59 replies to this topic

[stromberg]

All of the Bond movies are difficult to watch over and over again by one's self.  I can take the most exciting film of the series and feel like I need to be doing something else while it is playing in the background.

Truth be known is that I enjoy any Bond film when I am watching it with someone who has never seen that particular entry.  And that includes the worse of the lot - TWINE!

But usually I will view them for research reasons or just to have some Bondian background noise while I'm working on something else.

However, I'm usually playing a Connery or Moore film before I would choose Dalton or Brosnan.

Same here. I tend to have the movie that relates to the topic I'm working on. Start at the respective scenes and just have it running, eventually skipping back and forward. I've added it up to seing Dr. No six times one day .

But I still watch them as whole, just for fun every now and then (often picking up pen and paper at some point to take notes on things I never noticed before). The most difficult one is TB. I do like the movie, but as I usually watch them late, I tend to fall asleep during the underwater scenes. No dialogue, cool music, and you've seen it a hundred times, just close the eyes for a second and off I am...

[Mr. Somerset]

I guess I haven't sat thru one from UA logo to James Bond will Return credit in quite awhile. Yet, I seem to always have one playing. I used to watch them all the way thru constantly (teen years). TLD was one I never tired of. The hardest is probably NSNA because it's so long. Gotta be in the mood for it. Out of the officials, it's probably TWINE. I never really tire of Dr No, FRWL or GF. Also, I don't count watching them on Spike, AMC or whatever.

Edited by Mr. Somerset, 16 August 2005 - 06:28 AM.

[4 Ur Eyez Only]

I have never stayed awake for: You Only Live Twice

I have tried 3 times, and all 3 times I have fallen asleep. After falling asleep twice, the third time I was ready to see this movie & again I fell asleep.

[tdalton]

I have never stayed awake for: You Only Live Twice

I have tried 3 times, and all 3 times I have fallen asleep. After falling asleep twice, the third time I was ready to see this movie & again I fell asleep.

I too have fallen asleep many times while trying to watch You Only Live Twice. The first time I ever tried to watch it, I fell asleep somewhere in the middle of it. I don't actually think that I've ever seen it all the way through in one sitting, but I've come close a couple of times (fell asleep towards the end) and then picked it up at that point the next day and finished the movie.

I think that it is one of the harder Bond movies to sit through, but certainly not the hardest one to sit through.

[Qwerty]

I take breaks often during alot of them simply because there's usually something that I must/go to do. I've been watching a few of them all the way through lately however.

[British Assasin]

For some reason I can't get through Thunderball. It's a great Bond Movie, but the underwater sequences seem to lag on.

[Skudor]

I go through periods where I will have watched a certain movie too many times and start finding it tedious, only to re-discover it later. At the moment I probably wouldn't pick up Octopussy.

[vosne]

If we include the non-Eons it has to be Never Say Never Again. It looks like a sophomore film project; the sets are just silly, the music is lame and the narrative fails to grip.

[JackLordIsFelix]

Tomorrow Never Dies has worn out its welcome for me and I can practically recite TSWLM by heart. However, it took a lot of viewings before I finally soured on it, and that's saying something.

[tdalton]

If we include the non-Eons it has to be Never Say Never Again. It looks like a sophomore film project; the sets are just silly, the music is lame and the narrative fails to grip.

For me, if we're going to include the non-EON Bond films when considering what films are the hardest to sit through, then I would have to go with 1967's Casino Royale as the hardest Bond movie to sit through. That film was simply one of the worst films I have ever seen.

[licensetostudy]

My choice will be popular with DLibrasnow. I choose TWINE as the hardest Bond film to sit through. I love the pre-credit sequence especially the boat chase, but after this start it becomes difficult. The section during the MI6 headquaters in Scotland after the title sequence goes on forever, and most of the action scenes are not terribly interesting especially the submarine scene which can get boring but I started warming up to it a bit. It is more interested in its drama than the action, but even though the film alowed most of its characters to be interesting like Elektra, M and Renard, the action suffers because the drama is put into center stage. I like my Bond movies with fun action scenes like the FYEO ski and bike chase, or Little Nelly. Another problem with TWINE is that it's so bleak, dark, and has a depressing look with awful puke colored cinematography; GoldenEye's cinematography isn't much better. I prefer a little color like we saw during the YOLT volcano fight and Solitaire's room in the Kananga house on San Monique.

[ComplimentsOfSharky]

Thunderball, I like the movie a lot but I don't always make it all the way through. I think its some of the poor editing around the end, I just get tired of that.

Edited by ComplimentsOfSharky, 21 August 2005 - 02:06 PM.

[SecretAgent007]

Well, at one time it would have been Octopussy. I bought it when it was released on video ($99.00!!) watched it so much that I broke the VCR tape (thank God when laser disc and then dvd came along). Actually, the one's that I like the most, I only watch a few times a year (OHMSS/GOLDFINGER/DR.NO/FRWL) because I don't want to get sick of them. I also agree it is more fun to watch them with a person that has never seen the film.

A few, I hardly ever watch (DAF, second half of TOLT, MR, TMWTGG, GOLDENEYE, TWINE, NSNA{2 viewings since 1983, and of course DAD) because they are not my idea of Bond. Although I can be listening to any of the soundtracks and view the film in my head from gunbarrel to credits...The best Bond movies are when you read a Fleming novel and picture HIS vision in your minds eye. His is the only true Bond. I would much rather read a Fleming novel a few hundred times than watch any one of the films that many.

[bryonalston]

I agree with whoever said they couldn't watch the 1967 version of CR. I could only watch bits and pieces of it before falling asleep or getting completely lost with all of the characters. To this day I've never seen the film in one sitting, and I'm pretty sure that there's a lot that I missed. I could barely even watch the 1954 version of CR (however, I made it through eventually.) I hope that the third time CR is adapted is indeed a charm.

[Kingdom Come]

I agree with dinovelvet, for me also it would have to be Thunderball as it is soooooooooooooooooooooooo uninteresting to watch. LTK because it is so badly directed and cheap looking. I'd also nominate a sacred cow in the form of From Rusiia With Love - Young was a terrible director and ruined all three films he directed. Not too keen on sitting through Tomorrow Never Dies /The World Is Not Enough either.

[Onyx2626]

YOLT
it always takes two sittings...after Sean breaks the statue over the big guys head it's all downhill
i really only watch it for that helicopter shot off Bond being pursued, that's brilliant.

[Turn]

I agree with whoever said they couldn't watch the 1967 version of CR. I could only watch bits and pieces of it before falling asleep or getting completely lost with all of the characters. To this day I've never seen the film in one sitting, and I'm pretty sure that there's a lot that I missed. I could barely even watch the 1954 version of CR (however, I made it through eventually.) I hope that the third time CR is adapted is indeed a charm.

I was fast-forwarding the DVD not long ago and noticed the same sort of thing. It just jumps around all over the place, no real rhyme or reason other than the thing was a mess to begin with. Since it was from '67, it's like it was edited after on Haight-Ashbury Street in San Francisco following a be-in.

But I still kind of like it. I totally agree on the '54 version, though. Bond as a typical, two-fisted American tough guy with a buzz cut just doesn't do it for me.

[vosne]

Relative to the rest of the Eon series, can anyone make sense out of the narrative in TMWTGG?

[Kalel577]

As much as I love the scenes in Venice, I would have to say "Moonraker". Michael Lonsdale and Lois Chiles give line readings reminiscent of deadwood flotsam. What saves it for me are Bond's one-liners (among the best in the series), and Roger Moore's interactions with Richard Keil.

[JackLordIsFelix]

"I'd also nominate a sacred cow in the form of From Rusiia With Love - Young was a terrible director and ruined all three films he directed."

I guess it takes all kinds to make this world go around, but still, are you kidding me? Terence Young virtually created the film version of the James Bond character, and FRWL is his piece de resistance. I've dissed Guy Hamilton and John Glen on several occasions, but I have nothing bad to say about Terence Young.

[vosne]

I'd also nominate a sacred cow in the form of From Rusiia With Love - Young was a terrible director and ruined all three films he directed."



It may be said that it was Terence Young who, in fact, created the James Bond that excites us. Young took Connery and taught him the requisite look, knowledge and savoire faire that differs so much from the literary Bond [who, it should be remembered, refused to patronise a tea shop in the novel TB because the proprietor charged him for emptying the sugar bowl and hankered after a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese washed down with a raw chianti.]
Picture the Sean Connery of 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' as Bond--James Bond. That's what you'd have without Young. THANK YOU TERENCE!!!

[a_crook]

It's hard to say... I recently went back and tried to watch The World is Not Enough and had trouble stiting through it because it was so god awful. I would have to put Die Another Day in the same category. I'm talking acting, lack of believablity, and so on. A few Roger Moore movies fall in that same area of weakness.

I would rather sit through a slow moving Connery film way before I would see some of the recent junk.

[Johnnie]

DAD is really bad.Awful scrpit, Invisible car, and Jinx Bonds equal.I cant stand all of the Brosnans films with the exception of Goldeneye.Perhaps it is not Brosnans fault for the bad films (IMHO), but I am glad to see him go.

I enjoyed all of Connerys, Daltons and Moores films. Connerys was so suave, and cool. Dalton was serious and dangerous. Moore was sophisticated and funny, . IMO Brosnan could of been a good Bond, but was the victim of terrible scripts,and politically correct producers. I would also like to see a new M. Dench is a tiny 70 year old women, and should not be the head of British secret service.

[Johnnie]

DAD is  really  bad.Awful scrpit, Invisible  car, and Jinx Bonds  equal.I cant  stand all  of  the Brosnans  films with  the  exception  of  Goldeneye.Perhaps  it  is not  Brosnans  fault  for the  bad  films (IMHO), but  I  am  glad  to  see  him  go.

I  enjoyed  all  of  Connerys, Daltons  and  Moores  films.  Connerys  was  so  suave, and  cool. Dalton  was  serious  and dangerous. Moore  was sophisticated and funny, . IMO  Brosnan  could  of  been  a  good Bond, but was  the  victim  of terrible  scripts,and politically  correct  producers. I  would  also like  to  see  a  new M. Dench  is  a tiny  70  year  old  women, and  should not  be  the  head  of British  secret service.

Does anyone else agree the series is going down hill fast? Do to IMO very dreadful scripts.

[Kara Milovy]

I can watch any of them over and over and enjoy them. But Dr. No was my ex's favorite, so sometimes that one's hard.

[Kingdom Come]

I'm finding all of them hard to sit through. But I would single out a few. . . DN / FRWL / TB / OHMSS / LTK / TND / TWINE.

[ComplimentsOfSharky]

I can watch any of them over and over and enjoy them. But Dr. No was my ex's favorite, so sometimes that one's hard.

I know that feeling, the book OHMSS is something similar for me. It's still my favorite, but sometimes it brings up memories I don't really want.

I've found recently I don't really sit through TND anymore, I just cycle through the best parts. Oddly its still one of my favorites, I think I should just take a break from it for a little while, haha.

Edited by ComplimentsOfSharky, 15 September 2005 - 02:59 PM.

[tonymascia1]

AVTAK - not due to pace or action, but becuase it's the most shoddily made of the Bond films.

The actors in general were fine; it's alomst like the production, editing, and effects teams said "we don't have to spend the time at our craft the way we did before, people will come see it anyway..."

[Qwerty]

DAD is  really  bad.Awful scrpit...

Welcome to CBn.

Agreed about the script. It's a shame because while they were concentrating on getting this 40th anniversary gag in here and that one there...the actual plot suffered.

[DLibrasnow]

Its been about two years since I last watched a James Bond movie. I have all the DVDs but never watch the movies.

The answer to this question would have been A VIEW TO A KILL or NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN a few years ago because those are my favorite James Bond films and I used to watch them over and over again.