James Bond franchise--the return of SPECTRE and Blofeld?

[Captaindemotion]

^ Haven't seen it. Can I take it he's a Bondian character in it?

Yes. He plays the father of Brendan Fraser's character, who turns out to secretly be a gentlemen spy complete with gadgets and a female associate named Dusty Tails.

Ah, well that definitely fits the mould of the sort of casting I was talking about. Thanks for helping me complete the set!

Dalton is probably the actor who has best avoided such roles. Funnily enough, pre-007, he played a character in Charlie's Angels who was obviously inspired by Bond and indeed one of the other characters in the episode even comments on the similarity.

His role in Looney Tunes: Back In Action and his role as Neville Sinclair in The Rocketeer were a lot like James Bond (with the latter being like a cross between Errol Flynn and James Bond, but as a Nazi spy.)

IIRC, the makers of the producer based the character on rumours that Errol Flynn was a nazi sympathiser/spy. He was certainly believed to have been a vocal anti-Semite.

 

[Lonemagpie]

The cover version of the new Bond song on Strictly was way better than Sam Smith's version.

 

[DigificWriter]

I've got a question:
Of the other Bonds, who would be the best 'successor' to Daniel Craig in terms of performance, style, story, and tone?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Peter Sellers?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

IIRC, the makers of the producer based the character on rumors that Errol Flynn was a Nazi sympathiser/spy. He was certainly believed to have been a vocal anti-Semite.

Said rumors were mentioned in a book by Charles Higham many years ago.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The BBC World Service ran a non-spoiler review. All the sound clips come from the trailer.

Spoiler: The closest thing to a spoiler...

The closest thing to a spoiler is that the reporter hints broadly, but doesn't outright say, who one character is.

The basic view of the reporter is that it's not as good as Skyfall, and the story doesn't hold together as well as Skyfall's.

 

[CorporalClegg]

That doesn't bode well, particularly since I think Skyfall is painfully overrated as it is.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

That doesn't bode well, particularly since I think Skyfall is painfully overrated as it is.

TBH, that was my thought as well. The story doesn't hang together. The villain's plot is an absurd, Rube Goldberg contraption.

 

[Goji]

Skyfall ended up being my least favorite of the three Daniel Craig movies on a recent rewatch, and not by a small margin. I don't remember it being that way in the theater, but I found the story not very interesting, and the particularly nasty death of the film's most interesting female character early on took me out of the movie entirely. I found it to be a real letdown after the first two, which I really liked this time around. I'm hoping this next one is more enjoyable. But most people seem to really like Skyfall, so who knows.

 

[Commander Richard]

The BBC World Service ran a non-spoiler review. All the sound clips come from the trailer.

Spoiler: The closest thing to a spoiler...

The closest thing to a spoiler is that the reporter hints broadly, but doesn't outright say, who one character is.

The basic view of the reporter is that it's not as good as Skyfall, and the story doesn't hold together as well as Skyfall's.

I had to take a peek at your spoiler and it's not surprising.

 

[Starkers]

For all its flaws I really like Skyfall and it's my favourite Craig outing. I've only read one review which was the MI6 website's one, spoiler free. The reviewer says it's better than Skyfall, has less plot holes, is perhaps the most Bond Craig film, perhaps the most stunning Bond film to look at and that Waltz is great but not quite as good as Bardem.

I'm really looking forward to it, though as usual I'll probably be so nervous/excited on the day that it'll be the second viewing before I can properly judge it.

All I hope is that it doesn't go all

Spoiler: hypothetical spoiler

Goldmember

on us...

 

[Karzak]

Daniel Craig: James Bond Is "Actually a Misogynist"

Daniel Craig recently caused controversy when he said he'd rather slash his wrists than play James Bond and he gets candid again about the 007 character in a new interview.

An interviewer for The Red Bulletin told Craig, "Many men admire Bond for his way with the ladies," and Craig responded, "But let's not forget that he's actually a misogynist."

"A lot of women are drawn to him chiefly because he embodies a certain kind of danger and never sticks around for too long," said Craig, who is promoting the new Bond film Spectre. Interviewer Rudiger Sturm countered by pointing out that it seems Bond has become more chivalrous in recent films.

Craig was also asked what people can learn from Bond that would help them in their day-to-day lives. He paused and then replied "Nothing." When Sturm said "surely he must have a couple of inspirational personality traits" Craig said, "Let’s not talk these films up as some kind of life-changing experience." He continued, "Bond is what Bond does. Bond is very single- minded. He takes his own course. And that’s simple, which is great."

 

[Lonemagpie]

The basic view of the reporter is that it's not as good as Skyfall, and the story doesn't hold together as well as Skyfall's.

Skyfall's story held together? I mean, I love the movie, but that's news to me! It's a stretch, to say the least...

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Daniel Craig: James Bond Is "Actually a Misogynist"

Daniel Craig recently caused controversy when he said he'd rather slash his wrists than play James Bond and he gets candid again about the 007 character in a new interview.

An interviewer for The Red Bulletin told Craig, "Many men admire Bond for his way with the ladies," and Craig responded, "But let's not forget that he's actually a misogynist."

"A lot of women are drawn to him chiefly because he embodies a certain kind of danger and never sticks around for too long," said Craig, who is promoting the new Bond film Spectre. Interviewer Rudiger Sturm countered by pointing out that it seems Bond has become more chivalrous in recent films.

Craig was also asked what people can learn from Bond that would help them in their day-to-day lives. He paused and then replied "Nothing." When Sturm said "surely he must have a couple of inspirational personality traits" Craig said, "Let’s not talk these films up as some kind of life-changing experience." He continued, "Bond is what Bond does. Bond is very single- minded. He takes his own course. And that’s simple, which is great."

And he's absolutely right. James Bond is not a role model. Stop trying to treat him and his movies as inspirational.

 

[sidious618]

The review from The Guardian I read yesterday was extremely positive, giving it five stars.

 

[Trekkin]

Bond's 'positive' aspects have always been a) his devotion to queen and country, b) his apparently hypnotic dick, and c) he is very good at finding and killing those who need to be killed.

In the novels at least, all he's got otherwise is being a racist, sexist arsehole. The movies toned him down a little and made him somewhat nicer (especially Brosnon's version) and gave a bit more depth to his relationships and backstory, but he still falls squarely in the 'Anti-hero' peg.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

but he still falls squarely in the 'Anti-hero' peg.

That's a matter of opinion.

 

[Trekkin]

I'm not going to really argue with that (coz your kinda right), but how do you disagree? You know, for discussions sake?

I was using 'anti-hero' in the Byronic sense for the movie version, if you're curious.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

In the novels at least, all he's got otherwise is being a racist, sexist arsehole.

You have to remember that the books were written almost entirely in the 50s. In the 50s pretty much everyone was a racist, sexist arsehole. Especially Ian Fleming.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

In the novels at least, all he's got otherwise is being a racist, sexist arsehole.

You have to remember that the books were written almost entirely in the 50s. In the 50s pretty much everyone was a racist, sexist arsehole. Especially Ian Fleming.

I think he sometimes even tried to be somewhat progressive (for the times). I remember a dialogue between Bond and M in "Live and Let Die" about how "the blacks" were getting ahead in most fields of work (no racist pun intended), like medicine, engineering, and the like, and that it was only logical that one or the other of "the blacks" would also get ahead in the field of crime, showing that they were as capable as white people. Well, white men.

Of course, Fleming wrote some horribly racist dialogue for some Harlemites, giving them carricature accents and slang. And the character of Quarrel was very much the submissive and loyal semi-slave.