day abysmal.

Roger Moore was good fun and, again, given the right material a very good Bond - namely Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only. He also starred in some stinkers and was far too old by the time A View to a Kill arrived.

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Goose

Goose

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I liked Brosnan as Bond but I think he got lumbered with too much daft technology, the invisible car being the pinnacle.

I think Dalton got the roughest deal though, and when they tried to go dark and gritty with License to Kill (which would be the mould today I think), it was a let down financially. I wouldn't have minded seeing what else he could do with the character but he just never got the chance. Curiously, Dalton was said to have been offered the role before Moore, but turned it down thinking himself too young to play the character. EDIT: I was wrong - he was actually offered OHMSS and turned it down for feeling like he was too young and didn't want to be the guy to follow Sean Connery. After that, he was offered it again sometime during the 70s but didn't like the direction the films were going, then again in 1981, with For Your Eyes Only. Finally accepting the role for The Living Daylights.

Interestingly, Brosnan was offered the role at the same time but was committed to Remington Steele. (Similar happened to Tom Selleck with Raiders of the Lost Ark - committed to playing Magnum)

With Roger Moore, he was always open about the character, he considered it ridiculous to be a 'secret' agent who could walk into a bar anywhere in the world and the bar tender would know how he took his drink. Consequently, he played it just as daft, though I do think The Spy Who Loved Me is a great Bond film. In fact, of his output, there's only Octopussy I really disliked. They weren't Goldfinger quality certainly, but they were entertaining. I don't honestly think I've seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service but according to Desmond Llewelyn, George Lazenby was a total prima-donna and generally disliked by most of the cast and crew. I got the impression that had he decided to return as Bond, Broccoli would have probably turned him down anyway.

So for me, the best would be Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, Spy Who Loved Me. I like Brosnan but found the films disappointing and often get them all mixed up, save for Goldeneye.

As for Bond Girls, I always liked Jill St John and Britt Ekland. Thought Halle Berry was awful to be honest.

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Smoothy

Smoothy

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I'll be honest, I'm not a massive fan of the early Bond girls. Hear me out - they're mostly overdubbed, emotionless and boring. Seriously - watch Sean Connery's films and most of the girls there are dubbed by a bad woman dubber and they don't act all that well. That said, I do like Honor Blackman but other than that.... pffff.

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Dimahoo

Dimahoo

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Lets not fuck about.

I was a big fan of Sean Connery but Moore tips it for me. He had the best films and went to the best locations and was the bond of my generation and has never been beaten.

You think of the all the things that made bond great and Moore was there. thats it. There is no other way top look at it.

Want proof?

The Lotus

The Jump

Jaws

Voodoo's

Space

Kidd and Wint

Jones

Lee

Walken.

And i've not even mentioned the women.

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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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The following are my favourite Bond movies...

Connery: From Russia With Love, Goldfinger (although I think GF is a little bit overrated), and You Only Live Twice.

Moore: The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, and The Man with the Golden Gun. All the other Moore Bonds were mostly average, or shit.

Dalton: Licence to Kill.

Brosnan: GoldenEye. To hell with the rest of his movies. They were awful.

Craig: Casino Royale.

Lazenby's one and only film is probably one of my favourites. The romance is more convincing than usual for a Bond film. The action is mean, lean, and sharply edited. And it's probably the only one that follows the book almost to the letter. Oh, and at the risk of sounding like Comicbook Store Guy, to the OP, it was Peter Hunt who directed OHMSS, not Lewis Gilbert. ;)

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Commander Jameson

Commander Jameson

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Lets not fuck about.

I was a big fan of Sean Connery but Moore tips it for me. He had the best films and went to the best locations and was the bond of my generation and has never been beaten.

You think of the all the things that made bond great and Moore was there.

Indeed. The Bond film that best typifies what a Bond film is is The Spy Who Loved Me. Pretty much perfect.

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Dimahoo

Dimahoo

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I think if your a traditionalist then i'd agree although Moore always had the weird bad guys.

The ones that would creep you out as a kid.

My best films...

Diamonds are Forever

Man with the Goldern Gun

Live and let die

The Spy who loved me.

Moonraker and VTAK share fifth.

Also, bond films never really grow old. You can watch them and watch them.

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Eats hoops and leaves

Eats hoops and leaves

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Went through every Bond at the start of the year and my opinions haven't changed. Best is Thunderball, but Dalton is the best Bond. Roger Moore can suck my dong, he sucks. Every one of his films is just a bunch of outrageous set-pieces, with him getting progressively older each with each one. They are like the nascent material for modern cinema. Just... stuff without any meaning behind it. Bah. The Man with the Golden Gun has a great soundtrack though.

I found them all a bit depressing to watch. I couldn't believe how badly Goldeneye had dated - especially the bit when he's with Monepenny in the car.

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Smoothy

Smoothy

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Lets not fuck about.

I was a big fan of Sean Connery but Moore tips it for me. He had the best films and went to the best locations and was the bond of my generation and has never been beaten.

You think of the all the things that made bond great and Moore was there. thats it. There is no other way top look at it.

Want proof?

The Lotus

The Jump

Jaws

Voodoo's

Space

Kidd and Wint

Jones

Lee

Walken.

And i've not even mentioned the women.

You've put it better than I ever could! :)

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Eats hoops and leaves

Eats hoops and leaves

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I've always found Thunderball to be one of the most boring. Nothing happens. The (endless) underwater fight scenes are pretty rubbish as well.

For me it has the most iconic scenes, bad guy, fights, sets and the hottest bond girl. Outside of that, it has decent direction and pacing. I think that the openings scenes are especially good. I find it difficult to be objective though, because most of Bond is so nostalgic that I tend to rate them on a completely personal scale using factors that nobody else would understand - and to strip these away would be ruinous to the franchise for me. I don't want to view these films through a weary and cynical eye that's almost 3 decades old. So I can't defend my choice very effectively I'm afraid.

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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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Moore tips it for me. He had the best films and went to the best locations and was the bond of my generation and has never been beaten.

You think of the all the things that made bond great and Moore was there. thats it. There is no other way top look at it.

Want proof?

Kidd and Wint

They were Connery, weren't they?

EDIT: Yep, Diamonds Are Forever.

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Eats hoops and leaves

Eats hoops and leaves

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How about this for a scene? It's one of my favourites:

It's just totally bare and relies on physical work rather than weapons and the music comes in brilliantly. Every time I watch it I wonder if any old spies have ever seen it and thought of those times as 'innocent' and got a bit misty eyed over the whole thing. Probably looking at a nasty little industry through pink glasses there, but still - it always comes up and gives this scene a little bit of extra depth for me.

claudineauger.jpg

Film stock like that just gets better with age. Everything is so vibrant and 'big'.

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Goose

Goose

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Man, if we're talking themes it might be easier to name the bad ones than the good ones? I think Goldeneye was the last good one. Before that, I think I like them all, with special mention to Diamonds Are Forever, View To a Kill, Living Daylights and License to Kill.

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Smoothy

Smoothy

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Let's face it, Madonna's one for Die Another Day wasn't good. When I first heard it (when she released it), I thought it was awful, then I heard it again when I watched the film. It did seem to fit the intro, but was still bad.

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