1111 replies to this topic

[Shot Your Bolt]

Why don't we CBnners do such commentaries together? With all the background knowledge we have, those could become really interesting.

It would be a chaotic argument about the Brosnan era.

Even if we were watching Thunderball....

"See how Connery delievered that line? He's totally destroys Brosnan lulz"

and then it would a 3 hours(or 4 hours, or however long Thunderbore was) of just straight bickering.

[Cruiserweight]

AVTAK

[jaguar007]

watched LTK last night. Some really good stuff in that movie, but some stuff that was just done so poorly and stagey. Still like it better than Brosnan's 4 films (mostly due to Dalton).

[Shot Your Bolt]

Just saw For Your Eyes Only.

Great film, and second only to TSWLM IMO. The story is very good, very down-to-earth, something they needed to do after going to the moon Its full of deception, mystery, suspense, revenge...its just really well-crafted. James Bond does (get this) actual detective work. The master of hexagons from Moonraker, who magically gathered clues by wandering around the world and picking things up off the ground, here has an actual mystery to solve. There are people to meet, motives to consider, personalities to interpret and distractions to discount. On top of that, he's got to get the whatsit from a sunken ship before the bad guys get it. When the bad guys take the whatsit from him and leave him for dead, he's got to lead a team of Greek smuggler-guys on a miniature Guns of Navarone raid on a remote mountain-top location. It's not wild, it's not outlandish, it's not cartoonish, nobody has a metal hand or nine-foot henchman. And yet...its still a James Bond movie.

In addition to Bond's newfound dignity and the bad guy's realistic plan, the most refreshing thing about For Your Eyes Only is Bond's attitude toward women. Completely smirkless, Bond now looks with distaste upon older men who force themselves upon younger women. A young girl shows up to his room naked, and he kicks her out, something I couldn't see the older Bond movies doing. He misses his dead wife, he treats all women with charm and courtesy, and he stays mostly within his acceptable age range (okay, he ends up with a woman old enough to be his daughter, but at least he doesn't spend the entire movie pawing at her). He's matched with Melina Havelock, the smart, determined, resourceful daughter of a guy the bad guy killed. She's making her own path to revenge against the men who did her wrong, and she's not about to jump into bed with Bond. She doesn't know who he is and doesn't care -- she's got things to do. And yet...its still a James Bond movie.

(I wonder about this change of heart. Who made this decision, to make Bond act something like his age? What the hell happened? Was he caught one day with the wrong man's teenage daughter? And he doesn't say "I'd love to sweetie, but I'm worried you're bait," instead he looks disgusted with the girl for her lack of discipline. Let me say that again: Bond, the guy who slaps women and throws their shoes at them when they ask for clothes, is disgusted with the pretty young girl for her lack of discipline.)

The bad guy does have the cool Act 3 HQ, but instead of metal hands and shark pits, the villian doesn't try to appear cool. Instead, the bad guy is, bizarrely for a Bond movie, a complex, intelligent man with more-or-less believable resources and human henchmen.

The dropping-Blofeld-down-the-chimney gag, I'm told, is intended as an insult to the producer Kevin McClory, who owned the rights to the character and was, at the time, prepping the rival Bond-movie Never Say Never Again. It certainly works that way, but the more valuable meaning to the sequence is that it indicates that Bond no longer needs big, stupid, cartoonish, power-mad villains in order to make a worthwhile, gripping, suspenseful espionage thriller. Which For Your Eyes Only, amazingly, is.

For Your Eyes Only confuses at first. The production design is not cheesy, the photography is lucid and immediate, the performances subdued and naturalistic. There is a scene on a yacht, where a man and his wife greets their daughter, who is visiting from somewhere. And we get to know these people a little, and begin to wonder who they are and what their lives might be like, and then a helicopter flies by and kills the parents. And the daughter holds her dead father in her arms and gazes up at the horizon and vows revenge. And the viewer is astonished, because these are real people. They have motives and desires and inner lives -- what the hell is going on? Is this a James Bond movie or what?

One of the greatest accomplishments of For Your Eyes Only is that everyone, everyone, from henchmen to babes to assassins to smugglers, everyone in this movie has a life outside of the narrative. There are no scenes in For Your Eyes Only where Bond walks into a room to be confronted by a guy in a Mao jacket sitting behind a desk who gives a reptilian smile and says "Mr. Bond, I've been expecting you." Everybody in this movie actually has other things to do. Even the blond teenage figure skater who wants to jump Bond's creaky, calcified bones isn't going to, you know, put her figure-skating career on hold in order to do so. She's got priorities. This is a breathtaking advance in the Bond universe. The narrative doesn't revolve around Bond, nor does it revolve around the bad-guy plot. Instead, the bad-guy plot is an imposition on real life, that thing everyone's trying to get back to.

I don't if you guys realize what a HUGE step that is for Bond movies.

M is not around (RIP Bernard Lee) but Moneypenny is still at work. Bond treats her like an old friend instead of a old crush -- as well he might, as she's currently dressing like a transvestite.

There's a car chase down a Spanish hillside. The bad guys are driving Mercs while Bond is stuck in Melina's beat-up Citroen. The car is old, sluggish and falling apart -- like Bond, who finds a way to make do anyway. That's kind of the theme of For Your Eyes Only; learning to live gracefully with an aging body and diminished expectations. Bond is consistently cornered and on the defensive throughout the movie, and the result is that the audience, miraculously, roots for him, instead of some Deus Ex Machina gadget that shoots out his .

The actor Topol, who lives in my heart as both Tevye the milkman and as The Smoker's Tooth Polish is a wonderfully expressive performer who did not get the memo about the new naturalistic acting style in For Your Eyes Only, unfortunately.

A sober, eye-opening pleasure after the overblown excess of Moonraker(which I still enjoy as a guilty pleasure of sorts), For Your Eyes Only contains, if not a first-rate detective story, at least a real detective story. It also contains a number of terrific, suspenseful set-pieces, a relatively believable affair with a woman closer to Bond's age (twenty years his junior instead of thirty), and some actually decent special-effects work. It's the first Bond movie that seems to want to peek out from behind the formula of "Bond Movies" and see what life might be like as a real honest-to-goodness suspense thriller. Its characters have inner lives, emotions, clear and subtle motivations. Its protagonist has regrets, complexity, style and grace. How the hell did that happen? For Your Eyes Only is a movie one could imagine watching alongside a movie like Ronin or Day of the Jackal, and not for comic relief.

--

So far in my Bond-a-thon:

TSWLM > FYEO > CR > GE > GF > OP > FRWL > TND = DAD > MR > YOLT > TB > LtK > DN > AVTAK

Edited by Shot Your Bolt, 17 September 2008 - 02:15 AM.

[Mister E]

Why don't we CBnners do such commentaries together? With all the background knowledge we have, those could become really interesting.

It would be a chaotic argument about the Brosnan era.

Even if we were watching Thunderball....

Also, I might kill someone. I am sorry, I would have to at some point.

[DaveBond21]

Just saw For Your Eyes Only.

Great film, and second only to TSWLM IMO. The story is very good, very down-to-earth, something they needed to do after going to the moon Its full of deception, mystery, suspense, revenge...its just really well-crafted. James Bond does (get this) actual detective work. The master of hexagons from Moonraker, who magically gathered clues by wandering around the world and picking things up off the ground, here has an actual mystery to solve. There are people to meet, motives to consider, personalities to interpret and distractions to discount. On top of that, he's got to get the whatsit from a sunken ship before the bad guys get it. When the bad guys take the whatsit from him and leave him for dead, he's got to lead a team of Greek smuggler-guys on a miniature Guns of Navarone raid on a remote mountain-top location. It's not wild, it's not outlandish, it's not cartoonish, nobody has a metal hand or nine-foot henchman. And yet...its still a James Bond movie.

In addition to Bond's newfound dignity and the bad guy's realistic plan, the most refreshing thing about For Your Eyes Only is Bond's attitude toward women. Completely smirkless, Bond now looks with distaste upon older men who force themselves upon younger women. A young girl shows up to his room naked, and he kicks her out, something I couldn't see the older Bond movies doing. He misses his dead wife, he treats all women with charm and courtesy, and he stays mostly within his acceptable age range (okay, he ends up with a woman old enough to be his daughter, but at least he doesn't spend the entire movie pawing at her). He's matched with Melina Havelock, the smart, determined, resourceful daughter of a guy the bad guy killed. She's making her own path to revenge against the men who did her wrong, and she's not about to jump into bed with Bond. She doesn't know who he is and doesn't care -- she's got things to do. And yet...its still a James Bond movie.

(I wonder about this change of heart. Who made this decision, to make Bond act something like his age? What the hell happened? Was he caught one day with the wrong man's teenage daughter? And he doesn't say "I'd love to sweetie, but I'm worried you're bait," instead he looks disgusted with the girl for her lack of discipline. Let me say that again: Bond, the guy who slaps women and throws their shoes at them when they ask for clothes, is disgusted with the pretty young girl for her lack of discipline.)

The bad guy does have the cool Act 3 HQ, but instead of metal hands and shark pits, the villian doesn't try to appear cool. Instead, the bad guy is, bizarrely for a Bond movie, a complex, intelligent man with more-or-less believable resources and human henchmen.

The dropping-Blofeld-down-the-chimney gag, I'm told, is intended as an insult to the producer Kevin McClory, who owned the rights to the character and was, at the time, prepping the rival Bond-movie Never Say Never Again. It certainly works that way, but the more valuable meaning to the sequence is that it indicates that Bond no longer needs big, stupid, cartoonish, power-mad villains in order to make a worthwhile, gripping, suspenseful espionage thriller. Which For Your Eyes Only, amazingly, is.

For Your Eyes Only confuses at first. The production design is not cheesy, the photography is lucid and immediate, the performances subdued and naturalistic. There is a scene on a yacht, where a man and his wife greets their daughter, who is visiting from somewhere. And we get to know these people a little, and begin to wonder who they are and what their lives might be like, and then a helicopter flies by and kills the parents. And the daughter holds her dead father in her arms and gazes up at the horizon and vows revenge. And the viewer is astonished, because these are real people. They have motives and desires and inner lives -- what the hell is going on? Is this a James Bond movie or what?

One of the greatest accomplishments of For Your Eyes Only is that everyone, everyone, from henchmen to babes to assassins to smugglers, everyone in this movie has a life outside of the narrative. There are no scenes in For Your Eyes Only where Bond walks into a room to be confronted by a guy in a Mao jacket sitting behind a desk who gives a reptilian smile and says "Mr. Bond, I've been expecting you." Everybody in this movie actually has other things to do. Even the blond teenage figure skater who wants to jump Bond's creaky, calcified bones isn't going to, you know, put her figure-skating career on hold in order to do so. She's got priorities. This is a breathtaking advance in the Bond universe. The narrative doesn't revolve around Bond, nor does it revolve around the bad-guy plot. Instead, the bad-guy plot is an imposition on real life, that thing everyone's trying to get back to.

I don't if you guys realize what a HUGE step that is for Bond movies.

M is not around (RIP Bernard Lee) but Moneypenny is still at work. Bond treats her like an old friend instead of a old crush -- as well he might, as she's currently dressing like a transvestite.

There's a car chase down a Spanish hillside. The bad guys are driving Mercs while Bond is stuck in Melina's beat-up Citroen. The car is old, sluggish and falling apart -- like Bond, who finds a way to make do anyway. That's kind of the theme of For Your Eyes Only; learning to live gracefully with an aging body and diminished expectations. Bond is consistently cornered and on the defensive throughout the movie, and the result is that the audience, miraculously, roots for him, instead of some Deus Ex Machina gadget that shoots out his .

The actor Topol, who lives in my heart as both Tevye the milkman and as The Smoker's Tooth Polish is a wonderfully expressive performer who did not get the memo about the new naturalistic acting style in For Your Eyes Only, unfortunately.

A sober, eye-opening pleasure after the overblown excess of Moonraker(which I still enjoy as a guilty pleasure of sorts), For Your Eyes Only contains, if not a first-rate detective story, at least a real detective story. It also contains a number of terrific, suspenseful set-pieces, a relatively believable affair with a woman closer to Bond's age (twenty years his junior instead of thirty), and some actually decent special-effects work. It's the first Bond movie that seems to want to peek out from behind the formula of "Bond Movies" and see what life might be like as a real honest-to-goodness suspense thriller. Its characters have inner lives, emotions, clear and subtle motivations. Its protagonist has regrets, complexity, style and grace. How the hell did that happen? For Your Eyes Only is a movie one could imagine watching alongside a movie like Ronin or Day of the Jackal, and not for comic relief.

--

So far in my Bond-a-thon:

TSWLM > FYEO > CR > GE > GF > OP > FRWL > TND = DAD > MR > YOLT > TB > LtK > DN > AVTAK

Great review....

I love FYEO.

[Turn]

I watched Octopussy and it still stands as my favorite Moore film with the best balance of everything I like about Bond movies rolled up into one package.

[Cruiserweight]

Moonraker

[DamnCoffee]

I had a real hankering to watch You Only Live Twice yesterday, so I stuck it on. FINE. I admit, it's not as bad as I thought, though i still rank any other Bond movie above it.


Watching From Russia With Love now.

[Turn]

After watching OP the other night, my wife wanted to watch AVTAK, the first and only Bond film she saw prior to meeting me.

It's been a while since I've seen it but it's just as bad as it has always been. Walken saves it from being a total loss. And I have to say watching the UE, I will go against what most people say and comment that Moore looks pretty good in this, slimmed down and younger than the previous two films he did.

And for a worst fashion thread, we should probably add Bond's track suit he wears at Zorin's estate. I think after that film they gave it to one of the characters on The Sopranos.

[Safari Suit]

FYEO

A movie always enjoy but can never quite list as a favourite. I think the rather drab look and feel of the movie is a big factor.

[ChrissBond007]

Casino Royale , some days ago.

I finished my Bond-marathon, at last! I really enyoyed it, like always. But I've never been a fan of the pre title and Madagascar chase. But the casino scenes and the last scenes are just AWESOME. I'm waiting for Quantum of Solace now.

[Judo chop]

For Your Eyes Only

Could have been a magnificent Bond film, but for the confused hackeries of director John Glen. I will always imagine a better universe in which Peter Hunt was responsible for running this one. See the very nice review from Shot Your Bolt above covering the change of philosophies that this film marks in the series.

One thing I hadn’t really acknowledged until this latest viewing was the amount of explicit violence that shows up. Bond takes some pretty graphic injuries while being keel-hauled, Bond’s contact has his throat slit, Locke’s body tumbles out of the car window after hitting the cliff base, a guard takes a bolt to the chest but instead of dying some ambiguous death he survives in pain only to later be clunked on the head. Keeping track this time, I was surprised to find that I was reminded of LTK. For whatever reason, there seems to be some connective tissue between Glen’s first and last films in the series; still a very young hypothesis which I’ll need more time to investigate, but perhaps it’s not coincidence that I find FYEO to be his best achievement where he gives LTK that award.

[Cruiserweight]

LTK

[sharpshooter]

I felt like playing poker, so I put on Casino Royale and fast forwarded to the casino scenes.

[Bondian]

Moonraker

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Moonraker

So you clearly had fun

As for myself, I just watched the marvellous Thunderball. I can't see why any one would find it dull which I've read a lot of critics say it is. This is an exciting, fast moving epic full of style, beautiful women, gorgeous locations, exciting action, unforgettable music and clever gadgets. First generation Bond cinema in its prime with Connery at the top of his game. I love all the underwater scenes and would live in a place like the Bahamas if I could afford it, so I think that's another reason I deeply love this film.

[Bondian]

Moonraker

So you clearly had fun

Sure did.

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam" you've just gotta follow instructions.

As for myself, I just watched the marvellous Thunderball. I can't see why any one would find it dull which I've read a lot of critics say it is. This is an exciting, fast moving epic full of style, beautiful women, gorgeous locations, exciting action, unforgettable music and clever gadgets. First generation Bond cinema in its prime with Connery at the top of his game. I love all the underwater scenes and would live in a place like the Bahamas if I could afford it, so I think that's another reason I deeply love this film.

That's on my mental what Bond to watch next list.

[DaveBond21]

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam"

He says "Play it again San"

[Bondian]

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam"

He says "Play it again San"

Yeah. But it's a skit on Bogart's line.

[DaveBond21]

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam"

He says "Play it again San"

Yeah. But it's a skit on Bogart's line.

Yeah, I know....

[Cruiserweight]

The Living Daylights

[DaveBond21]

The Living Daylights

And how was it this time around??

[Cruiserweight]

The Living Daylights

And how was it this time around??

Great as always.It's my second favorite film of the 80's(After Octopussy) & after i watch it Dalton always makes me rethink who my favorite bond actor really is.I'm a Moore fan but after watching TLD Dalton always comes close to toppling him as my favorite bond.Plus i love the war games fight at the end between Bond & Whitaker.(Probably my favorite bond fight)

[001carus]

Dr. No. It was my birthday a few days ago and I received the Bond Ultimate Collection. I tried to get the weak Bonds out of the way first starting with Octopussy, The World is Not Enough, then A View to a Kill.

I decided to rewatch Dr. No last night and I had an absolute blast with it. Loved it from start to finish and am now thoroughly looking forward to watching another Bond. One can read a more in depth review of Dr. No by me here if you want:

[manfromjapan]

Spy .

Edited by manfromjapan, 27 September 2008 - 03:26 AM.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Moonraker

So you clearly had fun

Sure did.

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam" you've just gotta follow instructions.

As for myself, I just watched the marvellous Thunderball. I can't see why any one would find it dull which I've read a lot of critics say it is. This is an exciting, fast moving epic full of style, beautiful women, gorgeous locations, exciting action, unforgettable music and clever gadgets. First generation Bond cinema in its prime with Connery at the top of his game. I love all the underwater scenes and would live in a place like the Bahamas if I could afford it, so I think that's another reason I deeply love this film.

That's on my mental what Bond to watch next list.

Go for it, Bondian! Thunderball and Moonraker actually make for a good double feature. Both feature the Bond actor in his 4th turn in the role. In both films, the Bond actor is at his most slick and superconfident before either tiredness or age would start showing. Bond feature Bond being trapped and tortured by the villain in a machine(the rack in TB, the centrifuge trainer in TB), Bond being assisted by a lovely local MI6 agent(Paula in TB, Manuela in MR), parade scenes(Junkanoo in TB, Mardi Gras in MR), a big final battle between the good guys and the villains(underwater in TB, in outer space in MR. Both films were the most financially successful for their respective Bond actor, and both were huge colorful epics. TB is my favorite Connery film and MR is my favorite Moore film(see my sig).

The Living Daylights

And how was it this time around??

Great as always.It's my second favorite film of the 80's(After Octopussy) & after i watch it Dalton always makes me rethink who my favorite bond actor really is.I'm a Moore fan but after watching TLD Dalton always comes close to toppling him as my favorite bond.Plus i love the war games fight at the end between Bond & Whitaker.(Probably my favorite bond fight)

Great review of The Living Daylights, Cruiserweight The Living Daylights and Octopussy are my 2 favorite 1980s Bond films also.

[Double-0-7]

Just finished Moonraker an hour or so ago. As usual, over the top, but fun!

[Cruiserweight]

Moonraker

So you clearly had fun

Sure did.

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam" you've just gotta follow instructions.

As for myself, I just watched the marvellous Thunderball. I can't see why any one would find it dull which I've read a lot of critics say it is. This is an exciting, fast moving epic full of style, beautiful women, gorgeous locations, exciting action, unforgettable music and clever gadgets. First generation Bond cinema in its prime with Connery at the top of his game. I love all the underwater scenes and would live in a place like the Bahamas if I could afford it, so I think that's another reason I deeply love this film.

That's on my mental what Bond to watch next list.

Go for it, Bondian! Thunderball and Moonraker actually make for a good double feature. Both feature the Bond actor in his 4th turn in the role. In both films, the Bond actor is at his most slick and superconfident before either tiredness or age would start showing. Bond feature Bond being trapped and tortured by the villain in a machine(the rack in TB, the centrifuge trainer in TB), Bond being assisted by a lovely local MI6 agent(Paula in TB, Manuela in MR), parade scenes(Junkanoo in TB, Mardi Gras in MR), a big final battle between the good guys and the villains(underwater in TB, in outer space in MR. Both films were the most financially successful for their respective Bond actor, and both were huge colorful epics. TB is my favorite Connery film and MR is my favorite Moore film(see my sig).

The Living Daylights

And how was it this time around??

Great as always.It's my second favorite film of the 80's(After Octopussy) & after i watch it Dalton always makes me rethink who my favorite bond actor really is.I'm a Moore fan but after watching TLD Dalton always comes close to toppling him as my favorite bond.Plus i love the war games fight at the end between Bond & Whitaker.(Probably my favorite bond fight)

Great review of The Living Daylights, Cruiserweight The Living Daylights and Octopussy are my 2 favorite 1980s Bond films also.

Both with two villains.
Hmmmmmm...
Coincendence?
I think not!


I watched Octopussy last night

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Moonraker

So you clearly had fun

Sure did.

Seeing as Bond says "play it again, Sam" you've just gotta follow instructions.

As for myself, I just watched the marvellous Thunderball. I can't see why any one would find it dull which I've read a lot of critics say it is. This is an exciting, fast moving epic full of style, beautiful women, gorgeous locations, exciting action, unforgettable music and clever gadgets. First generation Bond cinema in its prime with Connery at the top of his game. I love all the underwater scenes and would live in a place like the Bahamas if I could afford it, so I think that's another reason I deeply love this film.

That's on my mental what Bond to watch next list.

Go for it, Bondian! Thunderball and Moonraker actually make for a good double feature. Both feature the Bond actor in his 4th turn in the role. In both films, the Bond actor is at his most slick and superconfident before either tiredness or age would start showing. Bond feature Bond being trapped and tortured by the villain in a machine(the rack in TB, the centrifuge trainer in TB), Bond being assisted by a lovely local MI6 agent(Paula in TB, Manuela in MR), parade scenes(Junkanoo in TB, Mardi Gras in MR), a big final battle between the good guys and the villains(underwater in TB, in outer space in MR. Both films were the most financially successful for their respective Bond actor, and both were huge colorful epics. TB is my favorite Connery film and MR is my favorite Moore film(see my sig).

The Living Daylights

And how was it this time around??

Great as always.It's my second favorite film of the 80's(After Octopussy) & after i watch it Dalton always makes me rethink who my favorite bond actor really is.I'm a Moore fan but after watching TLD Dalton always comes close to toppling him as my favorite bond.Plus i love the war games fight at the end between Bond & Whitaker.(Probably my favorite bond fight)

Great review of The Living Daylights, Cruiserweight The Living Daylights and Octopussy are my 2 favorite 1980s Bond films also.

Both with two villains.
Hmmmmmm...
Coincendence?
I think not!

And in both films, at least one of the villains was a Soviet General who was battling another Soviet General(Pushkin in TLD, Gogol in OP). Both films had suspenseful and intriguing plots that involved the Cold War, both films featured excellent and moody scores by John Barry, both films involved a final battle between Bond and the henchman atop a plane, both films feature the 2 Bond/Bond girl couples(Moore/Adams and Dalton/d'Abo) who had(IMHO, anyway) the most plausible onscreen chemistry. Both films are classics that deserve to be rated higher than they are.

I watched Octopussy last night

How was it?