The Things We Hate And Love Thread . — Page 313

If I had to pick another Connery, I would be hard pressed between Goldfinger and Dr. No.  As it is, I can just pick From Russia with Love and be done with it.

Brosnan's best movie, or the best movie with Brosnan?  As a Gen X'er, I think Brosnan was perfectly suited to my generation's Bond.  GoldenEye is my favourite Bond movie of all time... I was totally pumped to see Tomorrow Never Dies on opening night... and I just couldn't get past how uninspiringly over the top it was.  It felt, to me, souless.  And it seemed to only go downhill from there.  It was just too smug... too self aware, maybe.  Too rote and too cliche. 

Martin Campbell seems to do Bond right by me, since I didn't care for any Bonds after his GoldenEye until his Casino Royale (I really thought I was done with the franchise until someone made me watch Casino Royale).  My wife even loved Royale, and she hates all other Bonds.  We watched OHMSS afterwards, because Royale was most like that one, I would say. 

She didn't hate it. 

Quantum of Solace started to leave the "realistic" Royale behind and go back to goofy Bond.  Like I said, if they can pull of a 3rd Quantum movie, I'll be really excited about that.

The Spy Who Loved Me is my #2 Roger Moore.  And the theme song to A View to A Kill.  ;)

xhonzi said:

Craig - Casion Royale

 

Those are the only Bond movies I need.  Maybe with Quantum of Solace if the third Craid movie makes a solid trilogy of his films.

 Man, my fingers suck at spelling when left to their own!

Warbler said:

obviously, with have different tastes when it comes to Bond.  I prefer the classic style of Bond movies.   That is why I like Tomorrow Never Dies.    GoldenEye never appealed to me too much.   I'm surprised you didn't pick License To Kill as your favorite Dalton movie.   You seem to be the kind of Bond fan that likes that one.    Casino Royal was good, I just wish they would have made it more clear that they were totally restarting the series.   I don't understand why they kept Dench as Q.   If you want to get closer to the Books, why keep a female Q?  Keeping the same female Q as the last movie makes it look as though you are continuing that series.      

THEY DID MAKE IT CLEAR IN THE PRESS FOR THE MOVIE.  ALSO DAME JUDY DENCH WAS UNDER CONTRACT STILL.

Warb... Dench is M, not Q. And honestly, I think she makes a damn great one! Something about the way she plays the character stole every scene she was in - at least, Quantum of Solace-wise. There's not much going for that movie IMO.

bkev said:

Warb... Dench is M, not Q.

 Wow, I read through that whole convo, and I never noticed the mistake!

Warbler said:

obviously, with have different tastes when it comes to Bond.  I prefer the classic style of Bond movies.   That is why I like Tomorrow Never Dies.   

 Classic like Connery or classic like Moore?  I thought Tomorrow Never Dies was more along the silly lines on Moore's stuff.

Also, I think the end of the Cold War put Bond in a tough spot.  They weren't quite sure what to do with him for a while.  It's kind of like the the Post RotJ books... they don't quite know what to do with the Empire gone.

Warbler said:

GoldenEye never appealed to me too much.   I'm surprised you didn't pick License To Kill as your favorite Dalton movie.   You seem to be the kind of Bond fan that likes that one. 

Ouch!  What did I do to you?  I actually think License to Kill is one of the worst of the series.

Well, I like Judi Dench's M, and while I generally agree with you, I feel they get a pass on this one since M is a title and not a person anyway.  I have to say that I think making M a woman opposite the playboy Bond creates an excellent foil situation.

Hey Warb, don't worry about it.  My "what did I do to you" was meant to be tongue in cheek.

Warbler said:

M was originally played by a man,  and M was a man in the books. 

Yes, I am aware of that, but, again, it's a title, not necessarily a specific character.  Therefore, it seems that they are open to changing facets of "M" when it's a different "M."  Believe me, I feel the same way you do.  When Justice League first came on, and Green Lantern was a black man, I was a bit annoyed that they were being politically correct and changing the character's race.  I eventually learned more about Green Lantern (not knowing much at all) and realizing that there have been several Green Lanterns, and one of them was black, so it's not so much of a big deal to me.

Let me see if I can be clearer.  I know there's a fan theory that even James Bond is just a title used for several different spies in order to rationalize how Bond can continue on for so many decades (and obviously look so different in various appearances).  But let's forget about that.  If we are to assume that Bond is a singular character, that there is only one James Bond, then, yes, I would feel it to be quite irritating if he suddenly became a middle eastern woman and treated as if he/she was always that way.  But conversely, in GoldenEye, they specifically address the fact that Judi Dench's M is a brand new character with references to her male predecessors.  New person, doesn't retcon the old Ms, so I'm okay with it.

Point taken on that end.  I'd forgotten you were also specifically complaining about the "new" Bond films, I thought you were just complaining about Judi Dench playing M in general.

Unless you back to Gaffer's other sort-of-point that perhaps this is a new Bond who takes over after Brosnan's Bond died from an STD he contracted on one of his missions.  Then it's the she-M who took over from the he-M training a Blonde-Bond after the Brown-Bond croaked.

DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT THE PHILLIES WERE GOING TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN THIS SEASON?  LET'S SEE.  I DO REMEMBER TELLING YOU THAT THEY WEREN'T.  :P

THAT'S IRRELEVANT.  YOU PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED A CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE PHILLIES, AND I GUARANTEED THAT THEY WOULDN'T GET ONE.

About a great many things!