Posted on 11/05/2015 3:33:52 PM PST by Perdogg
A license to kill is also a license to not kill,†M lectures his new boss in the 24th James Bond film, “Spectre.†Well, it’s not a license to bore as much as this bloated drag manages to do.
After a smashing opening sequence with a rooftop chase set against Day of the Dead observances in Mexico City, we’re plunged into a patchy plot (basically the same as the last “Mission: Impossible†outing) that’s little more than an excuse for random homages to the series’ illustrious past — reminding us how utterly mediocre this one is.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Lol
I read this earlier today. Ehh.
I have free passes for a screening of “Creed” next week. I’ll probably go, although I really wish Stallone had stopped with “Rocky Balboa”.
Ditto.
I liked them all, but Sean Connery will always be right up there WITH Daniel Craig. Craig IS great.
There was one guy, one Bond film...and I can't recall him very well. He was, obviously, forgettable.
Also, lest I forget, Roger Moore was the least like a real Bond. He simply wasn't menacing enough. Way too smooth, though I always liked him as an actor.
Dench got into the film and action too much. It was obviously part of the script but M always stayed in the background.
I can't imagine this one being more boring than Craig's previous worst entry, Quantum of Solace (zero desire to ever see that film again), but I'll wait for Spectre to come out on DVD and test my theory. I hope I'm not proven wrong. One time I read that critics actually rated Highlander 5 WORSE than Highlander 2. Highlander 2 has epic levels of fail, so I'm not sure how that's possible, and I don't want to find out.
>> I just heard a review that said it was the best Bond ever. Can’t remember the source, but it was a media source. <<
Perhaps a studio press release? They ALWAYS describe the latest installment as the "best one ever", regardless of the quality. ;-)
>> I liked them all, but Sean Connery will always be right up there WITH Daniel Craig. Craig IS great. <<
I never understood Craig fans saying he's "up there with Connery". They're absolutely nothing alike. Craig looks like Putin (beady eyed blond creep with big ears and pouty lips) and plays Bond as drab, brooding, humorless, ultra-serious, and acts pissed off and hung over when he's supposed to be charming and seductive. Comparing Craig to Connery is like saying Jimmy Carter's presidency was "channeling Calvin Coolidge" or something. You want a good Bond who is faithful to the source material AND a worthy successor to Connery, check out Timothy Dalton. Shame he only got two films, and neither one had very good scripts.
>> I find this to be the most charmless and humorless portrayal ever. So far, I’ve never had the inclination to watch the Craig films more than one time <<
Heh. I'd rate Casino Royale 9/10, but the reason it's not 10/10 is because of Craig. Replace him with a good Bond actor and it would be the perfect modern Bond film. The Simpsons nailed the Daniel Craig incarnation of Bond, IMO:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7UQfZcZnAA5cG9vWG41ai1LVnM/edit
>> There was one guy, one Bond film...and I can't recall him very well. He was, obviously, forgettable. <<
George Lazenby? He had no acting experience and it showed, but he did a passable job. Still more likable and Bond-like in the role than Craig. Had Lazenby continued, I think he would have grown into the part.
I am glad to see Judy Dench go. I always liked her as an actress but I always had the feeling the the "M" folks had to have had some combat experience. She obviously DIDN'T or she would have cited it during one of her tedious lectures at Bond. <<
Agreed. I think they ditched Judi Dench at the right time. I was pleasantly surprised at the twist in Skyfall when they killed her off. She was good in the "modern" 90s Bond movies, but it was weird they "rebooted" the franchise and kept her on as Bond's boss. I'm glad to see Bond's boss is a man again. Interesting enough. I heard Dench has a cameo in Spectre as a flashback or something. That's one of the few aspects of the film I'm curious to see.
>> If they change Bond’s ethnicity, sexuality etc for the next film this will be my last Bond film ever. And I cannot be the only one thinking that way. <<
Count me in as well. The only thing that keeps me watching with Craig's Bond is he's had some excellent scripts like Casino Royale and Skyfall. I'm glad the pointless "Fantastic Four" remake bombed after they needlessly changed Human Torch into a black guy (worse, his "sister" in the movie was still white, and this was actually the LEAST of the film's problems). I love how they say we're racist or homophobic for wanting a character to be faithful to the source material. Guess I'm racist against white people for being upset that "Khan Noonien Singh" was played by a white guy in the last Star Trek movie.
>> Craig is the best Bond, ever. Will be a sad day when he leaves. <<
I will sad when he leaves, ONLY because all the replacements names being floated are even worse. I hope the film series don't become unwatchable.
>> I have free passes for a screening of "Creed" next week. I'll probably go, although I really wish Stallone had stopped with "Rocky Balboa". <<
Heh. I'm going to attempt to watch Terminator 5 in a few weeks, now that its out on DVD. I sincerely hope the small minority of viewers who think its the "best Terminator since Terminator 2" are right and the majority who hated it are wrong. Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese sounds awful.
My favorite parody of Hollywood sequel mentality: for Back to the Future's 30th anniversary, Universal released an "real" trailer for the fictional "Jaws 19" that was supposed to be released in 2015. Had there really been a Jaws 5-18, I could definitely see the franchise going in that direction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl092whRLlI
As I said, QoS wasn't even a Bond movie. It was just... what the f was it ? Of course, Pirs BonBons' outings became more tedious and unwatchable as they went along (the one with the North Koreans and all that... dreadful). As bad as the Moore outings got, they were at least watchable as total fluff (and always beautifully scored by John Barry, with the exception of Moore's best one, FYEO, where we got treated to later overused background music and themes for "Lifestyles of (and Runaway with) the Rich & Famous" (half expecting Robin Leach to pop out and start narrating where Bond was going to go next)).
"Perhaps a studio press release? They ALWAYS describe the latest installment as the "best one ever", regardless of the quality. ;-)"
Navin Bigg-Peckerworth of the New Haven Navel Gazer describes "Spectre" as "BOFFO !"
"I never understood Craig fans saying he's "up there with Connery". They're absolutely nothing alike. Craig looks like Putin (beady eyed blond creep with big ears and pouty lips) and plays Bond as drab, brooding, humorless, ultra-serious, and acts pissed off and hung over when he's supposed to be charming and seductive. Comparing Craig to Connery is like saying Jimmy Carter's presidency was "channeling Calvin Coolidge" or something. You want a good Bond who is faithful to the source material AND a worthy successor to Connery, check out Timothy Dalton. Shame he only got two films, and neither one had very good scripts."
Craig's the guy who should've played one of the numerous Red Grant knockoffs who gets killed off in the pre-credits segment by the real Bond. He's in the same acting school as soap star Steve Burton, whose Jason Morgan on "General Hospital" was as charming as Craig. Both played killer blonde thugs. He's now over at "The Young And The Restless" showing his acting muscles by playing his new character much the same. If they wanted a slightly younger American clone of Craig, go with Burton.
"Heh. I'd rate Casino Royale 9/10, but the reason it's not 10/10 is because of Craig. Replace him with a good Bond actor and it would be the perfect modern Bond film."
The problem with so many of the post-Dalton films are forgettable male villains. Other than Javier Bardem's over-the-top villain in the last, virtually none since after Robert Davi's Sanchez in "Licence to Kill" I remember. In the comedy "Casino Royale" from 1967, you had Orson Welles playing Le Chiffre. These other guys are just "nameless Eurothug #1, #2, et al." Now that I see Christoph Waltz is in the new one, he's really just gonna be Hans "Bingo" Landa's grandson. At first I thought he was going to be Blofeld (of course, only one person can play Blofeld today convincingly, since he is so viscerally and thoroughly evil, and that's George Soros. They wouldn't even have to shave his head).
"George Lazenby? He had no acting experience and it showed, but he did a passable job. Still more likable and Bond-like in the role than Craig. Had Lazenby continued, I think he would have grown into the part."
I have to say he did a superb job. He looked the part, had the charm and he could do physical stuff (look at the stuntwork in OHMSS !) that Connery could no longer convincingly do (witness he was already starting to sink into a premature middle-age paunch at just 37 in YOLT ! Even worse how badly out of shape and haggard he looked at 40-41 in DAF), and had believable emotional range and chemistry with the women. Even hilarious throwaway bits like his lifting Gumboldt the lawyer's copy of Playboy and making off with the centerfold page. Imagine our Danny Craig doing something like that.
"Agreed. I think they ditched Judi Dench at the right time. I was pleasantly surprised at the twist in Skyfall when they killed her off. She was good in the "modern" 90s Bond movies, but it was weird they "rebooted" the franchise and kept her on as Bond's boss. I'm glad to see Bond's boss is a man again. Interesting enough. I heard Dench has a cameo in Spectre as a flashback or something. That's one of the few aspects of the film I'm curious to see."
Never cared for Dench. She seemed like some nagging Defence Minister for Tony Blair's Labour, a militant feminist harridan in the '90s. Certainly not someone who ever served in a military capacity. I frankly wanted Brosnan to slap her the first time she mouthed off to him with that "misogynist dinosaur" PC claptrap. I would've jumped from my theater seat and cheered.
"Count me in as well. The only thing that keeps me watching with Craig's Bond is he's had some excellent scripts like Casino Royale and Skyfall. I'm glad the pointless "Fantastic Four" remake bombed after they needlessly changed Human Torch into a black guy (worse, his "sister" in the movie was still white, and this was actually the LEAST of the film's problems). I love how they say we're racist or homophobic for wanting a character to be faithful to the source material. Guess I'm racist against white people for being upset that "Khan Noonien Singh" was played by a white guy in the last Star Trek movie."
I will forever despise JJ Abrams alone for that grievous and willful abomination of a casting choice for Faux Trek: Into Dorkness in Benny-Dick Cucumberpatch. The noxious little English shit just made a diatribe the other week appealing to the public to bypass elected officials in the UK and demand more of the Mohammadan scourge be brought into Europe en masse. Who knew this pasty twat of an actor is an even more evil villain in real life than the character of Khan (that is, Ricardo Montalban's definitive version) himself. Someone should drop him on Syria from a great height.
Casino Royale was Craig's best Bond film, and Skyfall was atrocious. Couldn't even finish watching, it was really that bad.
Looking forward to your review, Perdogg.
Better that than anything containing capsaicin!
LOL who in their right mind would put capsaicin on their nuts? Its for arthritis join pain and muscle strain. I Put it on my shoulder blade a few times after getting some bursitis from weightlifting. It burned like hell but worked. That on the old boys would be torture haha.
Very unpleasant burning sensation in the worst place possible for the next two-three hours. Haven't forgotten to wear gloves ever since.
You should have put your sac in a cup of milk. LMAO it supposed to deactivate it. That image would be hilarious though.
I would have a hard time explaining that to my wife...I could tell her I was ‘reloading’; she might buy that. :-)
Wow... Some great back & forth going on here.
Eon Productions should be taking copious notes.
...and Roger Moore gets a raw deal.
That’s an old locker room prank. Google “Atomic Balm jockstrap” for details.
“Craig looks like Putin “
Ahahahahahahhahaha, YES.
“QoS wasn’t even a Bond movie. “
I agree, didn’t feel like one at all. The Simpson’s video nails it. He didn’t even **ck Olga Kurylenko! Is this “realism”? The villain was like a young Soros.
I’m glad they killed Dench too, though it made “Skyfall” seem pointless, Javier basically got exactly what he wanted other than the order in which they died. Ralph Fiennes looked promising as the new “M”.
Re: Villains of the Bronsnan era. I liked Sean Bean though he would have been better working with Dalton. Jonathan Pryce was doing a poor Shatner impression, the dude in TWINE was a boring waste of a cool premise, Sophie was the villain in that movie. And North Korea DNA transplant dude was so stupid it was fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-62CEWENFw
Bring back a little fun. You don’t have to go full campy.
Re: “Highlander: The Source”
I don’t think I sat though the whole thing, I read the whole plot though, it makes “Star Trek 5” seem good. Strike it from the canon just like Highlander 2. The writers should be put to death.
Good stuff! And I agree.
If you get a chance, catch the Michael Caine “Harry Palmer” flicks. Good 60s Cold War stuff.
Harry Saltzman produced them; think of Palmer as a poor-man’s Bond.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Palmer
Of course, I didn’t say it at all. Those were Billyboy’s points. ;-)
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