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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2015 13:03:48 GMT -5
But I was surprised at the number of fans who put The Man with the Golden Gun near the bottom. I like it! And I think it should get points for varying the formula as much as it does. I think one of the reasons Golden Gun ranks lower is the inclusion of Clifton James' buffoonish Sheriff J.W. Pepper, a character no one asked to be brought back and which no one other than the director seemed to feel was appropriate for the series. With the addition of Pepper, the Bond films lurched further into cartoonish comedy, a move which history has not treated kindly. My God I could not stand Pepper. Not only does he get to annoy me in TWO Bond films, he (or a character EXACTLY like him played by the same guy) shows up in Superman II to bug me there too!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 28, 2015 13:12:34 GMT -5
Connery is my favorite but I have to say that Timothy Dalton was a bit underrated. I never really thought Brosnan was a good Bond. I thought Roger Moore was a soft Bond. I think Dalton is vastly underrated. Surpringly he turned down the role 3 times before he accepted it. The first being when he was only 22 years old at the time as a replacement for Connery...he felt he was too young. In fact his portrayal of James Bond was closer to Ian Fleming's original novel version of the character than any other Bond actor. The Living Daylights is my favorite Bond movie from the 80's...second only to For Your Eyes Only. Liscense To Kill was just "OK" but I did like the gritter feel he brought to the role in the film. Agreed on all counts. Dalton is a far superior Bond than Pierce Brosnan's as far as I'm concerned, and on par with Roger Moore's (albeit in a different register). I think Dalton was ill-served by License to kill, a story that could have been so much better had it been more focused. It tried to do too many things at once and committed a few sins: (a) destroying a major character; (b) using a cheesy element, that of the cheap and glitzy religious cult, something that a Bond film must stay clear of -a Bond film needs to be cool because the very concept of the franchise is a bit cheesy itself; (c) totally failing to capitalize on its interesting premise: Bond on his own, with Mi-6 against him. Come on, Mr. Glen; this should have been James Bond's answer to Jason Bourne. What we got was a tepid story where the hero is not really hunted down by his friends (even helped by some!) and gets his job back no questions asked by the end. But Dalton is not at fault: his James Bond was perfect. He even played the same part in that spy-movie spoof with Brendan Fraser.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Nov 28, 2015 14:39:50 GMT -5
My God I could not stand Pepper. Not only does he get to annoy me in TWO Bond films, he (or a character EXACTLY like him played by the same guy) shows up in Superman II to bug me there too! Live and Let Die, where Pepper first appears, is partly set in Louisiana, so there is sliver of justification for the character (though I could have happily done without him altogether). But he is positively force-fed to us in Golden Gun, like corn to a goose, and the resultant foie gras is so distasteful and unnecessary that I feel the bird is owed an apology.
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Post by Pharozonk on Nov 28, 2015 18:28:23 GMT -5
This thread might as well be re-titled "The All Purpose James Bond Thread".
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2015 18:48:35 GMT -5
This thread might as well be re-titled "The All Purpose James Bond Thread". Ha ha yeah I kind of derailed this thread with my dislike of Diamonds Are Forever and it then took a mind of it's own.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2015 19:06:54 GMT -5
I think Dalton is vastly underrated. Surpringly he turned down the role 3 times before he accepted it. The first being when he was only 22 years old at the time as a replacement for Connery...he felt he was too young. In fact his portrayal of James Bond was closer to Ian Fleming's original novel version of the character than any other Bond actor. The Living Daylights is my favorite Bond movie from the 80's...second only to For Your Eyes Only. Liscense To Kill was just "OK" but I did like the gritter feel he brought to the role in the film. Agreed on all counts. Dalton is a far superior Bond than Pierce Brosnan's as far as I'm concerned, and on par with Roger Moore's (albeit in a different register). I think Dalton was ill-served by License to kill, a story that could have been so much better had it been more focused. It tried to do too many things at once and committed a few sins: (a) destroying a major character; (b) using a cheesy element, that of the cheap and glitzy religious cult, something that a Bond film must stay clear of -a Bond film needs to be cool because the very concept of the franchise is a bit cheesy itself; (c) totally failing to capitalize on its interesting premise: Bond on his own, with Mi-6 against him. Come on, Mr. Glen; this should have been James Bond's answer to Jason Bourne. What we got was a tepid story where the hero is not really hunted down by his friends (even helped by some!) and gets his job back no questions asked by the end. But Dalton is not at fault: his James Bond was perfect. He even played the same part in that spy-movie spoof with Brendan Fraser. If Licence to Kill has a problem its that it divorces Bond from his natural surroundings to such an extent that he runs the risk of looking like a guest in someone else's film. The movie is a little too eager to embrace the language and conventions of American actions thrillers, including the level of violence and so perhaps it lacks the balance of hard-edge and secret service theatrics that made the previous film so enjoyable. The other niggle is that Glen's direction remains decidedly flat, although he does manage to pull off a bit of a showstopper with tanker truck chase toward the film's climax. Ultimately though we have the purest portrayal of Bond yet seen trapped within a revenge story that doesn't feel like a Bond adventure at all. It doesn't hold up as one of the better entries in the series because good as it is in places, it doesn't have the heart and invention of the series best. This was it for Dalton even though he was supposed to do a 3rd movie and what a shame because he was the first actor since Connery to actually take it seriously. Some Bond fans have written off Dalton but perhaps they should give him credit for doing something different and, for the most part, succeeding.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2015 19:43:48 GMT -5
This thread might as well be re-titled "The All Purpose James Bond Thread". He does have a new comic out, by Dynamite.
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 28, 2015 20:06:02 GMT -5
I have this Bond three parter that I've yet to read. Gulacy art, too.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 28, 2015 20:11:32 GMT -5
The Eclipse three-parter by Mike Grell was all right, too.
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 28, 2015 20:23:54 GMT -5
Change of subject - sort of.
I never had any love for comic book adaptations of movies or TV shows. I don't think you can properly capture the excitement of moving pictures in a comic book.
There. I said it.
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Post by berkley on Nov 29, 2015 1:03:42 GMT -5
Change of subject - sort of. I never had any love for comic book adaptations of movies or TV shows. I don't think you can properly capture the excitement of moving pictures in a comic book. There. I said it. I feel much the same. Maybe there are a few exceptions - I remember enjoying the Logan's Run comic with George Perez art, for example. But was that an adaptation or just based on the premise of the movie? Can't remember after all this time. Kirby's 2001 series was again based very loosely on the premise rather than adapting the film. He did do the movie adaptation in a Treasury Edition, though, and I think that is an interesting work in its own right, though of course not a substitute for the movie experience.
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Post by berkley on Nov 29, 2015 1:05:55 GMT -5
I have this Bond three parter that I've yet to read. Gulacy art, too. I think this was quite excellent. One of the better Bond stories done by anyone other than Fleming. Perhaps inspired more by the films than by Fleming's books, though.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2015 1:24:10 GMT -5
I have this Bond three parter that I've yet to read. Gulacy art, too. I think this was quite excellent. One of the better Bond stories done by anyone other than Fleming. Perhaps inspired more by the films than by Fleming's books, though. Which is the opposite of the new series from Dynamite, where Warren Ellis has said many times he was riffing on Fleming's Bond from the books and ignoring the movie portrayals. I have the Grell Bond mini Permission to Die and I just read the first issue of VARGR a few weeks ago, and they are both good, but I haven't read nor owned the Moench/Gualcy mini. -M
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2015 7:11:39 GMT -5
This thread might as well be re-titled "The All Purpose James Bond Thread". I know. I am so lost because I don't really do the Bond movie/book/whatever thing. I see the appeal for others to like it, but it's not my thing. Never has been. And I've tried.
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 29, 2015 9:12:18 GMT -5
This thread might as well be re-titled "The All Purpose James Bond Thread". I know. I am so lost because I don't really do the Bond movie/book/whatever thing. I see the appeal for others to like it, but it's not my thing. Never has been. And I've tried. You don't even like the movies?
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