James Bond 26

[Anthony W]

That's great. I'm not sure why that should affect my opinion in the least. I don't care if anyone else liked it. If other people like dinosaurs and military recruitment films, great, good for them

You do realize that James Bond is a movie where the world hands in the balance and can only be saved by....one British agent?! Come now, if you can see the propaganda inherent in Top Gun than surely you can see it in James Bond LMAO. My point is maybe, just maybe we might be over thinking this whole revamp James Bond thing.

[phonogram12]

You do realize that James Bond is a movie where the world hands in the balance and can only be saved by....one British agent?! Come now, if you can see the propaganda inherent in Top Gun than surely you can see it in James Bond LMAO. My point is maybe, just maybe we might be over thinking this whole revamp James Bond thing.

The thing is, with the exception of the begrudging heroism Bond displays every once and again in his movies, it doesn't feel as if the filmmakers (at least in the Craig movies) pretend Bond is anyone to emulate (I mean, he's a chauvinist alcoholic, for crying out loud). I'm pretty sure the polar opposite can be said about nearly every Tom Cruise vehicle ever made. It's just especially obvious in his US propaganda films.

[Ikari]

Bond novels, and other British agent literature of the '50s/60s was sort of literary reaction to Britain's waning influence on world politics. "Maybe we're not so relevant in real world anymore, so lets write stories where we are."
I agree that many Tom Cruise movies, and MI series in particular, feel like ego stroking. I think 'Last Samurai' will forever stay in infamy as a particular example of that. Here we have Tom Cruise travelling to Japan to teach the Japanese what it really means to be samurai!
I did like 'Edge of Tomorrow' as it had bit more character growth and humility than most other Cruise headlined films.

[Nods]

Ideally the really should do pre-1962 Bond films...maybe do a Golden Eye thing but instead of killing off Sean Bean perhaps build a trilogy around say Dev Patel. With Richard Madden (game of thrones) as Bond.

[ChrisIII]

Bond novels, and other British agent literature of the '50s/60s was sort of literary reaction to Britain's waning influence on world politics. "Maybe we're not so relevant in real world anymore, so lets write stories where we are."
I agree that many Tom Cruise movies, and MI series in particular, feel like ego stroking. I think 'Last Samurai' will forever stay in infamy as a particular example of that. Here we have Tom Cruise travelling to Japan to teach the Japanese what it really means to be samurai!
I did like 'Edge of Tomorrow' as it had bit more character growth and humility than most other Cruise headlined films.

EOT is actually based on a Japanese novel, interestingly.

Part of the Bond novels is also that Bond is actually a bit of a "Gary Stu" for Fleming himself, apart from his own intelligence work-there's a good reason quite a few of his novels are set in Jamaica or other areas in the Carribean-Fleming lived there towards the end of his life when he was writing the novels.

[Anthony W]

The thing is, with the exception of the begrudging heroism Bond displays every once and again in his movies, it doesn't feel as if the filmmakers (at least in the Craig movies) pretend Bond is anyone to emulate

Yeah, he was such a cautionary tale.

He banged hot chicks
He walked around killing people like a videogame character
He drove a dream car that the audience couldn't afford
He said something witty
Wore expensive clothing
Drank alcohol

I'm sure that the average moviegoer was thinking "Man, I do not want to be that guy"

(I mean, he's a chauvinist alcoholic, for crying out loud). I'm pretty sure the polar opposite can be said about nearly every Tom Cruise vehicle ever made. It's just especially obvious in his US propaganda films.

Once again, I just find it so strange that you can see those movies for what they are but can't (or won't) see the Bond movies for what they are.

[Ikari]

EOT is actually based on a Japanese novel, interestingly.

Cool, I always thought it was based on someones experience on playing a difficult video game But maybe the novel is about that...?

Part of the Bond novels is also that Bond is actually a bit of a "Gary Stu" for Fleming himself, apart from his own intelligence work-there's a good reason quite a few of his novels are set in Jamaica or other areas in the Carribean-Fleming lived there towards the end of his life when he was writing the novels.

True, and same goes for many other 'agent' genre characters (Jack Ryan, Dirk Pitt etc...).

[ChrisIII]

The Bond films were also highly praised for their stunts, although that's mostly a Roger Moore thing although of course Brosnan's era literally started with one and Dalton of course had the truck stunt which was pretty cool. However that part of it's kind been of outdone a lot by a lot of films since the 80s at least, and of course the MI and Fast and Furious films.

[Scott Taylor]

But Bond's stunts have always been deliberately more grounded than the stuff you see in MI or Bourne, both of which feature spies that are basically superheroes. Mythbusters even has done specials on Bond and found some of the stunts to be plausible.

[ChrisIII]

A lot of them are done mostly practically, although apparently Tom in MI has done a lot of his own stunts.


There's a infamously kind of botched one in Diamonds Are Forever-Bond tilts the car on one side when entering an ally, but when they did the other side of the stunt the car is leaning the other way when it re-enters the Vegas strip. So there's a bizzare close-up insert of Bond tilting the car in the opposite direction.

A lot of the stunts have also caused injuries to cast & stunt crew, with one incident during FYEO killing a stuntman. Craig of course had a few injuries that made the news, but Roger Moore I think had permanent butt burns, possibly from this scene:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRYVsC8JY1A


Some other stunt near-misses such as the ski nearing piercing the Union jack parachute in SPY and Bond clipping the trees while on the side of the train in Octopussy also made it to the finished film.

[ChrisIII]

The Dynamite James Bond comics have done a pretty good job with a classical yet modern Bond.

Been reading more of these lately and this could be a good direction with the next group of films. Bond with the same basic sense of humor/attitude as the classic Bond but dealing with more modern gadgets and plots, and with some of the Fleming stuff as a "vague history". Less focus on Bond's emotional state and more on just being kind of fun.

[CaptCleghorn]

Yeah, he was such a cautionary tale.

He banged hot chicks
He walked around killing people like a videogame character
He drove a dream car that the audience couldn't afford
He said something witty
Wore expensive clothing
Drank alcohol

I'm sure that the average moviegoer was thinking "Man, I do not want to be that guy"

This was a huge selling point for Bond with the original Fleming novels. Bond rattling off premium brand names and living a high scale life was something that appealed to a post WW2 Britain that was dealing with coming back after the war. The detail Fleming used in his descriptions of Bond's activities was something that kicked Bond from a run of the mill action hero to a character that started a multi-media campaign.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah, Fleming's attention to detail is definitely a major thing in the novels but it's a bit difficult to transfer to the films, save Connery's Bond frequent observations about the wine he gets served in the films.

Funny thing is, two of the most "out there" Bond films in terms of plot, Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, were given new novels that were adaptations of the movie versions, but were still written in a Fleming style and continuity. Bond's fight near the Giza Pyramids/Sphinx for example, becomes a torture session in the novel. Anya is also working as part of SMERSH instead of regular KGB and Gogol's role is played by General Nikitin from the FWRL novel (Nikitin's role in the movie was replaced by Blofeld). Jaws is also given a Flemingesque origin story.

Moonraker is a bit similar but closer to the movie, although the whole Dolly subplot isn't there at all.

[ChrisIII]

According to British tabloids Aaron Taylor Johnson is being looked at as the next Bond.

He kind of fits in the age range I suppose, more or less. He also had a role in the Bond homage series Kingsmen in the King's Man prequel...

[Panic]

He's a good actor, but such a chameleon that I find it's difficult to imagine his Bond, as opposed to say Cavill's or Fasbender's. I think he doesn't have star-quality and would therefore need a strong script that he could sink his teeth into, and the script is often the weakest component of a Bond film.