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The James Bond Thread: RIP Robbie Coltrane


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With Renard they built-up this interesting scenario of a bad guy who feels no mean and is dying slowly (through a bullet in the head) but did absolutely nothing with the concept for the finale. We just get a standard fight/death scene in a submarine for the finale. It was odd. Decent film though. One of those middle-ranking Bonds.

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Brosnan's Irish accent slipped most in scenes he tried to be angry.

I've always maintained that I never saw it as the producers trying to get rid of Brosnan or wanting to get rid of him (he was doing fine at the box office and was obviously a fan favorite), and I still feel that way after watching Everything or Nothing. Barbara makes it fairly clear that after Die Another Day they couldn't keep in that direction, and that after 9/11 things in the real world changed cinema as well. Her and Michael were unsure of what direction to go in, and when it was decided on the more down to earth approach, they felt it was a good time to finally do Casino Royale which they had gotten the rights to in 1999.

That also meant they weren't going to re-sign Brosnan. I don't think it was easy for either of them to tell him it was over, but I think Pierce got it. Often you see in tabloids and general press that Brosnan was fired, but that's not true. His contract was up anyways. He probably had a fifth film in him but I think ultimately they all split at the right time.

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I believe Die Another Day was filmed around 9/11. It was out of place. Last thing people needed was bond surfing. The film industry didn't seem to know what to do either. I think the film Batman Begins probably truely influenced the writing in Casino Royale. A old almost comic book like hero being made relevant. They could have reimaged the series further like they did with Brosnan. The main bad guys were Russian Mafia while now it can be terrorism, drug cartels and people with a lot of money and connections.

Brosnan probably saw it coming. They just tried to top each film with more action. GoldenEye was simple, guns shooting and a tank chase. Tomorrow Never Dies had that awesome motorcycle chase but I thought the pre-title sequence with the guided missle was stupid. The opening to The World is Not Enough leaves a sour taste because Maria Grazia Cucinotta would have made a much better Bond girl than Denise Richards.

I think Berenice Marlohe is one of the hottest Bond girls ever.

Edited by Georgy Zhukov
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I concur. I wish she had more of a role in the film (she was great) but I get why they killed her off when they did.

Speaking of Skyfall, current worldwide total is $951 million. It's beaten Goldfinger. Life of Pi has been doing big numbers in China, so I think we can expect the same for Skyfall. It might still have a chance to beat Thunderball if it nears $1 billion before it opens there in the new year.

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I concur. I wish she had more of a role in the film (she was great) but I get why they killed her off when they did.

Speaking of Skyfall, current worldwide total is $951 million. It's beaten Goldfinger. Life of Pi has been doing big numbers in China, so I think we can expect the same for Skyfall. It might still have a chance to beat Thunderball if it nears $1 billion before it opens there in the new year.

It hasn't opened in Japan yet, has it? Incredible numbers for Skyfall nonetheless...
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It is out in Japan

I concur. I wish she had more of a role in the film (she was great) but I get why they killed her off when they did.

Speaking of Skyfall, current worldwide total is $951 million. It's beaten Goldfinger. Life of Pi has been doing big numbers in China, so I think we can expect the same for Skyfall. It might still have a chance to beat Thunderball if it nears $1 billion before it opens there in the new year.

Like you said, they were building up Renard as this awesome villain but he was just a whipped boy doing his deeds for a woman. Should have switched her roles with Denise.

Another good weekend for Skyfall. It looks like it will bit one billion.

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They should've just taken Denise Richards out of that movie and explored the relationship with Sophie Marceau's character (Elektra...I think) even more. That was an interesting plotline and the way Bond kills her (even though her death scene doesn't look real) is interesting.

Also, I just read that Peter Jackson was offered to direct that movie, but was passed on. He then commented that after LOTR he probably wouldn't be considered because his name would become "too famous"...I wonder if they approach him in the future?

Edited by Crazyman
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My last post was agreeing with what you said about Berenice. :lol: Still agree with the Elektra stuff though!

I doubt Jackson will ever direct one. Nolan seems keen to do one, but it'd be a while yet because he usually likes to be involved in writing the scripts and Logan is already signed for the next two. If anything, he might be good to bring in once we have a new Bond. Still, I think he already might be a bigger name than the producers want.

I'll be really surprised if Mendes isn't at least back for the next one. With the money Skyfall is making, I'm sure the studio will be pushing for it, not that the producers need the pushing. They all had a great working relationship, Barbara didn't rule it out, and Mendes said in a recent interview that he feels like his batteries are recharging now that he's had some time away from the film. I'm willing to be if he'll be back, contracts are being worked out as we speak. Probably won't have an official announcement until spring though.

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I can't help but noticed the projected image in the beginning of Die Another Day when Bond is fighting on the hovercract. Seems lazy they didn't bother fixing it.

Mendes doesn't seem to have much of an ego. He wasted it after American Beatuty and seems to be willing to worth with others in the James Bond films. Just hope it doesn't get the better of him for the next film.

Yeah, agree about Berenice. She was hot. The Best Bond girls never recieve enough screentime.

Oh man, Madonna's song is awful. Spanish steps intro? Really?

Mendes and the writers all seemed to be inspired by Nolan anyway.

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Maybe that's why they are the best Bond girls though - whereas a Bond girl like Halle Berry had too much screen time, the best ones are never spoiled in the same way, if that makes sense.

I agree with you on Halle's entrance. Up until then, Die Another Day is a solid Bond movie. Bond getting captured and tortured, the narrative being worked into the title sequence (which would have been better without the awful Madonna song), and then Bond having to be re-evaluated and discovering someone set him up. All pretty cool stuff that hadn't really been done before in a Bond film. The Hong Kong scenes are great (Bond walking into the hotel with the beard and hospital clothes is brilliant) as is his meeting in Cuba with the Raoul (the cigar guy).

After Halle, you get to the gene therapy stuff which to me is a little too unbelievable, even for a Bond film. Then we're supposed to believe that Colonel Moon completed the gene therapy, built the diamond mine in Iceland, set up Icarus, and became a celebrity in the form of Gustav Graves all in the span of Bond's 14 month capture. To me, Zao should have been the true villain, wanting to avenge the death of Colonel Moon, and then have Graves be the kind of innocent face for the laundering operation. Perhaps Graves could have been the insider, and then Frost the main Bond girl.

The movie is slightly redeemed with the scenes in London (Bond's meeting with M, the Q scene, and the fencing duel are all great), but once Iceland hits it's downhill again. The car chase, which is pretty cool I have to admit, should have been the lone action set piece in this half rather than the awful CGI surfing scene which even Brosnan makes fun of. After Iceland, the movie loses what, up until then, had been a fairly good narrative.

Funny enough, the invisible car and virtual reality scenes never bothered me.

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Watched Die Another Day for the first time in years last night and I had forgotten how bad it was in places, the CGI surfing has to go down as one of the worse Bond moments ever. I agree that some bits of the films were good and could have been explored further, the beginning bit and torture was good as was the bit in London like you said but aside from that it seemed far too over the top and trying too hard. I will admit when I saw it yesterday I was very surprised that Graves managed to accomplish happened in such a short period of time, seemed like it could have been spread over 2-3 years to make it more believeable. Also another little problem I had with the film was Zao's diamond acne, surely they could just remove the diamonds instead of leaving them there :lol:

Just a question for you Bond, how would you feel if in a film there were two Bonds? Like it starts off with Craig and about a third/ halfway through the film something happens like he gets killed/ is forced to retire and we get a new Bond for the remainder of the film. Kind of as a confirmation to the theory that James Bond is a codename, obviously that would only work if they decided to run with that theory but am curious as to your thoughts regarding it.

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It seemed like they were trying to give Halle Berry as much lines as possible

Bond: Open the door!

Halle: OKAY!

Really, half her lines were just useless.

The invisible car thing isn't too far off but it wouldn't really truely disappear in your eyes, it would just alter your perception. The film itself is not only overrloaded with CGI but the CGI was really bad. You can tell a lot of the ice scenes were just scale models. The jet car going off the edge of the clift looked like a toy. Bond surfing the title wave looked like video game graphics.

There were some nice scenes like James Bond said, the hotel scene and the Cuban guy. But fuck they really wanted to cash in on Halle Berry's star quality.

One interesting line that I caught for the first time this viewing. When M see's Bond for the first time since his capture she tells him the world has changed since their last meeting "Not for me." Bond replies. She could be referring to 9/11 and Bond becoming out of touch.

I can see why South Korea being pissed off when a US general orders their troops to be mobilized.

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By far the weakest thing about the Brosnan films were the villains. GoldenEye had some memorable villains. Xena the sadist who strangles lovers with her thights and orgasms when she mass murderes people. Omrumov who is a former Soviet now Russian general who is corrupt and a heavy drinker, probably the most realistic villain in the film and Alec the former MI6 Agent who faked his death to becoming a leading figure in the Russian crime world to get revenge for what Britiain did to his parents. After that you have the Robert Murdoch imitation, a terrorist turned pussy by a woman with daddy issues and Richard Branson. Obviously the writers lost touch.

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Funny read. Like the sarcasm with the ranking. I am glad in Skyfall they established Bond as not a code name but a real person. I am guessing the code name theory has been going on long before DAD?

I do agree the Brosnan films have not aged well. I would rank them from best to worse in order of release. They just get worse and worse.

Brosnan was a safe Bond, he was good but it seems like either he made no effort to make Bond his own or the producers didn't want to repeat another Timothy Dalton. Either way I felt it really hurt the last three films he did. GoldenEye basically brought Bond back, it was well paced and the vilains as I mentioned before were memorable. The opening title was great but on recent viewing I have noticed the facility geographically does not make sense. Bond bungees off a massive Dam and finds himself at the edge of a mountain. And the airplane stunt was obviously blue screen and I wonder how they would do it with a real guy?

Also I am not getting all this suaveness, Pierce Brosnan didn't look the part at all. He looked light weight and the tuxedo looks too big on him. He looked his best in GoldenEye. Somehow he really sold it there but wasn't able to after that. GoldenEye definitley would have been better with Dalton.

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Funny read. Like the sarcasm with the ranking. I am glad in Skyfall they established Bond as not a code name but a real person. I am guessing the code name theory has been going on long before DAD?

I do agree the Brosnan films have not aged well. I would rank them from best to worse in order of release. They just get worse and worse.

Brosnan was a safe Bond, he was good but it seems like either he made no effort to make Bond his own or the producers didn't want to repeat another Timothy Dalton. Either way I felt it really hurt the last three films he did. GoldenEye basically brought Bond back, it was well paced and the vilains as I mentioned before were memorable. The opening title was great but on recent viewing I have noticed the facility geographically does not make sense. Bond bungees off a massive Dam and finds himself at the edge of a mountain. And the airplane stunt was obviously blue screen and I wonder how they would do it with a real guy?

Also I am not getting all this suaveness, Pierce Brosnan didn't look the part at all. He looked light weight and the tuxedo looks too big on him. He looked his best in GoldenEye. Somehow he really sold it there but wasn't able to after that. GoldenEye definitley would have been better with Dalton.

Yeah I agree definitely, GoldenEye is great but the rest go downhill from there

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Good article. I'd like to believe the film itself was all a dream. :lol:

I'm with you Georgy - I'll always have a soft spot for Pierce's Bond because I grew up with him, but to me he looks a little soft if that makes sense. Handsome, suave, but not believable as a spy and someone who could kick your ass. Also, it seemed like Brosnan wasn't sure which type of Bond to play. Sometimes he tried to be serious, other times he tried to be Moore, and it just made for an odd contrast.

Also, the airplane stunt was real - done by the B. J. Worth who did most of the aerial stunts from Moonraker (I believe that was his first) onwards, including the Eiffel Tower jump in A View To A Kill. They show some raw footage of it on one of the features on the GoldenEye Ultimate Edition. I think the only manipulated bit was where he actually catches the plane, and then of the course the close-ups of Brosnan. I agree though, geographically the whole opening scene doesn't make sense.

Just a question for you Bond, how would you feel if in a film there were two Bonds? Like it starts off with Craig and about a third/ halfway through the film something happens like he gets killed/ is forced to retire and we get a new Bond for the remainder of the film. Kind of as a confirmation to the theory that James Bond is a codename, obviously that would only work if they decided to run with that theory but am curious as to your thoughts regarding it.

I agree with your thoughts on Die Another Day. That's another thing I forgot to mention (about Zao). It's like they were trying to work the villain's physical deformity into the story but massively failed because you're right, why wouldn't they just take the diamonds out? :lol: Especially something as valuable to the operation as those conflict diamonds. There's fantasy in Bond and then there's plain laziness and/or stupidity, and unfortunately DAD falls into the latter.

I've never liked the whole codename theory thing. I'm more inclined to just see it as the series doing a "mini-reboot" each time a new actor takes the role. Even at that, there's such little continuity in the films anyways that I don't think the codename theory would ever be necessary. I've always looked at the films as standalone adventures but with little bits linking each one together. I'm glad they finally put the codename thing to rest in Skyfall.

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Just a question for you Bond, how would you feel if in a film there were two Bonds? Like it starts off with Craig and about a third/ halfway through the film something happens like he gets killed/ is forced to retire and we get a new Bond for the remainder of the film. Kind of as a confirmation to the theory that James Bond is a codename, obviously that would only work if they decided to run with that theory but am curious as to your thoughts regarding it.

I agree with your thoughts on Die Another Day. That's another thing I forgot to mention (about Zao). It's like they were trying to work the villain's physical deformity into the story but massively failed because you're right, why wouldn't they just take the diamonds out? :lol: Especially something as valuable to the operation as those conflict diamonds. There's fantasy in Bond and then there's plain laziness and/or stupidity, and unfortunately DAD falls into the latter.

Adding back to the stupidity of DAD, the whole Emma Frost thing, I mean its MI6 for christ sake, surely they would do a thorough background check on her both before she took the job and when she was assigned to Graves? I mean at the end they even fucking mention it when M says they were looking at the bad guy so much it never occurred to look into the people who were actually at MI6, just seemed so silly to me that they would make that mistake :lol:

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I mentioned before too that Falco is a horribly used character. M flips on him for not revealing it was actually Jinx who torched the clinic and he knew all along that Frost had been in cahoots with Moon/Graves. Not only did MI6 fail their background check, but Falco was actually indirectly responsible for the whole thing reaching the heights it did. Terrible espionage work. :lol:

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George Lazenby kind of make sure it wasn't a codename by having him copy some of Connery's mannerisms. Roger Moore and Dalton by references to Tracy. Brosnan was weird because they would reference women he failed to protect but it kind of left the codename theory open. Skyfall puts it to rest by connecting Bond to the original parents Ian Flemming created.

Brosnan was like a mixture of Moore/Connery. Dalton said there was no way he could do it because he felt they had to go back to the beginning. He couldn't simply copy Roger Moore, so all those lines they wrote that Moore would say were changed. I liked his edgyness. Daniel Craig was like Dalton except he sold the humor.

Falco seems to represent the incompetance of American espinonage which is pretty fucking bold considering what happened around production.

Edited by Georgy Zhukov
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I mentioned before too that Falco is a horribly used character. M flips on him for not revealing it was actually Jinx who torched the clinic and he knew all along that Frost had been in cahoots with Moon/Graves. Not only did MI6 fail their background check, but Falco was actually indirectly responsible for the whole thing reaching the heights it did. Terrible espionage work. :lol:

But he was played by Michael Madsen and for that reason along I kind of like the character, would have like to have seen him as a recurring character which I think was the idea when they introduced him.

One of the things I liked most about the Brosnan films was the introduction of Colin Salmon as M's kind of like aide/ bodyguard, thought he did very well.

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