So many people dangling from ropes off mountains and towers and aircraft, the entire sequence with the Neptune, the flooding caves; each one bordering on my worst nightmare and so well done.

And Moore still kills it, as suave and as slick as ever.

View Poll

View Poll

In Goldeneye we hear 006 and 007 jest back and forth during an operation “Closing time, James, last call” “Buy me a pint” I can easily imagine these two in a pub I used to frequent around the corner from SIS in Vauxhall. What do we reckon they’d be on as two men in the 90s? Fosters for Trevelyan and a Guinness for Bond?

He said about their work on the Bond films:

"I want to say that delicately, but personally I don't think Purvis and Wade are really doing Bond any favors. What happens with them, I suppose, is that they lay down the basics and inevitably another screenwriter, a Paul Haggis, Jez Butterworth or whatever, always comes in and completely rewrites the script. That seems to be the current pattern, where the director comes in and sort of wants his own writer. Barbara and Michael, to their credit, always accept."

https://preview.redd.it/yae0pxsqccvc1.jpg?width=509&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8af375d018085109400735f233b0f18091b717b2

Bond has used a Berretta, PPK and P99. If you were his armourer, what would you issue him?

Is it possible the Bond producers gets inspired by the Marie death ( Bourne's girlfriend ) for the death of Vesper in Casino Royale ? As a reminder, the Bourne Supremacy was released in 2004 and CR in 2006.

Longtime Bond fan. I’d even say I’m close to a Bond movie expert.

If you need my Bond point of view.

Connery is my fav. Moore was my first, and is awesome. Lazenby’s movie is one of my favs. Dalton is criminally underrated Brosnan is a good Bond in uneven films Craig’s Casino R. and Skyfall are truly great. Quantum and Spectre aren’t close to great.

With that said. I for some reason refuse to watch No Time to Kill. I honestly don’t know why. I think because I don’t want Bond to get ruined for me, like Star Wars and Marvel has been for me.

So I’m asking the crew here, should I finally watch it?

If you had to rank all of the James Bond actors, how would you rank them?

For me, it is 1. Brosnan 2. Connery 3. Moore 4. Craig 5. Dalton 6. Lanzenby

Rankings are very subjective but based on what I like in a Bond actor, this is my list. It does change from time to time however depending on my personal taste

Just noticed this tonight watching Goldeneye. Why would Eon do this?

...director John Glen brought us this turkey, which reunited most of the principal Licence to Kill cast, including Robert Davi, Benicio Del Toro and Timothy Dalton, and a few other former Bond actors. Well, Dalton was due to take the lead role, but dropped out reportedly due to disagreements with Glen, and Tom Selleck took the role. This could have been Dalton's third Bond film. See what happens when you tangle up a franchise in red tape? The director and actors have to do something to fill their time. Sometimes they end up making crap.

Just watched an episode of EMERGENCY! TV show, S4E2, and Richard Kiel was a guest actor. Played a mean brute butcher (meat & cheese) from Transylvania.

Don't blame me but I have the impression that these women of the 60s-70s-80s had a unique charm unique to them and their time. Yet I am in my twenties. Maybe I’m completely mistaken. What do you think ?

I just thought about this a few days ago. His attire is on point for the 70s, and the characters fits the bill for the movie. A sleazy lawyer in Las Vegas verging on a mid-life crisis, with a probable finger in the the diamond smuggling pie. Whilst impossible of course (Odenkirk was nine in 1971), the character is synonymous with DAF and would work very well.

Apologies in advance that many of my notes centered on humorous moments in a supposedly humorless film, and Bond elements in a supposedly "James Bourne" film.

• Cars running off rocky cliffs during the pre-title sequence call back to Dr. No.
• A cool title sequence from MK12. I love the font and gunbarrel-esque word animations. The graphics seem to be more energetic than most of Daniel Kleinman's offerings. But that of course may be due to the energetic theme song—a song I don't hate by the way. I only wish Jack White had performed it alone.
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #1: 007 drops Mr. White into the interrogation chair and quips, “don’t bleed to death” as he walks away straightening his tie and cuffs.
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #2: The innocent bystander cutaway trope. During the post-credits footchase, Mitchell rushes by an old woman on the stairs causing her to drop her box of fruit. The camera cuts to her, dismayed and muttering in Italian.
• The bespectacled analyst in the tweed jacket who traces Mitchell's banknotes, I know he isn't Q, but maybe he's meant to represent him?
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #3: M: “Ask him about Slate.” / Tanner: “She wants to know about Slate.” / 007: “Tell her Slate was a dead end.” / Tanner: “Slate was a dead end.” / M: “Dammit he killed him!”
• Bond passes the Haitian dock guard a Universal Exports business card with the name R. Sterling, calling back to 007's alias in The Spy Who Loved Me. There’s at least one additional homage to TSWLM—Bond dropping Haines’ bodyguard off the roof a la Sandor. But could Bond’s lie about his travel plans be another? "You're gonna get a phone call in a minute. Would you mind telling them I'm headed for Cairo?"
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #4: 007 drops an unconscious Camille into the arms of a dock attendant. “Excuse me, she’s seasick.” So very Connery.
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #5: M asks once more: “What happened to Slate?” / Bond: “I’m not dwelling on the past, I don’t think you should either.”
• I love how Greene deceives everyone on the possibility of oil on the plot of land he’s after. Beam: "We do nothing to stop a coup in Bolivia, and in exchange, the new government gives America the lease to any oil found." / Greene, with a smirk: "If it's oil you want."
• David Arnold’s Night at the Opera—*chef’s kiss*. One of my favorite musical tracks in the series.
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #6: M phones Bond to recall him to London after the opera shootout. Bond, noticing her tone: “Is that stress in your voice?”
• Making Mathis a recurring character is a Fleming element, as he’s prominent in both the Casino Royale and From Russia With Love novels.
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #7: Fields: “If you attempt to flee, I’ll arrest you, drop you off in jail, and take you to the plane in chains, understand?” / Bond: “Perfectly, after you.” / Mathis: “I think she has handcuffs.” / Bond: “I do hope so.”
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #8 (and an example of Bond’s snobby tastes that we don’t see much in the Craig era): Unsatisfied with Field’s choice of a shabby hotel to fit their cover as teachers, Bond immediately turns and leaves. “I’d rather stay in a morgue,” he says before taking a cab to the much more expensive Andean Grand Hotel. He greets the check-in clerk in Spanish, “Hello, we're teachers on sabbatical…and we've just won the lottery.”
• The classic engage the villain at a swanky party trope. We hadn’t seen that since, what, Tomorrow Never Dies? No, it must’ve been Die Another Day.
• After Greene’s speech, a guy asks him his thoughts on people spending half their paychecks for clean water. The guys sounds EXACTLY LIKE Guillermo del Toro.
• Underappreciated Bond humor moment #9: Greene: “My friends call me Dominic.” / Bond: “I’m sure they do.”
• M meets with a British government minister about Bond’s shenanigans in Bolivia. He reminds me of Defense Minister Gray from Moore’s films.
• Bond's skirmish in the elevator before encountering a surprised M might be my favorite moment in the movie. Once again, Arnold’s score here is *chef’s kiss*.
• When we cut to the Perla de las Dunas, Medrano and the police chief are chatting about the hotel’s fuel cells. Classic Bond Chekhov’s gun trope.
• The epilogue where Bond confronts Kabira as he seduces a Canadian agent is inspired by 007 in New York, so another Fleming element.

..........................................................................................................

For some more general thoughts:

• Let's address the elephants in the room. Yes, the editing is bad. Yes, the pacing is too relentless for my tastes. Yes, there needed to be more room for the story to breathe. My feelings toward those flaws haven't changed much. But I promised myself that on this viewing, I wouldn't let them get in the way of the positive qualities the film does bring to the table. Namely...
• Otherwise strong production values including sleek cinematography, a crisp color palette, and my pick for David Arnold's best work on the series—personally my second favorite Bond soundtrack topped only by OHMSS.
• A villainous scheme that is real-world tangible and provides for some biting commentary on American and British geopolitical engagement.
• A meaningful personal undercurrent that involves Bond dealing with lingering feelings from the events of Casino Royale, while proving before skeptical eyes his mettle for the job. This sense of emotion and personal impact is more subtle compared to Craig's later outings.
• Relatedly, Craig's performance here recalls Connery's sardonic curtness in Thunderball along with Dalton's haunted but not overly-emotional turns in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. "James Bourne" he is not.
• Camille's story is nice foil to Bond's sort of but not really revenge-fueled motivations. She's competent and a woman of her own agency. A top ten Bond girl in my opinion.
• As noted, there's a sharp wit that feels refreshing compared to the sillier humor in Craig's final two films.
• Skyfall and Casino Royale are undoubtedly my favorite Craig films, yet I've struggled to order the remaining three in my rankings. After watching them in somewhat close succession, it's clear to me that Quantum lands ahead of Spectre. Spectre may flow more nicely, but Quantum is so much more interesting conceptually, and Craig's performance is stronger.
• The question now is, could I rank Quantum higher than No Time to Die? I just might. My biggest gripe with NTTD is how it stuffs in so many huge plot points, each of which could carry their own film. QoS suffers from a similar flaw of too many plot threads. But compared to NTTD's, they are refreshingly less gratuitous. No earth-shattering revelations or monumental deaths. And again I prefer Craig's take on Bond here. So that's a question I'll have to think about...