The James Bond Film Discussion Thread (With Bonus Lazenby!)

[MakeshiftPython]

And Freddie Grey, who appeared in the same films. It’s like after TSWLM that Cubby wanted to keep as much of the supporting cast as long as possible even in cameos that don’t serve any other function. It’s only LTK where that streak was broken. I imagine Freddie would have had a bigger panic attack than usual.

“Bond did what?! The PM won’t like this!”

 

[cooleddie74]

I love that their presence maintained in-universe continuity even when previous films weren't referenced.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I think a lot of that was MGW's doing. Just by going off of things I've heard him say over the years, he seems to appreciate good world-building.

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, even the most ardent defenders of the recasting(which I have no problems with, either) just say something like: "Hey, Dench is a fabulous actress and we all loved her in the Brosnan films so why not? Just go with it."

 

[Starkers]

Then you have to get brain ache trying to work out if she's the same M or a different one? (I mean obviously a different one but you know what I mean!)

In Goldeneye you get the impressions of her as an accountant, a bean counter as she describes herself, a bureaucrat, whereas Skyfall indicates a woman with significant history in espionage.

Having a painting of Robert Brown's M in NTTD just increases the headaches!

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, all I can say about that is that in this timeline Admiral Hargreaves was also the head of MI-6 before Dench's M, or at least someone who looked very much like him.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Then you have to get brain ache trying to work out if she's the same M or a different one? (I mean obviously a different one but you know what I mean!)

In Goldeneye you get the impressions of her as an accountant, a bean counter as she describes herself, a bureaucrat, whereas Skyfall indicates a woman with significant history in espionage.

Having a painting of Robert Brown's M in NTTD just increases the headaches!

And didn’t Skyfall also establish that she was MI5’s head of division in the Far East in the 1990s, which would mean that she couldn’t have been bossing Brosnan-Bond around in London during that time?

 

[Starkers]

Yeah she oversaw the handover of Hong Kong which was '97.

 

[publiusr]

Dalton is a better Craig Bond than Craig's been. There. I said it. And I'm not the first.

He’d been a better Tony Stark too.

Walter Gotel was the man with the cap in the boat chase in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE if memory serves.

Speaking of which, I hope the next film is a period piece. No SPECTRE, at least not right away.

 

[cooleddie74]

We'll probably get a streaming series set in the present but with less flash and fewer over-the-top plots. I get the feeling they'll keep Bond in the 21st century storywise but make him more down-to-Earth with more grounded plots possibly written as a season-long arc on a streaming service.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I don’t see that happening, unless Eon make a big u-turn https://www.slashfilm.com/581324/bond-movies-streaming/

 

[CorporalClegg]

Sounds dull, anyway.

 

[cooleddie74]

A lot of streaming content tends to be. But if it ever goes that route I hope they have better ideas than a lot of the one-hour action dramas out there.

 

[cooleddie74]

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[Ssosmcin]

Speaking of which, I hope the next film is a period piece. No SPECTRE, at least not right away.

According to the producers, Bond should be just beyond the cutting edge of technology. Jame's Bond's adventures were never meant to be period thrillers, he was contemporary with his times. I can't see it happening. I would imagine they'll go back to the standalone missions with a new actor just starting over like all the others before Daniel Craig.

 

[cooleddie74]

The next timeline reboot needs to start like Dr. No did. Bond's already been a 00 for a while and has at least something of a career under his belt. Have him be in his thirties and well-acquainted with how the intelligence world works.

We already got an origin story in the Craig films and don't need another one.

 

[Starkers]

Agreed. And with that in mind, what I'd like to see in Bond #26

• A (mostly) fully formed 007 dropped into a mission.
• A 007 who doesn't go rogue (slightly off piste but not out and out rogue)
• Bond has a mission and he completes it within the confines of a standalone film.
• Bond girls with agency
• Another female villain, it’s outrageous that Elektra is all we’ve had
• A villain with a defined plan
• Love interests who are closer in age to Bond (at least don’t make them young enough to be his daughter!)
• No more in-depth psychoanalysing of Bond! There isn't much left to tell.
• Films that are lean, two hour 10 minutes long adventure films, not nearly three hours long tying up multiple loose ends from the last few films!
• Don’t connect everything together, no more “Yes James, I was that paperboy!”
• Fun
• Humour
• New screenwriters (there seem to be rumours that much of the Paloma stuff was Phoebe Waller-Bridge and with that in mind…)
• A female screenwriter and/or female director.
• No Aston Martins (controversial I know) but don't replace with a BMW!
• No Walther PPK, would a 21st Century agent really use one?
• No more bloody smart blood!
• No more bloody Italy!

 

[cardinal biggles]

• No Walther PPK, would a 21st Century agent really use one?

Other than "it's iconic," it made no sense going back to the PPK after giving Bond the P99 in Tomorrow Never Dies and then using it across five films (six if he used it in the pre-credits part of Skyfall).

 

[Bixby]

Agreed. And with that in mind, what I'd like to see in Bond #26

• A (mostly) fully formed 007 dropped into a mission.
• A 007 who doesn't go rogue (slightly off piste but not out and out rogue)
• Bond has a mission and he completes it within the confines of a standalone film.
• Bond girls with agency
• Another female villain, it’s outrageous that Elektra is all we’ve had
• A villain with a defined plan
• Love interests who are closer in age to Bond (at least don’t make them young enough to be his daughter!)
• No more in-depth psychoanalysing of Bond! There isn't much left to tell.
• Films that are lean, two hour 10 minutes long adventure films, not nearly three hours long tying up multiple loose ends from the last few films!
• Don’t connect everything together, no more “Yes James, I was that paperboy!”
• Fun
• Humour
• New screenwriters (there seem to be rumours that much of the Paloma stuff was Phoebe Waller-Bridge and with that in mind…)
• A female screenwriter and/or female director.
• No Aston Martins (controversial I know) but don't replace with a BMW!
• No Walther PPK, would a 21st Century agent really use one?
• No more bloody smart blood!
• No more bloody Italy!

How about having him be a spy again? The closest recent flirtation where Bond would play pretend was in Casino Royale where he booked himself at the hotel and right away abandons his cover identity.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I think they should go period piece. And since the 80s are in, I think it's time to cash in. Cold War shenanigans, Tripple-X, Gogol, sharks with lasers, the whole deal.