The Best of BOND; Let's get this over with - Page 220

No, you're thinking of Lois Chiles. Bach is great.

 

I should say this set the sexiness bar high. A moment all Bond girls have been chasing since.

Quote:

Nice to know you on the boards, Ringo! Your wife is hot!

To the folks who have read the books - was the loyal Bond ally Quarrel treated so dismissively & dispatched so unceremoniously by Fleming?

Seriously. The wasteful ease in which Quarrel gets taken out in Dr. No would make a Red Shirt wince.

Respectfully, Peter Travers can lick my taint. I'd watch License To Kill 3 more times before I'd watch any of the Moore movies.

 

...on a more agreeable note, I did my 2nd OHMSS viewing right after. Still masterful. I like Lazenby even more now. I can't really fault the guy at all. I have no hope of doing a coherent top 6 Bond actors, I'd have to pair it off into groups.

 

1.Honorary spot for Connery, for being the first, and defining the effortless cool suave Bond.

2.Tied, Lazenby and Brosnan...and Craig...and Dalton.

 

....

 

3.Moore.
 

Hey, come now. Bond totally approaches the smoldering bush sadly before the No guards tell him not to.

I think Quarrel lives in the book, and comes back in Live and Let Die. I think. Regardless, the Dr No book actually makes Moonraker look tame. Bond battles No's pet GIANT SQUID and buries No alive in bird shit. You practically think Quarrel's dragon is going to end up being a real thing.

The torture gauntlet Bond is put through is the best part of that book. The confrontation with the giant squid is the stuff of legend.

Quarrel dies in the book though, sad to say. What I don't like in the film is making Quarrel out to be a sort of buffoonish, drunken coward at times. Feels like a betrayal of his character, and a bit racist too.

Jeffrey Wright's Felix in the Bond reboot and his relationship of equal respect with 007 is a positive and welcome contrast to that of Bond's relationship with Quarrel.

 

So score a point for Craig's tenure being racially cool.

RE: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

 

Essential Bond Moments: the Spy vs Spy aspect of it; the look on Bond's face when they bring the gypsy girls to his tent;  Bond's partnership of equals with Kerim Bey; "You're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen." "Thank you, but I think my mouth is too big." "No, it's the right size... for me, that is."; and of course, the brutal train fight with henchman supreme Red Grant also "Horrible, horrible woman." "Yes, she had her kicks."

 

Misfires: none.

 

Verdict: A pretty much perfect 60's Bond

 

Bond Girl moments - unfairly criticized for being a dim bulb, Tatiana Romanova is exotic, with one of the most slyly sexy 'come hither' looks of all the Bond girls; i also liked the return of Sylvia Trench

Edited by Fat Elvis - 11/19/12 at 9:02pm

 

So it's basically like the book.

 

Flemming's hatred of seemingly everything that isn't white, male, and English can go from tiring to almost adorable at the drop of a hat.

JFK famously listed "From Russia With Love" as one of his 10 favorite books. Does the movie top the book?

Quarrel was a lot better in the book, being a no-nonsense ally Bond greatly respected. Bringing in Leiter in the film version took that away, and making Quarrel more buffoonish was most unfortunate. As much as I like Jack Lord, I really don't see the point in adding his character other than to give Bond a white ally for white audiences. Honey's character also lost a lot of the personality, no longer being a child of nature in the film version but some lady Bond meets and leads him into the island.

I think both are fantastic for their mediums and I actually love the opening chapters with SMERSH plotting the death of Bond. The film version serves well, making some changes here and there but overall really capturing the spirit of the film successfully. It's probably the best possible cinematic interpretation of the book.

I was rewatching Layer Cake the other day - great film - and this scene made me chuckle.

 

 

"007. I'm your new Quartermaster."

 

"You must be joking."

Wow. I didn't realise those two actors have met before in another project. Other than Perfume I don't remember seeing Whishaw before this year when he suddenly seems to be the young British actor to cast in things. I guess I was wrong. If I looked on his IMDb page, I've probably seen a lot more of his movies than I realised.

 

EDIT:

 

Just discovered that they were in Enduring Love together too!

Edited by MrSaxon - 11/20/12 at 2:47am

"Do you fancy a line, mate?"

 

Whishaw's a bit of a chameleon. I haven't seen Perfume but the fact he can play a coked-up, intellectually challenged, cuckolded wide-boy numpty on the one hand, and a straight laced, highly intelligent computer expert on the other, and be convincing and immersed as both is impressive.

 

Also, tangentially, Sienna Miller in Layer Cake may be the hottest thing on two legs. Would have made a damn fine Bond girl.

 

That's an excellent idea. It's not too late, is it?

Sienna Miller still could be a Bond girl - she's only 30. Amazingly enough, Bernice Marlohe is 33, so I don't think Miller has aged herself out of the chance to be in Bond yet (but she's right at the line).

 

I liked Whishaw much more in Perfume and Layercake. I hate to say it but I didn't like how Q was handled in Skyfall. I didn't believe that he was a real person, it felt like his presence was always supposed to be the movie having a laugh with it's tongue firmly in cheek.

 

Miller in Layer Cake was incredible though. The shot where Bond, er, I mean, XXXX, watches her dance while she's smoking a cigarette, has to be one of the hottest things I've seen on film. Even though Craig's character thought he was the cleverest guy around, a "businessman whose commodity happened to be cocaine", you absolutely buy the idea that she tripped him up and got under his skin, ultimately leading to his downfall in a way he never saw coming.

 

Is there anyone here who has not seen Layer Cake? I'm genuinely curious. I feel like at this point, beyond the fact it's a fantastic movie, it should be mandatory viewing for fans of Craig's Bond.

 

Agreed & agreed. I prefer the whole SMERSH angle to bringing in SPECTRE in for From Russia With Love, and while Jack Lord was the best Felix Leiter until Wright stepped in, the changes to Dr. No from the novel are I think unfortunate. If Disney could do a convincing and scary Giant Squid in 20,000 Leagues, I wish they'd have had one for Connery to stab in the eye with a spear in No.

The ventilation shaft sequence is my least favorite change. They took what was originally a very suspenseful sequence in the book and turned it into... Bond merely escaping. It makes the villains look more foolish as a result. What's also lost is Dr. No's fascination of pain.

We almost got the crab sequence with Honey being tied up, but according to the Inside documentary by John Cork, when they shot it the crabs wouldn't move, they would just be sitting and not looking threatening. It's one of those things that could have easily been fixed today by good use of CGI.

 

I hadn't appreciated she was only 30. That's insane.

 

That scene had particular personal resonance because the self-same situation happened to me rather amorally pulling someone's girl whilst he was yapping away at me. She looked and acted a lot like Sienna Miller did in that scene. Went out with her for nine months after, and thankfully it didn't end the same way.

 

Oh, and Stoke Park (where said ending takes place) is awesome. Anyone happening to be over here, or any Chewers in this green and pleasant land, owe themselves a trip. It didn't just feature in Layer Cake, but they also filmed the Goldfinger golf game there. It's worth hacking your way around the course just to have a putting competition on the 18th green.

 

"You must have played the wrong ball on the fairway. We are playing strict rules, so I'm afraid you lose the hole and the match."

Cashing in. No wonder Moore could afford to live the life of a tax exile in Switzerland, and Dalton has barely had to work since. Still, if £31m is a realistic figure, someone is taking crazy pills.

 

"Putting extra zeros in 007: Daniel Craig is highest-paid Bond with £31 million contract"

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/putting-extra-zeros-in-007-daniel-craig-is-highestpaid-bond-with-31-million-contract-8328542.html

I bet Roger Moore never went to a war zone to entertain the troops.

Quote:

 

Still safer than being Sean Connery's wife.

 

LOL! Okay, that's terrible and yet deserves rep.

 

Ha! Arguably he didn't need to. He was a commissioned officer and served in the entertainment branch.

 

Although whether occupied Germany qualifies as a "war zone" is debatable.

You may think you got away with it, but when you get smug and break the fourth wall, that's when karma will strike!

 

Good catch about the golf course, I'd forgotten that. I don't play golf but it would be fantastic to walk in Connery's footsteps on the green and emulate his epic match against Goldfinger.

 

Yes, the whole point of the giant air shaft was that Bond had the option to die in his cell, or go down the rabbit hole and sign up for whatever No had in store for him. Having Connery just pointlessly crawl around giant air ducts was not an improvement, and I love the sinister way No observes Bond through the peep holes as he makes his progress through the gauntlet in the book. No assumes that Bond can't possibly survive, and even if he does, the squid at the end will finish him like it had done for countless others before. Bond's quick thinking, when he grabs the length of 1/4th inch steel wire and later uses it to defeat the squid, is No's ultimate undoing. It's the best aspect of the book I think.

 

The crabs would have been horrifying, but perhaps tough to pull off correctly without CGI, and if they're not going to have Honey Ryder stripped naked, the crabs seem less intimidating.

 

 

Moore's pacifism would have been an obstacle.

Well, there you go. Reading the Wikipedia entry for Moore has revealed the nugget that George Macdonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels (satirical Victorian adventurer books that I think some remember fondly in the recent "best novels" threads), wrote Octopussy. I did not know that.

Moore was heavily involved with UNICEF.  Give him the respect he deserves for that.

Roger Moore, UNICEF Ambassador: Pushin' Third World children off of river junks since '74.

 

Hey, 20,000 Bhat is a little fucking steep for an elephant.

 

I never realized that Fraser wrote Octopussy-- but I can totally see that now. And as much as I don't like that movie, it's got a kickass theatrical poster.

Oh I wasn't insulting him. I was just saying as a statement of fact that his pacifism would probably have prevented him from making an appearance in a war zone like Craig did.

I really like the first two Bonds. They are unique, grittier and grounded (even with an absurd Dr. No villain) , without the gadgets and the formula that kicked in with GOLDFINGER. We wouldn't get anything like them again until Craig came along.

Favorite Bond line readings?

 

This one popped into my head today:

 

"Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her."

A Most Unintentionally Hilarious Bond Moment in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: Bond spends five minutes checking his hotel room for bugs -- accompanied by a full-out version of the Bond theme. Watching him casually stroll across the room as the staccato guitar plays, looking behind a painting on the wall as the horns kick in full-blast is too funny!

Double posted.
Edited by Dr Harford - 11/20/12 at 4:02pm

Speaking of unintentional hilarity:

 

While watching Skyfall, I kept waiting for Ralph Fiennes to say, "Bond, this may be too much for an inanimate fucking object to understand...".

The THUNDERBALL skeet shooting scene has my favorite line reading.

 

It looks very difficult

(blam)

Why no, it isn't, is it!

 

Second favorite?

 

Roger Moore in MOONRAKER, with the hunting scene.  His 'Did I?' is perfect: suave and smarmy at the same time.

 

I laughed at that too.  It's at top volume for the entire scene.

Craig's final line in Casino Royale is perfectly delivered. It might even beat Connery's iconic introduction in Dr. No.

 

"The name's Bond. James Bond."

Terence Young really gave the series a good kickstart, just the perfect balance of reality and fantasy with good humor. Goldfinger is still great though, I like what Hamilton added to the Bond series to give it that extra push that made the series a phenomenon. It's only by YOLT where it started to veer off too far into fantasy, at least for Connery's era. That kind of flick works better for Moore because he has the right sense of humor to pull off such absurdity.

"The Hildebrand Rarity"

Makes a good "Bond on his off day" kind of entry. Bond observing the sea, his contempt of Krest, cleaning up the scene of the crime. Milton is such a bastard, film adaptation wise I thought it was good of Maibaum to give him a role in one of the films as a henchman. I prefer his death in the short story over the film of course.

A few pages back Phil posted his write ups on "4 Non-Bonds". Well, what do you guys think of Hitchcock's TORN CURTAIN? In a twitter feed I was reading today someone was saying that, stunt castings aside, "it sits lovely beside other great 60s spy thrillers." I'm kind of curious to revisit it, because I recall it being one of the few Hitchcock's I never really cared for, not even able to muster even a little affection for it.

 

I'd like a traditional big sweeping travelogue adventure that continues Skyfall's emphasis on character and mood while not forgetting to have fun and find those humorous bits.  But let's have a story that concerns us all, not just Bond.  I'd welcome a plot that brings back Quantum in a way that echoes Thunderball. Let Quantum finally take some of that wealth they've been secretly amassing and do something big and terrifying with it, a global threat that will really scare the audience, a desperate mission where we'll be cheering on Craig to save each and every one of us.

 

Let's finally see some of the really fearsome people who run Quantum.  No middle men, no money makers.  I want to see their Blofeld, their Red Grants, their Oddjobs.  Make them bizarre and scary.  Cast a tall henchman who looks like he could destroy Craig with one punch.

 

Craig's sardonic quips will be funnier and more enjoyable in the wake of such frightening stuff.  It will be a natural release for the audience.  (In other words, no more funny Joker villains, please.  There's just too many of them in action-adventures these days.)

 

Let's have a female villain again, one who seduces/is seduced by Bond, more Volpe than Onatopp.

 

More sex.  More sexy girls.  Both in the movie and in the titles.

 

Don't just keep Moneypenny behind a desk.  Naomie Harris just looks too amazing on camera, whether kicking ass or wearing stunning party dresses (or both).

 

One really cool gadget.  Just one really clever and useful thing that's believable even if it doesn't exist (or kinda doesn't) that everyone in the audience will want.  And then have Bond use it in an unexpected and creative way to save his ass.

 

I'd like to see a third act involving Craig slowly working his way commando/ninja-style into an elaborate enemy base.  Don't make it easy-peasy like in Quantum.  Make it a long suspense-filled effort for Bond, where it doesn't look like he'll pull it off.

 

And then, maybe... a mass assault of good-guy commandos!

 

I'm glad they have Logan around for two more films.  Now they should give Roger Deakins whatever he wants to stay onboard.  Don't lose him.  Same goes for editor Stuart Baird and second unit director Alexander Witt.  One of the key reasons the 60s films were so good was the consistent EON "family" behind the scenes.

 

EON has a good thing going with the Craig films, especially with CR and SF.  It's a plan they should stick with.  They need to stop emulating recent non-Bond movies.  They can also relax on references to classic Bond films.  Bond has Begun.  And now he has Risen for his 50th anniversary.  Enough winking.  Let's move forward.

 

And I've decided I'm cool with the gunbarrel being at the end.  In the grand scheme of things, when you consider everything that could have gone wrong with the Craig films, the location of the gun barrel is small potatoes.  It works as well at the end as at the beginning.

Edited by Doc Phibes - 11/20/12 at 8:57pm

Tilda Swinton as Ernestine Stavro Blofeld. That's all I want.

I was thinking more along the lines of Sergi Lopez from Pan's Labyrinth, but Swinton is a pretty fabulous idea.  I suppose it's been enough years since Narnia for her to be another franchise villain.

Gary Oldman as the villain in full coked out LEON mode.

 

Please.

As people have starting speculating on actors for the next Bond, I'll throw these two into the mix:

 

 William Fichtner as The Head Of Quantum

 

 Ray Stevenson as The Main Henchman

I don't want to see Quantum again, just like I don't want to see SPECTRE pop up again. The minimal amount of continuity between movies is way more healthy at this point.