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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph 007 Skyfall

Discussion in 'Community' started by DarthLowBudget, Apr 19, 2010.

  1. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    Yes, they are great and they are classics. I still say that Skyfall is better than them :p
     
  2. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    So you're saying you're very new to James Bond fandom, then?

    Bond Purists prefer Dalton because he tallies the most with Fleming's vision of the character.
     
  3. solojones

    solojones Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 27, 2000
    Pretty much the entire opening sequence. Those motorcycle stunts? The stuff on the train? There was some stunning actual stuntwork in there. And I'm certainly not the first person to suggest there should be a stunt coordination Oscar. They've long been an incredibly important part of filmmaking and it's ridiculous that they're not recognized. (The same goes for voice acting, which is the other Oscar I'd like to see added).

    A very, very large part of it. I'm not going to remove Mendes from the equation as he's a director with a good visual sense himself. But let's be honest, his best lensed films had the advantage of having Conrad Hall as DP, and that man was another of the best DPs of all time. Mendes has been smart in choosing fantastic cines and letting them do their thing. Deakins is a master of light and shadow, so yeah, the mansion stuff is largely him to be sure.

    Also, the beauty and depth of visible stuff in the shadows is a testament both to Deakins lighting and his digital camera of choice, the Alexa. Still the only digital camera that is very close to 35mm. Looks so much better than Red it's not even funny.
     
  4. yankee8255

    yankee8255 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 31, 2005
    Ender_Sai probably should read this ranking of the Bond films. Unless he was already looking for a good excuse to kill Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. Which, for the record, I would wholeheartedly support.

    EDIT: though to be fair, he does recognize the brilliance of OHMSS.
     
  5. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Ugh. Idiot. QoS and LTK as bottom 2, but DAD top ten? Idiot.
     
  6. Riven_JTAC

    Riven_JTAC Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2011
    Never heard that about Dalton. Heard that a lot about Craig, though.
     
  7. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    Dalton could have been the ultimate James Bond. It's a pity it wasn't meant to be.
     
    Souderwan likes this.
  8. soitscometothis

    soitscometothis Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2003
    I'd hate to be the director of the next Bond film... following Skyfall's success is going to be very difficult. For starters, I now want every upcoming Bond film to look as good as Skyfall did - going back to uninspired, workmanlike visuals would be a huge disappointment; also, Bardem's Silva has left big shoes to fill, and I do think Bond needs a really good villain to bring out the best in 007. I even loved the soundtrack to Skyfall, and generally I don't notice these things.

    Mind you, I'd want the script to be a little tighter - the plot had a few too many places where you were expected to just go with it, regardless of common sense. I think with one more pass at the script, Skyfall could have been almost perfect, at least for me.
     
  9. Eeth-my-Koth

    Eeth-my-Koth Jedi Grand Master star 9

    Registered:
    May 25, 2001
    I loved Bond fixing his cuffs when he leapt onto the train. Classic stuff.
     
  10. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    I have to say this is the first digitally shot movie I've seen where I wasn't constantly distracted by the fact that it was shot on digital. So I'm now willing to allow digital cinematography to continue, with the proviso that every movie shot on digital is DPd by Roger Deakins. He's got time, right?
     
  11. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    That list by Rolling Stone, in addition to the interview with Craig in the December issue in which he states he has tried to get out of doing Bond for a while (going against what he says in pretty much every other interview), make me disappointed in the publication which is normally held in a higher regard.

    Brosnan's Bond movies aside from DAD are miles better than anything Moore did (except maybe TSWLM), clearly RS dislikes him but why they rate hist worst film so highly is baffling when Goldeneye is so low. Still, at least the Top 5 was good.

    I kinda like NSNA despite not being official, and Connery didn't even look as old as Moore even though he hadn't played Bond for 12 years. Damn the guy ages well.


    Also, on the TV gameshow Pointless we have here, the round on Roald Dahl had YOLT as a Pointless Answer (maximum score in the show where the purpose is to get the answers that the fewest people knew) to the question of which Bond screenplay he wrote.
     
  12. darthcaedus1138

    darthcaedus1138 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2007
    Just saw Skyfall last night. It was absolutely incredible. The movie never lost me, felt confusing, long, or unnecessary.

    For me, it's gonna knock Casino Royale from its current #2 position. All the callbacks to previous (good) Bond films, Javier Bardem's excellent villain character (though he did kind of seem too much like the Joker there for some of it, Skyfall itself, Judi Dench is amazing, and last but CERTAINLY not Craig at perhaps his very best here.

    It's my first theatrical Bond movie, and an indisputable 9.5/10. A gorgeous movie, though I still think I prefer FRWL.

    I'll have to watch it a few more times though. That ranking may change on subsequent viewing.
     
  13. darthcaedus1138

    darthcaedus1138 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2007
    Following From Russia With Love, however, I was actually disappointed in Goldfinger.

    I might come across as a heretic here, but I don't think Goldfinger is the best that Bond has to offer. In fact, it was the first film that went into 'Oh gosh that's ridiculous' territory for me, especially when FRWL delivered all the actual spy espionage action that James Bond SHOULD BE. Goldfinger lost some of that edge. Certainly not my favorite.

    EDIT: Sorry for the double post btw, I also want to mention that I practically had a heart attack reading through Travers' listing of the Bond movies. It's the listing some sort of insane person would write up.
     
  14. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Well I congratulate you firstly on your release from what appears to be decades of captivity.

    Craig's less Fleming's Bond than Dalton is in some respects; and in others, more. But for me, whenever I read the novels (which for OHMSS is about once every two years; IMO it is the best of the novels, followed by Casino Royale), it's Dalton I end up seeing as Bond.

    For example:

    It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare double-O prefix—the licence to kill in the Secret Service—it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional—worse, it was a death-watch beetle in the soul.
    -Goldfinger, Chapter 1.

    Bond is affected by his role, his profession but he represses it to unhealthy levels. It renders him a very tarnished man and only Dalton and Craig seemed to get that. Lazenby had possibly the best moment as a human Bond with Tracey's death but mostly looked the part and due to his Army training, did the fights/action scenes well. Brosnan wanted to play this Bond but was let down by insecure scripts and a reliance on his image (let's face it, he was bloody handsome. What? :p). Connery had the raw physicality and learned savoire-faire from Terence Young, but lacked the human depth (excepting the first two of his films). Moore had... an eyebrow and was most convincing playing his own wax effigy.
     
  15. Quixotic-Sith

    Quixotic-Sith Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 22, 2001
    Rolling Stone's take on the movie is utter crap.
     
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  16. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    What did they say?
     
  17. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    The link's like 3, 4 posts ago. :p Yankee posted it.
     
  18. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    Oh he said "the movie" so I thought he meant Skyfall, not the ranking of the films. Yeah, that's flipping terrible.
     
  19. Darth-Seldon

    Darth-Seldon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    Rolling Stones is way off in their rankings. Quantum of Solace is bad but there's no way it's worse than Die Another Day or the time James Bond dressed as a clown in Octopussy. RS was way too critical of Roger Moore. Sure, he had some bad movies, but I always loved Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only--those are all great.
     
  20. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    Good Moore's: The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. Sometimes I am willing to entertainment arguments for Moonraker.
     
  21. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    No, they're too critical of Dalton. Besides Buy Another Day, the worst things that happened to James Bond were Roger Moore's films.
     
  22. Darth-Seldon

    Darth-Seldon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    There is a certain level of child like nostalgia for the Roger Moore movies. Even though some of them were laughably bad, I remember watching them when I was very young and loving them. So I guess I still view Moore with rose tinted glasses, partly because those the first ones I ever saw. Having said that, I'd still say that Connery > Craig >>>>> Moore > et al.
     
  23. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
  24. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    This thread is silly, everyone knows the best Bond was David Niven.
     
  25. Asterix_of_Gaul

    Asterix_of_Gaul Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 13, 2007
    They rated Die Another Day as number 10....above Goldeneye. Die Another Die is imo one of the WORST Bond films ever. Good Lord.