What's your favorite James Bond movie?

Fred Buer wrote: And his films have so much blatantly obvious product placement in them my eyes start bleeding.

-Fred

Yea, I thought is was sacrilege when Bond started driving a BMW.

A very tough question. I have the DVD boxset and even after repeat viewing I still cannot decide, BUT, I can at least categorise by each actor:

Connery: From Russia With Love... - while this ties very close to You Only Live Twice, I just cannot get past the classic noir feel to this film. It's the Bond film out of any of them which has captured this feel the best. Honestly, I doubt a Bond film will ever capture this feel again.

Lazenby: disliked his portrayal and his film.

Moore: The Man with the Golden Gun - a classic Bond film which had the greatest adversary of any of the Bond films, Christopher Lee. An essential 007 flick.

Dalton: The Living Daylights - while this is a pretty obvious choice for Dalton's best, I fel that License to Kill was battered a little unfairly. Sure, it merely conformed to what was typical to 80s action movies, but it was rough and mean in pretty much the way that Ian Flemming had envisaged. But, Daylights beats this on the basis of its grandiosity. It's the closest Bond gets to Indiana Jones.


Brosnan: Tomorrow Never Dies - my favourite Bond. I've always loved this film. It hasn't dated in the slightest. Great action, gorgeous Bond girls, great cars, terrific suits, my perhaps my favourite.

Craig: Casino Royale - again, much like Daylights to Dalton, Casino to Craig is a pretty obvious choice. But Quantum of Solace I enjoyed a lot too. As a Bond film, I loved it but as a film that was intended as a sequel to Casino, it failed as it had minimal relevance to Royale's plot. But, on Royale, well shot, suarve and brutal. The perfect balance just as the original text intended.

I, too, emjoyed Quantum of Solace but thought it left you rather unfulfilled in some ways. Still, it was definitely worth watching.

As far as Casino Royale is concerned, I liked the way it broke new Bond ground. Many things that were once standard and perhaps even sacrosanct was totally minimized.

Still, it had one of the great lines ever in a Bond movie.

Bond: "Give me a martini."

Barkeep: "You want it shaken or stirred?"

Bond: "Does it look like I give a damn?"

Jim the old guy wrote:I, too, emjoyed Quantum of Solace but thought it left you rather unfulfilled in some ways. Still, it was definitely worth watching.

As far as Casino Royale is concerned, I liked the way it broke new Bond ground. Many things that were once standard and perhaps even sacrosanct was totally minimized.

Still, it had one of the great lines ever in a Bond movie.

Bond: "Give me a martini."

Barkeep: "You want it shaken or stirred?"

Bond: "Does it look like I give a damn?"

That's precisely how i feel about the Daniel Craig series

I think Quantum would have been more rewarding had more abundant links been made to Casino Royale. With the exception of Mr. White's appearance at the beggining and Vesper's ex-French/Nigerian boyfriend at the end, it was pretty much a stand alone film more than it was a continuation.

I felt the copying of the horribly bad (my opinion; no I'm not discussing it!) Jason Bourne films throughout Quantum of Solace showed the creators of the Bond-films that they no longer have faith in the James Bond concept. If they need to copy something else that's popular, I mean.

Christ, Bond's been around in movieform since '62, and they've always been popular. Even the crap ones, like Moonraker. And still every new Bond-film will attract viewers. Why copy something that's braindead and obtuse and insulting like those terrible pieces of tripe?

And no, I'm still not discussing it.

-Fred

Fred Buer wrote:Why copy something that's braindead and obtuse and insulting like those terrible pieces of tripe?

Especially when the action scenes in Casino Royale were so beautifully filmed. The parkour chase for instance.

And then follow it up with Quantum? No wonder they said the shooting of the film was cursed. They broke the James Bond spell.

-Fred