Favorite Bond Movie.

[VorpalBunny]

It's impossible for me to pick only one. My favorites:

Goldfinger
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds are Forever
The Man with the Golden Gun
For Your Eyes Only
The Living Daylights (I really liked Timothy Dalton as Bond)
GoldenEye
Die Another Day

 

[Altalazar]

Moonraker. Perhaps nostalgia, but I just like how it all sort of falls together. In this case, there are all sorts of pieces to follow in the investigation and they all fall together in the end in a way that just seems much neater than the rather contrived plots of many of the other Bond films. Plus it was just so cool.

Though I did really like the most recent Bond as well - started off rather differently than the rest. And it had what I consider a classic Bond moment - him walking into the hotel, in wet pajamas and unkempt beard, and yet he still acts like he owns the place and it was nothing to just walk up and ask for a four-star room. That is what Bond is all about.

I just recently got all of them on DVD and then watched them all in order with my wife, who basically has seen none of them. She gave a fresh perspective to it all - she had no preconceived or nostalgiac notions. She decided Roger Moore was her favorite bond and I think she liked Moonraker best as well, though she really did also like the Spy who Loved me.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Actually, Dark Jezter, since you know the films so well, would you mind commenting on what you think of all the pre-opening credit scenes? Might even do for another poll... As far as they go, The Spy Who Loved Me with the Union Jack parachute is the best; Goldeneye's dam sequence in at second.

The two you mentioned are, indeed, some of the best. I also like the pre-Opening Credit scenes from Die Another Day (which ends with Bond being captured by North Korean soldiers), A View to a Kill (Bond goes snowboarding before snowboarding was cool), and For Your Eyes Only (where Bond visits the grave of his departed wife and then deals with Blofeld once-and-for-all).

Here are some other James Bond "bests", IMO:

Best Bond Girl: Major Anya Amasova (played by Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me)
Runner-Up: Honey Rider (played by Ursula Andress in Dr. No)
Honorable Mention: Tie between Tracy Vincenzo Bond (played by Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and Melina Havelock (played by Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only)

Best Bond Villain: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (played by several different actors in From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever, and For Your Eyes Only)
Runner-Up: Auric Goldfinger (played by Gert Frobe in Goldfinger)
Honorable Mention: Alec "006" Trevelyan (played by Sean Bean in Goldeneye)

Best Villain's Henchman: Jaws (played by Richard Kiel in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker)
Runner-Up: Oddjob (played by Harold Sakata in Goldfinger)
Honorable Mention: Tie between Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw in From Russia with Love) and Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen in Goldeneye)

 

[nothing to see here]

Living Daylights is the closest film-bond ever came to Bond as written.

That, and it's plot is the most cleverly developed of any Bond film.

On the downside -- Joe Don Baker...why does UA keep recycling actors anyway?

 

[Dark Jezter]

Just for fun, I thought that I would post some Bond trivia in this thread. Maybe you'll find out a few things about the Bond films that you didn't before.

Oh, and remember that all this month, there are James Bond movies on Spike TV every Wednesday and Sunday Night. Tonight, For Your Eyes Only and Live and Let Die are on. But anyways, on to the trivia...

Dr. No

• In Ian Fleming's novel, Honey Ryder was named Honeychile Ryder and she emerged out of the ocean wearing only a belt and no bikini.
• Due to Ursula Andress' heavy accent, her actual voice isn't used in the movie. Rather, her voice is dubbed by Monica Van der Syl.
• In the first draft of the script, Dr. No was a monkey (I kid you not!)

From Russia With Love

• The helicopter chase scene was filmed in Scotland, and Sean Connery dodged a real helicopter
• This is Sean Connery's favorite Bond movie.
• From Russia With Love was the last movie President John F. Kennedy watched before he was assassinated.

Goldfinger

• When Goldfinger was released, the public knew nothing about lasers. This movie sparked public interest in that technology.
• In Ian Fleming's novel, Pussy Galore was a lesbian.
• CIA Director Allen Dulles assigned a research team to determine the feasability of the homing system in Bond's Astin Martin.
• Harold Sakata (who played Oddjob) represented the United States in the 1948 Olympics as a weightlifter.

Thunderball:

• To accomodate the crowds following the movie's release, New York's Paramount theater ran the film 24 hours a day.
• When Bond is in Largo's pool with the sharks, Sean Connery was actually in the same pool of the sharks (with no protection). In the scene where Bond gets a look of panic on his face as a shark swims by, Connery is not acting. Connery refused to shoot this scene more than once.
• Thunderball was going to be the first Bond movie, but legal entanglements with Kevin McClory resulted in Dr. No coming out first.

You Only Live Twice:

• Little Nellie is an actual helicopter that has a top speed of 130 mph.
• You Only Live Twice was planned to be the final Bond film. Sean Connery felt that he was being typecast due to playing Bond so many times.
• Aki's Toyota convertable was Japan's very first convertable car.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

• It's been rumored that Diana Rigg disliked George Lazenby so much that she would eat garlic before filming their love scenes. However, both stars have denied this claim.
• The actors who were originally going to play James Bond and Tracy were Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot. Those two would later appear together in Shalako.
• Timothy Dalton was offered the role of Bond, but he turned it down because he felt that he was too young at the time to convincingly play Bond.
• Tracy's death was originally going to be the opening scene in Diamonds are Forever, rather than the closing scene in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Diamonds are Forever

• Howard Huges owned the hotel this movie was filmed in. Rather than asking for money to film there, he asked for a film print of the finished movie. He was a huge fan of the Bond movies.
• Bond does not smoke in this movie, but at the time smoking was considered unfashionable by the public.
• A scene was shot where Bond meets Sammy Davis Jr., but was not included in the final cut because the director felt that it was "too much." The scene can be viewed on the Special Edition DVD.

Live and Let Die

• Jane Seymour was only 20 years old when this movie began filming. She celebrated her 21st birthday on the set.
• One of the speedboat chase's jumps set a world record.
• Whenever something went wrong during filming, one of the crew members would shout "Send for Sean!" as a joke.

The Man With the Golden Gun

• Cristopher Lee, who plays Scaramanga, is Ian Fleming's cousin.
• Felix Leiter is a major character in the novel of The Man With the Golden Gun, but he dosen't appear once in the film version.

The Spy Who Loved Me

• The villain in this movie was going to be Ernst Blofeld (along with SPECTRE), but legal issues with Kevin McClory (who was working on his own Bond project that would later become Never Say Never Again) required the writers to remove all reference to Blofeld and SPECTRE from the script.
• Richard Kiel (who played Jaws) could only wear the metal teeth for a few minutes at a time because they hurt so badly.
• This is Roger Moore's favorite Bond film.

That's enough for now. I've listed trivia for the first 10 Bond films. Maybe later I'll post triva for the latter 10.

 

[D+1]

For Your Eyes Only. I know I shouldn't. There are even parts about it I don't like (such as Lynn-Holly Johnson's "acting", and the fact that it DOESN'T star Sean Connery). Maybe it's just the fact that we used a rock spire akin to St. Cyrils (ours was bigger - even had a small lake on top) as a base of operations for our adventuring party in D&D. Maybe it was Carole Bouquet's smile. Maybe it was Sheena Easton singing the title track (though McCartney still gets top spot for Live and Let Die). Of the Moore Bond films at least it HAS to be best.

 

[Dark Jezter]

My favorite bond theme songs are...

"From Russia With Love"
"Goldfinger"
"You Only Live Twice"
"The Spy Who Loved Me"
"For Your Eyes Only"
"All Time High" from Octopussy
"A View to a Kill"

Surprisingly, I didn't care much for the "Live and Let Die" theme song. It just felt out of place in a Bond film.

But anyways, since I don't like leaving things unfinished, here is more Bond trivia...

Moonraker

• The character of Jaws (introduced in The Spy Who Loved Me) was so popular with Bond fans that they started a letter-writing campaign to bring him back which resulted in him returning for Moonraker.
• Hugo Drax was modeled after Adolph Hitler, and his plan called for a master race to repopulate the earth after he eliminated the existing population.
• For Your Eyes Only was proposed to follow The Spy Who Loved Me, but the huge popularity of Star Wars made the producers decide to create Moonraker as a Bond space adventure.

For Your Eyes Only

• Roger Moore was terrified of heights, and barely made it through the St. Cyrils scenes.
• The security code to the room containing cue's identograph is the theme song from The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Roger Moore was originally not going to appear in this movie. The scene where Bond visits Tracy's grave was meant to ease a new Bond into the role.

Octopussy

• When Octopussy tells the story of Bond's background with her father, she summarizes the entire plot of Ian Fleming's short story Octopussy.
• Sean Connery praised the action sequences in this film.

A View to a Kill

• Grace Jones was cast in the film because of her popularity with children at the time. The producers wanted to broaden Bond's audiance.
• Cristopher Walkin (who played Max Zorin) had been a Bond fan ever since he saw From Russia With Love at the age of 15.
• In the original script, Tanya Roberts' character was to wear the loose, baggy coveralls worn by the rest of the miners, but Roberts refused because she didn't like the way she looked in them, and she locked herself in her trailer until the director got her some custom-made coveralls. There is a scene in the movie where Bond looks at her coveralls and remarks "Lucky you could find one that fit" followed by Roberts shooting him a dirty look. Roger Moore ad-libbed this line, and it made it into the final cut because by that point the cast and crew were sick and tired of Roberts' prima-donna attitude.

The Living Daylights

• In the opening scenes, agents 002 and 004 were played by actors who resembled Sean Connery and Roger Moore. The producers wanted to keep the audiance guessing who the new Bond would be.
• During the filming of the final scene, the Moroccan airfield (which was supposed to be in Afghanistan) was left open to civilian flights.

Licence to Kill

• Felix Leiter being attacked by sharks was actually in the novel Live and Let Die.
• When he arrives in Isthmus City, Bond refers to Pam Bouvier as Ms. Kennedy. This is a reference to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, whose husband (John F. Kennedy) was a big fan of the novel From Russia With Love.
• The scene where Bond resigns from MI6 was filmed at Hemmingway House in Key West, Florida. When Bond is asked to relinquish his gun, he says "I guess it's a farewell to arms." a reference to Hemmingway's novel.

Goldeneye

• At the time, Bond's bungee jump off the dam was the longest in history.
• Goldeneye was the name of Ian Fleming's estate in Jamica where he lived the last years of his life.
• Pierce Brosnan was supposed to be Bond in 1987, but could not accept the role because of his contract with Remington Steel.

Tomorrow Never Dies

• The original title of the movie was Tomorrow Never Lies.
• Teri Hatcher agreed to appear in this movie to fulfill her husband's lifelong dream of being married to a Bond girl, and she was three months pregnant when she filmed her scenes.
• The script was not finished at the beginning of filming.

The World Is Not Enough

• The title of this movie comes from a scene in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We learn that its Bond's family motto.
• There is a painting of Bernard Lee (the old M) in the background of Scottish MI6 headquarters.
• Desmond Llewelyn, who played Q throughout the Bond series, died exactly one month after the film's release in the United States.

Die Another Day

• This film was released during the 40th anniversary of the Bond franchise in 2002. Dr. No came out in 1962, and Die Another Day was the 20th Bond movie. This averages out to one Bond film released every two years for the previous four decades.
• To honor the 40th anniversary of Bond, this movie contains references to all 19 of the previous Bond films. A couple of the more obvious references are Halle Berry's character stepping out of the ocean wearing a bikini, a belt, and a diving knife (a Dr. No reference), and the background of Q's workshop containing gadgets from previous bond films.
• While in Cuba, 007 picks up the book Birds of the West Indies by James Bond. This book is where Ian Fleming originally picked up the name for Bond. Later in the movie, Bond introduces himself as an ornithologist.
• The British Airways flight attendant who serves Bond his vodka martini is played by Roger Moore's daughter.