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The James Bond Thread: RIP Robbie Coltrane


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I still want to be able to enjoy the Connery and Moore films. Shame seeing yet another thing I like being swept to the ash heap of history, to be forgotten, discarded, refuted. No one likes Connery's Bonds anymore. No more escapist films....

Ever heard of home media?

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I still want to be able to enjoy the Connery and Moore films. Shame seeing yet another thing I like being swept to the ash heap of history, to be forgotten, discarded, refuted. No one likes Connery's Bonds anymore. No more escapist films....

I think you're blowing everything way out of proportion - to say no one likes the Connery films anymore is asinine. The reality is a vast majority of people who don't call Connery their favorite Bond do still call him their second favorite Bond. You will, honest to god, never meet someone who likes Bond movies that doesn't like Connery's films.
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I still want to be able to enjoy the Connery and Moore films. Shame seeing yet another thing I like being swept to the ash heap of history, to be forgotten, discarded, refuted. No one likes Connery's Bonds anymore. No more escapist films....

Ever heard of home media?

Doesn't matter. They are worthless now. Another thing dead....

I live in a world where rock is dead and buried, James Bond means James Bourne, Sean Connery is considered shit next to a blond thug, GN'R is fucking dead and is a joke, America has no faith in itself, politics is all fucked up and veering ever further to the right in America, liberalism is dead, the working class is dying out, my home town is turning into yet another gentified shit hole, any form of escapism in films is being pissed on, whole genres of games I like are dead, books as a physical medium are dying out, spirituality is dying and you're mocked if you believe in it....I was not made for 2012.

I can definitely understand how my grandparents' generation felt when they watched all the changes of the late '60s. I can understand a character like Don Draper. Being a dinosaur in your own time and seeing all you grew up believing in, holding as fact, holding sacred, disappear.

"You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts."

Edited by Vincent Vega
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I still want to be able to enjoy the Connery and Moore films. Shame seeing yet another thing I like being swept to the ash heap of history, to be forgotten, discarded, refuted. No one likes Connery's Bonds anymore. No more escapist films....

I think you're blowing everything way out of proportion - to say no one likes the Connery films anymore is asinine. The reality is a vast majority of people who don't call Connery their favorite Bond do still call him their second favorite Bond. You will, honest to god, never meet someone who likes Bond movies that doesn't like Connery's films.

Pretty much this. About time we have a Bond who can be considered just as good if not better than Connery.

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Who's pissing on escapism? I mentioned in one of my posts that escapism can co-exist with seriousness in film. Skyfall was like a weird hybrid of the two that somehow worked.

No one is discrediting Connery. Connery is the best Bond, but Craig just happens to be my favorite.

Way to blow things out of proportion. ;)

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I feel like watching Thunderball again. That is probably Connery at his best. Connery is the only Bond who by his fourth film exceeds himself. Moore started showing insecurities in Moonraker but Glenn snapped him out of it in FYEO and Octopussy. Brosnan was actually good in DAD. We'll see how Bond 24 will be for Craig.

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I remember how excited I was when I got Thunderball on VHS for the first time. I must have worn out the copy at the local video store by the time I got it for myself.

It's still my favorite Connery film, tied with From Russia With Love as both are equally awesome.

I agree that Brosnan is really good in Die Another Day. It might actually be his best performance which is ironic considering how silly the film is.

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Its like he knew the film was shit so he made the most of it. I actually was okay with him doing another but I guess they had to do Casino Royale and it wouldn't make sense to have Brosnan do it.

I agree, FRRWL and Thunderball were his best films. I am not a fan of his snobby side though. Telling M why his brandy sucked in Goldfinger and the worse of it was DAF. But I guess it fits since the henchmen in the film were homosexuals. So knocking at them for bad after shave and not knowing shit about fine wine seems fitting.

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I would be all for a fifth Brosnan film had it happened before Casino Royale. I think they more or less took advantage of the fact that Brosnan's contract was up. They knew that they had to make a change and had been dying to do a proper adaption of Casino Royale since they got the rights, so with Brosnan not tied to a contract the timing just happened to be good to find a new actor and start a new direction. I'm sure Brosnan was upset but he understood what needed to happen.

I love those snobby bits of Connery's Bond actually. It's all in his casual delivery - just those odd facts that Bond seems to be a "know it all" about. Brandy, aftershave, wines, and so on. Shows Bond being incredibly intelligent and cultured yet with a hint of arrogance. I think it's in one of the Moore films where M finally retorts and says something like "It's nice that there's one thing you aren't entirely aware of" which I thought was a nice touch.

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My opinion, reached after more thought and less hyperbole. These are objective feelings:

There is, objectively, no such thing as "The Best Bond." Every Bond actor has been equally good for different reasons and for different eras. Each Bond as portrayed by each actor are all very different characters with only vague linking elements and similarities.

Connery was good for his mix of charm, ruthlessness, glamour, with a little camp thrown in. He sort of defined the role and the laid the foundation which all successors have tried to emulate to greater or lesser extent.

Lazenby was good as a mix between a darker Bond and Connery's portrayal, but was an anomaly with only one film.

Moore is great as a more light hearted Bond, a Bond perfect for the over the top '70s and early '80s, with his dry wit and utter coldness in the midst of campy and almost cartoonish action.

Dalton was great as a counterpoint to Moore and dialed back the excesses of the Moore era, and is a great character driven Bond. He was refreshing after 12 years of Moore and it was really time for a change.

Brosnan was a great mixture of and tribute to Connery, Moore and Dalton and showed the world that Bond could be a viable character in the post Cold War era of political correctness. That the James Bond franchise wasn't some relic of a different world that no longer had any place. He ressurected the series and gave it a newfound sense of relevancy.

Craig is a great mixture of Connery and Dalton. He is basically a more charming, less bleak version of Dalton refit for the 21st century, with elements of Nolan's Batman and Jason Bourne thrown in to compete with those series.

I would say instead of throwing any of them under the bus or saying "Craig is the best" or "Connery is the best" or whatever...I'd say they are all equally good for different reasons. It depends on what you like or want in James Bond. If you want a darker, more character based approach, go for Dalton and Craig. If you want a lighter, campy, over the top approach, Moore's your man. If you want a mix of light and dark with some glamour, go for Connery. If you want a mix of light and darkness with a bit of grit, go for Brosnan.

They're all equally good in different ways.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subjectively, I like Connery the best, followed by Moore, followed by Brosnan. I simply don't like Dalton's films as I feel they are too dark, too bleak, too dated, too unfun. I feel Craig's films take themselves too seriously and try too hard to be like Nolan's Batman mixed with Jason Bourne mixed with Connery's and Dalton's Bonds. I'm simply not a fan of darker Bond films.

James Bond for me is about escpaism, beautiful women, glamour, good quips, exotic, beautiful locations, great fight and action scenes, an element of camp, and a debonair leading man as Bond. My ideal Bond is a somewhat dark character, with great wit, style, panache, ruthlessness, a "cat-like" grace, incredible charm and class masking a cold detachment, in the way he presents himself.

I feel Connery and his films had the exact right amount of all those elements and thus he'll always be the best to me.

Edited by Vincent Vega
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Guess I'm the opposite. I liked the Bond I read about in the novels, that's what Craig, Lazenby and especially Dalton brought to the character, that he was a human being rather than a cartoon character... My favourite moment in the series is when Franz Sanchez, at the end of his battle with Bond and says "You could have had everything..." and Bond replies "Don't you want to know why?"

This was a man who had his wife ruthlessly assassinated immediately after their wedding... That moment really brought it home for me.

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Excellent post Vega. I'm glad you didn't throw away your Connery DVDs after all. ;)

I agree with pretty much everything you said. You've hit the nail on the head with your descriptions of each Bond. That's also why I made the poll title "Favorite Bond" as opposed to "Best Bond" since you're right that it can really not be determined. Every Bond fan likes something different.

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I think Brosnan is the first Bond that is now the favorite of those who "grew up with him"

For me it was because I always liked the films before 1990 better.

They were played on TV so they were better.

As said many times in this thread, Brosnan was a guy we are all fine with. We didn't think they would make the films better than the others. Casino Royale was the film the young Bond fans have been wanting. Older generation had From Russia with Love, Thunderball, Spy Who Loved Me, even Octopussy. We had, Die Another Day which Brosnan was awesome but it was like Moonraker but worse. Casino Royale was a quality film we wanted. Quantum of Solace was weird but Skyfall is the best we've had so far.

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I voted for Sean Connery because I did love his Bond movies, but I think Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Sean.

I think Sean had some of the best Bond films and the theme songs were so cool! I mean Goldfinger and Diamonds are forever! Awesome!

Anyway, Daniel is awesome too. He's done the most for the Bond series since Connery.

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Typical for China, but it's nice that they are coming around for major film releases. Casino Royale was the first ever Bond film to be released in China.

Val22, I agree with you 100% - Daniel has had the biggest influence on the series since Sean. He'll be a tough candidate to follow.

I wouldn't mind them re-adapting novels provided they change the titles. I wouldn't want to see a new "Moonraker" or anything even it's not truly a remake of the film. I'd rather them use elements from the novels that have yet to be used. There's also four Fleming titles left that are available:

- The Property of a Lady

- The Hildebrand Rarity

- Risico

- 007 in New York

I doubt the last one would ever be used, but the others could probably work. The Property of a Lady is an intriguing title (it's referenced in Octopussy with the egg) and Risico could easily become a new Thunderball in that it could simply be used as the name for an assignment. I'm not too keen on The Hildebrand Rarity and 007 in New York would be redundant. Bond has been to New York already, and I doubt they'd ever actually use 007 in the title.

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