Amph 007 Skyfall

I dunno, I think QoS accomplished more than that. The end of CR is iconic, but it doesn't necessarily have any emotional resolution to it. In fact I'd say that Bond at the start of QoS is more than consistant with the bond at the end of CR.

 

Casino Royale was at least a Fleming book, unlike say any of the previous Brosnan movies (although some aspects of them I think are based on short-stories). I've not read much of Fleming, but CR seems to be regarded as the best of the Bond books so there's no reason it wouldn't be one of the best films if done right which it was. Why it took so long to do that particular story is not clear, I think it could have worked with Dalton or Connery or Brosnan (maybe toned down a bit for Connery given the time his movies were made).

I should be seeing Skyfall tonight, here's hoping it lives up to the positive reviews.

 

Well, I see it differently. The end of CR is Bond showing Mr White that he didn't get away as cleanly as he thought. But QoS shows Bond processing his grief and I'm sorry you just don't recover from something like that in a matter of minutes. So QoS didn't undermine the end of CR; the end of CR showed Bond channeling his focus into tracking down Quantum.

 

You haven't read any Fleming, if you're being honest.

No Brosnan came from Fleming, in terms of the story. Goldeneye was Fleming's Jamaica retreat; and "The World is Not Enough" is "Orbis non suffit", the family motto of the Bonds as explained in OHMSS.

It's also clear why the film took so long to be made; the rights to it weren't always owned by EON. Hence the 1967... fiascr the 1954 American version on CBS.

The only bits really lifted from Fleming was the idea of the card game to bankrupt Le Chiffre (in the book, it was chemin-de-fer baccarat and Le Chiffre was an agent of Soviet Russia); the CIA staking additional funds for Bond to finish Le Chiffre off at the tables; the torture scene (including Bond crashing his car; though Le Chiffre used a carpet beater) and the line "the bitch is dead". Rene Mathis was there but worked for the French services (Casino Royale being at Royale-les-Eaux) and wasn't implicated as a traitor. The Bahamas stuff, the train ride, the Venice bits? All made up.

CR is favoured as a novel, but it's very different from the rest of the books. FRWL and OHMSS are fantastic IMO; CR is interesting but not the best...

 

As I aid I generally liked QoS. My problem isn't that his dealing with Vesper's betrayal and death is there, but that it's laid on a bit too thick.

 

http://www.empireonline.com/features/bond-girls-picture-quiz/

Yeah. I got all of them.

 

Back from my Bond-themed party and having seen Skyfall.
It was fun to have a whole bunch of people sit in a screen with suits on and watch a movie having spent ages playing Blackjack and drinking Martinis.

While Skyfall isn't the best Bond ever, it is very good with many stand-out performances, exhilarating sequences and nice locations. It's better than QoS, perhaps just edges out CR as Craig's best one so far.

Spoiler

The opening sequence, as we have come to expect with Craig's Bond films, is excting and action packed. Bond is shot and declared dead in action. I thought he returned a bit soon in the movie but given all that got done I suppose he couldn't be gone too long. I liked the exchange between Bond & M when she tells him they sold his flat and personal effects because he was presumed dead then Bond says he will go to a hotel and M says "well you're not staying here!". Judi Dench is exellent as always, the film in fact is largely centered around her M, given the apparent obsession with her that the villain has.
The villain, Silva, is brilliantly played by Javier Bardem. White suit, silly comb-over blonde hair and eyebrows, very touchy-feely with Bond. But underneath all that camp exterior there is a dark twisted centre, Silva is clearly mentally scarred by past events and blames M for that, having worked with her in her previous post much the same way Bond works for her now. He has the traditional Bond villain disfigurement, and a nasty one it is too. Not to mention the huge ego and sense of invinsibility that Bond baddies always seem to have.
Q is well played by Ben Whishaw, more a computer nerd than a man with a labcoat in a basement as the predecessors were. He still has the patronising manner towards Bond, especially when 007 seems disappointed that all he gets is a new PPK (although coded uniquely to him) and a tracker radio. As Q says "what were you expecting, an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that sort of thing anymore". But Q is far from perfect, at one stage being foiled by Silva's own computer hacking abilities.
The film makes it clear that many believe the old ways are gone, M is seen as running an outdated system at MI6, and is put up in front of a tribunal for letting sensitive data get into the wrong hands. But in a unique twist it is the old ways that ultimately lead her & Bond to victory. Bond needs a car and says the company ones are easily tracked, so he goes to a lock-up and brings out some vintage style, the Goldfinger Aston martin DB5 (complete with ejector seat), cue great cheers from those in attendance. The final confrontation is epic, even moreso with Bond mowing down armed henchmen with the DB5's headlamp machineguns while they fail to get past it's bullet-resistant armour and windows, Sir Sean Connery would be proud. Outdated the old way of doing things might be, but when the going gets tough sometimes the old way is the best way.
M's departure at the end is emotional, I agree to an extent with the Guardian review that said it was perhaps more emotion than was needed from Bond. 007 has had plenty of bosses prior to Dench, as with field agents M is expendable and easily replaced, it's part of the job and Bond being the professional that he is and as tough as he is shouldn't really react as he did. That was really the only disappointing aspect for me of what is otherwise a solidly directed movie, aside from once again having the gun barrel sequence at the end.
Ralph Fiennes' promotion to M at the end and a new Moneypenny hint at going back to the old ways again, a welcome thing if futue movies can balance the Craig type of Bond with some of the past aspects of the early movies. It shouldn't go too far like Die Another Day and have invisibvle cars because that was silly, and the humour while it still exists is far more subtle and less silly than it was in the past which I think suits the current times better and suits to bring Bond as a character more in line with Fleming's written portrayal.

I look forward to the next one, I hope it can be as good as this was.

 

Spoiler

So Fiennes is indeed the new M. I'm not really sold. Now, Geoffrey Rush, he would be an M.

 

If it's better than Casino Royale, that's awesome!!

 

It's different than Casino Royale, I don't think you can really say it's better. Neither of the Bond girls really get under your skin like Vesper - Skyfall is not the romantic thriller CR was and it's not trying to be, plus CR was all about jettisoning the old Bond tropes, while Skyfall is about reintroducing them, more or less; on the other hand, I think this is the first time we've really seen Daniel Craig in full Bond-mode, as opposed to playing a character who is becoming Bond, and Craig really seems to own the role. After seeing this, Craig now threatens Connery as my favourite screen 007.

 

Craig is a good actor but IMO he does not and probably never will have anything like the charisma Connery had, he certainly can't pull off suave & sophisticated like Connery. He is tough and looks like a man who means business but he also comes across as someone who has been in a few fights (or as someone I know once pointed out, that he has been punched in the face too many times). Connery had the air of a man who was not a pushover, but at the same time could easily blend in as someone who was a high society man of class simply attending a function with others of his ilk. I don't find Craig totally convincing in that regard, he looks like a hard-man in a nice suit however hard he tries to make it seem otherwise.

 

So, what was Quantum of Solace about? (what you said makes me really excited for the movie)

SLDR, just based on the first two (and I barely remember the second one, so really just based on the first one), I disagree. I think he pulls off suave quite well. But, then again, everything sounds a bit more suave to me if it's in a British accent.

 

QoS felt like they were afraid to go back to the old formula but were not sure what to put in its place.

As far as getting really excited for the movie, I think you should temper your enthusiasm a little. I thought it was good - I constantly found myself smiling through the film, it's fun, Craig is great, it looks great, and I liked the score, but... the early reviews have overhyped it a little, imo. If you found the bad-guys schemes in Nolan's Bat-films eye-rollingly complicated and unlikely, then I have to say that this film is just as bad in that department, if not more so; you really don't want to think about the plot too closely. I think if you're a Bond fan you'll enjoy it, I think it's a great 50th anniversary Bond film, and I think it's a good film in general, not just a good Bond film; where it will fit in your personal list of best Bond films, though, who knows?

 

MSN.com have done a few polls for voters to decide on the ultimate Bond by choosing from their favourite car, Bond actor, Bond girl, setting and plot from previous Bonds which are combined into what is meant to be the Ultimate Bond.

Here is the final result

 

Voting for Connery as favourite Bond always strikes me as such a cop out answer.

 

I'm just glad the AMC Hornet got zero percent.

 

Weird that the AML Vanquish gets listed but not the DBS (which was driven by Lazenby and Craig in it's variation incarnations)... Or the V8 Vantage from the Living Daylights... but the 2CV gets listed? Dreadful poll.

 

So there's a report that Purvis and Wade are out, and Skyfall co-writer (really rewriter) John Logan has been hired to write the next two Bond movies, which have been conceived as a two-part arc. They're really pushing the idea of a continuous narrative for Bond in the Craig run -- which, frankly, I like.

 

^ ^ ^ The one error I can spot right away (in that otherwise awesome graphic) is that Casino Royale's Solange, played by Caterina Murino, is missing! Bond seduced her to get info about her husband Dimitrio, and she later turns up dead, likely killed by LeChiffre and company.

 

That's still more beds than the rest of them combined.

 

I'm a pretty big Nolan Batman Trilogy fan, so I think I'll be cool. And I'm just a casual Bond fan.

From what I recall about QoS, that's true, and also that they kind of wanted to go back to all the old fun Bond stuff but didn't want to abandon the gritty edge? And kinda lost on both ends? question?

 

I can't wait to see Skyfall. Only have to wait 11 more days to see it.

 

There's no error.

The graph covers women with whom Bond engaged in a modest bout of coitus. Since he never bumped uglies with Solange, the graphic remains correct.

 

Did Skyfall come out sooner in some places than others?