We here @ Drifting Into Deep Water have been threatening a James Bond post for quite some time. Since we're always ready to make good on our threats (don't believe me? Just ask that sandwich I took down a couple hours ago!), we figured it'd be about time to actually go through w/ it, so here it is. I hope you're as excited about this as we are. Last May (maybe June) Sara & I met for a drink @ The Tap Room. During said drink, we realized we both had an ongoing intrest in watching all of the Bond films in chronological order so I put Dr. No in my queue & promply moved it to the top. Here we are in January, & I can finally say we're finished. We had to take a couple breaks along the way, but the real stumbling block was the fact that we didn't want to take any short-cuts, meaning we had to watch the David Niven/Orsen Wells/Woody Allen/Peter Sellers spoof, Casino Royale from 1967. We put it off as long as we could, but we watched it the other night so coupled w/ the 1954 made for TV version w/ an American Bond, we can now say we've seen them all.
Casino Royale:
As the 1st film bore this name as did 2 other films, we'll start here. The TV version from 1954 is pretty bad, but it's mid-50s TV so we'll let it slide. On the plus side, Peter Lorre plays Le Chiffre. The 2nd one w/ this name is pretty bad too, but in this case, they must have known they were making a shit movie. Not even Clash of the Titans has such a huge collection of great actors dropping a collective duece on the audience. Maybe Flash Gordon is more impressively bad, but not by much. That siad, it's a near miracle that the 2006 film worked @ all much less became one of the absolute best Bond films to date. You've all seen it a million times though so we don't need to say much more.
Thunderball/Never Say Never Again:
Both are based on the same Flemming book, & both star Sean Connery, but only one is actually awesome: Thunderball. For a long time it was my favorite Bond film, now I'd say it has dropped to maybe 5th on my list. I'd still watch it @ any time of any day, but then again, that could be said of all of these movies. I do like Never Say Never Again too though, & after his turn as an evil emporer in Flash Gordon, Max vo Sydow went on to play an evil genious in this Bond film. It's a fun movie w/ Connery doing his best to reprise the role he made famous 20 years earlier. It's not an official Eon film so they were actually competing w/ Octopussy in the summer of 1983. It lost @ the box office & in terms of quality, but it's fun none-the-less.
Octopussy:
W/ great lines like:
Bond: "We've got company."
Vijay: "That's OK, this is a company car."
we can't overlook the genious of the writing. However, it's clear that Roger Moore's tenure in the franchise was nearing its end. The locations are fantastic & the plot is pretty complex. It's better than many of the Moores, but it's no Live & Let Die.
Live & Let Die/The Man w/ the Golden Gun:
As the 1st 2 Moores, well discuss these together. They're really good. We enjoyed the Blaxplotation stuff in Live & Let Die & the campy psychadelia in The Man w/ the Golden Gun. The switch from Connery to Moore seemed an obvious move after Roger Moore's turns in maverick & The Saint. At the start of his Bond career, he was great. They were already taking it less seriously though w/ the inclusion of characters like Sheriff J. W. Pepper. He turns up in both of these movies & in the 2nd one, he's test-driving an AMC in Thailand in which they do a barrel-roll jump over a river before Christopher lee's character attaches wings to the top of his car & flies away. I did that once... it was pretty sweet.
The rest of the Roger Moores:
As previously explained, I think his last one, A View to a Kill, has the best theme song. It's also got Grace Jones & a robotic dog thing. So that's pretty sweet. Before that, & after his portrayal of Dr. Hans Zarkof in Flash Gordon, Topal played a Greek industrialist in For Your Eyes Only. It's a cool movie w/ a cool ski scene, a cool theme song, a cool chick armed w/ a cool cross-bow, & a cool cliff scene. It's cool. In his late 70s films, we got our favorite long running Bond villian, Jaws. of course, in Moonraker, he actually becomes a hero once he falls in love. Ahhh, love!
The rest of the Connerys:
Since most people haven't seen the 1954 Barry Nelson movie, Connery is consider the original Bond. He's cleary good & set the bar for the rest, but the movies are a bit slow compared to the action parked newer ones. The writing & storylines are awesome though, & of course, there's the volcano hide-out. Never underestimate the volcano hide-out.
The rest of the Lazenbys:
Considering he only made 1, this sub-title might be a bit clunky, but we're going w/ it anyway. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a shit movie, but he was actually good. And he wore a kilt for a bit as he was pretending to be a Scottish Lord. The holes in the plot & the day/night continuity issues were problematic though.
The Rest of the Craigs:
We mentioned his 1st one @ the beginning of this post. His other one isn't quite as good, but we liked it a lot more this time than the 1st time we saw it. It works well & has a darker side than the other films. His next one comes out in October:Skyfall. I'm super excited. It's gonna be cool, I'm sure.
The Brosnans & the Daltons:
After his turn in Flash Gordon, Timothy Dalton went on to make a couple Bond movies: a couple good ones, no less. I dug them a lot more this time than when I'd seen them before. Of course, we're not amused by the dismemberment by a shark of Felix. That was kind of sad.
All in all, the marathon was a fantastic time. 25 movies in 8 months. A good time was had by both of us. And for more on Bond, check out the previous Bond posts from
Visions of Ypsi.
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