70's RM

Sweepy the Cat

Who here thinks RM should have took all the 70's bond films. I think DAF with a better villian. A trimmed version of LALD. TMWTGG with a better ending and a MR which is closer to the original plot.

Dan Same

Are you going to start a new topic on each of the decades? Anyway, I'm happy with the lead casting for all of the 70's films, with the possible exception of TMWTGG. I think that Moore should either have done it late in his career or have been replaced by Connery.

Sweepy the Cat

SC in TMWTGG

Jamesbondjr

I think that the 70's films are just fine the way they are, Moonraker and all.

Is there anything about the series you wouldn't change, Sweepy?

taity

Ive always wished that DAF didnt try to take itself so seriously - after all, it has a pretty daft story line.

Also, about TMWTGG, again I just wish that they had trimmed the comedic elements. No Goodnight getting locked in closests, no slide whistles - it could have been a great movie.

Mailfist

I don't think Moore should have done any of the Bond movies never mind the 70s one, but I know a lot of fans will disagree with me.

DAF would have been better with RM than SC as it was more suited to the silliness of the Moore movies. The start of the slide down the slippery slope for Bond.

SC would ahave been better in LALD as it could have been made closer to the book with SC than RM.

SC would probably also been better in TMWTGG as Scaramanga was meant to be the dark side of Bond and SC would have protrayed this better. In addition we would have been spared the cringe making end sequence with Nic Nac as SC would have just shot him rather than chasing him around the bedroom.

Any actor in any other version of MR as this film was a travesty. I would like to get every print and burn it. It had about as much to do with James Bond as The Empire Strikes Back.

Agent Sidewinder

Mailfist wrote:

I don't think Moore should have done any of the Bond movies never mind the 70s one, but I know a lot of fans will disagree with me.

*charges up plasma cannon*

DAF would have been better with RM than SC as it was more suited to the silliness of the Moore movies. The start of the slide down the slippery slope for Bond.

Being consistent with the rest of your argument, wouldn't RM's presence make the film worse in your eyes?

SC would ahave been better in LALD as it could have been made closer to the book with SC than RM.

I doubt it, seeing as the trend of departing from Ian Fleming's material had been well established by this point.

SC would probably also been better in TMWTGG

Or he might have gone through the film looking like he was bored off his arse, as he did in YOLT.

as Scaramanga was meant to be the dark side of Bond and SC would have protrayed this better. In addition we would have been spared the cringe making end sequence with Nic Nac as SC would have just shot him rather than chasing him around the bedroom.

You do know that the actors don't write the scripts, right?

Any actor in any other version of MR as this film was a travesty. I would like to get every print and burn it. It had about as much to do with James Bond as The Empire Strikes Back.

Well, MR features James Bond, who is played by the best James Bond actor of them all. So, considerably more Bond than Star Wars.:007)

taity

Mailfist wrote:

SC would ahave been better in LALD as it could have been made closer to the book with SC than RM.

SC would probably also been better in TMWTGG as Scaramanga was meant to be the dark side of Bond and SC would have protrayed this better.

The problem was that Moore was hired by the producers to give a more comical performance, he was a hired gun. Same way hgow Craig was hired when the producers decided to go for a serious movie.

LALD and TMWTGG would have been the silly flicks we know and love today, only with SC - who cant pull off comedy nearly as well as RM

Mailfist

Sorry Sidewinder didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. I know there are a shed loads of fans who love RM, he just doesn't work for me thats all. Suppose it all boils down to your own mental image of what Bond should be.

I loved him in The Saint and The Persuaders but he was never Bond for me. Problem I had with RM was he never convinced that he was a killer. With SC, RD and DC you believed they were hard *******s who would kill you.

I know the actors don't write the scripts, but the producers have always said that the scripts are tailored to the actor playing Bond at the time. This is why parts of TLD were rewritten when TD got the role rather than RM. The hotel room scene with Pushkin was specifically written for TD . You could never have seen RM play that scene.

I beleive that if SC had been in LALT and TMWTGG they would have had a harder edge.

OK, if SC had done these two movies he would probably have sleep walked through them looking like he was bored ****less, but since were fantasing here lets pretend he would put as much enthusiasm into them as his first four.

In general I enjoy the RM movies when I watch them, it is just some of the inane humour makes me grind my teeth. The Tarzan call in OP, the Beach Boys music in AVTAK that sort of thing.

However,I can't get to like MR. Its a couple of steps to far for me and has nothing to do with JB. The most annoying thing about MR is that they just didn't know when to stop.

The PTS is a great sequence and if it had stopped when Bond got the parachute of the pilot it would have been brilliant, but then Jaws had to come in and who coud take it seriously after he was flapping his arms trying to fly and then miraculously survived by falling into a circus tent.

The gondola chase was to same. Iwas OK (if lifted from TMWTGG) until the gondola changed into a hoovercraft and Bond joyrides around St. Mark's square.

And Jaws getting a girlfriend - pass me the sick bag.

Also why did Bond never carry his Walther PPK in the entire movie.

I can understand why other people like RM as Bond, he just doesn't do it for me.

RJJB

I have to say that I saw all the Roger Moore movies mutliple times in the theater. I looked forward to them just as I would anticipate the release of any new Bond movie. But from LALD I never completely enjoyed the movies. The tone of the movie, Moore's comedic approach, the childish humor and staleness of the movies has rendered them unwatchable for me. As far as I'm concerned, the Moore era was just marking time until the next actor came along. It added nothing to the series and the entire operation was coasting in a familiar pattern. No denying that it made money and kept the franchise alive, but it was with a sacrifice in quality. In hindsight I went to those movies out of habit.
And bad habits are meant to be broken.

Agent Sidewinder

Mailfist wrote:

Sorry Sidewinder didn't mean to ruffle any feathers.

No feathers ruffled, I can assure you!

I loved him in The Saint and The Persuaders but he was never Bond for me. Problem I had with RM was he never convinced that he was a killer. With SC, RD and DC you believed they were hard *******s who would kill you.

I remember making a post on another thread which addressed this argument. Surely, doesn't the fact that RM doesn't look like a killer (or at least, less like one than SC or DC) actually make him more believable as a secret agent, seeing as a secret agent is supposed to be, you know, secret? With SC or DC you'd be immediately aware of the danger they'd pose. With RM, you'd dismiss him as some fop...and then regret it.

OK, if SC had done these two movies he would probably have sleep walked through them looking like he was bored ****less, but since were fantasing here lets pretend he would put as much enthusiasm into them as his first four.

Fantasy doesn't really cut it here, I'm afraid.;)

Dan Same

Mailfist wrote:

OK, if SC had done these two movies he would probably have sleep walked through them looking like he was bored ****less, but since were fantasing here lets pretend he would put as much enthusiasm into them as his first four.

If you're only talking about YOLT I would probably agree with you (although even then I thought his performance in that film was quite good), but I would have to disagree since his last performance was DAF. I adored that performance. IMO it was the sixth greatest Bond performance of all time and an absolute joy to watch. So, even though I love Moore and I wouldn't really want to take any film away from him (apart from AVTAK), if Moore were to have been replaced in the early 70's, I would have loved for Connery to step in. I think that DAF showed that Connery was still James Bond. :007)