The James Bond movie review thread...

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Yep, I've made the decision to re-watch and review the entire EON movie series about the rapist of MI6, James Bond.

Now, you may have seen my Doctor Who review thread, or my book-reading ones, and similar rules apply. I have to watch, in its entirety, at least one Bond film a week. I then have to write and post a review.

However, because I have a certain disregard for the conventions of a Bond film, I might add some snark as well. Already, I have an idea for some interesting features:


*Body count: How many deaths Bond caused? This includes those he directly killed, or else managed to drive into the grave. In cases where it would be impossible to count (like when an evil lair blows up) it doesn't count.

*Sexual conquests...uh, no. Body count 2: How many women has Bond seduced and had sex with in this movie?

*Body count 3: The disposable woman count. Quite a few times, Bond sleeps with a woman who gets killed in the film. No reason to count this than just poking fun at the Bond formula.

*Cheesiest line: What is the cheesiest line in the film? Is it Bond's latest post-mortem one-liner? Is it some villain saying something way OTT or even in the wrong tone of voice?

*Most interesting death: In many Bond films, there's an interesting death, usually of a villain. Like Milton Krest learning that explosive decompression isn't just something that happens in space. Bonus points if it comes with a good pre or post-mortem one-liner.

*Behind the scenes awesome: Some of the Bond films feature some surprising behind-the-scenes bravery that may make the antics of Bond look tame by comparison. I'll list these.

Well? Whaddya think? Anyway, Dr No coming soon...

Sounds interesting. I love the Bond franchise and always found all the films entertaining (even the bad ones). My personal Top 10 favs of the series:
1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia With Love
3. Goldeneye
4. Casino Royale
5. Dr. No
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. Thunderball
8. License To Kill
9. Tomorrow Never Dies
10. Live & Let Die

Milton Krest's death is nothing on Elliot Carver's.

Licence to Kill is my favorite Bond film, though.

It's one of my favourites too, Licence to Kill. But Krest's death is about the only relatively realistic occurrence of explosive decompression that Hollywood has done (space can't do that to a body, but as the Byford Dolphin accident showed, it can happen in a decompression chamber).

I got through half of Dr No last night. I'll watch the other half later today. One of the better things about the earlier Bond films is that they remain closer to the original Fleming works, tweaking things enough so that they work for the time.

I'm just talking about the pure horror of what happens to a human being. I wouldn't want to be either of them, but I think I would choose to be in Krest's position over Carver's.



The series seems to go back and forth on faithfulness to Fleming. Dr. No starts things off relatively faithful, more low-key and realistic, then things get more and more overblown and ridiculous until you reach the height of it with You Only Live Twice, then things go "back to the basics" with On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Live and Let Die eventually led to Moonraker, and they had to pull Bond back to Earth again with For Your Eyes Only. The cycle happened again with GoldenEye leading to the overblown Die Another Day, and the response was Casino Royale. I fully expect Daniel Craig to be performing a swordfight in mid-air by his fourth movie, and this movie will be followed by something more level-headed.

One reviewer said that Kananga's death in "Live and Let Die" seemed more appropriate for the Three Stooges than for a spy film.

That's a pretty accurate critique. It's a completely ridiculous element in an otherwise level-headed film. It's a horrible death, but it's too silly to be taken seriously.

Probably because of that stupid inflatable dummy.

Even if the special effect was terrific, it's still a conceptually stupid idea.

I'd like to read your review of GoldenEye. Although personally I consider the video games based on the movie to be superior to the movie itself, I think the movie was one of the better ones and it is famous, or at least memorable to me, due to the video games of it.

It's Brosnan's best. His movies got progressively worse.

Goldeneye is also the title of a Charlie Chan film, another long-running series to which the Bond series was compared as a result.

David Bowie was supposed to play the villain in "A View to a Kill" and he turned it down, explaining that "I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs."

I'd have to agree with you, although it may not be the actor's fault so much as the script writers and other background executive staff who seem to be getting exponentially worse at creating motion pictures with each passing femtosecond.

Never knew that.

Yeah, Brosnan was a class act from start to finish. In fact, I thought his performance in Die Another Day was his best. It’s just that everything around him went in the other direction.

Sorry I haven't been paying attention to this thread, but my attention has been focused elsewhere. I'll be finishing Dr No soon.