Amph 60+ Years of James Bond 007

The car stunt...if it's the one i'm thinking of, was in Die Another Day territory. I got a chuckle out of it as a kid, but it hasn't aged gracefully.

 

Considering it changes sides, too...

 

In fact it felt like something out of 1960s Batman more than it did James Bond. That's how I remember seeing it the very first time I saw it. That actually sums up the whole film for me - Bond goes 60s Bats.

 

It's the first Moore movie in a lot of ways.

The worst thing is not just how stupid and lame it is and how badly it's aged, but also that the movie after OHMSS should have been a very intense and hard movie. Instead, it was pure camp.

 

I think it actually was meant to be Moore's first film? Or Lazenby's second film...

 

Neither. They panicked after Lazenby left and went back to formula. Hence why Peter Lamont wasn't directing.

 

appleseed: Licence to Kill serves as a pretty effective continuation to OHMSS. Leiter experiences his own honeymoon horror, inducing an older, taciturn Bond to unleash his unholy fury on a living, breathing Blofeld.

 

Well, Bond working people over at the very beginning to find Blofeld was reasonably well done. The payoff was lacking, though.

 

you mean Peter Hunt ?

DAF was very much a comedy , but I enjoyed it so much as a kid , and still do . and c'mon that score is lush .

 

This was played during the pre-show before tonight's Rifftrax live remote:

 

How the hell could Connery appear healthier and more virile in The Rock than in DAF? Forget Blofeld--a more appropriate villain would have been the Hamburglar.

 

I think it has to do with the fact that whomever was in charge of his costume and makeup for his films...say mid 1980s and onwards...actually dressed him appropriately for his age. In DAF they were still trying to sell as 41 year old Sean Connery as a 35 year old 007. Didn't quite work out. But once he did stuff like The Untouchables or even The Last Crusade, he looked the best he had in a long time because the aesthetics of his age actually fit his character.

 

Captain Marko Ramius >>> DAF Bond

 

the grooming is terrible on DAF , you can see hair growing out of Connery's nose .

 

Hunt.

But yeah Hamilton came back because Cubby wanted Goldfinger II. The original concept was that the villain would by Goldfinger's brother as well, and if memory serves it would have been John Gavin in the role until Connery was coerced back.

Hamilton though is less responsible for the tonal shift - Tom Mankiewicz left his stamp on that and the subsequent two films and it took Christopher Wood and the departure of the now-bored Saltzman to right the ship.

I have mixed feelings on Mankiewicz - some of the humour is genuinely darkly funny and taps into Fleming's weird side perhaps more effectively than Maibaum ever did, but the idea of James Bond being a celebrity (which is evident in all three of those films) and the heavy reliance on RACIST COMEDY SHERIFF to say nothing of plot developments that can't even dupe you on a surface level (such as Yip's non-rescue from the karate school) make it pretty much the nadir period for the films, or at least strong competition for Brozzer's post-GE run.

 

I actually think the Hamilton/Mankiewicz approach suited Moore as perfectly as Young/Maibaum did Connery. LALD and TMWTGG are colorful, bon mot-laden, low-stakes adventures, depositing the Adam West of James Bonds into the world he belongs. Hop-scotch alligator escapades? Voodoo princes and hot clairvoyant virgins? Homicidal dwarves? Perfect Saturday afternoon viewing, and a far, far better match-up for ol' Rog than the bloated pseudo-epics TSWLM/MR or the earthy FYEO.

 

DAF is a real trainwreck. It's notable for a few things. That car stunt is incredibly stupid. It has the worst Blofeld imaginable; at one point, he effects a southern drawl and refers to Bond's pistol as a "hogleg." Right. Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd are just gobsmackingly terrible. I mean, they're so awful that they're kind of brilliant. The movie really crosses into "so bad it's good" territory when they're on screen. They're just unbelievable. Like you feel like you're dreaming when they're in the movie. So weird.

Jill St. John is far from my usual type and she's a horrible actress, but she's sexy as hell in this movie. I mean, gorgeous. And that theme song is so good. Great, actually.

 

Well, if your definition of suiting him is "He's terrible and they were terrible," yes. If you mean, "Managed to suit itself to Moore's sensibility and still be watchable," I think The Spy Who Loved Me is the clear winner on that front. FYEO is a misplaced Dalton or Connery movie that Moore got stuck in, sure, but TSWLM is the only Moore Moore movie that's not absolutely dire.

 

I love TSWLM, it's one of my favourites. Partially due to having it echo YOLT (in the sense of villain plot trying to start a war between the US and USSR, with an epic showdown in the villain's lair as the climax) and that's my all-time favourite. Love the opening too, though for years afterwards I would have nightmares about my parents being gunned down while skiing.

 

Echo?

It is YOLT, under the sea.

 

I love Wint and Kidd , they're such great killers , they put some imagination into their murders .

 

... with 54497543853% less racist yellowface too.

I, also, put the Union Jack ski jump as the second-greatest physical stunt of all time.

 

You mean the scene where, in order to get close to Blofeld's lair, he has to pass as Japanese?

This is not racist yellowface, but it is proof of why centre right US "progressives" are ridiculous.

Lord Vivec, I found your ESPN Robert Lee audience.

 

lol @ Ender's refusal to admit casual racism.

 

There's plenty of racism in the books, and some (though less) in the films. Go read Live and Let Die and get back to me on casual racism.

The issue, my Thatcherite friend, is that in this instance Bond needed to go undercover in a Japanese fishing village in order to have a plausible reason to get close to the island. That is how they discover the underwater entrance/cave with its noxious gas.

It's not dissimilar to the novel's approach, where Bond impersonates a mute Japanese miner to get entry to "Shatterhands'" castle; his skin in dyed, hair cut a different way, etc.

Like, I don't know if you simply weren't paying attention or, in order to maintain your membership of the conservative Democratic party you have to make hysterically inane comments about race you saw an opportunity to earn credibility points with other like-minded tories so you leapt at it, but it's a fairly stupid comment. This is not Mr Yunioshi. There was not an acting role here that could have gone to a Japanese actor and didn't. Bond. Had. To. Become. Japanese.

Seriously. It wasn't even intended as a racial parody; if anything, the film was downright in awe of Japanese culture (though the novel is no better in this regard either).