Corona | Coming Attractions

I did that one already, didn't I?

Oh well. pads the post count, it does.

Daltons chin dimple wrote:

 I think AVTAK is possibly the worst ever.......  maybe tied with Octopussy.Moonraker is just about alright until the gondola scene and before it gets all spacey.

I agree that AVTAK is horrible, but Octopussy is not quite as bad. License to Kill is as bad as AVTAK.

Here's a list of the 10 Worst Bond Movies: http://www.scene-stealers.com/top-10s/top-10-worst-james-bond-movies/

Personally I'm stunned that only 2 of Brosnan's films made the list. At least the #1 worst movie on the list is a Brosnan movie. And no Timothy Dalton movies made the list, which is correct.

I agree with most of those, but I'm surprised that none of the Timothy Dalton movies made the list.  While the stories in those movies weren't bad, I just didn't buy Dalton as Bond (see the synopsis of Lazenby in the article).  Also, I remember some pretty unrealistic stunts in his movies, aka Roger Moore jumping across the crocodiles and the boat jumping scene in TMWTGG.

This article's opinion is interesting in that he has several of the worst films from Quasar's list as some of the best.

http://www.epinions.com/content_2558500996?sb=1

IMHO, the best Bond films (in no particular order) are Casino Royale, Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, From Russia With Love, Goldeneye and The Spy Who Loved Me.

I agree with the Top 8 in this list.

http://listverse.com/2007/10/22/top-10-james-bond-movies/

The Swollen Goi... wrote:

I like the Duran Duran theme song. What don't you like about it?

Besides the unholy, flat whining that Simon LeBon considers singing? Nothing.

Ok, so I've watched this trailer 7 or 8 times now and I still can't figure out if this film has a plot.

I think maybe you thought you weren't supposed to like Duran Duran, when, in fact, almost everyone feels it's perfectly acceptable to like Duran Duran.

Lotsa folks put Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" near the top. Just because lotsa folks do like something doesn't mean you have to, naturally. Unless the liked thing is Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill," which this liked thing just happens to be.

Strangely, not so many folks like a-ha's "Living Daylights." I do. It makes a pretty good companion piece for Duran Duran's Bond song. It's no "We Have All the Time in the World," of course, and it's not sexy like "Nobody Does It Better." 

I love "Live and Let Die," but it's hard not to cringe when McCartney sings "but if this ever-changin' world in which we live in." I tried really fucking hard to convince myself that he was singing "but if this ever-changin' world in which we('re) livin'" for years, but I finally faced the awful reality when I checked the DVD subtitles for both Live and Let Die and a McCartney concert.

Simon Le Bon ain't so much a whiner. Billy Corgan? Now there's a whiner.

Drakemd wrote:

IMHO, the best Bond films (in no particular order) are Casino Royale, Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, From Russia With Love, Goldeneye and The Spy Who Loved Me.

I have, unfortunately, seen 'Goldeneye' with my very own green eyes, and can tell you it sucks balls. I'd personally rank the two Dalton movies above every Brosnan and Moore outing, almost just on principal, but also because I like the Dalton movies. Calling them unrealistic in comparison to either the Brosnan or Moore films (or just Bond movies in general) is a bit mystifying to me. At least the Dalton movies took things kind of seriously, and didn't indulge in oil fields worth of awful attempts at what might be considered jokes. I love it when Bond fans go on about how TLD was written for Moore, and Dalton can't deliver the one liners. My reaction is, "Wait, Moore could deliver one liners? Like, that thing where he raises an eyebrow and acts like he thinks he's clever and not a douchebag? I guess that's kinda funny." I hated the Brosnan films and was actually interested when Daniel Craig was cast and the series looked like it might be going in a more serious direction. The fact that Bond fans across the internet jumped on the Craig casting and called it horrible only confirmed my suspicions that he would be great. The worst part was after 'Casino Royale' came out and all the Bond fans jumped sides and decided they loved Craig. I was like, "NO! You dumb motherfuckers need to stay on the other side of the argument from me. Don't you have any pride in your useless opinions?" I hate it people don't have standards.

Thursty McClure wrote:

I love "Live and Let Die," but it's hard not to cringe when McCartney sings "but if this ever-changin' world in which we live in." I tried really fucking hard to convince myself that he was singing "but if this ever-changin' world in which we('re) livin'" for years, but I finally faced the awful reality when I checked the DVD subtitles for both Live and Let Die and a McCartney concert.

That's pretty funny: I don't know if I'd been aware of the actual lyrics, or if I'd substitutued a bastardized version like you did.  Your line is better, but I wonder why he didn't just take out the first iteration of 'in'.

I'd go with Drakemd's top list except I'd replace Goldeneye with On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  While Lazenby isn't Connery or Craig, the film holds up surprisingly well 43 years later. Both the story and the cinematography are amongst the best in the series. I spent the better part of my Bond fandom overlooking this one, but several recent viewings have changed my mind.

I'm shooting for a 200 post count before Skyfall premieres in November. Wish me well.

I've never read any of the Bond novels, so I only know the character as he is portrayed in the movies by the various actors who have portrayed him. For the most part, there are certain character traits that remain constant throughout most of the films, even though the actor playing the character might exaggerate one trait or another (his smugness, his propensity for puns, his charm, etc.). I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are certain expectations I have about James Bond based on a series of movies that came out over a 40-year period.

Most fans would probably say that the drastic change Daniel Craig brought to the character was sorely needed in order to revitalize a struggling franchise, but I simply never felt that Craig was playing James Bond. Don't get me wrong, I love Casino Royale, but aside from some of the gadgets and the characters' names it doesn't actually feel like a Bond film to me. Daniel Craig might as well be playing a character named Jason Bourne (in fact, the cinematography in the action sequences often looks very similar to the shaky style of the Bourne films). It's not Craig's fault - he's playing the character he's given and does a great job, but I just think that a lot of the traits that made James Bond a unique character were stripped away in order to revitalize the franchise.

For me, a Bond movie is all about the villain.

He loves German beer.

I'm sure somewhere on these boards is a list of all the things I hated about Goldeneye.

It's un-American not to love German beer.

 I still like Goldeneye, but it does noticeably try to defeat itself several times.

The Swollen Goi... wrote:

I think maybe you thought you weren't supposed to like Duran Duran, when, in fact, almost everyone feels it's perfectly acceptable to like Duran Duran.

I don't really care what others think about Duran Duran (or Narud Narud as we refer to them in my family), and I know many think their Bond song is good, but I loathe all their songs. Simon LeBon falls into that class of whiny, slightly flat British singers that were popular in the 80s that I really dislike. I would class his whine of the word "Viewwwww" as nasty as anything from the Pumpkins.

The Swollen Goi... wrote:

;I love "Live and Let Die," but it's hard not to cringe when McCartney sings "but if this ever-changin' world in which we live in." I tried really fucking hard to convince myself that he was singing "but if this ever-changin' world in which we('re) livin'" for years, but I finally faced the awful reality when I checked the DVD subtitles for both Live and Let Die and a McCartney concert.

I am with you there, although the one time I looked the lyrics up online they said "in which we're livin'" so maybe it's okay. It's not quite as valiant but futile as John Mellencamp's attempt at proper grammar in "Small Town," when he sings "I cannot forget from where it is that I come from." That gets points for trying in my book.

Mal - I agree with your assessment about Craig's Bond, but I think it is a plus for the franchise. Craig is not playing Bourne. This is a true reboot for the character and it shows his origins and how he became that smug, charming puster. Face it, after 40 plus years of Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan all playing the same character, things were getting stale. Craig introduces to an unrefined assasin who comes to apprecaite the difference between an off-the-rack tux and a fitted one. His appreciation for the drinks and the cars are revealed, as well as his relations and boundaries with women. This is why I love this Bond so much more, than had Craig just come into the role, repeating the past character runs.

I agree with Unc, Craig's Bond is definitely showing more character growth, which is interesting after forty-some years of same-old same-old. Plus I would argue he is perhaps the most physical Bond, although whether that is a matter of Craig's build, his fighting style, or the choreography is up for debate. 

ps: Unc, we can keep talking Bond all summer until you're at 200 and I'm at 1000. Is the premiere 22 weeks away? Maybe we should watch all the Bond films in order, one per week, and discuss on the way to Skyfall. I'm up for it.

Excellent idea, Negs! I confess it's been quite some time since I sat down and enjoyed a Bond movie in its entirety, especially the earlier ones. And any of the Moore ones. You're still fixated on Craig's trunks, aren't you?

Dame Judi Dench claimed there is an "absolute monster" in them trunks...

"Release the Craigen!"

neglet wrote:

I would class his whine of the word "Viewwwww" as nasty as anything from the Pumpkins.

You and I must be listening to different Pumpkins songs.

Space Tycoon wrote:

Dame Judi Dench claimed there is an "absolute monster" in them trunks...

This was obviously studio-backed damage control. A week or two before she made that comment, a series of behind-the-scenes images from Casino Royale popped up featuring Craig in the blue trunks, and all anyone seemed to want to focus on was how tiny his package looked. At least that's the way it was on the AICN Talkbacks.

Every now and then, someone would try to defend him with a Seinfeld reference ("It shrinks?" "Like a frightened turtle!"), or somebody would say swimming trunks can make a large package look deceptively small (to which someone would immediately respond, "Is that what your wife tells you to make you feel better about yourself?"), or somebody would say they didn't know what everybody was talking about, since Craig's package looked plenty big (to which someone would immediately respond, "If *that* looks big to you, you must be really small"), or somebody would say something about the angle and the shading, and claim that his package looked bigger in some of the other pictures (to which someone would immediately respond, "I've seen the other pictures, and while he may look a little bigger in some of them, he still looks small").

Here's one of the pictures they focused on:

Anyway, what I took away from that particular Talkback is that men are obsessed with penises.

That's a nice looking white box Dalty.  Bond in a snowstorm?