77 replies to this topic

[AMC Hornet]

How do you think Mrs. Jim would like Die Another Day?

[Matt_13]

That was incredibly fun to read. Thanks!

[MrKidd]

I wonder.

 

I've been a Bond fan all my life - well, since I was about 8. I still remember the thrill of first watching Dr No on TV. Live and Let Die was the first one I saw at the flicks - it must have been a re-release because I was only 4 when it originally came out. Seem to remember it was a double bill?? Long time ago!

 

Truth is I'm bored with Bond now. Have been for a few years but it's only relatively recently that I've allowed myself to acknowledge this brutal fact. I don't give a damn about it anymore - don't even know why I'm here. Habit I guess. The poster who calls himself 'Jim' is a witty chap - so I visit once in a while to see what he has to say.  

 

I haven't read all of this thread - it DOES go on a bit! - but I resonated with Jim's last post; I'm sad to say. Whatever the reason - either I've outgrown them or they're just not any good now - I'm done with Bond, this website and caring about what happens to the franchise.

 

I'm writing this for my own catharsis not to be rude or offensive. Just take it as just an old man contemplating life, a  rapidly changing world and his own mortality.    

 

As for Jim, I think that would be a classy way to bow out.  I wonder if he means it?

 

Hope everyone still using this website continues to enjoy. I shall now leave as I am no longer a fan of James Bond. Oh my god, I said it. I really, really said it. 

[SecretAgentFan]

I had reached that point many years ago, actually, before I discovered this wonderful site.

 

All it takes is the next great Bond film to rekindle that flame.

 

Also, one goes through many stages in life - and sometimes, as I discover, one needs to let go of something... and then one will sometimes reclaim that passion.

[Simon]

I am three years older than the chap who has just left us, and I am only lead to question this long term and on-going interest after reading Jim's opuses.

 

Imagine the conflict, I have to pay for his with burgeoning self doubt.

[Jim]

Blimey. It's a year since we watched SPECTRE, and the basis of this thread. Doesn't time fly when you're having.... fun?

 

Might give it another spin tonight. Mrs Jim's at evening class. Mixed Martial Arts.

[SecretAgentFan]

So, did you dare to go back?  Or is Mrs. Jim taking those classes in order to keep you from subjecting yourself to this drivel?

[Jim]

I succumbed.

 

Shorter review: pfft.

[SecretAgentFan]

Could have been "pfffffft".  

 

You´re warming to it, aren´t you?

[Jim]

In the sense I would gladly see it burn, then yes.

[SecretAgentFan]

Judging from the look of the film it has already been conceived as smoldering.

[Pierceuhhh]

I'm glad it's a big controversial dog's dinner. The proud and shameful Fourth Movie Tradition. If every Bond movie was perfect, the series wouldn't be as much fun - it's hard to explain but any true Bond fan understands what I'm getting at. TSWLM wouldn't be as good without MR, you know?

[David_M]

The SPECTRE Blu-Ray was one of those "loss leader" items at a Black Friday sale last Thanksgiving so I picked it up for $10 and finally got around to watching it last week.  I was watching the interesting (if rather too lengthy) bonus feature on the filming of the Mexico sequence and thought, "Good lord, that location is beautiful.  When did we see this great, colorful cityscape and all this interesting carnival action?"

 

So I took another look at the PTS and remembered: oh yeah, we didn't.  Somebody went in and added a filter that bleached out 90% of the color in favor of some sepia tone that makes everything look overexposed and gives the impression of a sweltering desert.  Uncounted hours of hard work on location undone by a cheap-looking effect in the editing suite.

 

This gimmick looks horrible enough today, but in the long haul it'll date worse than Tamahori's jump cuts or Roger's bell bottoms.  How am I supposed to gripe about the rotten plot if my eyes can't endure the ugly imagery long enough to follow the action?

[SecretAgentFan]

That bleached out look indeed is an extremely strange choice.

 

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema is not known for draining out colours.  And Mendes should have known better, too, and did not ask Roger Deakins to get rid of primary colours before.  So, why now?

[David_M]

It was weird looking at the bonus feature first: "We found the greatest location...we spent weeks dressing it...we costumed hundreds of extras in spectacular outfits...we spent millions..."

 

Followed by the actual film:  "...then we flushed it all down the crapper.  Enjoy!"

 

A few weeks before watching the Blu-Ray, I happened upon the latter half of the PTS on cable TV (Epix, maybe?).  I'm a tightwad so I don't pay for the upgrade to HD, and in standard def, with decidedly less than crisp detail, this sequence really looks like garbage.  The complete lack of contrast in the final image makes it feel like you're viewing the film through a sandstorm, or an aquarium full of urine.  Even if they didn't want to give us any colors, something in the general neighborhood of a true black would have been nice.

 

On the upside, the helicopter sequence was well done, and it was interesting how the smallish real-life crowd was turned into a huge, teeming throng through CGI, even if they just looked like an undulating shag carpet in standard def.

[Simon]

This reminds me of the car chase in DAD followed by watching the Bond on Ice documentary.

 

The chase in the film was whittled down to a bunch of explosions and wotnot, The footage in the documentary of all the sliding on the lake, by contract, looked absolutely stunning - and should have bloody stayed in the film.

[David_M]

The fun one for me with DAD was the "para-surfing" documentary,  talking to the geniuses behind the CGI.

 

It took me a few minutes to realize no one was employing even a hint of irony in their remarks:  "Wait a minute, they honestly think that was a good effect!" 

[SecretAgentFan]

Not "honestly".