39 replies to this topic

[Adam]

What do you all think is the worst titled film in the series? I'd have to go with License To Kill, solely because the filmmakers clearly couldn't think of something original...

[scaramanga]

( . )( : )

[Mister Asterix]

The Living Daylights has always been one of my favourites, too. It was my favourite of the Fleming short stories and I loved the movie. And I felt the title very appropriate for both.

[Adam]

don't ask me why, but the Living Daylights has always been one of my favorites...I guess maybe b/c i always thought it was a slick, cool sounding title, but I couldn't tell you for sure...

[Evil Doctor Cheese]

The Man With The Golden Gun has a certain mystery to it even though it is such a descriptive title.

I really don't like Tomorrow Never Lies, even less than Tomorrow Never Dies. Tomorrow Never Lies relates to the film too much... Tomorrow Never Dies (although nonsencical) has that mystery in the title that the series is famous for. The best titles aren't clever they're just one word titles like Goldfinger and Thunderball... they're still mysterious as you wonder "what exactly is a Moonraker or a Goldeneye".

License to Kill is crap and I'm not too keen on The Living Daylights actually, for some reason.

[freemo]

I disagree with those who don't like 'The Man with the Golden Gun' as a title. A Goldene Gun sounds like the ultimate weapon. And for 'OHMSS' it goes well with the novel, Bond is part of HMSS and can't escape it, evident by losing his wife in a way related to his job.

My Worst titles...
1 - Tomorrow Never Dies
2 - For Your Eyes Only
3 - Licence to Kill

[Sting Kevlar-009]

Even stranger: Has anybody noticed that all the Russians in Bond movies speak English?

In my opinion, the three worst bond titles are:
1.On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
2.The Man With The Golden Gun.
3.Tomorrow Never Dies. (if they had kept it at 'lies' it would have been one of the best titles)

[MDSmith]

Tomorrow Never Dies definatly, just to put this out there, does anybody find it weird that a Russian based EMP weapon called GoldenEye?

[scaramanga]

macca_bond (13 Nov, 2001 03:51 p.m.):
For me the worst title is TMWTGG..! It's a little bit too obvious/descriptive and leaves nothing to the imagination!!
I mean they didn't call Goldfinger "THE WOMAN PAINTED FROM HEAD TO TOE IN GOLD PAINT" !!!!!!!

No, but thats why in the song they call him THE MAN WITH THE MIDAS TOUCH.

[Macca]

For me the worst title is TMWTGG..! It's a little bit too obvious/descriptive and leaves nothing to the imagination!!
I mean they didn't call Goldfinger "THE WOMAN PAINTED FROM HEAD TO TOE IN GOLD PAINT" !!!!!!!

[Blofeld's Cat]

Adam (30 Oct, 2001 07:17 a.m.):
....License To Kill, solely because the filmmakers clearly couldn't think of something original...

On that basis, they all share the worst title, except Tomorrow Never Dies.
The temerity of EON to use the Fleming titles and catch phrases.

[Adam]

I shouldn't have used "original..." but I think you see my point

[Sting Kevlar-009]

On first release, Thunderball was called Calm Down Mr Bond! in Holland.

I wouldn't call it the best or the worst title, but it is certainly the most original!

[zerozeroseven]

Anyone remember at the end of Octopussy when the screen read, James Bond will return in ..."From a View to a Kill". I never understood why they took out the "From". I can't imagine the second Bond movie being called "Russia with Love". It might've worked with FYEO or OHMSS, but A View to a Kill never really sounded right by itself. I read an interesting article with performers of various Bond theme songs, and members of Duran Duran were joking that it was hard writing a Bond theme song with a title as bad as A View To a Kill, but, "it could've been worse," they said. "It could've been Octopussy"

[Dr. Tynan]

I'm not sure about this one. Out of the pre-Brosnan Bonds, my least favourite title would probably be The Living Daylights.

I'm not that keen on the Brosnan titles, Tomorrow Never Dies is my least favourite out of these ones.

[piotr007]

I like all the non- fleming titles (TND, TWINE, LTK).
Therefore, any titles I should not like are ones I can't mention, because it would be a profanation.
(nice rhyme, isn't it?)
Also, I don't like Goldeneye, but you know, Fleming's house on Jamaica...

[piotr007]

(nice rhyme, isn't it?)

You're right, it isn't.

[Blofeld's Cat]

White Persian (05 Dec, 2001 11:40 p.m.):

macca_bond (13 Nov, 2001 03:51 p.m.):
For me the worst title is TMWTGG..! It's a little bit too obvious/descriptive and leaves nothing to the imagination!!

The Man With The Golden Gun, like a number of Fleming's titles is a twist on a familiar phrase, in this case the novel (and subsequent film) "The Man With The Golden Arm".
I'll grant you though that it isn't Fleming's most inspired title. Wonder if he'd have come up with something better if he'd lived.

"THE MAN WITH A THIRD NIPPLE"

Now, that would have grabbed some attention!

[Tanger]

I have to agree that Licence to Kill is one of the weakest Bond titles. They should have opted for one of the original titles such as, "Private Revenge" or "Licence Revoked".
About Dr. No. In Italy it was actually titled...Licence to Kill and so when the 1989 film was released it was titled...Private Revenge.

I think the producers should have made reference to the drugs storyline and the Leiter maiming.

Anyway I have a great choice for the title of Bond20:-

"Everything Or Nothing"

It stems from the rumoured meaning of EON and I think the producers should use this as a title or at least include it in a forthcoming movie.

On disadvantage though. All the Bond films are nearly always referred to in shorthand ( ie. FRWL,TWINE) and so if the above was to become a title, the film would be known as EON. This would probably cause confusion amongst certain people.

What are the thoughts of thw rest of you guys? Do you feel this could well be a title?

Post your thoughts to me and if this proves popular I will start either a forum for forthcoming titles (created by you guys) or for alternative titles for the existing movies.

See yah all

[Blofeld's Cat]

Adam (30 Oct, 2001 03:57 p.m.):
I shouldn't have used "original..." but I think you see my point

Yes, I do know where you're coming from.

I think that Licence To Kill was a better title than TWINE, in the broader sense. Most audience members(not just fans) would be aware of the catch phrase "licence to kill" as there are so many references to this throughout the series.

But not many of the general audience (and the novice fan) would be aware of "the world is not enough" based on one reference in OHMSS.

Just think of it, unless you are a fan or one who is aware of the whole Bond phenomena, titles like From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, and For Your Eyes Only sound like romance movies. And Octopussy sounds like a pørno flick! (Actually, I have a pørno that parodied Octopussy, but I won't go into that now.)

From a purely fan's point of view though, I'm happy with all the titles.

[JAWS]

The Worst Titles Are:
On Her Majesties Secret Service (well, I supose an overlong movie might need an overlong title)

The Man With The Golden Gun (imagine writing a song around THAT)

Licence To Kill (oh, now that's original)

Tomorrow Never Dies (its just bad)

[DJ]

I personally feel that Dr. No has to be the weakest title that has ever been attached to a Bond movie. It lacks any imaginaion whatsoever and I hope they never hire a team with as little imagination as that team had. They may have got it from a Fleming title, but they could have at least recognised how weak it was to name a movie after the VILLAIN and they could have thought of their own instead of disappointing everyone.

[JAWS]

The WORST (in chronological order):
-OHMSS (an overlong title for an overlong movie. Also, it's just plain boring)
-TMWTGG (imagine writing a theme song around that!)
-Licence To Kill (yup. Now THAT'S original)
-Tomorrow Never Dies (huh?)

On a side note, when I first heard the name GoldenEye, I thought it was awful, but soon warmed to it.

[Mister Asterix]

DJ (30 Nov, 2001 06:44 p.m.):(edited)
I personally feel that Dr. No has to be the weakest title...
...they could have thought of their own instead of disappointing everyone.

DJ, I think maybe you were one of the few who were disappointed. I love that title. Its not my favourite, but I love it. Very intriguing, especially for the time.

[scaramanga]

DJ (30 Nov, 2001 06:44 p.m.):
I personally feel that Dr. No has to be the weakest title that has ever been attached to a Bond movie. It lacks any imaginaion whatsoever and I hope they never hire a team with as little imagination as that team had. They may have got it from a Fleming title, but they could have at least recognised how weak it was to name a movie after the VILLAIN and they could have thought of their own instead of disappointing everyone.

I find it very strange that you would like to change this title, DJ. Doctor No is a classic and it certainly isn't weak. You're certainly entitled to an opinion about the title, but I think that you're the first person I've ever come across who is unhappy with the title.

[DJ]

Well kids, I'm sorry it seems that way to you, but I am really upset at the lack of imagination they gave to it, especially as it was in the 1960's when everyone was "high" so they should have got good ideas from smoking pot.

[freemo]

Dr No - Its just a title, its not good and its not bad, not all titles need to be cute little phrases, I like the character named titles sometimes, what else could the book have been called ?

[JAWS]

My least favorit titles (in no particular order) are:

On Her Majestys Secret Service
(I suppose a long movie deserves a long title, but still...)
The Man With The Golden Gun
(can you imagine how difficult a job it had to have been for Barry and that guy who wrote the lyrics to create a theme song for such a title?)
Licence To Kill
(could the title have been more boring? (on a side note, I would have liked to have seen TMWTGG Re-written to be about Bond and Scaramanga's differences as hinted at in the lunch scene on his island. Licence To Kill then may have been a good suggestion)
Tomorrow Never Dies
(it doesn't help that Crow's song is my least favorite Bond theme)
AND LASTLY: GoldenEye almost made my list because when it first came out, I thought it was a horrible title, but now I really like it. (I have a theory about this: maybe I disliked TND's title so much that GoldenEye became very appealing; just like to me, I like TND as a movie much more after I saw TWINE)

[scaramanga]

Evil Doctor Cheese (19 Nov, 2001 05:52 p.m.):
The Man With The Golden Gun has a certain mystery to it even though it is such a descriptive title.

I really don't like Tomorrow Never Lies, even less than Tomorrow Never Dies. Tomorrow Never Lies relates to the film too much... Tomorrow Never Dies (although nonsencical) has that mystery in the title that the series is famous for. The best titles aren't clever they're just one word titles like Goldfinger and Thunderball... they're still mysterious as you wonder "what exactly is a Moonraker or a Goldeneye".

License to Kill is crap and I'm not too keen on The Living Daylights actually, for some reason.

A Goldeneye is also a type of duck. Just thought I'd point that out...

[Mister Asterix]

We're just lucky the movie wasn't called James Bond - Secret Agent or Operation: Danger! or something else like that that was more descriptive and less poetic than what we got. In many countries the title was something like James Bond Chases Dr. No. So I say we need to count our lucky stars that the producers had the wisdom to stick with the original Fleming novel's title (save shortening 'Doctor' to 'Dr.').