Bond 23 - Skyfall

[5439cc]

As much as i was sticking up for the Brosnan 'era' i completely forgot about Die Another Day - that film has got to be the worst Bond film ever, even if it did get a tasty Jag XKR and Brosnan back into a new Aston....oh, but it was invisible

[Alex]

Beefmeister said:

I think Daniel Craig's Bond is more like the Bond in the books. What we were used to is the cheesy Bond from earlier films, which isn't how Flemming wrote him.

Daniel Craig is not like Bond from the books. Bond in the books is an old Etonian who drives a 1933 Bentley. Craig plays Bond as an action hero, and Bond is NOT an action hero.

[KB_S1]

I would gladly watch Craig's CR again.
I enjoy occasionally watching the Connery films when they are on and I wouldn't mind seeing OHMSS.
I have no desire to watch any Brosnan one again.

Just realised that I don't think I have ever seen Living Daylights.

[Halb]

I would like Bond to be gritty, tough but not invincible, smart but not Sherlock Holmes, and a cold blooded killer. The new Bond can't be about 5 minute fights where he takes a beating and always wins (ala Bourne) or abut jumping into a flash car and shagging the girl, that is so ste for today and has been done.
There should be a morally questionable ambiguousness to the story, and the character. I like my characters flawed.

DJFish said:

I still maintain that George Lazenby had potential to be a brilliant Bond, OHMSS had a few dodgy moments but I still prefer it to most of the Moore films and the later Brosnan films.
I agree that really blatant product placement should be kept to a minimum, but then Flemings Bond was a bit of a brand snob.
It's the use of CGI I really dislike.

Same here. It's why the jump scene at the start of TSWLM is so great, the stuntman made the jump (and risked his life if you have seen the documentary). When I saw Bond turn into a cartoon in Die Another Day, it was very very disheartening.

Odie said:

James Bond
Jason Bourne
Jack Bauer
I think Bond films are trying too hard to be like bourne and as such are losing alot of their charm.
I know some of you are going to disagree but the bond team could learn alot from the Johnny English films, some of the 'sketches' in JE2 are pure class and very well thought out and I think thats what the latest bond films are missing, the cleverness of bond.

Jack and Borne are so extreme they are almost lie pastiches, this is what Bond used to be at the end of the Moore era. I think Borne is OK, but it is tic-toc action sequences with highly improbable fights that go on forever. I like how Bond has become more gritty, but I hope they don't go the Superman style invincibility of Borne, it became old very quick. I think DC did bring some charm to the role, I hope that aspect of his imperfect character is allowed to be used.

Alex said:

Daniel Craig is not like Bond from the books. Bond in the books is an old Etonian who drives a 1933 Bentley. Craig plays Bond as an action hero, and Bond is NOT an action hero.

Not the supreme action hero we are used to. He is more vulnerable in his current guise, like when Superman had powers stripped. I really liked the staircase fight scene where he only managed to stay alive thanks to interference. It is ultra rare for Bond to lose a fight previously.

[Dr Jekyll]

Groups of people wearing badges saying 'crew' and 'crowd' and '007' heading for the old Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross last week.

[RichB]

DJFish said:

I still maintain that George Lazenby had potential to be a brilliant Bond, OHMSS had a few dodgy moments but I still prefer it to most of the Moore films and the later Brosnan films..

Best Bond film ever but then it did have Diana Rigg in the lead 'acting' role.

[anonymous-user]

Halb said:

I would like Bond to be gritty, tough but not invincible, smart but not Sherlock Holmes, and a cold blooded killer. The new Bond can't be about 5 minute fights where he takes a beating and always wins (ala Bourne) or abut jumping into a flash car and shagging the girl, that is so ste for today and has been done.
There should be a morally questionable ambiguousness to the story, and the character. I like my characters flawed.

Maybe they need to enlist the retired script-wrtiers from Spooks? Often watched that thinking it was small-screen Bond.

[Twincam16]

Rumour has it Skyfall will be completely different to the previous films in that it'll deeply investigate Bond's character and background.

Tellingly there was a newspaper article (think it was a Saturday Telegraph) last year at some point that revealed a discussion between Ian Fleming and one of the scriptwriters, wondering whether Bond's well-known background (parents died in climbing accident, relative paid for entrance to Eton, sent down, First from Cambridge, plus various other well-worn details) is all genuine, or just part of a spy's 'legend' given to one highly-drilled elite agent at any one time.

The fact that some of this film is set in Scotland, and Bond's father is supposedly Scottish, points to this. Also, Sam Mendes is the kind of leftfield intellectual who'd really play with the format and do something like that.

I'm seriously looking forward to it.

[anonymous-user]

fesuvious said:

we deep down hope, just a little bit, that if British Intelligence had a 'Bond' in service, in todays world he'd be just like that.

Interesting comment, especially when you consider DC is the only post-9/11 War-on-Terror Bond that we've seen. Given the inevitable higher profile the intelligence community has acquired over the last decade is it any surprise that he had to become more authentic? Previous Bond's had the luxury of portraying a profession that was, by comparison to today, less well understood or acknowledged so we had little to mark it against and I guess EON etc could get away with far more before the audience would call Foul.

[Halb]

I think Bourne and the plethora of high quality hard hitting spy programmes on American television have had a big impact. There are more films of them now as well, Haywire being the latest?

Edited by Halb on Saturday 21st January 00:21

[Dr Jekyll]

Bond was never meant to be anything like a real spy, not really a spy at all more a one man sabotage unit. He was Ian Fleming's fantasy of what he wished the job was like. The Playboy persona made some kind of sense in Casino Royale, but after it caught the public imagination Fleming had him using the same kind of cover in situations where it would actually attract attention rather than avoid it.

I think the real influence of Bourne was in pacing the story. The Bond formula was to start with a few wisecracks in the office with M and Moneypenny, then save the most dramatic scene for the last few minutes where Bond and friends stormed the vilains hideout just in time. Bourne films started with dramatic chases, so Bond did the same and then couldn't keep up the pace so it got dull in the middle.

[Pesty]

Twincam16 said:

Rumour has it Skyfall will be completely different to the previous films in that it'll deeply investigate Bond's character and background.

The fact that some of this film is set in Scotland, and Bond's father is supposedly Scottish, points to this. Also, Sam Mendes is the kind of leftfield intellectual who'd really play with the format and do something like that.

I'm seriously looking forward to it.

Sounds absolute gash

[vxr8mate]

Has anybody any idea as the part Benedict Cumberbatch will play?

I hear one minute he is a villain and then not. I like his acting (even if it is Oxbridge type cast) and he will be a good addition what ever.

Also understand this will be Dench's last Bond.

[jingars]

Can't answer the question, but first official pic of Craig as 007 in Skyfall has been released:


Nice to see a Walther PPK, but he really needs a shave; the poor boy looks like he's a million miles away from requesting a Vodka Martini - shaken, not stirred.

[vxr8mate]

I like that pic (presumably so do the producers or they wouldn't have released it), makes him look real mean which I like about DC as Bond.

[Halb]

vxr8mate said:

I like that pic (presumably so do the producers or they wouldn't have released it), makes him look real mean which I like about DC as Bond.

Same here.

[Rich_W]

I saw the end of Licence to Kill (I thin) the other day. Articulated trucks doing wheelies was a sad end to the Dalton era

[Oakey]

Halb said:

highly improbable fights that go on forever.

No no, I saw a documentary about bourne on Nat Geo, they said the fights were very realistic. It must be true, it was on Nat Geo!!!

[BenM77]

I think DC plays an excellent Bond, CR was a great film but QoS was ok rather than excellent, but I would put this down to plot/direction rather than DC.

Really looking forward to Skyfall, DC has a harder edge to him and has made his own mark on the role. If you like Bond films like I do then you can forgive quite a bit, some of Moore's films were a bit cheesy but others rivalled Connery's best. Timothy Dalton was excellent as Bond and it is a shame he only made two. Brosnan's first three were good but his last is not a Bond film, absolute rubbish.

OT. If you like the Bourne films but haven't read the books you will be surprised how far off they are. Great books and really worth a read, as are all Ludlum's earlier books

Edited by BenM77 on Saturday 4th February 16:13

[ApexJimi]

Well, it's nice to see that I'm not the only Dalton fan!

I think I'd be willing to suggest that Dalton's Bond is second only to Craig's. Anyone else agree?