This movie needs to be played on TV and at the movies at Christmas like Die Hard is. Who's with me on this?
I just realized the other day that George Lazenby was in an episode of the 1984 Lee Van Cleef ninja series The Master, four of which were later edited together by Film Ventures International to form two "movies" that were riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000. As a fanatical MST3K viewer I should have remembered that! His episode was part of "Master Ninja II."
Was thinking, given that the anniversary has passed for OHMSS, should this thread shift focus to other anniversaries down the line? Maybe dedicate several months to each film like OHMSS got, depending on the activity of this thread. Of course, this is YOUR thread @cooleddie74 No harm in making a suggestion. Here's the anniversaries for this year, whichever you wanna jump on first. Thunderball - 55th anniversary Beautiful underwater sea footage that slows the film down by several hours.: The first Bond film that felt BIG in capital letters. Beautiful on location scenery. Iconic Ken Adam sets. Connery arguably still in his prime. The last to be directed by Terence Young, the man who kicked off this series. The famous jetpack and all the impracticalities associated with it (which even the characters remark on screen for self-referential humor). Tom Jones belting his heart out that you can probably hear him pass out towards the end. A View to a Kill - 35th: It's among the lowest of the series for very valid reasons, and yet in spite of that has genuinely great elements in it even though it may not sum up altogether as an actual great Bond movie. Christopher Walken and Grace Jones oozing with charisma. Roger Moore having more chemistry with Patrick Macnee than he does with his leading lady. It's fun to take shots of liquor for every time an obvious stuntman appears looking very much NOT like the octogenarian Roger Moore (if it's even possible to survive that?). And of course Duran Duran book-ending Roger Moore's tenure with their rocking title song, much like how Paul McCartney kicked off in 1973. GoldenEye - 25th: The first installment after a hiatus that revived the series, bringing out a new generation of Bond fans. Brosnan's debut, and arguably his only genuinely great Bond installment. Spawned one of THE most iconic video games of the 20th century. The first of the film without Cubby producing, with his children Michael and Barbara taking over. Added to Sean Bean's resume of dying on screen. Though I'm not really all that crazy about the Tina Turner song, I do love the title sequence with its visuals signaling the passing of the Cold War for Bond's world.
This has always been my favorite Bond film. I love everything about it and I thought Telly Savalas made a great villain as Blofeld. Equal parts charm, danger and psychosis. And he was even physically imposing as well. I guess because I didn't start watching Bond films until sometime between "License to Kill" and "Goldeneye" having someone other than Sean Connery play Bond didn't bother me. I remember when I decided to watch the Bond films our local newspaper had printed a list of all the EON Bond films in release order (there was no Wikipedia back then). I decided to rent them out and watch them in order. When I got to OHMSS I loved it more than all the others up to that point, and I really enjoyed the previous films (though Thunderball stretched a bit long at times). I though Lazenby did a good job. And honestly I'm not sure Connery could have done the film as written as well. For one thing, I can't imagine Connery's Bond every getting teary eyed like Lazenby's did when his wife was killed. It's not Connery himself as an actor, it's his version of Bond. Each actor played Bond a bit differently. Lazenby's was just a bit more compassionate and empathetic (Moore's was more lighthearted and humorous, Dalton's more dour and serious, and so on). Which is a good thing. All the basics are there but each brings a different nuance. And if Connery had done OHMSS I think it would have been a different movie with a different tone. And I loved SPECTRE as the bad guys. Esp. in those older movies where it was truly a criminal organization. I liked the movie Spectre overall but was a bit disappointed this new version of SPECTRE was created as a way to seek vengeance on Bond himself. The original SPECTRE as seen in those early films was truly just a criminal enterprise that didn't really set their sights on Bond until he kept thwarting their plans.
50 years ago right now OHMSS was still in theaters and making money so I'm cool with focusing primarily on that film for right now, but starting soon we can always discuss the other Bond movie anniversaries being celebrated this year! I'm fine with that idea.
A View to a Kill had my favorite Bond theme of all time by Duran Duran. I know it hasn't always gotten good reviews and I agree Moore was getting a bit too old to play the part, but I still liked the film. Christopher Walken is always good at playing the psychopathic villain. I can't help but chuckle a bit when he's shooting his men when they set the bomb and Zoran's laughing that maniacal laugh. I think he has fun playing psychopaths. And I was thrilled when Goldeneye had come out. It was the first Bond film I ever saw in the theater as I had not started watching Bond movies until sometimes after License to Kill was out of the theater. It was the first Bond film my wife ever saw (we were still dating at the time). Everyone has their favorite Bond I guess and hers was definitely Pierce Brosnan. Daniel Craig? Not so much. But I had no problems getting her to see the 4 Brosnan Bond films. And he did make a good James Bond I thought.
GoldenEye the N64 game also turns 25 in the next year or two! That will be just as important an anniversary for many as the 25th Anniversary of the movie itself.
Moore was too old, but I give him props for never being a slouch. Through his entire tenure he seemed to be a true professional that gave the best performance he could give. Of course, he's just naturally charismatic as hell in real life, so it's hard to dilute that I suppose! I do think either MOONRAKER, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, and OCTOPUSSY would have made better swan songs for him, as each of those were at some point going to be his final films. I think OP would have been the one to bow out, because there's no better way to depart the role than just having your last film beat the rival Sean Connery film NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN at the box office. That fact really shows how the audience became taken to Moore.
We may never again see one actor play Bond seven times. Nor even six. It's taken five years to bring Craig back for a fifth film.
Yeah, Craig has been Bond since 2005 (CR came out the following year), almost 15 years but is about to release his 5th film. Whereas Moore did 7 films across 12 years (83-85)and Connery 6 across 9 years (62-71), albeit with a gap in between for Lazenby. I suppose it’s possible that if they cast young and go back to releases every other year they might beat Roger’s record but it looks unlikely.
It's weird to think that the last time an actor did a fifth film was 40 years ago. Of course, Dalton and Brosnan never even made it to film #5, and a lot of hiatuses either due to MGM's legal/financial troubles or in the case of NTTD a director dropping out. Had Harry Saltzman not sold his half of the ownership of DANJAQ to UA, EON would likely have partnered with a different studio altogether instead of being stuck with MGM.
It's probably unlikely we'll ever see the days of Bond films every other year. The best we could probably hope for is 3 years. It takes too long these days to make a film it seems.
If they started basing films off of the continuation novels they'd probably be able to pull one every other year more consistently, but Wilson always seemed to dismiss that possibility, even throwing shade at those continuation novels as if EON is too good for them. I think it was always just down EON thinking it's cheaper to have writers do original scripts instead of paying royalties to authors. Scuttlebutt says Wilson will retire after NO TIME TO DIE, and his son will join his aunt Barbara Broccoli as the new producing partner. Apparently he will take the creative lead, like how his father lead the Brosnan films and how his aunt lead the Craig films. Maybe he'll be the one to make the call for continuity adaptations? Whatever the case, I always felt LICENCE RENEWED would always make a fun meta title for a new actor's debut film. Heck, they might as well just buy the rights to the title alone and make up everything else.
The only way it happens is if they can get back to a film every two years but I don't think that's feasible, not given how time consuming pre and post production work is these days, not to mention all the marketing stuff. People carp on about the MI films but they've been every 3/4 years lately, though I know 7 and 8 are supposed to be filming back to back so maybe that's an option? You shouldn't have to wait more than 3 years for a Bond film!
Not on mine, on no network or channel anywhere in Canada (I also tried to suggest to a local Toronto theater that shows Die Hard each Christmas to show this one instead for a change of pace, but they never did it.)
I only meant that it's always played BY me. I don't even have cable, so I have no idea how TV channels conduct their programming these days. I remember years back seeing a listing of like five episodes of Law & Order: SVU episodes, and that was regular programming rather than some special marathon. Looks like cable channels have been doing that as a way of attracting binge watching that people do on streaming. But they forget that it's kind of pointless on broadcast networks because those bloody advertisements get in the way of binging. You can't binge a show with ads!
This is a very strange promotional film shot for You Only Live Twice. Since the thread is likely to branch out to discussing other Bond films and anniversaries and I'm totally cool with that I wanted to share this at least in part because it was shot in 1967 and it's one of the only times we see Desmond Llewelyn and Lois Maxwell together and in character during the 1962-1985 era of the franchise plus the only time we see Moneypenny's office at Universal Exports between 1965 and 1969. It's awkward in spots but a relic of an era when promotional films of upcoming movies were mini-movies unto themselves. Enjoy!