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James Bond revisiting the movies

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James Bond revisiting the movies

Sean Connery

  • Dr No (1962)
  • From Russia With Love (1963)
  • Goldfinger (1964)
  • Thunderball (1965)
  • You Only Live Twice (1967)
  • Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

For modern eyes, these movies are full of problematic scenes. As society’s values changed, movies offer a small insight into the culture at the time. Bigotry exists and these movies display it. Reflection on what the Bond character was in the books. A long list of sexism, and racism. The treatment of women has always been poor and remains poor even in modern times.

Sean helped to create and craft an onscreen character. Cult classics that is the foundation of the movie series. Goldfinger and Thunderball are Sean’s best movies here. Sense of humour with some gadgets, at times the plot can be goofy. You Only Live Twice being set in Japan creates some awkward moments. Cooperation between nations, the British being surprised at what Japan can do. Diamonds are forever at times can be pretty camp. The last movie is the worse movie he did. Some interesting concepts faking somebody’s identity, a powerful rich reclusive figure whose business empire is stolen. Sean was out of shape but having fun in this movie.

George Lazenby

  • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Faithful adaptations of a Fleming novel, creating one of the strongest movies in the series. A huge focus on the plot over gadgets pays off. Bond girl here is not completely useless, she the start of a sort of empowered figure. Resourceful tough and almost equal to Bond himself. Bit of troubled history with production and George’s behaviour on set. The actor viewed the series as over and never came back. I do think he could be a great bond if he carried on. His first major film acting credit, performance was excellent given the script. Connery was too busy to reprise his role. Telly Savalas being American is a minor complaint but overall good performance. Can’t help but wonder what Sean Connery and Donald Pleasence reprising their roles would be like here. Sean Connery as Bond and Donald Pleasence as Blofeld. I do think both would make the movie even better.

This movie is easy to top 3 for me.

Roger Moore

  • Live And Let Die (1973)
  • The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
  • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
  • Moonraker (1979)
  • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
  • Octopussy (1983)
  • A View To A Kill (1985)

A decade of camp is here, and Moore’s movies are full of one-liners. The far less serious affair, the plot was second to gadgets and jokes. The Spy Who Loved Me was meant to be followed by For Your Eyes Only. Star Wars was a new hope success in 1977, making sure the next bond movie would be space themed. Moonraker moved away from the source material, a rather weak movie and one of the worse ones. The space battle is great but the effects need a bit more polish. For your eyes only is rather good, feels similar to Secret Service. A view To A Kill has its moments with some good ideas. Just a shame not much is done with the better ideas not explored. Moore is getting a bit old for the role at this point. By the 80s action, heroes were the big trend. Octopussy and A View To A Kill both get more camp and sillier.

My favourites here are The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. Both are more grounded and realistic.

Timothy Dalton

  • The Living Daylights (1987)
  • Licence To Kill (1989)

Dalton bond was an action hero, far more serious in the two movies. Therefore, ending with Goldeneye, ends his arc. With two movies under his belt, Dalton quit the role. Living Daylights is far lighter, and Licence To Kill is darker. Featuring an independent-minded deadly skilled agent doing whatever it takes.  You can get a feeling bond is getting sick of his job, and that carries on. LTK is about a revenge mission against a drug dealer, a deadly game of cat and mouse. The tone is far darker than anything else the series has done. Character flaws almost get him killed, but everybody lets him do the dirty work. Americans and unknown Asian nations let him get closer. A great shame Dalton did not do Goldeneye. Years later Daniel Craig would revisit a couple of ideas.

Living daylights is a sleeper hit and rather good.

Pierce Brosnan

  • Goldeneye (1995)
  • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
  • The World Is Not Enough (1999)
  • Die Another Day (2002)

Both Pierce and Timothy became top picks to play bond. Pierce was busy staring in Remington Steele, unable to reach an agreement splitting his time between the two projects. Unable to get the original choice. Timothy ended up getting the part, and Steele was cancelled. Legal problems around James Bond’s rights, with poor box office performance, resulted in a 6-year gap. This time gap meant that Timothy was out, and Pierce was in. Hit and miss when it comes to his run. The lack of good material lets him down, not the talent which is a shame.

Goldeneye hit that balance between not going over the top or being too crazy. Villian here feels very much equal to Bond. Goldeneye’s legacy is deeply connected to the video game on N64. For many fans including myself, Pierce’s best movie is goldeneye. After that movies swap between hitting the right balance or going too far.

Tomorrow Never Dies this movie was meant to be way more contemporary and connected to current affairs. Conflict between China and United Kingdom over hand over of Hong kong. Final script centred around media mogul expanding his reach by creating a conflict between China and UK. From the start huge production woes, screenplay faced major issues. Scrapping the script just days before filming. Falling out between cast members, chaotic writing process, quite a surprise the movie even came out.

The World Is Not Enough was more grounded and realistic based around oil. Die Another Day is another low point, first act starts off grounded before going off the rails. Bond just jumping the shark, so many times it hard to keep count. Therefore the vast collection of mad ideas just cover everything. Many ways old classic bond movie feels dated by this time. Leaving bond with just gadgets and this movie has them just for the sake of it. Plot within the first act starts off strong just falls apart quickly. Nothing holds the plot together, weak villain and other elements just create a mess. Bond getting captured, tortured a good starting point. Warning signs had existed for years, Moore era was the start of it.

Daniel Craig

  • Casino Royale (2006)
  • Quantum of Solace (2008)
  • Skyfall (2012)
  • SPECTRE (2015)
  • No Time to Die (2021)

Casino Royale is outstanding, Craig nails the role of Bond. His casting choice was questioned, but his performance quickly silenced his critics. Quantum of Solace is an action movie without a plot. Another bond movie hurt by production issues, mainly this time the writers strike. I don’t think the movie is that bad but not the same quality as Casino Royale. Skyfall returns to highs of Daniel Craigs first outing. I consider it the best movie in the series. Following movies keep the quality high, good plot, good villains and enough action. Back to basics Bond that feels at home.

My top 6 movies are the following, I don’t think the order matters to much here.

  1. Skyfall
  2. On her majesty secret service
  3. Thunderball
  4. Living daylights
  5. The Spy Who loved me
  6. Goldeneye

Worse movies

  1. Die another day
  2. The Man With The Golden Gun
  3. Moonraker
  4. Diamonds Are Forever
  5. Quantum of Solace
  6. Live And Let Die

In conclusion James bond had it up and downs. Roger Moore has 3 out 6 of the worse movies. Mix of classic bond in that list and modern. Best movies has one from everybody. Living Daylights is a sleeper hit that hard to fault.

Amazon now owns the film rights and the studio. We don’t know what they plan to do. Internet retailer has been in the process of downsizing it hardware division. Remains unclear about the streaming strategy going forward. Streaming services have become huge money sinks, theaters however have remained resilience. Amazon can sell you the blueray boxset and let you watch it own movies.

Reports are Amazon plans on spending $1 billion a year on movies. Budget that big would be close to old guard spending plans. Given the cost of movies that looks rather hopeful, lean production still costs a decent amount. Amazon Studios has been rather successful with movie production. TV series have been a huge issue for Amazon.

We are going to be waiting for the next James Bond movie. I’m expecting a couple years before next one even begins production.