The James Bond Thread: RIP Robbie Coltrane

[Georgy Zhukov]

Didn't the actor hope to be the next Bond?

The guy who prayed Graves was in a lot better shape than Brosnan. Brosnan really started showing age in DAD. Some scenes in Cuban you can see liver spots.

[Tater Totts]

I think with his chest hair it kind of hid how bad Brosnan's moobs were getting to at that stage. As old as he was starting to look Moore was even worse at the end, think he was 58 when he finished as Bond.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Moore aged really well though.

[Tater Totts]

Not really too sure about that, bring Moore forward to 2002 where film quality had improved and looked clearer and I think he would have looked pretty ropey personally.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Going back to my original point. Timothy Dalton should have played Bond in GoldenEye.

[James Bond]

I do agree, but at this point, it's hard to imagine it not being Brosnan, especially with the impact of the GoldenEye game.

Anyone catch Judi Dench getting excited when Madsen went to go light a cigarette. She looked like she said "YOU SERIOUS WE CAN SMOKE HERE?"

I actually hated Colin, he was such a useless character. I felt they got him so they can have a black guy there.

I think he was intended to be the "Tanner" of the Brosnan era. Michael Kitchen played Tanner in GoldenEye, but was absent from Tomorrow Never Dies which is perhaps the reason for introducing Robinson. Both appear in The World Is Not Enough though, and then just Robinson in Die Another Day again.

Never noticed the cigarette shot. I'd say I'll look next time, but I probably won't watch it again for a while.

Didn't the actor hope to be the next Bond?

Salmon never mentioned it himself to my knowledge, but Brosnan was asked in an interview who he thought would make a great Bond after him and he mentioned Colin Salmon. That comment is probably what started it.

Side unrelated note - I saw Skyfall for a third time last night with a friend who wanted to see it again. I swear it keeps getting better each time.

[Tater Totts]

I still haven't gotten round to seeing it sadly, still need to watch Quantum

[Use Your Delusion 1]

I still haven't gotten round to seeing it sadly, still need to watch Quantum

don't.

[PappyTron]

What does everyone think is the best Bond theme tune? Personally, I'm partial to A-Ha's Living Daylights.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Sadly I have only seen Skyfall once. I am on to Quantum of Solace now and I need another Bond fix. I suppose I can watch The Living Daylights again but I should see Skyfall.

I didn't like the Living Daylights theme at first but it grew on me. Especially the chorus. Another Way to Die sounded better this time around until it got to "whoaaaaaohhhhh!" and I cringed. Do these people not have ears? I am all for Alicia Keys doing the next theme though.

I don't think QoS was that bad, I just felt it needed to be longer. They needed more scenes to allow the audience to recover from battle fatigue because by the time we get to the finale, we are underwhelmed.

[Crazyman]

I really dislike "Another Way To Die" when I hear it now. I forgot how I felt about it when it first came out, but I don't remember being too happy about it.

Also Georgy you'll be happy to know that I've been listening to "You Know My Name" quite a bit lately. I don't really like Cornell's solo stuff but I do love that song, outside of the Bond connection.

[Georgy Zhukov]

You Know My Name grows on you. I liked thte title sequence despite the lack of naked women. They were in Skyfall right?

The Man with the Golden Gun and For Your Eyes Only are my least favorite. Sheena does have a nice voice though. Licence to Kill was forgettable though I like Gladys Knight.

[Crazyman]

You Know My Name grows on you. I liked thte title sequence despite the lack of naked women. They were in Skyfall right?

The Man with the Golden Gun and For Your Eyes Only are my least favorite. Sheena does have a nice voice though. Licence to Kill was forgettable though I like Gladys Knight.

I agree, it certainly does grow on you. Although I had already listed it as one of my favorites. (I still prefer LALD)

Indeed, there was some naked women in the Skyfall credits.

I also agree with your second point about those two themes. Probably two of the worst themes in the series. License To Kill was alright.

[Georgy Zhukov]

David Arnold's score can be easily be passed for John Barry. Need to listen to Thomas Newman's next.

I forgot how gorgeous Olga Kurylenko was in Quantum of Solace.

[DieselDaisy]

I like Barry's instrumental for OHMSS. In terms of vocals, Monroe's From Russia With Love and N. Sinatra's YOLT are my favourites. Runners up would be Thunderball, Goldfinger and Goldeneye.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Die Another Day is by far the worse film in the series. At least Moonraker, the film it gets compared to had some pretty impressive stunts and sets to make up for how absurd it was. Moonraker also had John Barry. Also Moonraker had pretty damn good effects for 1979. If A New Hope, Superman and Star Trek: The Motion Picture was considered state of the art at the time, Moonraker must have been impressive. Die Another Day looked cheap. It seems the film was cashing in on all that is hip and cool. Music video style editing, 100 product placements, Halle Berry who won an Oscar because she did a sex scene with Billy Bob Thorton without puking. In that case Roger Moore should have been at least nominated for A View to a Kill for getting through a scene with Grace Jones. It was nessecary because it reminded fans and those new to the series that although James Bond does require suspention of disbelief, even in the more gritty and realistic Craig films, they at least used real stunts, explosions and endangered the lives of actor, stuntmen, crewmen and may even got permentant injuries. Even Roger Moore insisted on doing his own stunts.

I can't imagine the hype of being the 40th anniversary film and all we get was shit. I was starting high school at the time so I had other distractions but if I was born ten or fifteen years earlier, I would have been pissed. What could have been a promising career as Bond for Pierce was wasted on making him Rambo. The World Is Not Enough could have been the third film that cemented Pierce as one of the great Bonds as Goldfinger did for Connery, Spy Who Loved Me did for Moore, what GoldenEye could have done for Dalton and what Skyfall ended up doing for Craig. Skyfall seemed to make up all the promises the producers have been giving us since GoldenEye. They seemed to have taken advantage of the four year gap between DAD and CR and the four year between QoS and Skyfall. My only fear is how they will follow Skyfall?

Can anyone think of a good one-liner from Brosnan? Craig has "That last hand, nearly killed me" a line that had people in my theater roaring with laughter. Even got some positive feedback from the "littlefinger" quip.

As a Bond fan I am happy to say that I got my wife into the series. The only Bond film she saw before Skyfall was Die Another Day so she was surprised with how good Skyfall was. Maybe DAD was needed so everything after looks better by comparison. What I don't understand is why Die Another Day would get ranked over QoS and Jinx being one of the best Bond girls? QoS may have been a mess but the film has its moments, Craig was great and Olga wasn't actually bad at all and I hope Barbara Broccoili stays true to her word and find a way to return her to the series. Some unfinished business. It seems they've been trying to return Bond girls since Tomorrow Never Dies and it never fell through. What is weird about QoS is that I have known people who hated CR but loved QoS. It may not be loved by Bond fans but it got some people's interest. DAD was the trainwreck and Jinx shouldn't be compared to Honey, Pussy or even Vesper. Then again, that magazine we mentioned in this thread names Kissy as one of the best Bond girls. The one who only got the role because she threatened to kill herself.

[DieselDaisy]

I like Brosnan's Onatopp banter on Goldeneye.

[James Bond]

Brosnan's banter with Xenia in the casino is ruined by the music. A prime example of Eric Serra scoring something that totally does not match with the scene and slows the pace right down. What should have been a classic scene in Brosnan's tenure, pretty much his "Connery moment" of GoldenEye, ends up being where the film begins to slow. The music under the casino scene has those nice lush strings which by itself is a nice piece of music, but totally counters the mood of the casino scene. Almost makes it depressing.

Otherwise, it is a pretty good scene. Still, I agree with Georgy that it's hard to think of that signature one liner for Brosnan's Bond. Good lines were scattered in all his films, but nothing really stands out.

[Tater Totts]

Brosnan's banter with Xenia in the casino is ruined by the music. A prime example of Eric Serra scoring something that totally does not match with the scene and slows the pace right down. What should have been a classic scene in Brosnan's tenure, pretty much his "Connery moment" of GoldenEye, ends up being where the film begins to slow. The music under the casino scene has those nice lush strings which by itself is a nice piece of music, but totally counters the mood of the casino scene. Almost makes it depressing.

Otherwise, it is a pretty good scene. Still, I agree with Georgy that it's hard to think of that signature one liner for Brosnan's Bond. Good lines were scattered in all his films, but nothing really stands out.

How could we all forget the classic "I thought Christmas only came once a year?"

[Georgy Zhukov]

Is the bitterness towards Daniel Craig related to Brosnan not getting a chance to do one more film? He did say he wanted to do a fifth film and seemed very bitter when he was told he wasn't going to do anymore. Seems like one of those things we will never know until years from now.

I was always afraid to say something bad about Brosnan seeing he is so beloved by fans.As Craig Fergusan one said, anyone can kick his ass.

"Christmas comes once a year" is a classic in a sense that it was a horrible line. Only thing that tops it is "Sex for dinner and death for breakfast"

[James Bond]

A lot of Brosnan fanboys refuse to accept Craig as Bond because Brosnan was clearly the best actor to grace the role and his films are the four best in the entire series.

I like Pierce, but some people just aren't able to move on. There was a Bond before Brosnan and there's a Bond after, as there will be Craig is done.

Brosnan always kind of acted like he owned the role in interviews, like saying "Oh, I'm definitely back for a fifth and probably even a sixth after that" and so on, when contracts were not signed or even being discussed. Gave a lot of his fans hope and therefore they all got pissed when he got "fired" and didn't get to do his fifth and sixth films which were never to be in the first place. I know Pierce was just being optimistic, but I think a lot of his fans took his word for solid fact.

Agreed on "Christmas only comes once a year" - a line so obvious and bad it was predicted on Internet forums over a year before the film got released. It's remembered for being bad.

[Tater Totts]

Always felt that Brosnan's one liners were supposed to be similarly cheesy to some of Moore's but without the campiness of the 70s they just came off as horrible and unmemorable.

The bitterness to Craig, I think initially it was due to people feeling he was the wrong choice when he was case, didn't really fit into the tall dark handsome mold that had come before. Craig seemed short in comparison when he was cast and that coupled with the longish blonde hair he had at the time surprised and turned quite a few people off.

Does seem like Brosnan wanted to do more and to me anyway, seemed like he was pushed when he officially resigned the role in 2005 rather than willingly giving it up. With the success that Craig had with CR it is easy to see where the bitterness came from.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I am sure the next Bond will be hated by Craig fans. I'ved always liked Pierce, GoldenEye was the first James Bond film I've seen. When I would go back and watch the others it was obvious that everyone before Brosnan, even Lazenby were better. Dalton kind of represents the dark and gritty Bond that the producers got cold feet and ran away from. Brosnan talks about how he would love to do that, but it seems obvious he has no say in the direction of Bond. Not saying that Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are dictators but they kept control over the creativity. if they wanted a grtty Bond they would have stuck with Dalton.

The Brosnan films were popular and made a lot of money. However if you adjust the inflation of all the Bond films, only Die Another Day would have made top then in 2002 and be pushed aside in favor of Daniel Craig. Skyfall now being number two adjusted for inflation and number one unadjusted. It is clear that more people went to go see Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace than Die Another Day. What really helped is international audiences accepting Craig as Bond. They seemed not to have accepted Brosnan as much. Brosnan was a safe Bond. As James Bond said, he was a Bond we were all fine with. Sean Connery is obviously better, no one can handle a quip like Roger Moore. Dalton and Lazenby are suppose to be hated but they were actually great.

Okay here's a good quip from Brosnan. "The writing is on the wall." from GoldenEye which was actually helped by Q "Along with the rest of him!"

[Tater Totts]

I think the best quip in Goldeneye actually came from Bean and was very subtle. "Closing time James, last call."

[Georgy Zhukov]

"Buy me a pint!"

Because Bond is Irish.