No replies to this topic

[PierceConneryMoore]

Here's the 80s Bond films unedited from the dates written and ranked. Enjoy!

12.For Your Eyes Only Reviewed October 24, 2012

Despite the huge success of Moonraker, the Bond team felt that the character had gone as out of this world as he could and didn’t want to get deeper into sci-fi. Many changes were made both stylistically and substantively for For Your Eyes Only. The budget was reduced and restrained while the story was written with similarities to From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It was a necessary risk that would again reboot the franchise for the 80s.

From Your Eyes Only is another entertaining Bond film that does things different compared to the two previous films and is mostly done well. The action scenes are entertaining as they should be, Bill Conti’s musical score makes them even better while Roger Moore gives another solid performance with more seriousness than we usually expect from him. Nevertheless, it works.

A spy ship is sunk in the Ionian Sea with a device called ATAC. Miles underwater, this can control the use of missiles and the Russians intend get it. Following a lead in Spain, James Bond (Roger Moore) is quickly trying to escape gunmen when he runs into Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) whose parents were killed in relation to the sinking of the ship. Bond goes from Cortina to Greece in both snow and water not knowing at times who the real bad guy is.

Director John Glen did 2nd unit work on previous Bond films including the ski jump in The Spy Who Loved Me and he does a good job directing here. The action scenes, although not as grand as recently are well directed and exciting. The ski scenes in particular are very brisk while the mountain scaling in the climax is terrifically done with a great stunt fall by Rick Sylvester, the man who did the ski jump from The Spy Who Loved Me. For the third time in the last five films, John Barry didn’t do the score and despite being the creator of what many think of as a Bond score, this wasn’t a bad thing. Bill Conti of Rocky fame gives action scenes extra punch and blends Sheena Easton’s theme song well, making for the best Bond scores. With George Marin composing Live And Let Die, Marvin Hamilsch composing The Spy Who Loved Me and now Conti, they created three of the best Bond scores and also composed three theme songs which got Oscar nominations.

What really lets the film down is the supporting cast both in writing and in acting. As the lead Bond girl, Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock is a weak Bond girl in the wake of Barbara Bach and Lois Chiles playing Bond girls of strength. Julian Glover is quite forgettable as Kristatos while Topol plays Columbo, an ally who feels like a second-rate version of Kerim Bey. The worst performance is Lynn-Holly Johnson as a young skater who has a crush on Bond and makes for a couple creepy moments with a Bond in his 50s. I don’t if the supporting cast were just not giving too much thought, but it makes for if not the worst supporting cast in a Bond film, a very dull one.

For Your Eyes Only is an entertaining Bond film that could’ve been a bit better. Roger Moore has some great moments in a more serious tone, especially as he kicks a henchman’s car off a cliff. But no other characters stick as memorable in any way. Still, the movie does have its great action and stunt sequences with a story driven more by Bond using his wits than any fancy gadgets. Middle of the pack, but that’s still really good for the franchise.

1.The Spy Who Loved Me
2.Goldfinger
3.Thunderball
4.From Russia With Love
5.Moonraker
6.For Your Eyes Only
7.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
8.Dr.No
9.You Only Live Twice
10.Live And Let Die
11.Diamonds Are Forever
12.The Man With The Golden Gun

13.Octopussy Reviewed October 25, 2012

After many years of lawsuits over the Thunderball novel, Kevin McClory finally got the chance to make his own version. And even better than that was he got Sean Connery to return for his movie, titled Never Say Never Again. Originally, the Bond team were looking for a new actor as Roger Moore quit due to financial negotiations. Many actors were considered including American actor James Brolin, whose screen test can be found in the special features. Knowing it would be difficult to compete with Sean Connery, United Artists compromised with Roger Moore making it his sixth official Bond film.

In “The Battle Of The Bonds,” it was Octopussy that ended up winning the battle with a better box office total in the U.S and worldwide. The lesson here is that while the lead actor is an important element, there’s more to a Bond movie than just the actor. There’s the villains, the women, the action scenes, the sets, the music among other things. While Octopussy is not the best Bond film, it’s enough to get the job done.

As Agent 002 turns up dead at an ambassador’s home, he’s covered in clown makeup with a faberge egg in his hand. When M (Robert Brown replacing the late Bernard Lee) tells James Bond (Roger Moore) it’s a fake, he goes to an auction and switches the real one with the fake as it gets sold to the wealthy Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan). He follows him to India where he is captured and soon discovers a plot by a mad Russian general (Steven Berkoff) involving a nuclear bomb and jewelery smuggling leading to the mysterious Octopussy (Maud Adams in her second Bond girl role following The Man With The Golden Gun).

If the plot sounds a bit complicated for a Bond film, it sure is. There’s the nuclear bomb plot to destroy a U.S base to make the Europeans weaken their nuclear defense and the jewelery smuggling plot form in a very mushy way that should be more simplified. That and a terrible but screen-time limited performance from Steven Berkoff are the film’s biggest weaknesses.

But on other important fronts, Octopussy delivers. The action scenes are well stages such as the opening sequence with Bond being chased in a jet by a missile. The other exciting scenes are the train sequence and the finale with Bond hanging on the outside of Kamal Khan’s plane. The Indian settings are quite beautiful from the fancy palaces to the jungle full of many animals. Roger Moore still delivers quips finely and is good in the climatic sequence in which he dons clown makeup. And although it’s 9 years later, I gotta say Maud Adams looks even more beautiful here and has a better role than she did in The Man With The Golden Gun.

Although it’s weaker than the previous three Bond films, Octopussy still has entertainment value.
There’s moments of thrills, moments of humor and moments of tension. Those moments make up for some serious flaws and even a decrease in the overall quality of the film compared to the best of the Moore films. Good movie, but could’ve been better.

1.The Spy Who Loved Me
2.Goldfinger
3.Thunderball
4.From Russia With Love
5.Moonraker
6.For Your Eyes Only
7.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
8.Dr.No
9.Octopussy
10.You Only Live Twice
11.Live And Let Die
12.Diamonds Are Forever
13.The Man With The Golden Gun

14.A View To A Kill Reviewed October 26, 2012

After winning the battle of the Bonds, Roger Moore returned for a record seventh time (not counting Connery in Never Say Never Again) to play James Bond in A View To A Kill. Made with virtually the same crew that worked on the previous 80s Bonds, Cubby Broccoli’s stepson Michael Wilson joined him as co-producer along with co-writer of the screenplay. The cast was star-studded with Oscar winner Christopher Walken, pop star Grace Jones, Avengers’ star Patrick Macnee, Charlie’s Angels star Tanya Roberts and Duran Duran doing the theme song.

Unfortunately, the film was a disapointment at the box office and is regarded as one of the worst Bond films. Despite three really strong elements, A View To A Kill is still among the weakest Bond films and feels at times like a made for TV Bond film. After the film’s release, Roger Moore would retire from the role and leave a legacy as a more humorous Bond.

While in Siberia, James Bond (Roger Moore) finds a microchip which they link to the ex-KGB industrialist Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). He travels to Paris to learn more about his horses who he believes may be taking drugs. He learns of this and is soon identified and nearly killed. He’s led to San Francisco to discover why he would be pumping seawater into his wells. When accidentally running into geologist Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) and discovers a plan to cause an earthquake in Silicon Valley, causing a flood and wiping it out forever.

While I think Roger Moore did a great job at making Bond his own for a generation, he’s passed his prime here. At 57, he received plastic surgery the year before and if that’s evidence of what plastic surgery was like at the time, than it must not have been very good. He looks too old to be jumping off bridges and seducing women half his age. He may have looked a bit old in Octopussy, but it never distracted from the quality of his performance or the movie itself. It’s also a problem in the action scenes as more than any other Bond film, the use of stuntmen has never been more obvious. Without having to pause it, the audience can see clearly that it’s not Roger Moore driving half a car or jumping onto a moving elevator. It just feeds into the fact that Moore is too old and it was time to go. The worst performance of the movie and maybe of any Bond girl goes to Tanya Roberts whose cries of “James” are screeching and whose delivery of geology lines are totally unbelievable.

While those issues tremendously hurt the movie, there are three saving graces. I love Christopher Walken as a actor and he’s a great choice to play Max Zorin. He’s elegantly psychotic and like Christopher Lee in The Man With The Golden Gun, he doesn’t get enough screen time. Along with Walken is Grace Jones as his girlfriend May Day, a vicious henchwoman who actually goes in a way that is surprising and daunting. The other strength is the theme song by Duran Duran. It was the only Bond theme to go to #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts and it’s a pop rock mix that fits perfectly into a Bond film.

Despite the huge potential, much of A View To A Kill falls flat. Other than the final fight scene on the Golden Gate bridge, the action feels like stuff we’ve seen before and done better in other Bond films. The acting is mixed ranging from great to terrible and there’s too much silliness in scenes, including the ones with a French cab driver and a San Francisco police officer. This is a Bond film that has it’s moments, but where you feel the need to fast-forward over the bad parts just to get to them.

1.The Spy Who Loved Me
2.Goldfinger
3.Thunderball
4.From Russia With Love
5.Moonraker
6.For Your Eyes Only
7.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
8.Dr.No
9.Octopussy
10.You Only Live Twice
11.A View To A Kill
12.Live And Let Die
13.Diamonds Are Forever
14.The Man With The Golden Gun

15.The Living Daylights Reviewed October 26, 2012

The retirement of Roger Moore meant the search was on for a new James Bond. As always the case with the new Bond, many were considered and Pierce Brosnan was chosen. However, he needed to wait for his contract on Remington Steele to run out. At the last minute, NBC renewed the contract forcing Brosnan out of the role of a lifetime. After that, Welsh actor Timothy Dalton was chosen, who was originally considered in 1968, but declined thinking he was too young.

Along with a new actor, the filmmakers decided to make The Living Daylights much closer to the style and tone of the Fleming novels, a big departure from the era of Roger Moore. The film was also toned down sexually due to the fear of AIDS during the 80s. The final cut is an entertaining, if imperfect Bond film that is an improvement over the last couple films.

The plot begins with the defection of Russian general Yorgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe) and he personally requests James Bond (Timothy Dalton) to kill the sniper. When he sees it to be a woman, he avoids killing her and still gets him across the Czech border. After he reveals a plot by Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies) the head of the KGB to kill spies, Bond is in disbelieve. The private compound is invaded and Koskov is kidnapped. Soon, Bond discovers the sniper, Kara Milovy (Maryam D’abo) is his girlfriend believes Koskov faked his defection. They go from Vienna to Tangier as a plot involving weapons is revealed that Bond must stop.

In the role of James Bond, Timothy Dalton is pretty good overall. He’s agile, tough and very good in serious scenes such as when he meets Pushkin. What he seems to missing and why I think mainstream audiences may not have been receptive to him is his lack of humor. Both Sean Connery and Roger Moore seemed to enjoy the role and their Bonds’ seemed to get the humor behind the absurdity of their gadgets. When using the gadgets on his Aston Martin, Dalton doesn’t relish the gadgets or laugh at them the way the other actors would. He’s a good Bond, but he never got the chance to become a great one.

But the story is more interesting than the last few have been and the action is quite entertaining. There’s an inspired sequence where Bond and Kara escape being captured on a cello case along with the climatic fight as Bond hangs on the outside of a plane battling henchman Necros (Andreas Wisniewski). But as a the only Bond girl here, Maryam D’abo falls under the spell of many blonde Bond girls by playing an uninteresting and rather stupid Bond girl. And although there are two villains, both Jeroen Krabbe as Koskov and Joe Don Baker as the American general Whittaker are both silly and unmenacing.

Despite the flaws, The Living Daylights is a Bond film that never gets boring. It’s got moments of suspense and thrills that we expect a Bond movie to delivery. There’s no doubt it could’ve been better in various aspects, but it’s still very satisfactory.

1.The Spy Who Loved Me
2.Goldfinger
3.Thunderball
4.From Russia With Love
5.Moonraker
6.For Your Eyes Only
7.The Living Daylights
8.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
9.Dr.No
10.Octopussy
11.You Only Live Twice
12.A View To A Kill
13.Live And Let Die
14.Diamonds Are Forever
15.The Man With The Golden Gun

16.Licence To Kill Reviewed October 27, 2012

Licence To Kill marks the end of a Bond era in all kinds of way. Many regulars who had worked on the Bond films would mark their last time. This includes Director John Glen, Writer Richard Maibaum, Title Designer Maurice Binder and most notably Producer Cubby Broccoli. And due
to the lengthy wait time until the next Bond film, this also would be Timothy Dalton’s last film.

Released in the summer of 1989, Licence To Kill faced competition from films such as Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, Batman and Leathal Weapon 2 among others. It ended up being a flop making an adjusted $70 million domestically and sold only 8.7 million tickets, the least of any Bond film. Some blamed the competition for moviegoers’ attention, some blamed a bad marketing campaign, some blamed the tone and some blamed Timothy Dalton’s portrayal of the character. Either way, the franchise got sent on hiatus due to financial problems and audiences would have to wait six years for a new Bond movie with a new actor.

After helping catch the drug dealer Franz Sanches (Robert Davi), James Bond (Timothy Dalton) finds his friend Felix Leiter (David Hedison) barely alive and his new wife dead. He’s angry for vengeance and when ordered by M (Robert Brown) to let it go, he resigns his Double-O status & runs off to track Sanchez down. He meets a CIA pilot Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) and travels to Isthmus City where Sanchez runs everything.

Licence To Kill was the first Bond film to get a PG-13 rating in the U.S and it’s well deserved. There are some dark moments that don’t seem right for a Bond film. I don’t mind a darker Bond movie, but the tone at times is a bit off putting. There’s also a need to give the film a more Miami Vice feel and the bar fight scene is really cheesy in a bad 80s way. The other problem is at 133 minutes, the movie needs to trim dialogue scenes that would move the movie at a faster pace.

But Licence To Kill has some elements that are really strong. Timothy Dalton seems more comfortable in the lead role than he did in his debut. The material fits him better and the brief moments of humor come a little bit better to him. It’s sad he only got two films as Connery and Moore really cemented their status in their third films. He’s a good Bond that could’ve become a great Bond had he gotten the chance. Also great is Robert Davi as Sanchez, who values loyalty more than anything. He’s suave, but with a very dark side that when released is fiery. The other plus is three great action scenes. There’s the opening with Bond skyhooking Sanchez’s plane and a scene underwater that leads to the air. The best is saved for last as four tanker trucks drive down highway roads and ends in massive explosions. Quite simply, it’s one of the best action scenes you will see in a Bond film.

Both The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill are middle of the pack Bond films each with their strengths and their flaws. Dalton was the one actor other than Lazenby, who never had a masterpiece of a Bond film, but who could’ve had he been given the chance. Still, he did leave two solid performances and in some ways was a precursor to the Daniel Craig era. Licence To Kill is remembered by many for nearly ending the franchise, but helped James Bond eventually pull off his biggest resurrection yet.

1.The Spy Who Loved Me
2.Goldfinger
3.Thunderball
4.From Russia With Love
5.Moonraker
6.For Your Eyes Only
7.The Living Daylights
8.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
9.Dr.No
10.Licence To Kill
11.Octopussy
12.You Only Live Twice
13.A View To A Kill
14.Live And Let Die
15.Diamonds Are Forever
16.The Man With The Golden Gun