Topic: James Bond Marathon

[Tom]

Title: The World Is Not Enough
Year: 1999
Director: Michael Apted
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 123 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: Danish, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Pierce Brosnan
Sophie Marceau
Robert Carlyle
Denise Richards
Robbie Coltrane

Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Music Videos
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

Never one of my favorite Bond movies. After "Tomorrow Never Dies" a real disappointment for me. And Denise Richard as nuclear physicist is really ridiculous. At the time this movie bragged that it had the longest pre-opening title sequence of all Bond movies. It was nice, but nothing special.
The highlight for me in this movie was the introduction of John Cleese as Q's successor ("a young fellow" ). At the time I thought they knew that Desmond Llewelyn will die before the next Bond, with all the hints they did here. It was a good passing of the torch here. I was surprised to learn later, that it was a car accident, of which the actor died. So they made this "exit strategy" simply because of the advanced age of the actor and not because he was ill.

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: Die Another Day
Year: 2002
Director: Lee Tamahori
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 127 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: German: Dolby Digital Surround EX, English: Dolby Digital Surround EX, German: DTS ES (Matrixed), Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Commentary, English, German, Trivia, Turkish

Stars:
Pierce Brosnan
Halle Berry
Toby Stephens
Rosamund Pike
Rick Yune


Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Multi Angle
Music Videos
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Storyboard Comparisons
Trailers

My Thoughts:

This Bond movie seems to take a lot of heat. But I tought it was a good entry. Great car chase, Halle Berry as Jinx and a lot of nice references to previous Bonds ("Here a new watch. When I am correct the twentieth" - Q paraphrased).

Of course there are some points, which are bad and probably are the main reasons, why this movie is not liked that well:
1) An invisible car: The fact that it can turn invisible is totally ridiculous and not needed for the story at all.
2) Probably the worst theme song of the franchise.
3) Holo-goggles: Plays no part in the story at all and are too Star Trek for Bond. And the ridiculous Moneypenny scene at the end. Too bad that it was this scene, Moneypenny was last seen (so far).
4) Too much bad and obvious CGI. Bond is known for having great real-live stunts. In the past we often got bad blue-screen inserts. But to have so obviously bad green-screen effects in this day and age is sad.

Rating:

[Najemikon]

Jinx was good, but other than that I just saw it as a rather long parody of a good Bond movie.

[Dragonfire]

James Bond turns renegade to hunt down a master criminal in this pulse-pounding thrill-ride that's packed with awesome stunts, subtle humour and explosive confrontations. Timothy Dalton brings urgency, charm and deadly determination to his portrayal of the superagent, who leaves the British Secret Service and begins a fierce vendetta after his friend Felix Leiter (David Hedison) is brutally attacked by drug lord Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi).

My Thoughts

Ok..I just did not like this movie at all.  I tried and gave it a chance, but I was so bored with it I kept watching the clock and I can't imagine watching it again.  The plot had potential, but I just didn't care for the way it was handled.  I get that James and Felix have been friends for a long time, but James seemed more upset by what happened to Felix than he had with what happened to Tracey and that just seems wrong to me.  There was a minor reference to her and at first I thought there was going to be something with James having to deal with unresolved feelings tied to what happened to her after he was the one that found Della ..or Delia..whatever.  I think that would have made the movie better instead of just having Bond on a revenge mission.  He was done right vicious at times, and I didn't think that fit the character right.  I just didn't like it.  Dalton is ok, but he just isn't James to me like the other actors have managed to be.  The women aren't impressive at all and were just annoying.  The theme song and the music in general sucked.  The only good thing about the movie was when Q turned up and ended p playing a bigger part. 



Oh...I'm watching Serenity on Sci-fi right now and according to a commercial, 2 Bond movies are going to be on the channel in a few days.  Since when is Bond sci-fi?

[richierich]

The Big "James Bond" Marathon

As it seems to be, that I am not the only one who needs a little incentive to watch the Bond movies again, I am opening this collective marathon.
Here is the schedule for this event
I only included the official Bond movie. The original "Casino Royale" and "Never Say Never Again" are not included, but feel free to also review those any time.
Each Bond week will start on a Monday and ends on a Sunday.
I am thinking that Quantum of Solace will already be available on DVD when we get to the finish line at the end of June.

Week		Title	Year	Rich	Tom	Dragonfire
Jan 26 - Feb 01		Dr. No	1962
Feb 02 - Feb 08		From Russia with Love	1963
Feb 09 - Feb 15		Goldfinger	1964
Feb 16 - Feb 22		Thunderball	1965
Feb 23 - Mar 01		You Only Live Twice	1967
Mar 02 - Mar 08		On Her Majesty's Secret Service	1969	-
Mar 09 - Mar 15		Diamonds Are Forever	1971
Mar 16 - Mar 22		Live and Let Die	1973
Mar 23 - Mar 29		The Man with the Golden Gun	1974
Mar 30 - Apr 05		The Spy Who Loved Me	1977
Apr 06 - Apr 12		Moonraker	1979
Apr 13 - Apr 19		For Your Eyes Only	1981
Apr 20 - Apr 26		Octopussy	1983
Apr 27 - May 03		A View to a Kill	1985
May 04 - May 10		The Living Daylights	1987
May 11 - May 17		Licence to Kill	1989
May 18 - May 24		GoldenEye	1995
May 25 - May 31		Tomorrow Never Dies	1997
Jun 01 - Jun 07		The World Is Not Enough	1999
Jun 08 - Jun 14		Die Another Day	2002
Jun 15 - Jun 21		Casino Royale	2006
Jun 22 - Jun 28		Quantum of Solace	2008

Additional Bond movies, which can be included optionally:

		Title	Year	Rich	Tom	Dragonfire
		Casino Royale	1967
		Never Say Never Again	1983

A little bump so I don't have to keep searching for next Bond film i am due to watch 

Also my vote for OHMSS seems to have disappeared?

[Tom]

Also my vote for OHMSS seems to have disappeared?

I must have overlooked your review when I first started tracking these ratings. I thought you had skipped that movie and put a "-" down at the time. So it seems nobody looks at the table on the first page anyway as this error was there from the beginning

A little bump so I don't have to keep searching for next Bond film i am due to watch

Why is a bump necessary? I don't mind, but isn't it easier to look up the very first post of this thread instead of searching a post hidden on page 9?

[richierich]

Tomorrow Never Dies



The British super spy goes after a ruthless media baron (an amalgam of Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates, played with feisty aplomb by Pryce) whose diabolical plans include instigating World War III so that his empire can obtain an exclusive (a la CNN during the Gulf War). This time, 007 discovers sorrow in a love lost and a worthwhile partner in a female Chinese counterpart (Hong Kong action diva Yeoh). Noteworthy for its unabashed commercial product placement, Sheryl Crow's title song was nominated for a Golden Globe (Best Original Song - Motion Picture).

Average spy film, the start and first hour or so heralded great things, with excellent chemistry between Brosnan and Hatcher, but for me it rather fizzled out through a pedestrian and uninspiring storyline when the settings went to Asia. The villain (Pryce) was pathetic and an unbelieving media mogul, and a limp somewhat camp baddie in relative unknown Gotz Otto.
This what a stretch too far from reality for my taste, and a flimsy plot which did not deliver the goods. A missed opportunity after a great beginning.
 

[Tom]

Title: Casino Royale
Year: 2006
Director: Martin Campbell
Rating: PG-13
Length: 144 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Daniel Craig
Eva Green
Mads Mikkelsen
Judi Dench
Jeffrey Wright

Plot:
CASINO ROYALE introduces JAMES BOND before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to "00" status. "M" (Judi Dench), head of the British Secret Service, sends the newly-promoted 007 on his first mission that takes him to Madagascar, the Bahamas and eventually leads him to Montenegro to face Le Chiffre, a ruthless financier under threat from his terrorist clientele, who is attempting to restore his funds in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale. "M" places Bond under the watchful eye of the Treasury official Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger together. Le Chiffre's cunning and cruelty come to bear on them both in a way Bond could never imagine, and he learns his most important lesson: Trust no one.

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Featurettes
Music Videos
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about this movie.
One the one hand, I like the portrayal of the new bond and I like the direction they were going with the character.
But on the other hand the main plot leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion.
The first half an hour, Bond was chasing some guy for whatever reasons (apparently it was a bomb maker), which got him into trouble with M because he killed that guy on the ground of an embassy.
Then after some investigations he goes Poker playing. Seems the bad guy needs money and his plan is to win at a Poker game.
First Bond looses and almost dies because of poisoning. Then he gets another shot at the game. (How exciting watching Bond play poker... not).
Finally he has won the money. The bad guy is not happy and is now after Bond because of it.
After this is done, Bond decides that he is now in love with the girl he was with at the Poker game all of a sudden. Bond resigns from MI6 to be with this girl.
But then she deceives him with the Poker money because she needs it for the ransom for her boyfriend. Bond is now bitter and it seems now that this is the reason the filmmakers want us to give for why Bond never gets close to the Bond girls.

This time around I watching this movie with my brother and he almost fell asleep multiple times. And like him I really had the thought (after having re-watching all the other Bonds), that this movie just isn't Bond.

Final thought: The new Bond (character) has some promise, but the scriptwriting has to get better with the next movies.

Rating:


Note to Jimmy: You can replace my existing review link with this one. I have slighty re-written my existing review.

[Jimmy]

Already done

Bond get married in On Her Majesty's Secret Service no? Don't see that for quite some time (when I was really young on tv), but I'm certain that he married the Diana Riggs characters

[Dragonfire]

Already done

Bond get married in On Her Majesty's Secret Service no? Don't see that for quite some time (when I was really young on tv), but I'm certain that he married the Diana Riggs characters

Yes he did.  Though the book Casino Royale took place before On Her Majesty's Secret Service....so that would have been the first time one of the women truly got close to him since Vesper.

[Achim]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Casino Royale

Year: 2006
Director: Martin Campbell
Rating: PG-13
Length: 144 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.40:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: PCM 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai

Stars:
Daniel Craig
Eva Green
Mads Mikkelsen
Judi Dench
Jeffrey Wright

Plot:
CASINO ROYALE introduces JAMES BOND before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to "00" status. "M" (Judi Dench), head of the British Secret Service, sends the newly-promoted 007 on his first mission, which takes him to Madagascar, the Bahamas and eventually leads him to Montenegro to face Le Chiffre, a ruthless financier under threat from his terrorist clientele, who is attempting to restore his funds in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale. "M" places Bond under the watchful eye of the Treasury official Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger together. Le Chiffre's cunning and cruelty come to bear on them both in a way Bond could never imagine, and he learns his most important lesson: Trust no one.

Extras:
Scene Access
Featurettes
Music Videos

My Thoughts:

The first hour reminded me a lot of the older Bond films and provided a lot of good action scenes. The free running looks really cool and the scene at the airport gets the blood pumping. What bothered me the second most anbout the film was how much of a bloody bastard Bond is. I can't really put my finger on it, but e.g. disobeying orders is one thing, but invading M's privacy and stealing her password just didn't seem like the usual Bond. Don't get me wrong though, I thought Daniel Craig played Bond very well and fit the role rather nicely.

However, there is this long stretch after the fight in the Casino which is very slow moving and rather boring. People playing poker has been portrayed in much more interesting ways before and they most certainly don't pull it off here. While it picks up speed a little bit towards the end, once they get to Venice, it's just not quite enough. The concluding action scene is well done and looks awesome, just too little too late, somehow.

While the poker stuff was unnecessarily long and could have been more exciting I guess the boring romance sequence was needed to set up the ending and even more the second film.


The picture quality of the Blu-ray was very good, the extras (an interview, a making of, a Bond girl special) were rather sparse though, considering the subsequent release.

[Achim]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Quantum of Solace

Year: 2008
Director: Marc Forster
Rating: PG-13
Length: 107 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.40:1
Audio: English: DTS HD Master Audio, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Other

Stars:
Daniel Craig
Olga Kurylenko
Mathieu Amalric
Judi Dench
Giancarlo Giannini

Plot:
On a nonstop quest for justice that crisscrosses the globe, Bond meets the beautiful but feisty Camille (Olge Kurylenko), who leads him to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a ruthless businessman and major force within the mysterious Quantum organisation. When Bond uncovers a conspiracy to take control of one of the world's most important natural resources, he must navigate a minefield of treachery, deception and murder to neutralise Quantum before it's too late!

Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers
Featurettes
Music Videos

My Thoughts:

The bad news is that this doesn't quite feel like a real Bond film (yes, I know they say it's supposed to build up to the third one, but I thought the first one felt more like Bond than this...). However, The good news is that it's a solid action film with a decent plot to go with it. The villain is not very strong in this one (part of what makes it less Bond-like, I guess) but it's more about Bond getting closure with the things that occured in Casino Royale.

Many people complained about the action scenes. While I agree that they could have used a wide angle shot here and there to clarify a little better what and who was where, I could follow the proceedings sufficiently and had no bigger problems with them. Also the music, or better the lack of the theme, gets a lot of flak. Here, I'll go with the group that says that Bond is not "worthy of the theme" in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace just yet, which they will therefore (hopefully) correct in the next one. We do get the theme with the end credits in both films...

I really liked M in this one, how she could see the "Bond-to-be" behind the rampaging idiot (for lack of words the word filter won't catch). Bond's switch from vigilant to professional field agent was nicely compressed into one short moment within the big fight towards the end. Also Felix Leiter develops very nicely. The reference to Goldfinger feels rather odd.

The ending was very good, that final exchange between Bond and M is very enjoyable.

Now, I keep hearing that this is building up to be a trilogy. But how...? What's missing? I don't see it ; I didn't really find any big loose ends when the credits rolled. What am I missing.


seems I enjoyed it more than I should have...

[Najemikon]

Now, I keep hearing that this is building up to be a trilogy. But how...? What's missing? I don't see it ; I didn't really find any big loose ends when the credits rolled. What am I missing.

I felt it would be a trilogy because this was the first continuing sequel to a Bond film, yet it is still unresolved. Both villains feel like soldiers; we haven't had the Big Bad yet! Casino Royale was about getting control of the economy, while Quantum was about them trying to control energy (IIRC). A good part three might be the head of Quantum breaking cover to attack MI6 head on.

[Dragonfire]

I read somewhere recently that they are planning to bring Blofeld back for the next movie.  No idea if he is supposed to be involved with the Quantum group from this one or if they are also bringing back SPECTRE.

I think if they bring back Blofeld, then they should bring back Miss Moneypenny and Q.  It's just...odd for them not to be around.

[Najemikon]

I read somewhere recently that they are planning to bring Blofeld back for the next movie.  No idea if he is supposed to be involved with the Quantum group from this one or if they are also bringing back SPECTRE.

I think if they bring back Blofeld, then they should bring back Miss Moneypenny and Q.  It's just...odd for them not to be around.

There was a rumour that Michael Sheen was lined up for Blofeld, but Empire are claiming it only started because they said he could be good (the writer for the new Bond also did a couple of Sheen's other films). He'd certainly be an interesting choice, but I'm sure Empire are right and the only reference to him is theirs.