Eccentric Bond Opinions
arthur pringle
SpacePosts: 366MI6 Agent
Does anyone have a few James Bond opinions that fly in the face of conventional wisdom and would probably cause a few eyes to roll? Mine would be along the lines of:
George Lazenby was much more interesting in OHMSS than Sean Connery would have been.
Moonraker is a fantastic film and it's a shame that they'll probably never attempt to make another epic Bond again on that scale.
Daniel Kleinman is better than Maurice Binder.
Judi Dench was (and remains) miscast as M.
Lewis Collins should have made a couple of early eighties Bond films.
Die Another Die wasn't that bad.
Madonna's Die Another Day theme was quite good.
Edward Fox was an absolute hoot as M in Never Say Never Again.
Alex O'Lachlan should have been cast as James Bond in Casino Royale...hold on, that isn't an eccentric opinion. Everyone agrees with this...:)
George Lazenby was much more interesting in OHMSS than Sean Connery would have been.
Moonraker is a fantastic film and it's a shame that they'll probably never attempt to make another epic Bond again on that scale.
Daniel Kleinman is better than Maurice Binder.
Judi Dench was (and remains) miscast as M.
Lewis Collins should have made a couple of early eighties Bond films.
Die Another Die wasn't that bad.
Madonna's Die Another Day theme was quite good.
Edward Fox was an absolute hoot as M in Never Say Never Again.
Alex O'Lachlan should have been cast as James Bond in Casino Royale...hold on, that isn't an eccentric opinion. Everyone agrees with this...:)
Comments
Here's a few more:
I loved the invisible Aston Martin Vanquish from DAD.
In his own way, Roger Moore was every bit as good a James Bond as Sean Connery.
Goldfinger is not the best Bond movie ever made.
Being faithful to Ian Fleming is not critical to making an entertaining James Bond movie.
Ian Oglivy should have been James Bond in at least one movie.
Timothy Dalton's tenure as Bond should have started with FYEO in 1981 and lasted for about 10 years.
The Man With The Golden Gun was a very entertaining movie.
I liked Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
The NSNA theme song is amazingly sung by Lani Hall.
I love the FYEO score and the PTS.
and finally, last but not least...
AVTAK is the epitome of the Bond movie (well second epitome, GoldenEye is the epitome).
None of the first four Bonds are the greatest in the series.
The car chase between Bond and Zao in DAD is one of the best in the series.
AVTAK and TMWTGG are very enjoyable movies.
Stamper was a good henchman.
Zao was a good henchman.
Stacey Sutton is an ok Bond girl.
Goldeneye's score is good.
The Red Grant vs. Bond fight is not the best in the series.
Thats all I'll say, but the list could go on and on.
Roger Moore is a better actor than Connery
TWINE is not confusing
Bill Conti's FYEO score was one of the best
Goldfinger is one of the worst
Dr No is good lol
yea TMWTGG is entertaining
Judi Dench is best M
Like madonnas DAD title song
Omeaga is that great
"Better make that two."
A Bond film does not have to be Flemming-like in order to be good.
Roger Moore was not tongue in cheek and did not wink to the audience.
The Bond films are not camp.
Terrence Young was not undisputedly the best Bond director of all time.
There is Bondian continuity.
Connery was brilliant in DAF.
'All Time High' and FYEO were among the best Bond theme songs of all time.
The first half of DAD, including and especially Bond's getting captured, was horrible.
It is not good news at all, but rather terrible news, that Paul Haggis is involved with CR.
The cinematic Pussy Galore was a lesbian.
Some more of mine:
The slide whistle in TMWTGG is cool.
The sloppiness in the editing of TB detracts in a big way from the quality of the film.
Q should never be in the field, and his roles in both OP and LTK are embarrassing in that regard.
The boat chase in LALD is too short, not too long.
Kara Milovy is one of the weakest Bond female leads in the series.
John Terry portrays Felix well.
From purely a plot persepctive (not dialogue), the first hour of DAD is excellent.
After Tracy, the girl Bond would most likely settle down with is Melina.
Maud Adams is NOT in a background shot in AVTAK.
The yellow 2CV is superior to the Aston DB5
Lee Tamorahi is a genius action director
Danny Craig should be the next Bond... oops, you've rumbled me there...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I'd agree with all of those (I've cut out the ones I'm not sure about!)
Ian Fleming, by most accounts, was a horrid fellow and not someone with whom I would like to spend any length of time. Great writer, though.
That being said, his plots *were* hogwash.
Moreover, Fleming changed his mind all the time; did Bond look like a film star or was he suspiciously foreign-looking? The consequence has been that pro- and anti-Craig chaps scour the books and hold up an individual description as supportive of their viewpoints: "But look, Fleming said..."
There are works of fan fiction, few and far between though they may be, that are really rather good.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the best Bond picture and in George Lazenby the producers found the best Bond (thus far). Sean Connery would not have been as convincing in the 1969 picture.
Timothy Dalton (or, more accurately, the Dalton films) had a *far* larger impact on the series than is commonly accepted, casting a large shadow over the Brosnan era.
Moonraker contains some of the darkest moments of the cinematic series.
The World Is Not Enough, while flawed, is enjoyable overall and nowhere near as bad as many contend.
Sophie Marceau, in addition, is criminally underrated.
Robert Brown was the best M.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
MR and TMWTGG are highly entertaining.
Pierce Brosnan's portrayal of Bond is not that good.
DN is better than FRWL
-TMWTGG, DAD, MR and AVTAK are great films, I love them as all the other ones, contrary to other people opinions
-DAF lift fight is the best Bond fight of them all
-Sir Moore's Bond is the best of all, he challenges in charm Sir Connery (well, both are my favorites)...
-MR song by shirley Bassey is the best Bond song
-I love GF and GE but they're a bit overrated
-Tim Dalton should have done at least one more film
-Lazenby could have been the best Bond if he could have potrait him once more
-I love the 360º jump on the thailand broken bridge on TMWTGG, even with the corny sound effect
-JW Pepper was very hilarious
Her legal team should make full use of that quote if she ever pleads insanity in a murder trial
1. Sean Connery was the THIRD best James Bond.
2. The last two Bonds- Dalton and Brosnan- were the two best, in that order.
3. The Living Daylights is the second best Bond movie ever made.
4. I prefer Tomorrow Never Dies to Goldfinger.
5. They should have rebooted the franchise with a faithful, straight-up adaptation of Casino Royale after outlandishly over-the-top films in either 1973 or 1981, with Timothy Dalton, the closest to the literary 007, cast as a young James Bond early in his career.
6. Claudine Auger was the hottest Bond girl, by far.
7. Steven Spielberg would make a terrific Bond film, if given the chance, and could have done some great things with CR.
8. Clive Owen would not have been a good choice as James Bond.
9. Topol as Colombo was the best Bond associate.
10. All of the Bonds have been excellent.
this is cool that we can say this stuff without getting attacked lol
"Better make that two."
now that is eccentric
"Better make that two."
Topol is fantastic in everything he participates in. (Fiddler On The Roof, Flash Gordon)
Au contraire, Alex, I believe Claudine Auger looked drab and drunk throughout Thunderball! There's another one, if I already didn't mention it, that NSNA is better than TB any day, along with the entire cast.
The EON Bond series should end? And be replaced by who? As much as I love NSNA, if Kevin McClory took over, it would be Thunderball done to DEATH.
Men in white with big butterfly nets are coming to take you away very soon.:)
Christmas Jones is F***KING HOT!!!! esp. in the pipeline sequence with her hair :x :x :x
"Better make that two."
You want Bond films to stop entirely, or just Eon to stop and let someone else take over?
Supes is a revolutionary. He seeks a coup d'etat... :v
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Oh yes, a thousand times yes. Claudine -- * sigh * 'nuff said.
:v you got my number, Loeffs!
To answer Arthur, I wouldn't mind seeing some others take a crack at Bond, just as different takes were made on Sherlock Holmes with varying qualities, but singularly, I'm sure had something to please different fans for whatever reasons.
I've suggested many times in the past having Bond done by public television or in animated form, starting from scratch. The weaknesses of NSNA, for example, came from the attempt to mimick EON's Bond, and the movie (which I like, BTW) would have been better IMO.
I look at the EON series as a self-contained entity just like any other series; you have the familiar characters established and maintained uniquely by that series, and EON of course has its famous forumla, whether in plot elements, music, visuals, pre-title/main title sequences, etc. However, I think it's getting tired (and this has nothing to do with who's Bond now or how recently played him). I think that they jumped the shark too many times beyond forgiveness. To stop the series doesn't mean that James Bond dies, which is the notion and fear that I perceive many to have at the prospect of stopping the series. To me, the series is immortal by the mere existence of the Bond library.
It may even be a dignity and pride issue for others, thinking that nothing less than an ongoing series is acceptible to think about, no matter what, no matter how crappy things get. In that regard, I think that there's nothing to be concerned about, since Bond has already established its preeminence in the art of cinema, its industry (in terms of commercial success measures) and in culture.
An illustration I used a while back is, it will get really unbearable when some point in time, let's say, that there's no more UK Royalty, or the UK ceases to exist as it gets absorbed politically into the EU, or the world goverment (think of a Star Trek future where there's a federation of planets vs. countries within a planet)...then we still have Bond in a silver spacesuit jetting around in an Aston Martin hovercar
Like Seinfeld, I think that EON should stop while it's still on a high and not wait until they can squeeze out the last ounce of commercial endowment at some point in the future when Bond has become the most popular children's party mascot.
good post before this one
and the answer is Dan because lost of people dont like her character, they get annoyed by her, but i think differently.
"Better make that two."
James Bond is a cold war hero, and should thus relate to it in more of it's films.
James Bond should strive to remain as neatly dressed as Connery's Bond.
Sir MIles Messervy should have been used in every Bond film, as he was the best M ever.
Christian Bale should be the new James Bond, note his appearance in he beginning of American Psycho.
Brosnan Bond should have been a little more serious and hardcore.
James Bond should pronounce some form of religion, maybe go to confession and pray for forgiveness for killing people, maybe I could be the preist, which would actually work out well.
Where in the world is the actualy physical spy moves incorporated into the latter Bond films. Note the Connery shakedown of his room in FRWL, and Moore in AVTAK. That should definitely come back.
Timothy Dalton should have taken over starting with FYEO.
Donald Pleasance should not have played Blofeld, Robert Stack should have, or maybe Richard Attenborough.