Stuart Galbraith Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 First two I agree with. In fact the guy playing Kerim Bay, Pedro Armendáriz, was suffering from terminal cancer at the time, and was determined to turn a career best performance. Which he did. OHMSS was not a bad film. I think the main problem with it is that its too long. I think they could have easily trimmed quarter of an hour off it and it would have been a lot tighter. For that reason I wouldnt put it in the top three. Top 10, certainly. Id have swapped places with Casino Royale, which is a much tighter, more rounded film (and its got Eva Green in it, one of the best Bond heroines). For your eyes only is far better than Quantum of Solace. Cant think what the hell they were thinking there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted June 23 Share Posted June 23 Incidentally, this is quite interesting. https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesBond/s/N0kLjHNCMN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Since Beretta were quite good weapons it do not make sense or just the anti-southern Europe British bias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Ras Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 18 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said: Incidentally, this is quite interesting. https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesBond/s/N0kLjHNCMN Nice little touch that Fleming subsequently named Bond's quartermaster Major Boothroyd, and they even included a scene with the switch from Beretta to Walther in Dr. No. courtesy of Boothroyd (played by Peter Burton before Desmond Llewelyn took over the role, though he was just referred to as Q instead of Boothroyd in most of the films). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 1 hour ago, lucklucky said: Since Beretta were quite good weapons it do not make sense or just the anti-southern Europe British bias. .25 though. On the shooting range he made a convincing case the PPK had better stopping power. Although yes, personally Id have prefered Q to come up with a PPK frame .44 magnum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 25 minutes ago, Soren Ras said: Nice little touch that Fleming subsequently named Bond's quartermaster Major Boothroyd, and they even included a scene with the switch from Beretta to Walther in Dr. No. courtesy of Boothroyd (played by Peter Burton before Desmond Llewelyn took over the role, though he was just referred to as Q instead of Boothroyd in most of the films). They do a parody of this scene in 'The Ipcress file'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojan Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 (edited) 5 hours ago, lucklucky said: Since Beretta were quite good weapons it do not make sense or just the anti-southern Europe British bias. .380 or .32 Beretta 34/35 was described by one Yugoslav partisan as "good to shoot rabid dog", which was basically saying "not good for anything else". My translation of the original text: Quote "There was a Beretta pistol, good to shoot rabid dog, Beretta SMG that everyone desired more then a good girl, hand grenade good for (accidentally) killing yourself if you slip and fall (extremely unsafe fuse), nice rifle for children, good heavy Breda, and everything else a heavy (real) shit. Oh, and also nice and light mortar, but it's ammo was an utter crap (lit. translation is "naked dick" and is used for something so substandard it is absolutely useless in any case). OTOH, it was popular trophy pistol, but I am not sure if anyone considered it, or any other pistol serious weapon for fighting war. Edited June 24 by bojan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Speaking of Beretta's, there was an interesting episode of Royal Armouries on the Robocop gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargrunt6 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 On 6/23/2024 at 2:19 AM, Stuart Galbraith said: First two I agree with. In fact the guy playing Kerim Bay, Pedro Armendáriz, was suffering from terminal cancer at the time, and was determined to turn a career best performance. Which he did. OHMSS was not a bad film. I think the main problem with it is that its too long. I think they could have easily trimmed quarter of an hour off it and it would have been a lot tighter. For that reason I wouldnt put it in the top three. Top 10, certainly. Id have swapped places with Casino Royale, which is a much tighter, more rounded film (and its got Eva Green in it, one of the best Bond heroines). For your eyes only is far better than Quantum of Solace. Cant think what the hell they were thinking there. Sir, we don't discuss QoS when discussing good Bond films. Be polite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Well it had Olga Kurilenko in it, and it looked good compared to Die Another Day, so it wasnt ALL bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol Paint Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 This trailer popped up on YouTube: It would appear the ship used in the movie is D/S Hestmanden that was used in WWI and WWII. The movie was released in December 2023 in Norway. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 3 hours ago, Ol Paint said: This trailer popped up on YouTube: It would appear the ship used in the movie is D/S Hestmanden that was used in WWI and WWII. The movie was released in December 2023 in Norway. Doug Saw it some weeks ago. It is not bad, but it is more focused on personal issues than in war things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yama Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) On 6/23/2024 at 1:53 AM, Ivanhoe said: Bond films, ranked; https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/best-james-bond-films-ranked-151500405.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall I disagree with many of the assessments, but I am pleased that The Living Daylights and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service got some recognition. Skyfall would easily be in my top 10, and I would put GoldenEye well ahead of Quantum of Solace. Quantum of Solace ranked so high is really bizarre - it is very weak and forgettable flick. I remember the characters simply because I was so baffled why this movie had such forgettable characters, compared to previous one. Also the plot was maybe lamest ever: oh no, water supplier is privatized and new owner going to charge 60% more! That kind of shit happens here all the time, why don't we see Bond blowing up things? Some other major disagreements with the list, such as Living Daylights and View to a Kill placed so high, and some of the Brosnan films placed so low (except Die Another Die, it sucked). I agree with placements of two last Craig films, I feel they were really overrated (especially Spectre, it was HUGE letdown after Skyfall). Edited July 5 by Yama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 Yeah, Spectre was a real disappointment. I think part of the reason was the scriptwriting was lamentably bad, and Lea Sedoux, whom is a good actress, had zero chemistry with Daniel Craig. By contrast there was chemistry with Eva Green, which is largely why that plotline felt so believable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yama Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 Yep, Seydoux is at her best when she gets to portray haughty characters with hard exterior. In Spectre they tried to write her a gentler, kinder character and it didn't work for her. She was basically just baggage for Bond. Also, all the plot 'revelations' were bad, like 'Rise of Skywalker'-level bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssnake Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 And Christoph Waltz was completely wasted. Damn fine actor - but for what, really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Yama said: Yep, Seydoux is at her best when she gets to portray haughty characters with hard exterior. In Spectre they tried to write her a gentler, kinder character and it didn't work for her. She was basically just baggage for Bond. Also, all the plot 'revelations' were bad, like 'Rise of Skywalker'-level bad. Yeah, 'Bro-feld'. That just did not work for me, not least because they didnt recognise each other in 'You only live twice'. Ok, so there is a certain amount of Retconing going on, but maybe I dont like retconing in Bond films, anymore than I liked it in the Star Trek reboot. The sad truth is, the modern Bond Franchises start off well with a new actor, and generally end up getting weaker and weaker because they know they have established a cash cow. This happened with Brosnan (Goldeneye was good, the vast majority that followed it were considerably weaker, even really bad films), and Craig .Casino Royale is right up there with Goldfinger, with both QOS being understandably weak under the circumstances, Skyfall was interesting and ended strongly, Spectre was rubbish, and No Time to die was just weird and uneven (The Ana de Armas sequence was great, the confrontation with Blofeld was disappointing, the plot choices (all of spectre being murdered for no real plot development, Leiter being killed) deeply questionable). I think there is a case for getting new Bonds and giving them a contract for 2 or 3 films and moving on. After that, they arguably stop trying. I also wouldnt embark on new odyssey as they did with Casino Royale. I could see what they were trying to do, but with different writers and directors whom all have their own strange ideas, it just doesnt work. Not over an arc that lasts 15 years anyway. Edited July 6 by Stuart Galbraith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 1 minute ago, Ssnake said: And Christoph Waltz was completely wasted. Damn fine actor - but for what, really? Yeah, he could have been the best Bond villain since Gert Frobe. But unlike Frobe, he had nothing to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 I suspect that within a Bond series, stories go to crap because of the producers allowing some "showrunner assistant" or whatever their "turn" at driving the bus. So they impose elements of the movie they've always wanted to make. Female protagonist is a one-legged lesbian stripper, male antagonist is a country/western singer Bubba Gurring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 So I watched "Bullet Train" the other night. I had low expectations, but it was a fun movie. I was a little disappointed that Masi Oka only had a brief cameo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 6 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said: I suspect that within a Bond series, stories go to crap because of the producers allowing some "showrunner assistant" or whatever their "turn" at driving the bus. So they impose elements of the movie they've always wanted to make. Female protagonist is a one-legged lesbian stripper, male antagonist is a country/western singer Bubba Gurring. I still feel an opportunity was missed not casting Ana de Amas as a Mossad Stripper Assassin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 5 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said: I still feel an opportunity was missed not casting Ana de Amas as a Mossad Stripper Assassin. Subscribe me to your newsletter when its available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yama Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 On 7/6/2024 at 12:01 PM, Stuart Galbraith said: The sad truth is, the modern Bond Franchises start off well with a new actor, and generally end up getting weaker and weaker because they know they have established a cash cow. This happened with Brosnan (Goldeneye was good, the vast majority that followed it were considerably weaker, even really bad films), and Craig. Casino Royale is right up there with Goldfinger, with both QOS being understandably weak under the circumstances, Skyfall was interesting and ended strongly, Spectre was rubbish, and No Time to die was just weird and uneven (The Ana de Armas sequence was great, the confrontation with Blofeld was disappointing, the plot choices (all of spectre being murdered for no real plot development, Leiter being killed) deeply questionable). I think this happened with all Bonds, except Connery whose best movies were in the middle (though early ones were good too). Character just runs its course, screenwriters out of ideas and lead actor out of motivation. But all Bonds have their fanbase. Just recently I was involved in attempting to find elderly lady bunch of books and movies for the summer: surprisingly, she especially wanted Bond movies, and specified "...and they must have Roger Moore in it, he was the real James Bond!" On 7/6/2024 at 12:01 PM, Stuart Galbraith said: I think there is a case for getting new Bonds and giving them a contract for 2 or 3 films and moving on. After that, they arguably stop trying. I also wouldnt embark on new odyssey as they did with Casino Royale. I could see what they were trying to do, but with different writers and directors whom all have their own strange ideas, it just doesnt work. Not over an arc that lasts 15 years anyway. Agreed, one should have Marvel or George Lucas-like control over it if one really wants to push "big story arc". I don't see it happening. Reboot is pretty much necessary as Bond is too old now for even comics-style 'sliding timeline'. He would be what, 110 years old by now...? (And of course now they killed Bond, and have to start over). Long contracts are two-edged sword, they make the actor iconic, but also the franchise becomes their prisoner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 On 7/6/2024 at 9:55 PM, Ivanhoe said: Subscribe me to your newsletter when its available. Im launching a crowdfunding campaign from my villa in the Bahama's, feel free to join. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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