740 replies to this topic

[Colossus]

Thought this would be a good idea for a thread. Please share your blasphemous, rabble-rousing, and just plain subversive opinions about the James Bond movies, things you have a different opinion on from what you think the Bond public has.

For instance...

-Dr. No is my 2nd favorite Bond. I see it in pretty mediocre positions on fav lists and it's the least voted official Connery Bond in the poll.

-The Man with the Golden Gun is my FAVORITE Moore Bond. I'm aghast at how low of an opinion it has around here, i recall on an imdb poll it was the 2nd or 3rd most voted thankfully.

-I used to think TSWLM was the most cheesy, corny, cheap and incomprehensible plot and villain of the Moore Bonds i owned (TMWTGG, TSWLM, MR) but i've since realized it is one of the greatest being behind TMWTGG, but i still poke fun at these various things (Stromberg seems plastered throughout the whole thing, toy men in boats)

-Moonraker is tied with TSWLM as my 2nd favorite Moore as well.

-I think MR was the end of 'classic Bond era' (1962-1979), much of afterward that tried to be serious was too bland/stiff or not as innovative/imaginative in its outlandishness.

-I like You Only Live Twice more than Thunderball.

-Pleasence is my favorite take/portrayal on the onscreen Blofelds.

-Diamonds are Forever is my 2nd to last least favorite Bond (behind DAD)

-Didn't like Dalton's two Bonds, but liked Dalton as Bond and think GoldenEye is the best Dalton that never was.

-Brosnan's 3 last Bonds are my least favorites (along with DAF) of the whole series, kind screwed up how his best was a Dalton movie.

-I think On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a perfect movie as it's ever going to get, the less-rough and less-known Lazenby works better than Connery's Bond would have.

-NSNA is my favorite 80s Bond.

[Qwerty]

I absolutely love Moonraker. #2 overall for me.

I don't dispise any Bond film like many fans do. I enjoy them all - some more than others, obviously.

I like Madonna's Die Another Day theme.

[dinovelvet]

I find Thunderball to be the most boring, and borderline unwatchable Bond film.

Yeah, I went there.

[Publius]

That depends on what the crowd thinks.

- I suppose I betray conventional wisdom when I name Dalton a better Bond than Connery, and Laz a better one than the others.

- I think Laz could and should have been Bond for Diamonds and some of Moore's, and that Dalton could and should have started as early as Eyes and finished as late as Goldeneye, or even Tomorrow.

- I probably speak heresy when I proclaim Licence to Kill the best Bond movie, with Daylights, On Her Majesty's, From Russia, and Eyes Only rounding out my top five. Tomorrow Never Dies is my favorite Brosnan, and I likely enjoy it more than Spy and even Goldfinger at times.

- Despite my preference for the darker and more realistic Bonds, I enjoy the first halves or so of You Only Live Twice, Moonraker, and Die Another Day, and nearly all of the other epic Bonds, like Octopussy. Yet, I also rarely praise them, which I think most in this community do.

- I don't hate The World is not Enough, and even think it's fairly good, except for Brosnan's whiny moments. And the final line is funnier and classier than the other "coming" jokes in the series.

- I can't stand Shirley Bassey's vocals on Goldfinger, or You Only Live Twice at all, while Licence to Kill is my favorite Bond song. I'd also rather have had Ace of Base's The GoldenEye than Tina Turner's version.

- I find Barry overrated (I expect this is what'll rile people up), and I believe the non-Barry scores are all good, and that the Casino one promises to be one of the best.

I bet there are others. Some of the ones I listed are unconventional for casual fans, others for fans of the fantasy Bond, others for fans of the gritty Bond. I like to think I break a few rules, even if there are none.

[Loomis]

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is easily my favourite Bond film. No prizes for guessing that I also think it's one of the best.

DR. NO is quite possibly the best film of the whole bunch. Yeah, it was all downhill from the first one.

DIE ANOTHER DAY is excellent.

Dalton is a bit overrated.

As is ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (this probably counts as an unorthodox opinion in Bond fandom).

There's Connery and there's Moore - all the others, good as they are, are mere stand-ins, including Craig, however good he is in CASINO ROYALE (and I'm sure he's superb).

[dinovelvet]

DIE ANOTHER DAY is excellent.

Oh yes I should also add that I love DAD too...I acknowledge that there are some awful scenes in it (Bond meeting Jinx, "I'm Mr. Kil", and hey, anyone else notice that that in that ice-parasurfing scene, the FX weren't that good? ), but for the most part, its just pure fun, something the rest of the Brosnan films were significantly lacking.

[Loomis]

for the most part, (DAD is) just pure fun, something the rest of the Brosnan films were significantly lacking.

Indeed. The least pretentious Bond flick since A VIEW TO A KILL, with bags of that good old-fashioned fun-for-all-the-family feel.

[Mr_Wint]

* GoldenEye is one of weakest and most overated Bondfilms ever.
* Timothy Dalton is my least favourite Bond-actor.
* I dont like any of the Brosnan films. Forced to choose, I pick TND as the best.

[JimmyBond]

Licence to Kill is my favorite Bond film, period.

[Double-Oh-Zero]

There's Connery and there's Moore - all the others, good as they are, are mere stand-ins, including Craig, however good he is in CASINO ROYALE (and I'm sure he's superb).

Spot on, Loomy. My folks and I were just discussing that point tonight after dinner, actually. In my opinion, there are two cinematic Bond places of worship: The Church of Moore and The Temple of Connery. There are some eccentrics that have their strange Nelson, Lazenby, Dalton, and Brosnan cults, but we don't like to talk about them very much.

Anyway, a few more that may not be very "unorthodox" to some:

-MR is rather underrated

-incidentally, FYEO is a hugely overrated and underwhelming sleepwalk of a film

-Q became somewhat of a self-indulgent masturbatory joke rather than a necessity/legitimate character after GF/TB. No offense intended toward the late Desmond Llewelyn.

-the "Female Bond/Bond's Equal"-type of character "idea" is a horrible one. He's James Bond, for Christ's sake. He doesn't have any equals. That's the whole point. The only ones that truly come close to being "Bond's Equal" are Red Grant and Pussy Galore (disregarding the lesbian thing).

[dinovelvet]

* GoldenEye is one of weakest and most overated Bondfilms ever.

I concur. Definitely near the bottom of my list.

[Loomis]

-MR is rather underrated

-incidentally, FYEO is a hugely overrated and underwhelming sleepwalk of a film

-Q became somewhat of a self-indulgent masturbatory joke rather than a necessity/legitimate character after GF/TB. No offense intended toward the late Desmond Llewelyn.

-the "Female Bond/Bond's Equal"-type of character "idea" is a horrible one. He's James Bond, for Christ's sake. He doesn't have any equals. That's the whole point. The only ones that truly come close to being "Bond's Equal" are Red Grant and Pussy Galore (disregarding the lesbian thing).

Agreed on all of those points, although I'll have to ponder a while before agreeing to the assertion that Red Grant and Pussy Galore are the only two Bond equals we've seen (I don't believe that there were more so much as I instinctively doubt that anyone in the films deserves to be called 007's equal*). You're probably right, though.

*Well, with the possible exceptions of Scaramanga and (thanks to his coolness and connoisseurship) Nick Nack, of course.

[Skudor]

- I love Moonraker, it's all good fun and Drax is the best villain of the series.

- Dalton is overrated. He's cerainly the best actor (not counting Craig here) but unfortunately he completely lacks charm. In a forced rating I'd probably put him in the bottom two, with Brosnan.

- I also like The Man with the Golden Gun. I can't call it a favourite, but it has a lot going for it.

- I love the car spinning jump in The Man with the Golden Gun and I can't figure out why people hate the sound effect. It fits perfectly with the tone of the movie.

- I love Jinx in Die Another Day. Sure, she starts out pretty bad with the dodgy one liners, but she makes up for it when she climbs onto that boat after jumping off the cliff.

[the villain's architect]

I find most of FRWL quite boring and the absence of Ken Adam's sets makes it look cheaper than DN.

OHMSS is totally overrated and

[Mr_Wint]

And, as a Jazz- AND Bond/Barry-fan, I must add:

* I love "Only Myself To Blame" from the TWINE score. I still find myself humming on it. Thats rare I guess

[Vanish]

Very nice topic!

- I strongly feel that License to Kill is the very best Bond film.

- Dr. No is Connery's best Bond film.

- The Man with the Golden Gun is one of the most fun films in the series, and one of my favorites.

- The Spy Who Loved Me and Goldfinger, two films often bestowed with the honor of being the best of the series, are two of the weakest (and most tedious) films of both actor's tenures.

- "Goldfinger," by Shirley Bassey, is shrill and incredibly annoying.

- Jane Seymour is still my favorite Bond girl in the series.

Edited by Vanish, 22 October 2006 - 12:33 AM.

[dinovelvet]

And now, the most blasphemous opinion of all.

If I had to choose between them, I would pick the 'camp Bond' era (DAF-AVTAK) over the 'serious Bond' era (DN-OHMSS & TLD/LTK) any day. They're just more fun to watch.

(Brosnan's films don't count as they manage to be camp AND serious at the same time)

[Double-Oh Agent]

Here are some of my opinions in no particular order:

1) Dr. No is my least favorite film of the series (but I do like them all).
2) Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger and Moonraker are two of my least favorite songs of the series (but I do find them okay and irreplaceable).
3) Licence To Kill is my favorite Bond film.
4) Octopussy is my favorite Roger Moore film and 2nd favorite 007 film overall.
5) Madonna's Die Another Day is underappreciated.
6. While I like Timothy Dalton, I feel he is overrated by Bond fans. (Sorry.)
7. I don't think the CGI used during the parasurfing scene in Die Another Day is that terrible. (Could have been done better or not at all, but it's not as cringe-inducing as most believe.)
8. Shane Rimmer's Capt. Carter in The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the best allies in a Bond film (I rate him #3 behind Kerim Bey and Milos Columbo).
9. I love Lynn-Holly Johnson's Bibi Dahl in For Your Eyes Only.
10. Ursula Andress' Honey Ryder is (gulp) overrated and not among the top Bond girls.
11. I like Joe Don Baker's Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights and think he is underused.
12. Carey Lowell as Pam Bouvier in Licence To Kill is my favorite Bond girl.
13. Tomorrow Never Dies has the best pre-titles sequence of the series.

[tonymascia1]

The Connery Bonds are just too slooooooow...

The Dalton villains had better things to do than blow up the world, and thus weren't exposed and parodied (as other Bond villains were) by Mike Myers' Doctor Evil as The Emperor's New Clothes...

Any list of Bond Girls that doesn't have Michelle Yeoh's Wai Lin (from TND) in the top three just shows the list's author hasn't been paying attention...

Bond fan opinions have had more "weight" at certain points in the series (DAF, TSWLM, TLD, GE, CR (hopefully)), than Star Wars fans' opinions did over their series (Hello..."The Phantom Menace"?..."Attack of the Clones"???????)...

Edited by tonymascia1, 22 October 2006 - 02:50 AM.

[Publius]

Dalton is a bit overrated.

Agreed. Shocking, no?

But the caveat is that I think all the Bond actors other than Lazenby are even more overrated. Especially Connery.

- Connery's problem was that he was often too camp and unbelievable for me to appreciate the "coolness" he otherwise evoked. Maybe this worked in the 60s, but it looks too scripted to me nowadays.

- Most of the "fun" Bonds for me also happen to be the "serious" ones. Seeing people burned alive or fed to a shredder and watching Bond slug it out the old-fashioned way on the back of an airplane are more fun to me than random command centers with uniformed goons being blown up while Bond forces a badly written quip after which he and everyone else painfully wait for applause that never arrives.

- Lazenby was the best at one-liners, and would only have gotten better.

- Moore was better (and damn good) at being cold and deadly than he was at being a loveable grandpa.

- Dalton had a great deal of charm and humor, as seen in the TLD Q scene. It was just disappointingly underutilized.

- Brosnan at his best was the most fun Bond, bar none. He nailed the fun-loving superhero angle.

[Qwerty]

-incidentally, FYEO is a hugely overrated and underwhelming sleepwalk of a film

Completely agreed. Give me the 'far out' The Spy Who Loved Me's or Moonraker's any day.

[freemo]

- My favorite Bond film is Diamonds Are Forever.

- The "classic Bond era" for me is 1962 to 1974. The Spy Who Loved Me is kind of the series' "jump the shark" film.

- I like Dr. No more than From Russia With Love (infact, Dr. No is my third favourite).

- Agree with those who find For Your Eyes Only rather dull. I even find the much loved "kicking the car off the cliff" moment rather "meh". Much prefer the "flicking the tie away" moment in The Spy Who Loved Me, which is a far superior version of basically the same thing.

- I rate the GoldenEye score is the best of the Brosnan Bonds.

- I like The Man with the Golden Gun song. It's catchy and fun. (I'd write something nice about the film too, but that view doesn't seem to be as "unorthodox" as I previously thought).

[triviachamp]

Yawn, this is one of those pointless threads that is basically people saying how they are right and everyone else is wrong. I am tired of all these threads.

Not to mention that "camp" is a postmodern worship of badness and "irony" so it the pretentious Bond, not the "serious" Bond.

Brings to mind this quote: "give the hip crowd garbage and they'll call it "camp" and eat it up!"

Edited by triviachamp, 22 October 2006 - 04:32 AM.

[Colossus]

-incidentally, FYEO is a hugely overrated and underwhelming sleepwalk of a film

Agree with that. It lacked the punch -- vitality, energy, timing needed for this type of film to work. Felt just bland.

[streetjive]

Yawn, this is one of those pointless threads that is basically people saying how they are right and everyone else is wrong.

That's not the impression I got, looking at the title of the thread...

Anyway, for me (and should I stress that these are merely opinions?):

1. LALD is absolute tripe which I can't even force myself to watch. Great idea, bad execution.

2. I like Grace Jones as May Day.

3. I love Eric Serra's GE score.

4. I think Connery is completely overrated - he was practically asleep at the wheel from TB onwards. Still, he did define the character of Bond, and for that he deserves all the credit he can get.

5. I love MR (but it seems quite a few others do after reading the posts above). For me it's certainly one of the most watchable Bond flicks.

6. I love Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver.

7. Maud Adams as Andrea Anders is my favourite Bond girl. Ironically, Maud Adams as Octopussy is one of my least favourite Bond girls.

8. I have a big problem with Sophie Marceau as Elektra.

9. I love Denise Richards as Christmas Jones, and i'm not just talking about those wet t-shirt shots. I actually think she saves TWINE from turning into some forlorn attempt at pseudo-romantic drivel.

I think that's about it for now...

[CharlieBind]

01. LIVE AND LET DIE is possibly the best of the series (certainly it's the most enjoyable)

02. Dalton is hugely over-rated. He is very good in the action scenes, not convincing in the lighter ones.

03. Brosnan was a great James Bond. There's a vocal minority who seem to hate him, but I think his first three are very good movies and even DIE ANOTHER DIE isn't as bad as some people make out.

04. I'd much rather watch some of the movies that Bond 'fans' seem to hate, such as DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER or THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, then the ones they love, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY or LICENCE TO KILL.

05. The Moore of LIVE AND LET DIE/THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is the definitve Bond.

06. Being faithful to Fleming is unimportant. GOLDFINGER and OHMSS (and even THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, in it's portrayal of the title character) improve on their source novels.

07. I like the Bond films, finding something to enjoy even in my least favourites (VIEW TO A KILL, LICENCE TO KILL). Some people here seem to hate them!

08. I don't care if Craig's blonde, I'm just hoping I'm going to enjoy the new film and it isn't going to be a LICENCE TO KILL style disappointment.

[komijul]

And now, the most blasphemous opinion of all.

If I had to choose between them, I would pick the 'camp Bond' era (DAF-AVTAK) over the 'serious Bond' era (DN-OHMSS & TLD/LTK) any day. They're just more fun to watch.

I feel the same way, to be honest. Heck, I'll go a step further. With a few exceptions(TB, TLD, DAD, Dr. No, maybe TND & FRWL), I think I prefer the entire Moore catalog to every other film in the series.

I liked Grace Jones as May Day. I even enjoyed the movie, to a certain point. It was rather paint-by-numbers in spots, but I found it to be mostly enjoyable.

Seeing as I enjoy both Koreans and ice palaces, I love Die Another Day.

I also loved the Man with the Golden Gun.

I am not high on Casino Royale, though for reasons that have nothing to do with Daniel Craig.

I find Moonraker to be enjoyable. The first parts of it seem to continue on TSWLM, and I love the epic scale of a battle in space.

I also agree with with those who found FYEO to be dull.

I have enjoyed what I read of Gardner & Benson

My top 3 Bond films are Octopussy, Live & Let Die, & The Living Daylights.

[Double-0-Seven]

Cool idea for a topic!

Here are a few of mine:

- The World Is Not Enough is my favorite James Bond film

- I like Die Another Day

- GoldenEye is my least favorite Brosnan film

- I'm not a big fan of You Only Live Twice or Diamonds Are Forever (I do like them, but they are my least favorite Connery films)

- I think The Man With The Golden Gun and A View To A Kill are great films

[zencat]

Great idea for a thread. I find I share many of the "unorthodox" opinions above. Here's my quick six:

- I think Moonraker is a great Bond film.

- I like Die Another Day.

- I like Roger Moore better than Sean Connery.

- Colonel Sun is overrated.

- The Young Bond books are minor masterpieces.

- Sherrif JW Pepper makes Live & Let Die for me.

Oh, and...

- Barbara and Michael know better than the fans.

[Publius]

I think we should be more specific than we have been in why our opinions are "unorthodox". For example, I find movies such as Moonraker and Die Another Day are far more well-loved here than some people seem to think. It's not very unorthodox if everyone agrees, is it?