24 replies to this topic

[kyvan]

Hi all,

I've been a Bond fan since I was little, and Connery has always been my favorite, though Moore would be close behind him.

Today, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Dr. No, I wrote about Bond on my blog today. I decided to show 7 lessons from Diamonds Are Forever. If anyone's interested, here's the link: http://truthwithoute...-adventure.html. Any feedback is welcome.

Happy James Bond Day!

[Iceskater101]

haha I love the 6th one! I personally didn't like her as a Bond girl, but whatever.

[kyvan]

haha I love the 6th one! I personally didn't like her as a Bond girl, but whatever.

For the record, Tiffany's not one of my favorites, either, but I don't totally hate her.

[Iceskater101]

Yeah I mean I just think she is a ditz kind of. I guess that's my opinion.

[SecretAgentFan]

I´ve grown to fancy her.

[Iceskater101]

I just don't like Diamonds are Forever that much, it is one of my least favorites, that's probably why I don't like her that much is because I don't like that film.

[kyvan]

Connery's my favorite, so I watch him more than the others.

I rank the Connery's like this:
1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr. No
4. You Only Live Twice
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. Thunderball
7. Never Say Never Again

When compared to the other Bond films, though, 1-5 come in pretty high, and 6-7 are much lower on my list. I know everybody loves Thunderball, but the underwater scenes just drag too much for me, so it was never one of my favorites, and IMO, NSNA should've never been made.

Edited by kyvan, 26 October 2012 - 03:10 PM.

[Miles Miservy]

Hi all,

I've been a Bond fan since I was little, and Connery has always been my favorite, though Moore would be close behind him.

Today, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Dr. No, I wrote about Bond on my blog today. I decided to show 7 lessons from Diamonds Are Forever. If anyone's interested, here's the link: http://truthwithoute...-adventure.html. Any feedback is welcome.

Happy James Bond Day!

Quoting chapter & verse of the bible when interpreting a OO7 movie is rather bizarre, to say the least. It's kind of like using Night-Vision glasses during lunch or putting the picture of Mark David Chapman on the cover of GUNS & AMMO (never a good idea).

[elizabeth]

Connery's my favorite, so I watch him more than the others.

I rank the Connery's like this:
1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia With Love
3. Dr. No
4. You Only Live Twice
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. Thunderball
7. Never Say Never Again

When compared to the other Bond films, though, 1-5 come in pretty high, and 6-7 are much lower on my list. I know everybody loves Thunderball, but the underwater scenes just drag too much for me, so it was never one of my favorites, and IMO, NSNA should've never been made.

The underwater scenes dragging used to be my problem with THUNDERBALL. Here's my advice: do what I did; watch it again a second time (whether you've seen it recently or not). I guarantee it'll grow on you.

[kyvan]

I know everybody loves Thunderball, but the underwater scenes just drag too much for me, so it was never one of my favorites, and IMO, NSNA should've never been made.

The underwater scenes dragging used to be my problem with THUNDERBALL. Here's my advice: do what I did; watch it again a second time (whether you've seen it recently or not). I guarantee it'll grow on you.

I assure you I've seen it several times - I've seen them all several times (well... I've only seen Quantum of Solace maybe 3 times), but the underwater scenes still drag. The rest of the movie is good, but I've even been known to doze off during the underwater scenes once or twice!

Quoting chapter & verse of the bible when interpreting a OO7 movie is rather bizarre, to say the least.

What can I say? I'm a rather bizarre person sometimes, I guess. If you look around at other posts on my blog, you can see it's not just with 007, though - I see Biblical connections in all sorts of movies & TV!

In my defense on 007, though, I read somewhere online recently that there was a book about the "Seven Deadly Sins" where Fleming supposedly wrote the preface to the book. Supposedly, they said, Fleming wrote something about how the Seven Deadly Sins were exemplified by the villains in the Bond novels, and 007's job was to overcome those sins. I haven't seen this book to confirm it, but it if it's true, perhaps I'm not as crazy as I seem!

[Single-O-Seven]

Diamonds Are Forever is an example of a Bond film at its excruciating worst - a fact upon which I intend to write about in my up-coming article 'Diamonds Are Forever - A Very Nasty Little Film Indeed', which will be published on my The Bondologist Blog exceedingly soon. You can get my views on this film in time there. It's at the bottom of the Bond film pile along with DAD and YOLT, for me.

I am interested in reading this. It seems we are on the same page on this issue.

[Tony_OO_Black]

Diamonds Are Forever is an example of a Bond film at its excruciating worst - a fact upon which I intend to write about in my up-coming article 'Diamonds Are Forever - A Very Nasty Little Film Indeed', which will be published on my The Bondologist Blog exceedingly soon. You can get my views on this film in time there. It's at the bottom of the Bond film pile along with DAD and YOLT, for me.

I like You Only Live Twice, but there's no defending DAD and Diamonds Are Forever? Worst Bond film IMO, without question.

I look forward to reading your blog about it.

[kyvan]

Despite all the negative things I've heard/read about YOLT over the years, it's still one of my favorites. Has been since I first saw it as a kid.

[DR76]

Diamonds Are Forever is an example of a Bond film at its excruciating worst - a fact upon which I intend to write about in my up-coming article 'Diamonds Are Forever - A Very Nasty Little Film Indeed', which will be published on my The Bondologist Blog exceedingly soon. You can get my views on this film in time there. It's at the bottom of the Bond film pile along with DAD and YOLT, for me.

I am interested in reading this. It seems we are on the same page on this issue.

Diamonds Are Forever is an example of a Bond film at its excruciating worst - a fact upon which I intend to write about in my up-coming article 'Diamonds Are Forever - A Very Nasty Little Film Indeed', which will be published on my The Bondologist Blog exceedingly soon. You can get my views on this film in time there. It's at the bottom of the Bond film pile along with DAD and YOLT, for me.

I am interested in reading this. It seems we are on the same page on this issue.

So am I. I will confess that I've always found DAF rather funny in its own way. And I don't hate it. But . . . I think it must be the worst Bond movie I have ever seen.

[hoagy]

Tiffany as a dumb bimbo was insulting and annoying. She was such a touch cookie at first -- as she's supposed to be -- so having her become a bubblehead was dumb. Having her try to help (the cassette tape) did make sense had she still been tough and resourceful, and there still could have been a lack of coordination between Bond and her on that point -- just no need for her to be a dummy. By the way -- I think it's high time for a really hot ginger again ! Strawberry Fields died off so quickly it was just a tease !
And the scene with things around the world exploding because they were hit by the space-beam....ugh. Worst special effects ever (close second occurs, surprisingly, in the modern era, with the CGI arctic tsunami surfing in DAD). It seemed as though they ran out of money and quickly finished the film. It would have been expected in some B-movie, but not a well-budgeted Bond !!!
And, the car stunt -- with the car coming out on the wrong two wheels. Really ? Again -- this is a well-budgeted Bond -- just shoot it again !
Other than that -- I know, that's already a lot -- DAF was a sparkling, fun, beloved movie when it came out. It had Connery again, even though everyone knew (we were wrong, but it took quite a while to be wrong) it was just this once again. It had humor, spectacle, glamor. Not the worst. The nadir was LTK. Dull, humorless, not fun, average run of the mill TV supercop story and script. The stupid sitcom or melodrama bit with the heroine thinking Bond did not really like her but liked the other girl -- good grief ! Junior High School drama in a Bond ???!!!??? Unremarkable settings, too. Ugh. The only time having a heroine hate Bond at first was Pussy Galore, and she did not hate him. She was charmed, but not inclined, at first. But the heroines hating Bond in MR, AVTAK, LTK --ugh.

[SecretAgentFan]

And, the car stunt -- with the car coming out on the wrong two wheels. Really ? Again -- this is a well-budgeted Bond -- just shoot it again !

Wasn´t that due to a continuity error while filming that sequence on two different days? Something they only noticed when watching the dailies. And by then, it would have been to expensive to close down that part of Vegas and film it a second time.

Also, DAF had a nice budget but not an unlimited one. Especially after OHMSS. They had to prove that Bond still worked, efficiently at that.

[DR76]

Tiffany as a dumb bimbo was insulting and annoying. She was such a touch cookie at first -- as she's supposed to be -- so having her become a bubblehead was dumb.

I thought I was the only one who noticed how Tiffany's character changed by the movie's last 30 minutes.

[kyvan]

Yes, she's certainly a character who seems to start off with some potential but slides downhill by the end of hte movie. That said, the moment when she tries to use the gun and falls off the back of the rig, that always makes me laugh! :-)

[Revelator]

They were showing DAF and Die Another Day on TV recently and I watched the first halves of both before realizing that each would have been a pretty decent Bond film had their latter halves worked.
DAD goes off the rails once the action moves to Iceland--after that you get lots of bad CGI and a dull climax. DAF begins falling apart after we learn Blofeld is Willard Whyte, and has a lame climax on an oil rig. Moreover, the exposition of Blofeld's plan is so lazy and inocherent the viewer just doesn't care, and there isn't much at stake. And of course, by then Tiffany Case has devolved into the sort of bimbo Fleming abhorred.

But before then you have the still brutal pre-credits scene, with its near-fecal mud fixation and Bond shoving Blofeld into molten liquid ("Welcome to hell Blofeld!); you have the very witty and well-done inter-cutting of diamond smuggling scenes into Sir Donald's lecture; you have the nasty, claustrophobic elevator fight between Bond and Franks; that terrifying scene of Bond trapped in a flaming coffin; the moon-buggy escape from Whyte's lab and the parking lot chase; and the atmospheric sight of Bond calmly mountaineering about the Whyte House, along with Bond shooting fake Blofed in the head with a grappling dart. And even the end of the film somewhat recovers with Bond taking out Wint and Kidd.

Watching the film made me take down the book from the shelf, and while re-reading various bits--like the first meeting of Bond and Tiffany, which is much sexier than the film's yet makes Tiffany a far more vulnerable character--I realized that while DAF is one of the weaker novels, it might have been a better movie than book had it been adopted properly, since its visuals are quite strong. Along with the cruise-ship battle with Wint and KIdd, you have Saratoga and the mud torture of Tingaling Bell, the Spectreville setting and the Spang twins (with Serrafimo's western costume and his slapping the beautician), Bond's pistol duel with the locomotive, Wint and Kidd giving Bond a Brooklyn stomping, the gunfight in the passion pit, Bond taking out Jack Spang with an anti-aircraft gun, and Bond and Tiffany's discussion of love and marriage. Imagine all those onscreen, along with Shady Tree as a red-haired hunchback, and you've got something more interesting than the movie we currently have.

Edited by Revelator, 06 November 2012 - 06:33 PM.

[stamper]

Nice, but in Thunderball, we can see Blofeld isn't bald, and as a mane of white hair, looking like Max Von Sydow in NSNA

[kyvan]

Nice, but in Thunderball, we can see Blofeld isn't bald, and as a mane of white hair, looking like Max Von Sydow in NSNA

I did mention that.

[George Kaplan]

Tiffany as a dumb bimbo was insulting and annoying. She was such a touch cookie at first -- as she's supposed to be -- so having her become a bubblehead was dumb.

I thought I was the only one who noticed how Tiffany's character changed by the movie's last 30 minutes.

I had to wonder while watching this a couple of weeks ago if the script had originally planned for Tiffany to be drowned in the pool and Plenty O'Toole to be the end Bond girl who survived since Tiffany ends up seeming to take on some of Plenty's characteristics and since Wint and Kidd killing Plenty in error doesn't make sense (since they've actually *seen* Tiffany during an overseas plane ride to LA and how would Plenty know where (or want to) find Tiffany?).

Edited by George Kaplan, 08 November 2012 - 05:28 PM.

[George Kaplan]

Ah, yeah never seen any UE DVD versions or their extras so wouldn't have known that (guess I could have went over to IMDB and checked the alternate versions for the film.. ).

[kyvan]

I haven't seen the UE DVDs yet, either. Just haven't been able to justify the price yet, when I have all the SE DVDs already. That's pretty interesting, though.

Are there a lot of deleted scenes on Bond UE DVDs that weren't on previous DVDs??

Edited by kyvan, 12 November 2012 - 07:47 AM.

[kyvan]

I knew about the commentaries - especially interested in those on the Moore movies - but didn't realize there was that much else that was new. Good to know!

Still hard to justify buying them all over right this minute, but maybe the next time I have a little extra...

Thanks for the heads up!