49 replies to this topic

[George White]

Any more? Janet Brown as Thatch was cast because of her impressions of the Iron Lady on The BBC Mike Yarwood Show and John Wells played Denis on West End, in Anyone for Denis. 

[dtuba]

 

Saint Mark, about the Bullit vs DAF car chase:

 

I respect your opinion, but I must say I'm very surprised that you think this way!

First of all, the DAF car chase is filmed in a very limited area, in maybe two or three Vegas Streets and the parking lot is maybe even filmed at Pinewood studios (I'm not sure), the Bullit chase is on a much bigger scale, driving straight through San Fransico and on the highway,

second it's not played for laughs, like the DAF chase clearly is. Director Peter Yates and actor Steve McQueen wanted the chase (and the whole movie) as realistic as possible, so you can't do fancy and funny stuff.

I admit the carchases of The French Connection and Ronin are ofcourse also great and ways better than the DAF chase, but they lack one important thing:

the lead actors don't drive the cars themselves!

Steve McQueen is famous of doing most of his own stunts himself and was also a great racedriver.

In Bullit you can clearly see him behind the steering wheel and doing most of the stuntwork, only the last scene is done by a stuntman.

Ofcourse when your lead actor is doing the carchase himself, you can not do the most crazy stunts, because that is too dangerous and you have to have him back in one peace for the next scene!

 

Somehow I don't think many people will think about the DAF car chase if somebody ask "What is your favorite/the best movie car chase" and Bullit will be in most people's top 5!

@Grard Bond

 

I did watch the carchase scene from Bullit again, of course I got it in my collection, and the carchase itself comes across as pedestrian. While it might have been something special once, I find that having seen many carchases over the years it comes across as overrated.

 

And of course it is special that the lead actor did his own driving, but that does not take away that quite a few movies have more than excellent drivers that do quite extra ordinary stuff. Nowadays the lead actors are not allowed to drive cars due to insurance reasons so McQueen was lucky and of a dying breed.

 

But while perhaps grandiously filmed the carchase in Bullit lacks excitement and fun, that said there are far better carchases in the Bondseries than DAF but they generally come across as more exciting or fun, even the chase in QoB comes across as very dynamic.

 

While Bullit may remain a classic, when it comes to carchases it would not feature in my top 5 of carchase movies.

Perhaps McQueen is more loved in the US than in the rest of the world.

 

The 1968 Ford Mustang GT390 Fastback in Bullitt is infinitely superior to the 1971 Mach 1 used in DAF.

[Orion]

Been said elsewhere (even on this thread) but Bond and Christopher Nolan's TDK Trilogy have an oddly symbiotic relationship with the Nolan's borrowing liberally from Bond (and both Chris and Jonathan have said as such several times) whilst Daniel Craig's Bond movies borrowed liberally in return (again Campbell and Mendes said as much several times for their respective movies) 

[Dustin]

Been said elsewhere (even on this thread) but Bond and Christopher Nolan's TDK Trilogy have an oddly symbiotic relationship with the Nolan's borrowing liberally from Bond (and both Chris and Jonathan have said as such several times) whilst Daniel Craig's Bond movies borrowed liberally in return (again Campbell and Mendes said as much several times for their respective movies)

No doubt true. But it's hardly surprising when a cultural icon of Bond's importance gets such a major makeover successfully this practically had to lead to repercussions throughout the industry, regardless of which franchise came first to pick up on themes like gritty, dark or pseudorealistic. Once the trend is in the air there's no stopping it.

Edited by Dustin, 25 October 2014 - 10:56 AM.

[Hockey Mask]

Smokey and the bandit was a copy of sheriff pepper

[jrcjohnny99]

Smokey and the bandit was a copy of sheriff pepper

 

Actually I'd say Sheriff Pepper was a played for laughs/OTT version of the character played by Rod Steiger in "In The Heat Of The Night"

[delfloria]

Don't forget that "The man from U.N.C.L.E." used gyrocopters before YOLT did.

[Double Naught spy]

It is painfully obvious that 'Bond 24' is attempting to capitalize on the popularity of the Jack Bauer TV series!  

[seawolfnyy]

Wasn't the helicopter chase from FRWL almost a straight shot-for-shot rip-off of the scene from North by Northwest?

[AMC Hornet]

Liam Neeson as the director in The Dead Pool:

"It's not a rip-off, it's an homage!"

[Zen Razor]

Skyfall got inspirations from Dark Knight didn't steal.

Bond possibly got inspirations from certain films but it definitely did not steal from Jason Bourne. These are modern action flicks they are intended to look a certain way. If anything the original Ian Fleming novel was realistic.

[Brisco]

George White is right about Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die. And it's actually quite a good Bond knock-off. But of course you have to go into any of those Eurospy movies with different expectations from Bond movies. The budgets are much, much lower, as are the production values and acting.  Here's my review of KTGAMTD, which highlights a lot of those Moonraker similarities:  

 

http://doubleosectio...-make-them.html

 

There are actually lots of instances of Bond movies stealing from Eurospy movies--even though, of course, the entire Eurospy genre steals its very existence from the Bond movies! The entire remote control  helicopter sequence at the beginning of FYEO is pretty much shot for shot from Flashman (1967:

 

http://doubleosectio...67-hero-is.html

 

The 1966 OSS 117 movie Terror in Tokyo engages in a lot of the same Tokyo spyjinks that turn up in YOLT, and even includes a big ship with an opening bow that swallows smaller ships which informs not only YOLT but TSWLM:

 

http://doubleosectio...-tokyo-aka.html

 

James Tont: Operazione UNO (1965) did a car that transforms into a submarine before TSWLM. (Though there were probably other spy movies that did too.) And some early spy parodies managed to prefigure 007. Carry On Spying had an underground monorail before YOLT, and The Road to Hong Kong had a base that was a lot like Blofelds complete with a launchpad for rockets:

 

http://doubleosectio...-1962-road.html

[George White]

Carry On Spying also has the killer-milkman Milchmann, who clearly influenced Necros in TLD. 

[George White]

any others... 

any most obscure ones...

[Major Tallon]

In the 1970's vintage "Black Sunday," Israeli intelligence agent Robert Shaw is in a helicopter pursuing the bomb-laden Goodyear Blimp as it heads toward the Super Bowl.  The helicopter overtakes the blimp in flight, and Shaw descends on a cable onto the blimp's tail and fastens the hook to a mooring point on the blimp.  The helicopter then tows the blimp out to sea.  Sounds a lot like LTK to me.

[saint mark]

In the 1970's vintage "Black Sunday," Israeli intelligence agent Robert Shaw is in a helicopter pursuing the bomb-laden Goodyear Blimp as it heads toward the Super Bowl.  The helicopter overtakes the blimp in flight, and Shaw descends on a cable onto the blimp's tail and fastens the hook to a mooring point on the blimp.  The helicopter then tows the blimp out to sea.  Sounds a lot like LTK to me.

but I liked Black Sunday better, 

[DaveBond21]

Casino Royale (2006) - Vesper wearing red in Venice, lost in the crowds, is an homage to the chiller "Don't Look Now" (1973).

[George White]

Anything else? 

[S K Y F A L L]

GE and CR from NSNA. Watch laser and first black Felix. 

[jaguar007]

Of course the end of Skyfall was perhaps influenced by Home Alone