Welp I know what I need to re-watch this week, man what great film that was.
Bond fell victim to the ‘bigger is better’ mentality of the 80s and 90s. Suddenly in the 2000s pop culture decided that action movies could have more realistic scripts and fight scenes (a la Bourne), and Bond was left jumping the laser-shooting shark.
Well, it was what people wanted.
I read that a couple of days ago about how The Man With the Golden Gun was almost the end. But then they re-tooled with Spy Who Loved Me, which was the biggest Bond yet. I remember as a little kid I had like hotwheels style little Lotus Esprit with the wings that came out like in that movie. Bigger is what the audience wanted from Bond for a long time.
Come to think of it, when they tried to go smaller again with License to Kill (Bond’s personal vandetta against a drug dealer who killed his friend), that was a big failure as well. Then Brosnan’s Bond returned with bigger spectacle again with Goldeneye.
As the article points out though, over the years they’ve been pretty good at retooling Bond after a failure.
I think the Bond movies have generally followed the trend of what was popular in action movies at the time.
Popular anything really. If it was popular, it would be in the next Bond Movie. Ninjas, space, mass media. James Bond doesn’t not shy away from theft and borrowing.
Sadly, my tastes apparently run against the popular grain. I much prefer the simpler Bond. From Russia with Love much better than Dr. No. I liked the Timothy Dalton Bond. Connery much over any who follow, really. Though On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is pretty good too.
I like them all! Even the ones I hated initially (OHMSS, LaLD) got turned around when I watched them multiple times. In fact, they turned into my favorites since they are so different. Same with License to Kill actually. I used to hate that one, but I’ve come around on that one on my last re-watch.
The only one I haven’t come around on is Die Another Day. It’s just… so bad. I’m not sure even I can find redeeming qualities in that one.
But I’ll try.
No, your initial impression is right. Not even Halle Berry as the Bond girl can save anything in it.
Pussy Galore died…
This looks so good!
Craigbond, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas. . . yeah, I’m super fucking in. When it comes to home video.
Or drive in theater. I’m lucky that one is nearby me.
I know who Lea Seydoux is now because of Death Stranding, and she is gonna be marvelous in this film.
Fragile but not that Fragile.
I admit, the trailer had to work to draw me in, but there was a heap of spectacle in there. I’m looking forward to seeing this one, whenever it’s safe to.
She was also in the prior Bond movie. And she really shows her stuff in Blue is the Warmest Color.
God damn simple stunts work so much better on me than CGI superhero spectacle. That scene with Bond hiding behind the stone while a car smashes into it and passes over him is exactly the sort of desperate realism these movies need.
And I don’t need the likes of police officer John McClain crawling around on the outside of a fucking hover jet.
Agreed. I wish they would have embraced the simple realism thing more with the motorcycle jump stunt (ala The Great Escape), but the action in that trailer is generally moving in the right direction.
I guess I need to watch Spectre again, because I can’t remember shit about that movie other than it seemed too slow paced.
I haven’t even seen Spectre yet! Looks like I need to remedy that.