He was just so damn serious all the time.
I will forever be haunted by the image of Dalton and Maryam d’Abo being chased down a ski slope in a goddamn cello case and using the cello like a rudder. And even then, he was just so serious.
Living Daylights is underrated.
Crag is half and half for me. Casino Royale is probably the best Bond movie, and Skyfall is not far behind. Quantum and Spectre are plain bad.
I thought we agreed Skyfall was bad because Bond fails at everything in that movie? I don’t remember all the failures, but he fails to protect M, which was sort of important.
Why would that make it a bad movie?
Yeah, by that logic The Empire Strikes Back is a bad movie.
I think that we do not really expect to have a Bond movie where the villain actually accomplishes exactly what he set out to do.
I also don’t think the writers realized they did that. If it has been intentional, it would have been one thing. But I think it was one of those movies that was so short sighted, at the end of the day, they didn’t even realize they had written a plot where the villain actually won.
Beyond that, there really wasn’t a point to the movie. Villain wants to kill M. Villain succeeds. Bond is old. Oh, there’s a new M.
So you completely missed the subtext of M and her history? The idea that both Bond and M are having to confront their past and the decisions they made? The villain had very specific reasons for attacking M in a very specific way. Bond and his past are as relevant to the story as M and her past are too.
Sometimes I wonder if people watch different films than me? Are there cuts of the movie that are different in different theatres or something?
I was slightly trolling @Balasarius because I don’t think he literally just meant Bond failing automatically meant the movie was bad, and I don’t exactly agree with your analysis either, but I appreciate that you did flesh it out a bit.
Yeah. I know why he wanted to kill her. And he did. Okay?
The movie really was the villain getting what he wanted. Like, his plan worked. I really don’t understand why that’s a Bond movie. It’s not really the point of Bond movies.
We know he’s old. We know they’ve done bad things. None of those things are revelations. And even if they were, the movie did not do a particularly good job of making them poignant.
It’s actually my least favorite of the original trilogy by a large margin precisely because of this. . .
. . . and curiously, I didn’t love Skyfall, either. I mean, it’s better than Quantum of Solace, but so is poop!
Hmmm. I am really bad at subtext, to be fair. . .
No, this reading doesn’t make me like it more, either. Ah well!
Word is that Cary Fukunaga has been picked to be director for Bond in 2019.
— Alan
Wait what, how did I miss that???
— Alan
If it seems off-topic, stay until the end.
I still want a John Woo Bond movie.
I still want Portishead to contribute a Bond theme song, but I think that ship may have sailed.
I mean that was pretty much what Mission Impossible 2 was, don’t you think?
I can picture a Bond title sequence when I listen to “Sour Times.” Close enough for me.
Yes, but being “like” Bond movies doesn’t make Mission Impossible(s) actual Bond movies, IMHO.
Plus, we haven’t seen too much of Woo in the West lately, and I’m too lazy to go searching for foreign films :(
Would Massive Attack do? Cuz I’d be onboard with that, too.
Maybe I’m still peeved about House losing “Teardrop” in streaming releases :(