10 replies to this topic

[quantumofsolace]

http://uk.movies.yah...-131700254.html

5. Casino Royale - Parkour Opening

Daniel Craig's first appearance as James Bond needed to be spectacular, he had enraged die hard Bond fans by not being brunette, leading to him being dubbed James Blonde. However all doubts were put aside when the breathtaking opening sequence had finished. The sequence showed the all new Bond chasing bomb-maker and real life founder of freerunning Sébastien Foucan around various areas of Madagascar. Except in pure James Bond style, Foucan did all the flashy parkour and Bond, being Bond, bulldozed his way behind him eventually blowing up an embassy. Not only was this a fantastic action packed opening, but it showed us exactly who James Bond is. Props also go to the record breaking car crash seen later in the film.

4. You Only Live Twice - Little Nellie

Ahh yes the ridiculous looking bright yellow heavily armoured autogyro from 'You Only Live Twice'. Not only is the idea of getting a fully fledged war-copter out of suitcases just brilliant, but the actual sequence featuring Sean Connery's Bond doing aerial battle, with Little Nellie against the slightly scarier looking SPECTRE helicopters was truly something to behold. Who could come up with such a sequence where a ridiculous bright yellow thing triumphs over several geared up helicopters I hear you ask? Roald Dahl, that's who, oh and Q.

3. Goldeneye - Tank Sequence

Peirce Brosnan's first and best Bond film, and arguably the best Bond film of all time, spawning 'Goldeneye' on the N64 which is arguably the best Bond game ever. What made this film so great was that it had not one, not two, but three great action scenes, the opening sequence where Bond bungee jumps off of a dam and skydives into a plane, the fight with Alec Trevelyan and the best of the lot, Bond driving a tank through downtown St.Petersburg. The tank chase scene was quintessentially Bond, full of classic Bond moments like forcing the Russian police force to reverse away from him. Besides it was Bond in a tank, what's not to enjoy. Also Brosnan is the deadliest Bond of them all.

2. Skyfall - Opening Sequence

'Casino Royale' had the Parkour and the bulldozing. So 'Skyfall' took that and asked everyone 'How can we make it better?' The answer was having freerunning on motorcycles, with motorbikes jumping around rooftops, up stairs and through windows. They then took the bulldozer, put it on a train and made Bond destroy the hell out of it before jumping onto the aforementioned destroyed train and then straightening his tie. Seriously this sequence was brilliant. But it only marginally beat out the exquisitely shot night-time fight scene in a Shanghai tower block; seriously the cinematography in the entire movie was just beautiful.

1. From Russia With Love - Orient Express Fight

With the modern world bringing technological advances, it's easy to get lost in the CGI, explosions and vehicular chases but sometimes the best, most adrenaline inducing action takes it old-school. The claustrophobic fight scene between Sean Connery's Bond and Robert Shaw's Red Grant was incredibly exciting. The visceral fist fight between these two was brutal, with eye gouging, knees and elbows flying everywhere. It was a real dog fight. Brilliant stuff.

[hoagy]

Boy will THIS thread get a lot of dissent !  Just waiting for the lovers of the boring Dalton films or the how-can-they-possibly-be-MR-lovers to chime in.

At any rate -- great list except for Little Nellie.  While the "special" effects were not as awful as the sequence of laser-induced explosions in DAF, or the car coming out of the alley wrong end up in DAF (spoiling an otherwise fine scene), the "special" effects in YOLT's Little Nellie scene were awful.  They showed NO progress technically from the helicopter attack on Bond in FRWL (which would be fine for the list but for the terrible "special" effects, but was not as good as the train fight from the same film).  Also -- you really ought to have considered one of the better sequences in any of the films, and they come from the Moore era (which had the benefit of better funding and genuine special effects):  the boat chase in LALD (with its record setting jump), the PTS in TSWLM (with its own record setting jump...of a different nature).

I'm sure there's more, but rather than run the films through my mind, which would take some time, I'm getting this comment up and posted.

For an offbeat and genuinely appreciative mention (though it gives rise, ahem, to a suggestion for a whole other thread on another theme):  Eva Green's entrance to the card game in THAT DRESS in CR, and Bernice Marlohe at the bar in THAT OTHER DRESS in SF sure were spectacular in their own way.  Not "action" scenes, per se, but they definitely lead to some "action" for our favorite hero.

[Hansen]

As it comes:

- OHMSS: fight on the beach

- CR: parkhour chase

- FRWL: Fight on the train

- GF: PTS

-TLD: Necros 'kidnapping' Koskov

[DominicGreene]

1. Shanghai Fight (Skyfall)

2. Goldeneye Tank Chase

3. OHMSS Ski Chase [Entire scene]

4. The Living Daylights Ice Chase

5. Casino Royale Venice Fight

[sharpshooter]

I'll have to think about this one before making a list, but straight away the Piz Gloria ski escape and the LTK tanker chase are sticking out. 

[tdalton]

In no particular order:

• Tanker Chase (LTK)
• Car chase / cello case sledding (TLD)
• Bond vs. Grant (FRWL)
• Bond falls out of plane without parachute (MR)
• Escape from Piz Gloria (OHMSS)

[plankattack]

No order for me either:

Bond v Grant - brutal but made more so by the slow burn of the build-up. Despite being 50 years old, I'm not convinced it's been bettered (some have come close - OHMSS, GE, CR stairwell)

Tanker chase - Whatever one may think of LTK, it's tough to argue there's been a better action climax in the whole series

Parkour chase - More than just action; it's also the personification of the lead's interpretation of the character. Brilliantly edited, too

Train/car/clown from OP - I've little time for this particular entry in the series, but from the moment Bond discovers the bomb to the moment he defuses it, this "everything but the kitchen sink" sequence delivers without a pause or a lag (save for the ropey backscreen projection)

BMW in TND - while I think the QoS car chase is a more visceral experience, the BMW chase in TND is a nice twist on the usual "gadget" chase. And wonderfully sold by Brozza.

[S K Y F A L L]

FRWL Bond vs Grant  

MR PTS

GE Bond vs Alec

TND PTS

TWINE boat chase

[tuttle300]

There are so many to choose from but I have always been impressed with Moonraker's opening sequence where Jaws shoves Bond from the plane without a chute and he quickly remembers that he himself had just pushed the pilot out the door. So despite the odds he dives toward the pilot, wrestles it from him and succeeds in strapping it on with time to spare.

 

And to  cap THAT we have Jaws re-enter the scene and grab Bond's leg- ready to take a chunk of it with his teeth. Bond of course, pulls his cord - the parachute catches the wind and he slips out of Jaws' grasp.

 

And, arguably, if they had cut away at that moment and begun the credits it would have been great.

 

And there'd be no need to explain jaws showing up later in the film since we had seen from Spy Who Loved Me that its very tough to kill the man anyway. I felt the scene showing jaws flapping his arms as he plunged to earth kind of ruined an otherwise brilliantly executed stunt sequence that from I read took a few hundred separate dives to film- in addition to the awesome  edit job on the piece.

 

Anyway thats my vote.

[tdalton]

 

And there'd be no need to explain jaws showing up later in the film since we had seen from Spy Who Loved Me that its very tough to kill the man anyway. I felt the scene showing jaws flapping his arms as he plunged to earth kind of ruined an otherwise brilliantly executed stunt sequence that from I read took a few hundred separate dives to film- in addition to the awesome  edit job on the piece.

 

 

 

You're absolutely right.  The arm-flapping did take away from the sequence a bit.  It had a similar effect that the slide-whistle had on the 360 degree bridge jump in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

[tuttle300]

Tdalton    It would seem to me that for some reason during the Moore era the producers - who I would think shared final cut with the director- for some odd reason felt the need to inject humor in the oddest places and at the oddest moments ( like several of the infamous double takes during stunts by both humans and animals)

 

While it was okay at first it became a staple in the Moore era but then even Moore himself may have been guilty of suggesting humorous beats in the narrative of the film as HIS era - while noted to be very successful at the time- is fondly remembered as the definitive Bond.

 

Dalton came along in an attempt to swing the character back to the core of what he was intended to be and yet perhaps, at the time, it was too jarring for audiences so soon after Moore. I suppose Brosnan can be seen as a successful transition period that led us back full circle to Daniel Craig. Back to an era of watching the character BE the ruthless assassin he was meant to be.

(And yeah- there are many, many elements of the Moore era that I still enjoy today- especially the inventive stunts and set pieces- but I am really enjoying the return to the grit and grimness of the Craig era)

 

In fact- arguably- the entire franchise continues to be a fascinating study of hits and misses over the many decades of its history as each actor came in and made their mark. I don't think any other franchise aside from maybe Star Trek ( which to date has enjoyed a transition from the  classic, then the 4 from Next generation, then a total skipping away from DS9, Voyager and Enterprise, and the 2 newest versions which literally threw the canon out the window and lived to tell the tale!) has successfully had so many changes to the foundation of the characters and themes.