If you’re an Amazon Prime customer, you’ve probably noticed Bond movies pop in and out all the time. Sometimes they have a few, sometimes only the new ones, sometimes only the old.
Just saw that right now they have 22 of the films available. Every one but the first 3 Craig films (they do have SPECTRE). They even have the Thunderball remake with German Phil Collins and Kim Bassinger as Domino (with the awesome videogame scene).
So I’m doing a marathon. Who’s in? Grab a vodka martini, shaken not stirred, and dive in. What’s your favorite Bond moment in your favorite Bond movie?
Oh hell yeah. I liked the main theme when it originally came out and it’s even better now. And it’s sooooo late 80s.
Watching Goldfinger tonight. The shot of the guy sneaking up on him in the reflection of the eyes of the girl he is kissing is still a magnificent shot. And the opening had the awesome tuxedo under the wetsuit trick that’s become a Hollywood staple.
The Spy Who Loved Me is my fave, but I grew up with Moore.
I was taking my fiancee through the films, and we got up to Spy Who Loved Me, and then she lost interest. She said, “You have to choose the best ones to show me, not show me all of them.”
“But seeing the crappy ones is part of the experience!” I responded. She was nonplussed.
I’ve seen them all so many times during the 90s that I’ve lost all objectivity. I have no idea which ones I would even pick if my wife told me she only wanted to see the best ones. I love them all for different reasons. Even the ones I used to hate the most (Live and Let Die & On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) I love them both now because they’re so different from the other movies in the series.
OHMSS is such a weird movie tonally. You have really sweet love scenes and then Bond in the most contrived way you can possibly get for being alone with and adored by dozens of internationally attractive women. You have the cold awesome Klebb channeling Irma Bunt and then a goofy Telly Savalas. But damn if the ski chase scene isn’t just top notch. And goes on for like an hour!
In my Goldfinger viewing, Tilly Masterson just died. If I ever get killed by some employer of mine I hope my sibling is bad ass enough to track down my killer and take pot shots at him.
By the way, these same movies are also on Hulu these days as well, not just Amazon. So I might join in this marathon. What order would you pick for a marathon? I’m kind of used to the 90s TBS method of “show them in a completely random order” that works pretty well. I’m not sure if a linear watching would work as well as that. Dr. No is a good one overall, but I don’t feel like starting off with it tonight. Maybe Octopussy?
And I know I will catch flack for this, but they are among my favorites. Better than any of the Brosnan films, for sure. But then again I’d put them, Skyfall, and some Connery films as my favorites. Never much cared for any of the Roger Moore ones.
Nah. Like Guap said, even though OHMSS is tonally all over the place, there’s still something about it. The woman that Bond finally marries is such a firecracker. I fall in love with her myself every time I watch that movie. And that final scene after they’re married is so cheesy and cheaply made, and yet, still tragic.
And Live and Let Die is also completely bizarre. Here in this already marathon movie, you’ve got this boat chase sequence that seeming will never end, with running commentary from this weird hick Sheriff. It’s also got a lot of the Occult and Voodoo mixed in there, along with a gorgeous early Dr. Quinn, medicine woman, who still takes my breath away with her beauty in a couple of those scenes.
Yes, but in my post I probably forgot one important element. That rounding out my favorites are the Dalton films. Those are the ones I like that usually get shouted down.
I’ll go down with you on liking The Living Daylights. It’s perfect popcorn Bond.
I’ve only seen License to Kill about 3 times though, and I just have a tough time getting through that one. The drug dealer bad guy is so boring. The televised HGTV-like sequences and revenge plot and angry Bond are just kind of weird. And the movie lacks any really impressive stunt sequences for Bond too. There’s that tanker blowing up, and the bad guy coming into the wedding at the beginning, but not much else. I’ll have to give it another shot sometime.
The other movie I still can’t stomach is A View to A Kill. I just find that one so boring. I love Christopher Walken but his character in that is just not menacing in any way.
One thing I haven’t done yet is rewatched the Bond movies that I saw in the theater in the 90s onward. The only Pierce Brosnan ones I’ve rewatched are Goldeneye and The World is Not Enough. I remember really liking Tomorrow Never Dies and hating Die Another Day. I need to rewatch those and see if I think any differently about those. And of course, I haven’t rewatched any of the Daniel Craig ones either. I bet those will hold up pretty well in the long run on re-watch marathons. Even Quantum of Solace, which I didn’t like in the theater should hold up well on repeat viewings since it has some pretty interesting action sequences.
In honor of CraigM, I watched the first half of License of Kill tonight.
Some thoughts:
Great opening scenes with the helicopter and plane, and skydiving
Benicio Del Toro is the main henchman for Sanchez! I didn’t remember that!
Some nice under-water action scenes at some points
It’s kind of disorienting at the start of the movie that there’s almost no exposition. People talk to each other, and don’t give the audience any information that they wouldn’t normally say to one another. You just have to piece it together yourself.
I didn’t remember this, but 007’s meeting with M and his revoking his License to Kill is really abrupt. It’s not as if Bond was AWOL for long. He was there for one extra day after the wedding, investigating what happened, and M shows up the next day.
After losing his license to kill, the movie gets pretty boring. He goes after their drugs, he goes after their money. Lots of detailed scenes with Bond swimming underwater, climbing things, going up ladders, doing lots of stuff, and yet, I found it all fairly boring. The little story telling in all these scenes is a bunch of names and uninteresting garbage.
The Key West part of the story finally gets interesting at the end, when he finds Ms Bouvier at that titty bar. That scene is hilarious.
So half the movie is now over, and it was all in Key West. Overall I’m kind of disappointed. There was about 30 minutes of great material here, but they could have cut 30 minutes. After the wedding and Sanchez’s revenge on Felix, they could have skipped some stuff, gone to Bond going rogue, then skipped to how he meets Sanchez’ girlfriend, and then skipped to the bar scene, and then we could have been done with Key West only keeping the interesting scenes.
