Bond ... James Bond

[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

All I know is, I heard NirvanaMan didn't like it, which means that I'm going to love it. You probably think I'm kidding...

This is quite true. Both Babette and I came out feeling very unimpressed by the flick, but NA and GC loved it...so I definitely think its getting some mixed reaction, thought more seem to be in the 'love it' camp. For me, it was a fine action flick, but not an enjoyable bond flick.

Personally, I like my Bond's a bit ridiculous and fun. I did not care for this new 'vulnerable' side of bond and have no interest in seeing him fall in love and all that mushy crap. While amused a bit by the ocean scene, I prefer the Bond chicks to be the sex symobls (but that likely has more to do with the fact that I like boobies than anything else). I like my Bond's to be whitty, intelligent and omniscient. I didn't like seeing this new bond as rather gullible. I like it when bond knows all and has a plan for everything. I like the gadgets. This one didn't have any. Except for the one thing he needed to save his life...convenient. And while convenient gadgetry is nothing new to Bond flicks, I am more forgiving when there is a wide array to choose from and Bond invents clever ways to use it. And sin of all sins, there was no Q!

To look at it from another angle, I think they missed a spectacular opportunity here to go back and tell the backstory of bond. They could have done a lot of interesting stuff here, but they chose instead to have him go from not 00 to 00 in the next scene, and barely acknowledge it.

So in the end, I don't think it was a bad action movie. Well, maybe I do. Hmm, it was rather repetitive and extremely predictable. A bit longer than it should have been given how thin the story was. Frankly, a bit dull at times. But most of all, it just didn't feel like a bond movie to me.

I respect the efforts to make a more realistic bond, but maybe it's just not what I wanted. I think that concept worked amazingly well for Batman begins but felt it fell flat in this execution.

Bring back Brosnan and some of the more absurdities that make Bond gloriously fun to watch. Umm, but you can keep that last movie. You know the one where the Jaguar and invisibile Aston were crashing through that ice castle. That offended even my rather lienient absurdity meter.

[Alex]

It's currently at 95% at RottenTomatoes so critically it is probably the best received of all time.

I'm curious how I'll react to this one. I'm not particularly a James Bond fan and have only seen most of them because by step father was a big fan when I was growing up. Somehow I end up seeing most of them. The character itself is anachronistic and I'm mostly ready for a Jason Bourne type character to displace Bond.

But I've bene looking forward to this one more than most. But probably the best thing that could happen would be if Barbara Broccoli would die or give up control so that someone can come along and do something really interesting with the franchise.

[Not Afraid]

I was actually surprised at his reaction. I left the theater pretty damn happy. I wouldn't descibe it a possibly the best Bond ever. It was a good one - but different that all of the rest.

[innerSpaceman]

He didn't like it because his ticket to the movie, the Ford Motor Company, was the butt of a very clever Bond joke of auto trading up.



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[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

He didn't like it because his ticket to the movie, the Ford Motor Company, was the butt of a very clever Bond joke of auto trading up.



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Huh?

[Not Afraid]

The product placement in the film was a little over the top for oth Ford and Sony.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

The product placement in the film was a little over the top for oth Ford and Sony.

Doesn't that mean that Brad is going to hate it?

[innerSpaceman]

re the opening ....

Spoiler:

This was one of the Bonds where the opening does not relate directly to the main plot of the film. A great many of them open that way.

In this case, the two men killed - though they don't relate to the terrorism finance plot of the film - strongly relate to the subplot of Bond becoming, well ... Bond. It's his first mission as a Double O. He's very rough around the edges. As the guy who gets shot explains in the opening, Bonds needs two kills to become a Double O. Bathroom fight is first kill, and the second is ... heheh, considerably easier.

I tend to prefer the darker, more brooding Bonds. Sean Connery, of course ... but my second fave is easily Timothy Dalton.





Well ... till now.







And I forgive the Ford placement because it was used as a very good joke ... the Sony Vaio stuff was just gratuitous and ... yeah, Brad would hate it if he could just get his attention off Daniel Craig for a minute.

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[Not Afraid]

Not one peep from Brad about product placment after we saw the film. I think he was a bit, um, distracted.

Thanks for the explaination, ISM.

[Gemini Cricket]

Ford
Jag
Astin Martin
Sony
FedEx
...