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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
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Tork_110
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
360 Posts |
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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
 Posted - 01/25/2008 : 11:16:21 AM
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| I noticed that myself. I guess it's no big surprise that European actors are as big a bunch of left-wing goofballs as American ones are. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 1:15:52 PM
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I stopped watching them years ago.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 3:13:13 PM
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| Sarkozy? I wouldn't call him villanous (time will tell) but he sure scores high on megalomania. |
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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 3:47:18 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Greenhornet
I stopped watching them years ago.
GH,
In all seriousness Casino Royale was absolutely fantastic. If you haven't seen it you really are missing out. The Brosnan Bonds are pretty dire, but they really went back to square one and created a minor masterpiece with Craig. |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 4:18:07 PM
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| To be fair, I think at least one of the Brosnan films, The world is not enough, is a good movie. |
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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 4:43:23 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neville
To be fair, I think at least one of the Brosnan films, The world is not enough, is a good movie.
Music to my ears my friend! What P.O.'s me so much however is that even though they had one of the cleverest ideas in the history of the franchise, they couldn't let go of their Brosnan formula. Denise Richards' character is entirely superfluous and has been an unnecessary source of embarrassment to her to boot. She’s not bad – just extraneous. But Pierce’s contract specifies exactly three women in every movie no matter how needed they are to the plot so they had to shoehorn her in. Couple that with the fact that the action set-pieces here are the second weakest of all the Brosnan Bonds and you’ve got a movie that falls far short of being the favorite it could have been. It’s head and shoulders above anything else he did, but it could have been great. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 7:36:36 PM
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Casino Royale was the best Bond movie I've ever seen. Period.
I'm not a Brosnan detractor. I thought he made a great James Bond, but the only movie of his that I liked was Tomorrow Never Dies.
Although you could make the argument that the pre-credits sequence from Goldeneye was the best Bond opening sequence ev-ah. |
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Cannon Fodder
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Australia
176 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 9:26:57 PM
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| Dear god, that's an awful title. I don't care if it was the title of an original Ian Fleming story, it's terrible title, sounding more like it belongs on some pretentious art house movie than a Bond movie. Did George Lucas have a hand in selecting it? |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2008 : 9:58:34 PM
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"Indiana Jones and the Quantum of Solace". Hmmmm...
My first reaction was that it sounds like a really bad sci-fi pulp novella.
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2008 : 12:27:14 AM
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| No, that would be "Quantum of Solaris". |
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Mark Hawley
Minister of the Sacraments of Jabootu
Canada
48 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2008 : 01:47:39 AM
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When has Lucas ever titled a movie that could be considered "pretentious"?
In fact, I'd say the bulk of Lucas' film titles are the polar opposite of pretentiousness.
And where has it been said that Brosnan had it written into his contract that he have three woman per film? He only had two in his last one, Die Another Day.
Even before it was announced he wouldn't be playing Bond anymore, Brosnan went on record that he'd love to do a more serious, character driven Bond film.
The silliness of many of Brosnan's films were more the fault of the producers than anybody, and they probably felt that drop-dead gorgeous nuclear physicists named Christmas Jones harkened back to the days of Pussy Galore and such. Besides, the overwhelming majority of Bond films have at least two major Bond girls (one usually dies, and often one is a villian). Casino Royale is only different in that they both die.
And while I do like Casino Royale, certainly the best since License to Kill, I'm still a little cynical about the intent of the producers. Sure it's more realistic, down to Earth, and Bond gets hurt and cries (though he's done this in like four out of the last five or six Bond films), they were definitely trying to ape the success of Bourne and Batman Begins. As good as it was, it was still them just riding on the coattails of a trend - gritty, realistic, super serious with conflicted heroes. Die Another Day was them trying to outdo XXX and the like, which is why it had such an extreme sports angle. Moonraker was their answer to Star Wars, et al. |
Edited by - Mark Hawley on 01/26/2008 01:49:57 AM |
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R. Dittmar
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
420 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2008 : 07:28:23 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mark Hawley
And where has it been said that Brosnan had it written into his contract that he have three woman per film? He only had two in his last one, Die Another Day.
Even before it was announced he wouldn't be playing Bond anymore, Brosnan went on record that he'd love to do a more serious, character driven Bond film.
The silliness of many of Brosnan's films were more the fault of the producers than anybody, and they probably felt that drop-dead gorgeous nuclear physicists named Christmas Jones harkened back to the days of Pussy Galore and such. Besides, the overwhelming majority of Bond films have at least two major Bond girls (one usually dies, and often one is a villian). Casino Royale is only different in that they both die.
MH,
I should have given that a sarcasm alert, because I made up the thing about the contract. The Brosnan Bond movies were so relentlessly formulaic, though, I wouldn’t be surprised that they sat down with a check list ahead of time. Three women. Check. Car chase. Check. Bond running around a lot. Check. A lot of cheap gunfights. Check. Madman steals nuclear weapons. Check. Wait a minute! We’ve done all this three times in a row! OK, we’ll rip off Diamonds Are Forever. Madman builds giant diamond powered satellite. Check.
The Brosnan films were an attempt to make exactly the same movie over and over again in hopes that it would turn a profit every time. I shudder to think that they may have gotten away with it had Die Another Day not been such an obvious embarrassment. I’d like to feel sorry for Brosnan because I do think he may have had a top tier Bond movie in him, but at the same time when you’re the lead and they hand you a big steamer of a script and you don’t speak up then you’re just as culpable as everyone else. Maybe he was more disposable than I think so he was afraid to rock the boat.
quote:
Originally posted by Mark Hawley
And while I do like Casino Royale, certainly the best since License to Kill, I'm still a little cynical about the intent of the producers. Sure it's more realistic, down to Earth, and Bond gets hurt and cries (though he's done this in like four out of the last five or six Bond films), they were definitely trying to ape the success of Bourne and Batman Begins. As good as it was, it was still them just riding on the coattails of a trend - gritty, realistic, super serious with conflicted heroes. Die Another Day was them trying to outdo XXX and the like, which is why it had such an extreme sports angle. Moonraker was their answer to Star Wars, et al.
I don’t know if cynical is the right word, because I think the producers have always shown an admirable tendency to try new things in response to what’s currently popular at the theaters. That’s just good business sense and has helped the franchise stay topical over the years. What’s prevented them from being slavish copycats of current trends, however, is the fact that they’re always cognizant of what the long-time fans of the series think. Even when a movie’s popular (like Moonraker) they nonetheless realize that they’ve P.O.’ed their rabid fan base, so they go back to the drawing board. I’m fairly certain that was what happened this time as well after that Halle Berry/Madonna fiasco stopped stinking up theaters across the country. |
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Mark Hawley
Minister of the Sacraments of Jabootu
Canada
48 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2008 : 10:26:26 AM
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Ok, then that makes sense.
With the Brosnan Bond films, I feel they got a little shell-shocked from the relative box office failure of License to Kill and assured that GoldenEye be a Bond film with all the traditional elements: Bad guy acquires a nuclear weapon, quips left and right, gadgetry, etc.
Since GoldenEye (a film I must admit I generally liked) was a return to box office form, it showed that the formula (business-wise) was a winning one and each subsequent Brosnan film outgrossed the one before it.
The interesting thing about The World is Not Enough is that you can actually see that they were trying to significantly shake the formula - Bond gets seriously injured at the beginning (and stays that way through much of the film), he seems to genuinely fall in love with someone who will eventually betray him. Sure it's got a "bad guy acquires a nuclear weapon" plot and a very cheesy love interest, but the kernal for a more serious, gritty Bond film were there.
As for my cynicism regarding Casino Royale, maybe divided would be more a correct word. Sure, unlike Moonraker, Die Another Day, and Live and Let Die, Casino Royale turned out to be a top flight Bond film so I can't complain too much about them following trends (at least in this one case). And I do greatly respect the producers. It can't be easy to sustain a franchise for over 40 years with varous actors playing an iconic role. And to their credit, while there are a few Bond films that are fairly weak, I wouldn't dismiss any of them as Jaws IV/Superman IV-like fiascos. Even the worst ones are at their very basic, entertaining romps.
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Flangepart
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
2329 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2008 : 3:48:03 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by zombiewhacker
No, that would be "Quantum of Solaris".
QUANTUM LEAP OF SOLARIS.
Sam Beckett gets shunted sideways in the time stream, and ends up on a planet that is all ocean.
just before he goes under for the third time, he utters the words 'OH S*%&!'
Marvin the Paranoid Android to Buzz Lightyear "Too infinity and beyond-i've been there, its rubbish!"
"Hoody Hoo, i waste 'em with my cross bow!" Bob Herzog- KODT
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