Bond, James Bond (007)

[ADePALMA1251]

Here' a thread to discuss 007 and all the entertainment he has given us.

I saw Skyfall Friday, and I fell in love with that movie. I thought it was everything you could ask for in a Bond film, and more! So far, it's my second favorite movie of 2012 (right behind The Dark Knight Rises of course). I realy suggest going out and seeing it right now.

[Dogzilla]

I thought it was brilliant. Though I still think Casino Royale was a little bit better.

[Caribou]

I have a complicated relationship with James Bond. I absolutely loved them all as a kid, but I grew into a right-on teenager who hated racism and sexism which made me look at a lot of the old movies in a very new light. This wasn't helped by the fact that around this time the last three Brosnan movies were released, and each was considerably worse than its predecessor (and arguably worse than any of the previous films) - to the point where I couldn't even finish watching Die Another Day it was so bad.

It's probably just as well they rebooted when they did, as I doubt I'd have watched another one otherwise, but Casino Royale was surprisingly good, even if it was more Jason Bourne than James Bond. But then Quantum of Solace took the Bourne thing way too far, and was completely fucking terrible, and it killed all the momentum again. Skyfall sounds really good, but I dunno... I'm really struggling to work up much enthusiasm about it somehow. I think I'm possibly just over Bond in general, and so far Daniel Craig's take on the character (which is excellent, don't get me wrong) is so different as to almost be a completely different character. It'll be interesting to see if he's going to gradually morph into the patriarchal asshole we know and (sorta, I guess?) love as the series goes on, but then again I'm not sure I really want to see a plausible sympathetic backstory for why Bond becomes such a cold bastard. Maybe it's better if he just is.

(For the record, my favourites in the series are easily From Russia with Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, followed by Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me and the two Dalton films. I still maintain Dalton was better than both Moore and Brosnan. I always thought it was a shame they didn't hand over to him sooner so that he could have been in A View to a Kill instead of Roger Moore, who was both too old and too gently jolly to play the character as he was written in that film.)

[ADePALMA1251]

[Caribou]

I'll definitely watch it; I've been a fan for too long to skip it altogether. I'm just not convinced I should fork out to see it at the cinema.