Commander RNVR
Posted 14 August 2004 - 05:39 PM
And just how exactly is it the worst excuse for a Bond film?Moonraker could quite possibly be the worst excuse for a bond film ever. It's plot is stupid, the villain is down right unrealisitc. When in reality will we ever have a space fight with lasers?
Cammander CMG
Posted 15 August 2004 - 03:56 AM
Commander RNVR
Posted 15 August 2004 - 04:02 AM
Quite so. The plot for Moonraker is indeed one of the harder ones to swallow, but just because it's a little more different, it's often criticized right off the bat.If a lack of realism made for a bad Bond film, the series would never have made it past Dr. No.
Cammander CMG
Posted 15 August 2004 - 04:05 AM
Commander RNVR
Posted 15 August 2004 - 04:07 AM
Commander RNVR
Posted 15 August 2004 - 05:48 AM
Out of interest, which one is that, Qwerty?I'll never have a problem with the writing overall. Yeah there are a few bad lines like all Bond films, Wood even admits the one by him being the worst of all.
Commander RNVR
Posted 15 August 2004 - 05:53 AM
Lt. Commander
Posted 22 April 2013 - 07:07 PM
Don't know if anybody's seen this but looks like B&S were intending to film MR after TSWLM as early as 1974. Link.
The line he calls the worst is: "I never learned to read."
Wood says he didn't write that. It was an on set ad-lib.
Lt. Commander
Posted 22 April 2013 - 07:38 PM
Don't know if anybody's seen this but looks like B&S were intending to film MR after TSWLM as early as 1974. Link.
Glid - what a great find. I guess the question to be asked is - how did they envision MR in '74. Something with at least some shreds of the novel perhaps?
I wonder why they listed FYEO as the "Bond will return in" at the end of TSWLM?
Fascinating stuff.
Commander
Posted 22 April 2013 - 11:34 PM
Good point Jim.
I wonder if the MR that Cubby discussed back in '76 might not have been more like the book. (Pitty such a film was never made.)
Maybe Drax would give England a space shuttle which in reality was a doomsday weapon whcih immediately after take off would turn towards London and destroy it?
I think sending Bond up into space was a reaction to Star Wars and a bad one at that.
I remember seeing MR in the theaters and enjoying the 1st half but by the time Jaws starts falling off of cliffs I became nauseous. I thought "well there goes the franchise!"
I think in this day and age you could update the original MR. You mention an "English space shuttle" turned on London. Consider:-
The Moonraker - could be a private spacecraft of the kind Sir Richard Branson plans to fly.
Drax - in this century, not an ex-Nazi, but a hardline supporter of the old Soviet system. A sleeper agent, perhaps, who has made a fortune in the West but still remains loyal to a system that no longer exists.(A multi millionaire who supports the Communists? Wasn't that what Goldfinger was?) He then lost a substantial sum of money in the 2008 crash, and blames Wall Street/City of London. He wants to take down the system in a spectacular way - by using the shuttle as a ballistic missile aimed at the financial heart of either the US or UK - and with some extremely wealthy "celebs" aboard for the ride!
(I know, it sounds a bit like GE, but I'm attempting to transpose Fleming's original idea into 2013.)
Gala Brand - pretty much the "Holly Goodhead" role - MI6 or CIA embedded in Drax's organisation.
Bond's assignment - I'm not sure the "cheats at cards" reason for investigating Drax would cut it these days. Not in an era when we know that, for example, politicians cheat at expenses. It wouldn't so much "finish a man in society" as make people think "so what?" Instead, I'd build up the "Tallon discovering something amiss" side of things, along with another small side issue in the book - Drax short selling, as if he knows something is amiss. And we could introduce a second female character - a financial journalist? - who is on to something about Drax.
My take on the original Fleming plot of Moonraker, brought forward to the present. I think it could be done. I doubt it will be though.