Bond, James Bond. No Time To Die (spoiler thread)

[Mercurius]

I'm thoroughly enjoying a Bond films review podcast, Kill James Bond. The three hosts take a dim view of the whole affair, but the show is hilarious, and points out just how genuinely bad many of the movies are. They rate each film on the SCUM scale (Smarm, Cultural insensitivity, Unnecessary violence, and Misogyny). Listening is giving me a fresh perspective on things. I can still enjoy the movies fore their strengths, ridiculousness, cheap thrills, and cultural place, but I see them with a much more critical eye now.



But...but...View to a Kill has Grace Jones and Christopher Walken in it! And a great theme song!

I'd put a lot of the Connery movies much lower, and probably the Dalton movies higher.

I dunno, viewing Bond with a "critical eye" is like judging Twizzler's from a culinary perspective. They are what they are, and meant to be pure entertainment. That's why I rated Moonraker so high: it is so ridiculous, but a lot of fun.

The last eight or so could be interchangeable.

Dalton is a bit underrated, but also the least "Bondish." The Connery films are partially fun because of Connery, and the 60s vibe. Diamonds was pretty bad, though.

 

[ART!]

I dunno, viewing Bond with a "critical eye" is like judging Twizzler's from a culinary perspective. They are what they are, and meant to be pure entertainment.

Riiiight.

Why cultural criticism matters: Cultural criticism is journalism. And in an era when fewer outlets support it, we need more of it, not less.

On "Letting People Enjoy Things": Why are so many pop culture fans threatened by disagreement?

 

[RangerWickett]

Rami Malek's character definitely needed some more time baking, narratively, I mean. Like, apparently the studio pushed them to finish this movie, and they did, and then the pandemic hit. I wonder what an extra year of planning could have done.

It just really doesn't make sense that the guy decides to commit genocide, and somehow has a ton of resources to control this island at the end. Also, I mean, I know Bond and computers never really get along, but for-f-sake, put a smidge more effort into making the nanomachines make sense. And how exactly is the villain, like, 'growing' them in pools of acid?

I dug the intro, I dug the ludicrousness of the people Rami Malek wanted to kill all swinging by Cuba for a birthday party, even if Specter as an organization held zero weight for me. I dug Ana de Armas's action scene. I dug the Norway action scene. After that, it didn't really work.

Like, um, why aren't programmed nanomachines thwarted by an EMP watch? Why do they have to blast the island right away? It's not like the villain had a ticking time bomb of his own. He wasn't about to launch an ICBM of nanomachines. They could've just blockaded the area.

(Also, is it weird to anyone else that James Bond is still that emotionally attached to a 23 year old woman he knew for a couple weeks 15 years ago?)

Anyway.

 

[Mercurius]

One thing I can't remember. Was Craig's movies the only Bond movies that were "truly connected". It always felt that older Bonds had multiple movies, but rarely did the plot of one connect to the other, though that could be faulty memory talking.

I would not mind going back to the model for a bit either. We have enough connected universes, I am find if Bond just remains more singular in his movies.

Not only that, but they were occasionally somewhat connected across actors. IIRC, Roger Moore visited the grave of George Lazenby's dead wife, I think in For Your Eyes Only. That's a deep, weird level of cuckolding.

 

[Mercurius]

(Also, is it weird to anyone else that James Bond is still that emotionally attached to a 23 year old woman he knew for a couple weeks 15 years ago?)

I had that same thought. I mean, I get it. Eva Green. But...

 

[Marc_C]

Also, is it weird to anyone else that James Bond is still that emotionally attached to a 23 year old woman he knew for a couple weeks 15 years ago?

No it's not weird. Some connections are very powerful even if brief.

 

[Stalker0]

No it's not weird. Some connections are very powerful even if brief.

I think it also highlights…Bond I NOT normal, not even close. This guy is messed up, he’s got lots of personality flaws…I mean he’s a cold blooded killer for starters.

this guy has real trouble making connections of any meaning, and so when he does (especially love), they quickly can become obsessions. That’s what bond has been clinging to…for probably the first time in his life, bond found a woman that was not just a “brief recreation”…something he may not have thought even possible. And then it was brutally taken away from him, and it scarred him hard

 

[payn]

I enjoyed the first half, second half was fine. I was already in love with Ana de Armas, but damn now she will be in all my dreams.

The big issue I had was 007 Nomi. Really, only at the end. Ultimately, I get why we had to have Bond on his own, because well Bond, but I just dont see a double Oh agent rafting people away while someone else completes the mission. I think that took some of her bad ass-ness away for me. I wish it went down a little differently but again I understand its not Nomi's movie.

I'd also love to see a 006 (or whatever) Nomi film where they just drop Bond easter eggs while we get a new flavor of secret agent.

 

[Zardnaar]

Binge watched the Daniel Craig Bond films last week. Before that had only seen Spectre and Casino Royale.

Generally liked this one but to long the endings a bit fuzzy on the island as I wasn't paying attention by then.

Watched consecutively over a week or so they're more linked than the previous Bonds. Think I'll do the older ones Amazon has most of them.

Casino Royale on my list of favorite Bond movies, Daniel Craig's efforts were a lit better than Pierce Brosnan's.

 

[ART!]

Binge watched the Daniel Craig Bond films last week. Before that had only seen Spectre and Casino Royale.

Generally liked this one but to long the endings a bit fuzzy on the island as I wasn't paying attention by then.

Watched consecutively over a week or so they're more linked than the previous Bonds. Think I'll do the older ones Amazon has most of them.

Casino Royale on my list of favorite Bond movies, Daniel Craig's efforts were a lit better than Pierce Brosnan's.

More than any other chunk of Bond movies, Craig's run feels like a relatively cohesive beginning, middle, and end.

And now, they get to reimagine him again!