The James Bond Thread: RIP Robbie Coltrane

[The Real McCoy]

Just saw it today. Enjoyed it.

[Powerage5]

Saw it again last night with my girlfriend and roommate who hadn't seen it yet; both enjoyed it but thought it was a bit overhyped, and not quite up to par with Casino Royale. I still loved it, and it is still my favorite Bond movie.

[luciusfunk]

This will be the highest earning Bond until the next one. Unfortunately the US release will fall short of $185 million since it will run into Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 and later The Hobbit. Skyfall is going to get destroyed. Being a good movie doesn't mean shit.

I hope to see it again when Twilight takes up all the tickets, I hate seeing movies that are opening but with Bond I can make an exception.

After listening to all the theme songs, I think Adele's Skyfall is the best since All Time High for Octopussy. All others were either good or terrible. Terrible would be Madonna's autotune mess Die Another Day and Jack White's and Alicia Keys Another Way to Die for Quantum of Solace. I feel the song would have been a lot better if Jack White didn't produce it.

Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill" is my favorite Bond theme. I was reading that it's the only Bond theme to make number 1.

[Dan H.]

This will be the highest earning Bond until the next one. Unfortunately the US release will fall short of $185 million since it will run into Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 and later The Hobbit. Skyfall is going to get destroyed. Being a good movie doesn't mean shit.

I hope to see it again when Twilight takes up all the tickets, I hate seeing movies that are opening but with Bond I can make an exception.

After listening to all the theme songs, I think Adele's Skyfall is the best since All Time High for Octopussy. All others were either good or terrible. Terrible would be Madonna's autotune mess Die Another Day and Jack White's and Alicia Keys Another Way to Die for Quantum of Solace. I feel the song would have been a lot better if Jack White didn't produce it.

Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill" is my favorite Bond theme. I was reading that it's the only Bond theme to make number 1.

It was.

It's also the worst song rated among Bond fans

[luciusfunk]

This will be the highest earning Bond until the next one. Unfortunately the US release will fall short of $185 million since it will run into Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 and later The Hobbit. Skyfall is going to get destroyed. Being a good movie doesn't mean shit.

I hope to see it again when Twilight takes up all the tickets, I hate seeing movies that are opening but with Bond I can make an exception.

After listening to all the theme songs, I think Adele's Skyfall is the best since All Time High for Octopussy. All others were either good or terrible. Terrible would be Madonna's autotune mess Die Another Day and Jack White's and Alicia Keys Another Way to Die for Quantum of Solace. I feel the song would have been a lot better if Jack White didn't produce it.

Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill" is my favorite Bond theme. I was reading that it's the only Bond theme to make number 1.

It was.

It's also the worst song rated among Bond fans

Pretty sure you pulled that out of your ass.

Edited November 20, 2012 by luciusfunk

[Dan H.]

This will be the highest earning Bond until the next one. Unfortunately the US release will fall short of $185 million since it will run into Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 and later The Hobbit. Skyfall is going to get destroyed. Being a good movie doesn't mean shit.

I hope to see it again when Twilight takes up all the tickets, I hate seeing movies that are opening but with Bond I can make an exception.

After listening to all the theme songs, I think Adele's Skyfall is the best since All Time High for Octopussy. All others were either good or terrible. Terrible would be Madonna's autotune mess Die Another Day and Jack White's and Alicia Keys Another Way to Die for Quantum of Solace. I feel the song would have been a lot better if Jack White didn't produce it.

Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill" is my favorite Bond theme. I was reading that it's the only Bond theme to make number 1.

It was.

It's also the worst song rated among Bond fans

Well good thing I don't give a damn.

Good thing you have no taste

[James Bond]

Skyfall is up to nearly $670 million worldwide, with $160 of it from North America in just over a week. Unadjusted for inflation, it is now the highest grossing James Bond film and there's some markets it still hasn't opened in yet. Sony has predicted $800 million overall but I think it'll easily surpass that.

Pretty much my criticism of Pierce Brosnan's Bond in a nutshell. He was great and all but this brought him down below Dalton and Moore and even Lazenby.

Pretty funny! Poor Pierce. Another thing that brought his Bond down was the horribly acted confrontation between him and Elektra in The World Is Not Enough after Bond has seen Renard. Any time he had to show anger, more or less. The script didn't help matters but Pierce is awful in the scene. "There's no point in LIV-ING in you can't feel A-LIVE? Isn't that your motto?"

Similarly, in Die Another Day: "The same person who set me up then has just set me up again so I'm going AFTAH him!"

No, I'm not criticizing his Irish accent. It's the weird accentuations he puts on words when he's trying to act angry.

[luciusfunk]

This will be the highest earning Bond until the next one. Unfortunately the US release will fall short of $185 million since it will run into Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 and later The Hobbit. Skyfall is going to get destroyed. Being a good movie doesn't mean shit.

I hope to see it again when Twilight takes up all the tickets, I hate seeing movies that are opening but with Bond I can make an exception.

After listening to all the theme songs, I think Adele's Skyfall is the best since All Time High for Octopussy. All others were either good or terrible. Terrible would be Madonna's autotune mess Die Another Day and Jack White's and Alicia Keys Another Way to Die for Quantum of Solace. I feel the song would have been a lot better if Jack White didn't produce it.

Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill" is my favorite Bond theme. I was reading that it's the only Bond theme to make number 1.

It was.

It's also the worst song rated among Bond fans

Well good thing I don't give a damn.

Good thing you have no taste

Good thing you have no proof to back your claim.

Edited November 20, 2012 by luciusfunk

[Georgy Zhukov]

^You say that as though Dalton did a bad job or something...

No Dalton was the Best Bond until Daniel Craig. He was perfect. The only problem was they didn't know how to make him funny. When they wrote one liners they were thinking of Roger Moore. Shit did you know Roger Moore was considered for The Living Daylights? He would have been 62.

Skyfall is up to nearly $670 million worldwide, with $160 of it from North America in just over a week. Unadjusted for inflation, it is now the highest grossing James Bond film and there's some markets it still hasn't opened in yet. Sony has predicted $800 million overall but I think it'll easily surpass that.

Pretty much my criticism of Pierce Brosnan's Bond in a nutshell. He was great and all but this brought him down below Dalton and Moore and even Lazenby.

Pretty funny! Poor Pierce. Another thing that brought his Bond down was the horribly acted confrontation between him and Elektra in The World Is Not Enough after Bond has seen Renard. Any time he had to show anger, more or less. The script didn't help matters but Pierce is awful in the scene. "There's no point in LIV-ING in you can't feel A-LIVE? Isn't that your motto?"

Similarly, in Die Another Day: "The same person who set me up then has just set me up again so I'm going AFTAH him!"

No, I'm not criticizing his Irish accent. It's the weird accentuations he puts on words when he's trying to act angry.

Yeah, I couldn't take him seriously in those scenes. Most of the time he hits a bullseye but when it comes to acting, he is mediocre. Even Roger Moore was convincing the one or two times he gets really pissed. Dalton and Craig to me were across the board. Craig pretty much perfected what Dalton started, in the Dalton days, people weren't ready for a gritty Bond. Die Another Day proved people wanted a grittier post 9/11 Bond. Many people who've seen DAD loved the opening scene especially when Bond gets captured. Then it went to shit. Casino Royale gave them that. Skyfall was a true successor.

[Desperado]

Saw it today and it was good. Not a big Bond fan but I really liked this one. I also need to watch Casino Royale.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Saw it today and it was good. Not a big Bond fan but I really liked this one. I also need to watch Casino Royale.

Get on it son. I think people liking Skyfall without seeing Casino Royale really speaks for how well done it was. Bond films are stand alone films. They weren't even shot in order of the novels.

[Crazyman]

Saw it today and it was good. Not a big Bond fan but I really liked this one. I also need to watch Casino Royale.

Get on it son. I think people liking Skyfall without seeing Casino Royale really speaks for how well done it was. Bond films are stand alone films. They weren't even shot in order of the novels.

Which was a major plothole mistake when it came to YOLT/OHMSS/DAF

[Georgy Zhukov]

YOLT was a dark book. So different from the film which in my opinion was horrible.

[James Bond]

^You say that as though Dalton did a bad job or something...

No Dalton was the Best Bond until Daniel Craig. He was perfect. The only problem was they didn't know how to make him funny. When they wrote one liners they were thinking of Roger Moore. Shit did you know Roger Moore was considered for The Living Daylights? He would have been 62.

60 - Sir Roger was born in 1927.

It's crazy to think of Roger in A View to a Kill as it is let alone any film after. The Living Daylights would have been totally different. Similar plot perhaps, but far sillier. The only way anything could have worked is if his age was written into the script, unlike A View to a Kill where the audience was supposed to believe a 58 year old Roger is actually Bond in his forties. Dalton came at a good time, but he was a bit ahead of his time. Probably too different from Roger. While some hardcore Bond fans craved that harder-edged Bond I think general audiences who grew up with Moore probably felt like Dalton was too much change all at once.

As strong of an actor as Dalton is, I personally feel he could never handle the humor. The quips in his movies weren't exactly great to be fair, but the humor sounded forced. Still, Daylights is one of my top Bond films.

Saw it today and it was good. Not a big Bond fan but I really liked this one. I also need to watch Casino Royale.

Get on it son. I think people liking Skyfall without seeing Casino Royale really speaks for how well done it was. Bond films are stand alone films. They weren't even shot in order of the novels.

Which was a major plothole mistake when it came to YOLT/OHMSS/DAF

Indeed. The first five Connery films are pretty good for continuity as far as Bond films go. It was all downhill after they decided to re-introduce Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service as if Bond never met him simply because they wanted to keep it faithful to the novel. In retrospect, I'm glad because On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a great film by itself and I've never cared for You Only Live Twice or Diamonds.

Now that the franchise has been rebooted and EON finally has the rights to Blofeld, I'd welcome Blofeld's return to see the character finally done justice.

[Georgy Zhukov]

DIamonds are Forever was almost a better followup. OHMSS really established the films as Stand Alone, especially when they completely ignored the events at the end of OHMSS except in For Your Eyes Only, Licence to Kill and GoldenEye.

The Living Daylights is easily top 5 for me. Wasn't it originally written for Roger Moore but most of the lines were changed to favor Dalton except the humor?

[Crazyman]

I like YOLT and OHMSS, DAF was pretty terrible. The Living Daylights (and License to Kill, for that matter) are amongst my favorites.

With that being said I don't think I could compile an accurate ranking right now of the movies. It always seems to change.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Thanks to the Blu Rays I can buy the special edition DVD's for cheap. I only have have to get Spy Who Loved Me, GoldenEye, Tomorrow, World (had a copy but it was stolen), Casino (also stolen) and Quantum of Solace.

I'd get them on Blu Ray but I am not rich.

[Crazyman]

I really want to get that blu ray 50th anniversary pack. I watched the trailer for Dr. No, and it looks like it could've been made yesterday! They did a great job restoring the old Connery films, from what I was able to see.

[DieselDaisy]

^You say that as though Dalton did a bad job or something...

No Dalton was the Best Bond until Daniel Craig. He was perfect. The only problem was they didn't know how to make him funny. When they wrote one liners they were thinking of Roger Moore. Shit did you know Roger Moore was considered for The Living Daylights? He would have been 62.

60 - Sir Roger was born in 1927.

It's crazy to think of Roger in A View to a Kill as it is let alone any film after. The Living Daylights would have been totally different. Similar plot perhaps, but far sillier. The only way anything could have worked is if his age was written into the script, unlike A View to a Kill where the audience was supposed to believe a 58 year old Roger is actually Bond in his forties. Dalton came at a good time, but he was a bit ahead of his time. Probably too different from Roger. While some hardcore Bond fans craved that harder-edged Bond I think general audiences who grew up with Moore probably felt like Dalton was too much change all at once.

As strong of an actor as Dalton is, I personally feel he could never handle the humor. The quips in his movies weren't exactly great to be fair, but the humor sounded forced. Still, Daylights is one of my top Bond films.

Saw it today and it was good. Not a big Bond fan but I really liked this one. I also need to watch Casino Royale.

Get on it son. I think people liking Skyfall without seeing Casino Royale really speaks for how well done it was. Bond films are stand alone films. They weren't even shot in order of the novels.

Which was a major plothole mistake when it came to YOLT/OHMSS/DAF

Indeed. The first five Connery films are pretty good for continuity as far as Bond films go. It was all downhill after they decided to re-introduce Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service as if Bond never met him simply because they wanted to keep it faithful to the novel. In retrospect, I'm glad because On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a great film by itself and I've never cared for You Only Live Twice or Diamonds.

Now that the franchise has been rebooted and EON finally has the rights to Blofeld, I'd welcome Blofeld's return to see the character finally done justice.

The problem film is YOLT. Although Dahl removed the revenge (for Teresa's murder), the decision to film YOLT, the second novel in the Blofeld trilogy, before OHMSS was a huge mistake. That is if Eon ever wanted to film OHMSS in something approaching its original form anytime in the future. The continuity error is glaring: Bond meets Blofeld for the first time in both films. And then of course, as they didn't have a Blofeld revenge film - as YOLT had already been filmed - this accounts for the decision to interlope Blofeld into DAF.

Apparently they were thinking of introducing a plastic surgery plotline into OHMSS to address the continuity problem. Bond gets plastic surgery to go undercover in Blofeld's base. This would also account for Connery's face changing into Lazenby's! In the end though, they just decided to ignore the problem. Perhaps wisely.

Edited November 19, 2012 by DieselDaisy

[DieselDaisy]

About the order of filming, EON didn't possess the rights to the first book (Casino Royale) so this made, following the order of the books, redundant. True, they could have started with the second book: Live and Let Die. Instead they went with Dr No (they were also keen on Thunderball but with the McClory case hanging of it!) . I think they were looking for cinematic potential and, it is true, Dr No is perhaps the most cinematic of Fleming's books (it is certainly the most comic booky). Dr No could have bombed - they were not to know in 1962 that it would have spawned such a successful franchise. So Broccoli and Salzman cast around for the novel with the most cinematic potential.

[Georgy Zhukov]

They originally wanted to do Thunderball first, but they couldn't get the rights to it. It was a good thing they didn't because by the time Thunderball ended up being the most attended Bond film of all time.

I heard about the Plastic Surgery theory. It reminded me of the director who did DAD trying to introduce the idea that James Bond is a code name when Pierce Brosnan would have an encounter with Sean Connery on the plane. Thankfully it never happened.

Hey would would Len think of London Calling being used in Die Another Day?

[James Bond]

I think another reason they went with Dr. No first aside from the lack of rights to Casino Royale and Thunderball was because it was deemed the cheapest to film.

I'm also glad, in retrospect, that they never introduced the plastic surgery thing to the Bond character. Of course, they used the idea to explain Blofeld's drastic change in appearance in Diamonds but I'm glad they abandoned it for Bond. Imagine the mess it would have made following every re-casting of the part.

Also glad they never went along with the whole "code name theory" thing. Skyfall pretty much confirms we will never see that in a Bond movie since we learn of his parents. I neglected to mention earlier that I'm glad they kept his parents names from the Fleming novels. Nice little nod there.

DIamonds are Forever was almost a better followup. OHMSS really established the films as Stand Alone, especially when they completely ignored the events at the end of OHMSS except in For Your Eyes Only, Licence to Kill and GoldenEye.

The Living Daylights is easily top 5 for me. Wasn't it originally written for Roger Moore but most of the lines were changed to favor Dalton except the humor?

In the early stages of pre-production it was assumed Roger would be back. Not sure how far along the script was. Don't forget, Brosnan was signed on before Dalton and it was at the last minute when Pierce couldn't get out of his Remington Steele contract that Dalton was signed, so I'm not sure where in the timeline the changes to the script fit. I think it's fair to assume it was toned darker and less campy as soon as it was certain Roger was out. Pierce's version probably would have been a similar film to what we have now in terms of structure, tone and plot. Probably just some minor last minute re-writes to give Dalton more to do since he wanted to push the character back to Fleming.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I heard that Dalton was already in the shadow of Pierce Brosnan because there was so much hype for Pierce in the 1980's and so many people expected it when Remington Steele was to be cancelled until that producer from NBC (Brandon Tartikoff according wikipedia) decided to renew the series for another season before the 60 day deadline. That's NBC for you. They thought with all the hype Remington Steele would generate more ratings. So the role ended up going to Dalton who turned down the role several times over the years. They wanted him since Lazenby left. He actually took a couple weeks to think about it before he finally accepted the role. The later seasons of Steele turned out to be shit and ironically were canceled around the release of The Living Daylights.

I do agree that The Living Daylights was written with Moore in mind, and perhaps Brosnan. Dalton may not be great with humor but he was awesome. His fight scenes were great, his chemistry with the Bond actress was great, he was just convincing. I think GoldenEye was originally written with Dalton in mind, hence why I think it was better than Brosnans other films.

[DieselDaisy]

I'm also glad, in retrospect, that they never introduced the plastic surgery thing to the Bond character. Of course, they used the idea to explain Blofeld's drastic change in appearance in Diamonds but I'm glad they abandoned it for Bond. Imagine the mess it would have made following every re-casting of the part.

It is in the novels, Blofeld's plastic surgery. Between Thunderball and OHMSS he gets radical plastic surgery (including weight reduction) to evade pursuit.

[James Bond]

That's right, I haven't read the Fleming novels in years but I remember that. Also leads to Blofeld's genealogy stuff. I always found it amusing that in the movie they still retain the whole "doesn't have earlobes" thing even though Telly clearly has earlobes.

And Georgy, I think you're right with GoldenEye. Dalton didn't officially leave until early 1994 so it's safe to say a fairly solid script was already in place. Then again, there were like five writers total who contributed to it. Who knows what changed once Pierce was cast at the end of 1994.

Watching the new Everything or Nothing documentary made for the 50th, I feel bad for Pierce. He was so excited to finally land the role in The Living Daylights only to be forced out of it due to his NBC contract. When he landed it for GoldenEye, he was like a kid in a candy store. It's a shame he never got the quality scripts he likely hoped for. He even jokes in the documentary that he only remembers GoldenEye and tries to forget the others and laughs at Die Another Day's infamous CGI surfing scene. At least he's got a good sense of humor about it all!