The James Bond Thread

S.D. wrote:

It's an odd flick, it WAS primarily made up as it went along, I think there were four different directors that worked on it. If you didn't like the first hour then I wouldn't bother with the rest.

According to the film's Wiki entry, there were five directors ...and rumors persist that there were several others who chose to remain uncredited. By all accounts the production of this flick was a big sloppy mess.

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D. wrote:

It's an odd flick, it WAS primarily made up as it went along, I think there were four different directors that worked on it. If you didn't like the first hour then I wouldn't bother with the rest.

According to the film's Wiki entry, there were five directors ...and rumors persist that there were several others who chose to remain uncredited. By all accounts the production of this flick was a big sloppy mess.

The production was an infamous fiasco, though the film does have it's cult following, probably because of it.

OK, so for some reason I watched the rest of "Casino Royale" last night, damn my film watcher's O.C.D. that won't let me leave a movie unfinished!!

...anyway, it didn't get any better, or make any more sense, in the second half. By this point the "story" had gone off in so many different directions that I just gave up trying to follow it.

The best way I can describe this flick is to say "Imagine if the makers of the 60s Batman TV show teamed up with Mel Brooks and Monty Python to make a James Bond Parody...but they forgot to make it funny."

Thankfully it did have its share of Bond Babes (the only thing that this flick had in common with the "real" Bond series), like...

A young Jacqueline Bisset as "Agent Goodthighs"
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Barbara Bouchet as the hottest Miss Moneypenny in Bond history...
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And Joanna Pettet as "Mata Bond," James' illegitimate daughter with legendary spy Mata Hari:
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Woody Allen and Peter Sellers each have their moments in this flick but whenever neither of them is on screen, this movie stops dead. Maybe in 1967 this movie might've been considered "far-out" enough to be funny, but then again in 1967 everybody was trippin' their balls off on LSD.

Obviously you can't compare this against any of the "straight" Bond films but I'll just say this: some of the Roger Moore flicks are funnier (on purpose) than this lead footed attempt at "satire"!!

Fat Freddy wrote:

Maybe in 1967 this movie might've been considered "far-out" enough to be funny, but then again in 1967 everybody was trippin' their balls off on LSD.

I think you're exaggerating history some with that statement. The movement was still fairly new in '67 and it took awhile for the counterculture to be targeted by the film industry (except by independent films), so I don't think that was the target audience they were going for.

A movie that isn't funny doesn't magically become funny when you add LSD into the mix.

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I think you're exaggerating history some with that statement.

Well, maybe slightly (I wasn't even born in '67, haha)... but there were quite a few "psychedelic" bits in "Casino Royale" that seemed "trip-worthy" to me. Maybe the audience wasn't trippin' but I think the cast and crew might've been behind the scenes!!

Either way, that movie made my brain hurt. I wrote a Hub entry about it to try and make the pain go away.

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I have the soundtrack to that movie on LP. Haven't seen it since I was a kid though.

Last night's feature presentation in the Bond-O-Thon: "Octopussy" (1983)

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Hadn't seen this one since the late '80s but I remember liking it well enough as a teen, I probably watched it a dozen times on HBO back then. This was Moore's next-to-last turn as Bond.

It's a fairly straightforward story - a rogue Soviet general wants to kick off World War III so that he can expand Russian territory into the rest of Europe. To fund his plan he teams up with an exiled Afghan prince (Louis Jourdan) who helps him smuggle Faberge Eggs and other precious jewels out of Russia. Their middle man (middle woman? middle person?) is a mysterious millionairess named Octopussy, who lives on a private floating palace surrounded by her all-female army. Octopussy is played by Maud Adams, whom we last saw in "Man With the Golden Gun," making her the first woman to play two different roles in the Bond series.

To be honest, though the film has a couple of cool action sequences, it's overlong and needlessly complicated. The Octopussy character could've been left out of the story entirely, her only purpose in the story is to provide a love interest for Bond and eye candy via her army of butt-kicking circus women.

Moore has a few too many "goofy comedy" moments in this flick, particularly in the scenes set aboard a circus train where he hides out in a gorilla suit to evade East German guards (!) and again when he defuses a nuclear device while dressed as a clown. I particularly cringed during a scene where Bond is escaping from assassing through the jungle by swinging on vines Tarzan-style, complete with the classic "AAAAAAH-AAAAAAAH-AAAAAAAAH!" Tarzan yell on the soundtrack. Oh, Roger. You're such a card.

Babe-wise, Maud Adams was still holding up pretty well at this time...
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...and Swedish actress Kristina Wayborn, as Octopussy's lieutenant "Magda," has some nice martial arts moves...
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Overall, a pretty average entry in the series. Not Moore's worst, but far from his best.

I haven't seen Octopussy since I was in high school. Outside of the title and the women, I remember it being a pretty forgettable film.

Started watchin' "A View to a Kill" last night but got sleepy about halfway thru. Full review after I watch the other half tonight.

So far I'm likin' it a lot better than "Octopussy" for whatever that's worth. Tanya Roberts - yum yum!

Fat Freddy wrote:

Started watchin' "A View to a Kill" last night but got sleepy about halfway thru. Full review after I watch the other half tonight.

So far I'm likin' it a lot better than "Octopussy" for whatever that's worth. Tanya Roberts - yum yum!

There is a funny episode of That 70's Show when Midge (Tanya Roberts) and Bob are renewing their wedding vows...the bridesmaids are all ex-Bond girls including Maude Adams and Barbara Carrerra.

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There is a funny episode of That 70's Show when Midge (Tanya Roberts) and Bob are renewing their wedding vows...the bridesmaids are all ex-Bond girls including Maude Adams and Barbara Carrerra.

Yeah, I've seen that one! Funny stuff.

Anyway, finished watching "A View to a Kill" last night. I know this flick gets a lot of hate but I still dig it.


In Roger Moore's final turn as 007, he travels from France to San Francisco to investigate crazed industrialist Max Zorin (Christopher Walken, in a typically great batsh*t crazy performance) who plans to destroy Silicon Valley in California so that his company can monopolize the world's microchip market. Bond's sidekick this time is Stacey Sutton, a geologist played by former "Charlie's Angel" Tanya Roberts (who was baked to absolute hottie perfection by this time).

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She can't act worth a damn, but MAN, Tanya can fill out a satin bathrobe.

On the flip side of the coin, we also have scary new-wave legend Grace Jones as Zorin's equally bat-sh*t crazy bodyguard, "May Day." This chick terrifies me.
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I dig this film a lot, it's not quite as goofy as the preceding "Octopu$$y," there are some cool action sequences and impressive set pieces. The only problem is that by 1985, Roger Moore was pushing 60 years of age and therefore was clearly too old for the Bond role. As a result, several "stunts" featuring Moore are painfully obvious green-screen trickery (wouldn't want him to break a hip after all!) and his love scenes with various young hotties end up coming off kinda creepy. (Legend has it that Moore's decision to leave the series was based on an experience while making this film, when one of his female co-stars told him that her mother was younger than him... yikes!)

Aside from those minor complaints, good show, one of my favorite Moore 007's.

...and dammit, I hate to admit it but I have always loved the theme song to this one, by Duran Duran:

The Bond-O-Thon continued last night with 1989's "Licence to Kill," which was Timothy Dalton's second (and ultimately final) spin as 007.



Bond spends most of this flick in the U.S. and Mexico as he's in Florida for the wedding of his CIA pal, Felix Leiter. On their way to the ceremony, Felix gets a call that the drug lord they've been tracking for years is in the area, so he and Bond hop aboard a chopper to help capture him ... and parachute down into the wedding ceremony just in time!!

Unfortunately, said drug lord, "Sanchez" (Robert Davi) escapes from custody by the time the wedding is over and he and his men soon get even with Felix and his poor newlywed wife.

Bond then goes rogue, defying orders to return to London and instead goes on his own mission to bring down Sanchez's drug operation. Lotsa fights, explosions and stunts follow, as usual. He enlists a hottie pilot to fly him around and also works his charms on Sanchez's girlfriend.

I liked this one a lot better when I first saw it in theatres. Nowadays it's aged pretty badly and doesn't come off very "Bond-ish." It has a very low budget look to it and it could've been made as a generic action flick starring just about anybody.

Babe-wise, we had the lovely Carey Lowell as Bond's pilot sidekick, "Pam Bouvier"
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...and Talisa Soto as Sanchez's girlfriend "Lupe"
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Sharp eyed movie geeks will recognize a young Benicio Del Toro (The Usual Suspects, Traffic) in an early role as one of Sanchez's goons, and Anthony (KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park) Zerbe as a crooked ship captain!!

I reserved the RIGHT "Casino Royale" in the computer at the library today so hopefully I'll have that one in my hands soon!!

The library came thru with the correct "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" for me today... now all I have to do is find time to watch the damn things...

The "Casino Royale" DVD I got is some kinda super duper deluxe 3-DVD (!!) edition, Lord knows what the hell is on the other two discs, it must have special features out the ass. I doubt I'll be able to watch any of it.

By some odd coincidence I picked up a used copy of the Casino Royale blu ray today.

Fat Freddy wrote:

The library came thru with the correct "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" for me today... now all I have to do is find time to watch the damn things...

The "Casino Royale" DVD I got is some kinda super duper deluxe 3-DVD (!!) edition, Lord knows what the hell is on the other two discs, it must have special features out the ass. I doubt I'll be able to watch any of it.

You will be impressed - even the card game parts keep you on the edge of your seat.

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I'm almost caught up on the Bond series now, cuz I FINALY watched 2006's "Casino Royale" last night.



For Daniel Craig's debut as Bond, the producers decided to start over from scratch. So in this film, James Bond has just achieved his "double-oh" rank and is sent on his first mission. He runs around the world beating the crap out of a lot of bad guys, has regular verbal sparring matches with his superior, "M" (an absolutely venomous Judi Dench...she had already played "M" as kind of a bitch in the Brosnan films but WOW, they've made her into even MORE of a Dragon Lady now...haha!), and romances his contact, Vesper Lynd, whilst trying to defeat terrorist Le Chiffre in a high stakes game of poker.

Since I've been watching so many of the Roger Moore films lately, the shift between Moore's "light and funny action hero Bond" and Craig's "grim and gritty asskicker Bond" took a little getting used to, but before long I was hooked. Craig is totally bad-ass, and now I can't wait to watch "Quantum of Solace."

Babe-wise, we have Caterina Murino as the wife of one of Le Chiffer's gangster associates:
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Eva Green as Vesper Lynd:
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...and Ivana Milicevic as Le Chiffre's girlfriend, "Valenka." Meee-yow.
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Glad you liked the film. If you want to see a good parallel of Craig's portrayal of Bond, check out the Connery film "Diamonds Are Forever" which also was a grittier Bond than the other films.

Excellent film, I just watched it again a few nights ago. I like the fact that by the time you get to the very ending...and hear the James Bond theme for the first time...Craig has "become" the classic Bond due to everything he went through during the rest of the film. Neat way to let people know the introduction is over and "Bond" is back.

Eva Green is totally stunning. I love the scene where Bond consoles her, both of them sitting completely clothed in the shower. A tender scene and one that you NEVER would have seen in the earlier Bond films.

S.D. wrote:

Glad you liked the film. If you want to see a good parallel of Craig's portrayal of Bond, check out the Connery film "Diamonds Are Forever" which also was a grittier Bond than the other films.

Excellent film, I just watched it again a few nights ago. I like the fact that by the time you get to the very ending...and hear the James Bond theme for the first time...Craig has "become" the classic Bond due to everything he went through during the rest of the film. Neat way to let people know the introduction is over and "Bond" is back.

Eva Green is totally stunning. I love the scene where Bond consoles her, both of them sitting completely clothed in the shower. A tender scene and one that you NEVER would have seen in the earlier Bond films.

Agree with you on all counts. - great, great film! Quantum was good too, not as good, but still good and ranks higher than some of the Moore flicks, the Dalton flicks and most of the Brosnan flicks!

Bond-Mania at Casa Del Obese Frederick continued last night with Daniel Craig's second spin in the 007 tuxedo, "Quantum of Solace."

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Picking up directly where "Casino Royale" left off, the film finds Bond on a quest to avenge the death of his beloved Vesper Lynd, who was killed in the precediing movie. He's also trying to uncover clues to the membership of a secret organization dubbed "Quantum," who've attempted to assassinate "M."

Bond's quest takes him from Haiti to Austria to South America, where he learns that the sleazy head of an environmental coporation is in cahoots with a dictator to overthrow the government of Bolivia so they can control the company's water supply.

From there... well, fists fly, cars crash, and lotsa stuff blows up. Just another day's work for 007.

"Quantum" moved faster than Casino Royale (and it's almost a half hour shorter than "C.R." as wel), which was fine by me. By constatnly jumping from one action scene to the next, it kept me hooked.

Babes? Sure, "Quantum" has got'em.
Olga Kurylenko plays "Camille," the Bolivian secret service agent who aids Bond
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...and Gemma Arterton plays the cutie-pie MI6 agent Fieids, who unfortunately meets her end at the hands of the bad guys... in an obvious nod to "Goldfinger," she's found dead in Bond's bed with her body covered in crude oil.
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...and with this flick, I think I have completely exhausted the supply of 007 adventures that are available through my local library. There are still a few oldies I'd like to revisit (particularly "Moonraker," "For Your Eyes Only" w/Moore and "Thunderball" and "You Only Live Twice" w/Connery) but those will have to wait. Probably a good thing cuz I don't want to suffer from Bond Burnout!!

The direction of Quantam is horrendous. The idiot that decided to use the "Bourne-style" lightening style editing should be found and shot publicly. Just look at the completely ruined car chase at the beginning of the film, the cuts so quick you can't tell what is going on.

Atrocious.

I thought Casino was brilliant, but this film isn't even a 1/4 as good. Still enjoyable enough, but a BIG step down from the previous film.

S.D. wrote:

The direction of Quantam is horrendous. The idiot that decided to use the "Bourne-style" lightening style editing should be found and shot publicly. Just look at the completely ruined car chase at the beginning of the film, the cuts so quick you can't tell what is going on.

Atrocious.

I thought Casino was brilliant, but this film isn't even a 1/4 as good. Still enjoyable enough, but a BIG step down from the previous film.

I did notice the "look" of the movie resembled the "Bourne" films now that you mention it. As a matter of fact, while watching it I could've sworn that the CIA douche with the mustache (who told Leiter to "remove" Bond) was Matt "Jason Bourn" Damon in a cameo, but I looked it up on IMDb and apparently it wasn't.

Odd how the Bond series obviously inspired the Bourne movies, now it seems to be going the other way.

New trailer for Skyfall:

Nice!! It's about time they released a real freakin' teaser for that flick... I kept getting suckered by fake ones on YouTube made by fans...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Nice!! It's about time they released a real freakin' teaser for that flick... I kept getting suckered by fake ones on YouTube made by fans...

Looks Badass!!!!!!! It's on my must see list