If I have to. First let me get out of this gorilla suit.
The James Bond Film Discussion Thread (With Bonus Lazenby!)
- Thread starter cooleddie74
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If I have to. First let me get out of this gorilla suit.
Hard to pick 5 songs and as soon as I do, I’ll think of another. But mine are probably:
All the Time in the World
You Know My Name (didn’t really care for it for ages and then I saw a pub band cover it really well and I’ve loved it ever since)
Nobody Does It Better
Skyfall
Goldfinger (almost plumped for Diamonds Are Forever- you have to have a Shirley song - but I think gold is more valuable than diamonds in this case).
All the Time in the World
You Know My Name (didn’t really care for it for ages and then I saw a pub band cover it really well and I’ve loved it ever since)
Nobody Does It Better
Skyfall
Goldfinger (almost plumped for Diamonds Are Forever- you have to have a Shirley song - but I think gold is more valuable than diamonds in this case).
The theme to You Only Live Twice is sublime. Nancy Sinatra's vocals just sell that song and make the theme better than the movie itself.
Moneypenny's ''repeat it please'' moment with Bond might be the single best element of all.
For a triple-consecutive Bond-feature, I'd start with GOLDFINGER and conclude with TWICE. Partially because their color schemes and ultra-clean cinematography match up very nicely.
For similar reasons, if the first Bond films were all on a leaky lifeboat, I'd have to shoot DR. NO for budgetary reasons. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE would make an even better debut, and its style is obviously different from the following three.
YOLT has the best soundtrack of any Connery film and I'll stand by that statement. The cinematography is also gorgeous. If only most of the rest of the film lived up to those aspects of the production, but hey, the reveal of Blofeld and Bond's rooftop chase in Japan that has no dialogue and is filmed in one long shot by helicopter are just awesome.
I have to submit THUNDERBALL instead. Its new action theme adapted to foot chases, underwater chaos and furious sailboat fighting. I'll never part with the expanded CD soundtrack, even though I actually sold GOLDFINGER and TWICE.
Plus there's the Tom Jones factor, even though there's no legitimate way to ''strike like thunderball.''
Plus there's the Tom Jones factor, even though there's no legitimate way to ''strike like thunderball.''
"Do you know anything about guns, Mr. Bond?"
"No. I know a little about women."
"No. I know a little about women."
I'm still pissed that they relegated k.d. lang's "Surrender" to the end credits of Tomorrow Never Dies.
Co-written by David Arnold, and cues from the song can be heard throughout the film's score. Similarly, Arnold wrote a song for QoS, which was rejected, and he later gave it to Shirley Bassey for her final album, and the cues from this song are still present in the QoS score:
Reading the Bond title songs (and I'm just talking the main credits songs and not orchestral themes sans vocals), they tend to fall into four categories:
Great Bond Movie songs (songs that fit the film and could exist outside and not make people think it's a James Bond title song when heard on the radio)
Good Bond Songs (they fit the film but don't exist well on their own)
Good Radio Songs (that don't necessarily fit the film but are great on their own)
Poor Songs (these just suck in or out of the film)
Great Songs
Live and Let Die
Casino Royale ("You Know My Name")
Good "Bond" Songs
Goldfinger
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
Moonraker
Licence to Kill (I was shocked that "If You Asked Me To" debuted over the end credits of this movie)
GoldenEye
The World is Not Enough
Skyfall
No Time To Die (depressing song for a depressing movie - a perfect fit)
Good Radio Songs
The Spy Who Loved Me ("Nobody Does It Better")
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy ("All Time High")
A View to a Kill (great high velocity song for a languid film about a man too old to play James Bond)
Spectre ("The Writing's On the Wall")
Poor Songs
Diamonds Are Forever (sexual fantasies about diamonds - Shirley Bassey makes it almost tolerable)
The Man With the Golden Gun (just dire)
The Living Daylights (it's got a nice beat and I love a-ha but what is this song even ABOUT?)
Tomorrow Never Dies (yikes)
Die Another Day (easily the worst since TMWTGG)
Quantum of Solace ("Another Way to Die" - the whoa whoa whoa's ruined it)
As for the leftovers:
From Russia With Love: the song is perfectly placed at the end and John Barry's score is letter perfect for the film. FRWL is easily the most pure cold war spy thriller, with shadows, death and danger in every corner. Pefect.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: again, the song being in the body of the film is where it belongs. Barry's orchestral main titles are sublime and top tier. Another gem of a score and film but "We Have All the Time in the World" is perfect radio fodder.
Dr. No: Norman/Barry's iconic theme, cut up in the editing, is looped often. Great tune, lousy recording quality, but cinema history was made.
Great Bond Movie songs (songs that fit the film and could exist outside and not make people think it's a James Bond title song when heard on the radio)
Good Bond Songs (they fit the film but don't exist well on their own)
Good Radio Songs (that don't necessarily fit the film but are great on their own)
Poor Songs (these just suck in or out of the film)
Great Songs
Live and Let Die
Casino Royale ("You Know My Name")
Good "Bond" Songs
Goldfinger
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
Moonraker
Licence to Kill (I was shocked that "If You Asked Me To" debuted over the end credits of this movie)
GoldenEye
The World is Not Enough
Skyfall
No Time To Die (depressing song for a depressing movie - a perfect fit)
Good Radio Songs
The Spy Who Loved Me ("Nobody Does It Better")
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy ("All Time High")
A View to a Kill (great high velocity song for a languid film about a man too old to play James Bond)
Spectre ("The Writing's On the Wall")
Poor Songs
Diamonds Are Forever (sexual fantasies about diamonds - Shirley Bassey makes it almost tolerable)
The Man With the Golden Gun (just dire)
The Living Daylights (it's got a nice beat and I love a-ha but what is this song even ABOUT?)
Tomorrow Never Dies (yikes)
Die Another Day (easily the worst since TMWTGG)
Quantum of Solace ("Another Way to Die" - the whoa whoa whoa's ruined it)
As for the leftovers:
From Russia With Love: the song is perfectly placed at the end and John Barry's score is letter perfect for the film. FRWL is easily the most pure cold war spy thriller, with shadows, death and danger in every corner. Pefect.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: again, the song being in the body of the film is where it belongs. Barry's orchestral main titles are sublime and top tier. Another gem of a score and film but "We Have All the Time in the World" is perfect radio fodder.
Dr. No: Norman/Barry's iconic theme, cut up in the editing, is looped often. Great tune, lousy recording quality, but cinema history was made.
I consider "Underneath the Mango Tree" the unofficial theme of Dr. No. 
I sometimes think I might be the only person in the world who really liked Lulu's The Man with the Golden Gun 
And while not a huge fan of Another Way to Die, I think it works in the context of the film, there's a rough, raw unfinished quality to it, and given QoS is a rough, raw unfinished film in many ways I think it syncs nicely.
Obviously there's a parallel universe where Amy Winehouse was able to do a Bond song, and I bet it'd be in my top 5.
And while not a huge fan of Another Way to Die, I think it works in the context of the film, there's a rough, raw unfinished quality to it, and given QoS is a rough, raw unfinished film in many ways I think it syncs nicely.
Obviously there's a parallel universe where Amy Winehouse was able to do a Bond song, and I bet it'd be in my top 5.
I've heard of a few of you. It's still John Barry, so I can't completely dismiss it. Not... Completely.I sometimes think I might be the only person in the world who really liked Lulu's The Man with the Golden Gun
I think the only ones I can't stand and never play are: Another Way to Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. Die Another Day barely escapes that list as does Writing's on the Wall. I suppose I would have to remember No Time to Die is a song and make up my mind one way of the other.
Speaking of which
https://www.mi6confidential.com/issue-s7.php
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=60089.0
Now if you will excuse me, I have to take care of a pest trying to stop my attempt to resurrect Buran…no Elon…you look like a fool in that dinner jacket…
QoS is so disappointing to me that the Alicia Keys and Jack White theme song is THE best part of the film for me. I actually like the song.
I can't say nearly as much for the movie itself.
I can't say nearly as much for the movie itself.
In an interview with The Atlantic, Zack Snyder says that after he's done with the Rebel Moon movies, he'd like to reboot James Bond and he has several story ideas he'd like to pitch to Barbara Broccoli. Keep his hands off Bond.
Yeah, let him take it to Netflix as his own riff on Bond, like he did with Rebel Moon, which began life as his Star Wars pitch.
QoS has good bits. Some very good bits. The "Bond on a vengeful rampage" is terrific and Craig (and Dench) nails it. It's when you have to hang more of a movie around it that it falls apart.
Terrible song.
DAD might be the only Bond film where I actively dislike both the theme song and the movie itself. Even with DAF the Shirley Bassey theme song is a sumptuous tune to relax one's self into even if the plot and its execution are mediocre at best, but Die Another Day was not a good way to close out the original Bond movie timeline.
Absolutely goddamned amen to that.
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