Amph 60+ Years of James Bond 007

Ender, I think you're the only other person I know (the other is me) that thinks that Never Say Never Again is a better film than Octopussy. The consensus I see everywhere is that Octopussy was the better film, but I've always thought that was absolute bollocks.

Though the absolute lowest of the low of James Bond productions really goes to the Casino Royale from 1954.

 

I like NSNA better than Thunderball original; but I probably split Octopussy and NSNA as roughly equal...

 

Octopussy is such a guilty pleasure. It's incredibly stupid with a horrid main theme, but it's fun for some reason.

 

Octopussy has some amazing stunt sequences , that stuff on the train and plane at the end is incredible

 

It has James Bond:

1) In a safari suit
2) Vampire kissing women
3) In a gorilla costume
4) Doing the Tarzan yell
5) Flying out of a horse's arse, cunningly referenced by Dalton when Kara calls him a задняя часть лошади
6) Making ghost noises
7) In a clown suit
8) Telling a snake to hiss off
9) Telling a tiger to "sit"

Yea great film, so tense.

 

Oh yeah and he swims in a crocodile suit for literally no reason.

 

Octopussy is not great, but I have to give it a slight edge over (the equally not great) NSNA simply for being an official canon Eon film. Also, NSNA's title being a smart-ass reference to the fact that they coaxed Connery back after he moved on from the character (he said he'd "never again" play that role) seems kind of tacky.

 

But come one. Louis Jordan is a cliché vs Klaus Maria Brandauer. Barbara Carerra is delicious villainous, unlike Magda who is... Magda. And nobody in NSNA has a blunderbuss. They do however jog in dungarees.

 

Lest we forget...

 

The image in my last post seems to have vanished, so here's another one:

 

it's a bold fashion statement to be sure

hang on - doesn't Dalton pretend to be a big fish in LTK ?

 

Who wouldn't want to swim in a big crocodile suit if they had one available, just for fun?

Anyway, fire up the "Who will replace Craig as Bond if Craig is done?" discussions again. This time the rumors surround Tom Hardy again, based on an interview he just had:

You know, when I interviewed Christopher Nolan he discussed his life-long desire to direct a Bond film. What about Chris directing you in a Bond film—maybe with your old drama school pal Michael Fassbender as the villain?
Oh, wow, Chris would be amazing! Wow, that would be cool. That would be so cool.
Do you want to play Bond? I tend to see your name on a lot of these wish lists, although I’m sure they’re just sort of dreaming up any and all talented Brit actors who look the part.
You know, there’s a saying amongst us in the fraternity of acting, and in the fellowship of my peer group, that if you talk about it you’re automatically out of the race. So I can’t possibly comment on that one! If I mention it, it’s gone. But Chris Nolan, what a fantastic director for a Bond movie. Because Daniel [Craig] is so good, and what [Sam] Mendes and Barbara [Broccoli] have done has been so impressive, that it would be a very hard reimagination to follow after. I wonder what the next installment of that franchise would become, and I think when you mention someone like Christopher Nolan, that’s a very powerful figure to bring into that world who could bring something new and create something profound—again.

HERE

 

I just can't believe they haven't hired Nolan to direct a Bond picture yet . you can just see so much Bond DNA in his films .

 

dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun deBWOOOOONG Do do do

BWOOOOONGDAP ba daa ba da daa ba daa da deda daa BWOOOOOOOOOOOONGDAP ba daa ba da daa ba daa da deda daa

 

I wouldn't mind a Bond film where he suffers severe memory loss and can't sleep ever because he accidentally shot M while taking down Blofeld in the foggy countryside, so he follows random people around London until he meets a con artist (who happens to be Blofeld in disguise) who convinces him to go into Q's subconscious to convince Q to build a rocket ship with interstellar capabilities, but then Bond ends up in a black hole that teleports him to Dunkirk where he fights in the war and he then settles down to become a magician for the rest of his days.

 

Nah, too predictable.

 

with Michael Caine as M no doubt .

 

He uses a manta ray "shell" to scuba past the sentinels - submarine and human - protecting the Wavekrest. In that you actually see the active sonar picks him up, they send out the sub, and are watching a video feed.

The contrast here is that it served a purpose.

 

NSNA, when it works, is kinda brilliant as an anti-EON film, and a lot of it is down to the Kersh. There was a great review somewhere that broke down how the film places Bond within the frame, and how the film is very conscious of Bond's aging. Wish I could remember where I found it.

 

Octopussy is garbage. Almost anything is going to be better than Octopussy; NSNA doesn't have to try particularly hard to clear that bar. Never Say Never Again, however, is a solid movie on its own terms. It's not anywhere particularly close to a series high, but it's got a good cast and some quality ideas; it's arguably better than the original Thunderball. It would at least land in the middle of the EON pack.

 

HOW DO PEOPLE DEFEND THIS? WHY DOES BRITISH TAXPAYER FUNDING GET SPENT ON THIS? AND WHY THE PERSPEX SHIELD? TO KEEP BUGS OUT OF HIS MOUTH? TO IMPROVE AERODYNAMIC EFFICIENCY?

 

In fairness, NSNA does have perhaps the most sublimely, gloriously ridiculous stunt in the entire series, one so dumb-looking it had me laughing for something like half an hour when I first saw it on TV:



That scene alone, however, is still miles above Octopussy in both quality and entertainment value.

 

They couldn't do that in Octopussy. The risk of breaking Roger's hip was too great. I know the "official" record is he's only a year older, but come on.

Also, this is better than the vampire kissing:

 

Look, no one is defending Octopussy as a good film. But it's so sublimely ridiculous that I'd certainly rather watch it than watch NSNA. The clown suit is absurd, but that countdown at the circus is genuinely suspenseful and the train stuff is also really good.

NSNA benefits from Connery at his most wry. He comes back to the character reinvigorated and, yes, though the age difference is small, he has loads more dynamism and liveliness than Moore.

And it has one of my favorite Bond lines of all time: "But, in fact, I did lose four pounds . . . and God knows how many free radicals!"

 

Octopussy, I would contend, gets a pass because AVTAK comes next and it's just... it's awful. It's like a puppy in a Make America Great Again hat. Not threatening and a bit silly.

But it should be judged by FYEO, who is a far more intimidating mistress. It's not good because AVTAK is bad; it's bad because FYEO is good, and shut up AVTAK. If anyone wanted to know your opinion they'd ask. If.