billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
So many missed options, even sticking to the Moore era.
Rewatching Bond films
- Thread starter Morrus
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Shirley Bassey. Goldfinger is still my favorite
Agree with the majority of these (from memory, I haven’t rewatched any recently). YOLT is full of cringe and LALD is so racist it hurts but both are enjoyable and action-packed. I’d give OHMSS 002 (and it only gets that because of Diana Rigg). Dr No gets 002 from me (it’s generally lacklustre on all fronts and I’m mildly amazed it launched a franchise).
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Soooo... The Spy Who Loved Me.
Apparently it's considered one of the best. I can't see why. It's a straight-up comedy. There's no tension or suspense as Moore woodenly deadpans his way through it. The only saving grace is the car chase with the submersible Lotus Esprit. Barbara Bach as Bond's Russian counterpart is as flat as Moore. The main villain is Blofeld-lite but lacks the menace.
The pre-credic ski/parachute stunt though is the Moore era's finest single moment. Everybody remembers that scene as he skis off the cliff and the Union Jack parachute opens up.
And Jaws? OK, I'll give them that he's a fun villain. But he's not scary. He's a buffoonish henchman. When they're in the van and Jaws is hanging on to it while Bach is trying to start the engine and Jaws is pulling the van apart, Moore just sits there unconcerned, quipping away. It's just not tense and Jaws feels like a joke not a threat. And at the end when he gets his teeth caught by the magnet (that director used a similar magnet in You Only Live Twice... guess he really likes giant magnets?) then gets dropped into the water and wrestles a shark to death... because he's Jaws! Yay! I get it!
As for the plot. What plot? Why did the villain want to start a nuclear war so everybody had to live underwater? Why? More than most this is just a tenuous one-line of connective tissue leading from each location to the next.
Moore started off so well with Live & let Die. He's been pretty dire since. Another film riding a wave. We've had blaxploitation, then kung-fu movies, now Jaws. Star Wars, in the form of Moonraker is next, and my memories of that aren't favourable either. Guess we'll find out!
Bond Rating -- 003 (car chase and comedy henchman, plus the Moore era's finest opening stunt rescue it from a 002).
Apparently it's considered one of the best. I can't see why. It's a straight-up comedy. There's no tension or suspense as Moore woodenly deadpans his way through it. The only saving grace is the car chase with the submersible Lotus Esprit. Barbara Bach as Bond's Russian counterpart is as flat as Moore. The main villain is Blofeld-lite but lacks the menace.
The pre-credic ski/parachute stunt though is the Moore era's finest single moment. Everybody remembers that scene as he skis off the cliff and the Union Jack parachute opens up.
And Jaws? OK, I'll give them that he's a fun villain. But he's not scary. He's a buffoonish henchman. When they're in the van and Jaws is hanging on to it while Bach is trying to start the engine and Jaws is pulling the van apart, Moore just sits there unconcerned, quipping away. It's just not tense and Jaws feels like a joke not a threat. And at the end when he gets his teeth caught by the magnet (that director used a similar magnet in You Only Live Twice... guess he really likes giant magnets?) then gets dropped into the water and wrestles a shark to death... because he's Jaws! Yay! I get it!
As for the plot. What plot? Why did the villain want to start a nuclear war so everybody had to live underwater? Why? More than most this is just a tenuous one-line of connective tissue leading from each location to the next.
Moore started off so well with Live & let Die. He's been pretty dire since. Another film riding a wave. We've had blaxploitation, then kung-fu movies, now Jaws. Star Wars, in the form of Moonraker is next, and my memories of that aren't favourable either. Guess we'll find out!
Bond Rating -- 003 (car chase and comedy henchman, plus the Moore era's finest opening stunt rescue it from a 002).
Ruin Explorer
Legend
The Living Daylights - Aha - My personal choice here
For Your Eyes Only - Sheena Easton - It's got a delicacy that's perfect for the movie its attached to
Being real though there an awful lot of banger themes songs for Bond, even in the Brosnan era!
The best tune is You Only Live Twice.
Best joke: end of Moonraker;
Sir Frederick Gray, Minister of Defence:
My God, what's Bond doing?
Q:
I think he's attempting re-entry, sir.
Best joke: end of Moonraker;
Sir Frederick Gray, Minister of Defence:
My God, what's Bond doing?
Q:
I think he's attempting re-entry, sir.
I did a re-watch of the series in the fall.
For me, The Spy Who Loved Me solidly holds its place in my top three (OHMSS and Goldfinger being stronger). Moore was my first Bond, and so I forgive him his acting, but I think The Spy Who Loved Me gets the formula right. You say it's straight comedy; I don't think that's true. It's certainly lighter than some other films, but it checks all the boxes of the Bond formula, and consistently does them better than the rest (as it were). Unlike many films, though, it doesn't do gags (which begin with Diamonds are Forever), except arguably when Jaws is pulling the van apart.
For my money, though, Spy Who Loved Me has
For the past few years, I think this is the film I've put on most often to pass an afternoon, and it represents a high point before the depths that will come post-Moonraker.
We all have different tastes, and are looking for different things. For me though, The Spy Who Loved Me remains a personal favorite.
For me, The Spy Who Loved Me solidly holds its place in my top three (OHMSS and Goldfinger being stronger). Moore was my first Bond, and so I forgive him his acting, but I think The Spy Who Loved Me gets the formula right. You say it's straight comedy; I don't think that's true. It's certainly lighter than some other films, but it checks all the boxes of the Bond formula, and consistently does them better than the rest (as it were). Unlike many films, though, it doesn't do gags (which begin with Diamonds are Forever), except arguably when Jaws is pulling the van apart.
For my money, though, Spy Who Loved Me has
- easiest the best pretitle sequence of the whole series (until Casino Royale)
- the second most substantial Bond girl in the series (Tracey in OHMSS is tops, obv) -- won't say that makes her "best", but in terms of someone who is there for more than eye-candy, who has a story that is at least mildly interesting and who is a competent adult professional., she excells (Moonraker scores high in this respect too).
- I agree that Stromberg is Blofeld-lite, and the scheme is a rehash of that from YOLT, but in terms of the acting he's more menacing than Donald Pleasance was (but less than Telly Savalas)
- and the cinematography is the best in the series so far. It's the same guy as YOLT, so we'll say it's Claude Renoir is responsible. But the raid of the tanker at the end is narratively the clearest group fight in the first 20 years.
- Finally, I'll come to the defense of Jaws. In my mind there's a difference between the Villain (the big bad driving the plot) and the Assassin (the often gimmicky killer Bond needs to fight). It's the distinction between Goldfinger and Oddjob, say. And Jaws certainly holds his own against Oddjob. Wandering through the pillars in the Egyptian ruins is genuinely tense (again, great cinematography helps) and he gets to return in the next film (with a redemption arc). No other assassin in the series has any narrative development. Rosa Krebs or Kidd and Wint are great, but Jaws easily fits in amongst them (as opposed to Tee Hee, Vargas and Yannis, and the Three Blind Mice -- all definitely second-string.
- a much better story than the novel from which it takes its name.
For the past few years, I think this is the film I've put on most often to pass an afternoon, and it represents a high point before the depths that will come post-Moonraker.
We all have different tastes, and are looking for different things. For me though, The Spy Who Loved Me remains a personal favorite.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Live and Let Die absolutely rules, especially the Guns N Roses remake.
Nobody Does It Better is wonderful 1970s pop crooning.
View To a Kill is third-tier Duran Duran, which still makes it a very good '80s pop song (there were a lot of very bad pop songs in the 1980s), but it's not in the same category as the other two.
sevenbastard
Legend
Agreed. Yet somehow View to A Kill and the Reflex were the only Duran Duran singles to hit #1 in the US ??? And this is the only Bond song to hit #1 in the US . But chart position rarley equates to quality.
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