Celebrating 50 Years of James Bond on Blu-ray - Page 22

For the record I thought The Spy Who Loved Me looked phenomenal. Diamonds are Forever was a bit too brown in the skin tones, but looked good in all other aspects. The most disappointing of the Connery and Moore Bond transfers for me was Thunderball, but I chalk that up to the source. The best for me was Live and Let Die.

Just watched OHMSS and thought it was an okay restoration, but nothing brilliant. There were still a few light scratches here and there and a couple frame gate hairs they missed.

As for the film, I've actually thought it was dramatically one of the better Bonds for James and the Bond girl... but the central SPECTRE plot was one of the weaker attempts, and felt more like a spoof similar to the "Flint" films with James Coburn.

They seemed to go out of their way to make Bond into a bit of a fop and the idea to loop Lazenby's dialog for a good portion was terrible. George didn't even know they had done it until premiere night. They treated him like sh-t throughout the production: "You're no Connery, and we'll make sure you know it," kind of thing.

Also, this was not one of John Barry's best scores for the series. Mi Casa did have some good, aggressive surround pans from time to time, but missed a couple of times to place some sounds into the rear channels that would obviously have been heard all around the room.

OHMSS?

Stop with this madness!
The best film it is not. Not even close.

Disappointed QUANTUM OF SOLACE is not like all the others in the set.
1-- there is adverts for other movies at the beginning of the disc
2 --there is no intro as all the others have. The into is new to the set except QOS
Why the hell did they not spend a little time making it as all the others and for god sake why the movie previews at the beginning
Someone has been very slack
Are all sets the same
mine is from australia and would like to know if this is the same with other sets in the U.S. and UK
I mean this supposed to be a collection and they do a disc thats not the same as all the others

I agree with that statement.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a good film but IMO it has a special place as the guy who followed Connery and the only Bond actor who only did one.

Art

I watched OHMSS last year again and still found it to be a mixed bag. It's one of the few Bond films with something resembling an actual character arc for Bond, and a dark ending, which is why many respond to it more strongly than the others. Also has a great Bond girl in Diana Rigg and I actually think it's one of John Barry's best Bond scores. But the execution of the rest falls short in too many aspects for me. Lazenby is weak, coming to life only in the fight scenes. I never cared for Telly Savalas as Blofeld. The pacing is uneven, stopping too often for romantic montage interludes that don't advance the plot. And it feels about 20 minutes too long. It's a shame though, because with Connery in there, and some tighter editing, it could have been the best. There probably hasn't been a perfect Bond film made but I'd say, at risk of sounding like a layman, that Goldfinger comes closest. But Bond movies are like the pizza of cinema. Even at their worst, they're still pretty good.

The hardcore choices for best Bond are
OHMSS
From Russia with Love
Dr. No
Thunderball
Octopussy
For Your Eyes Only

All of the rest, except the first two Craig films (Skyfall doesnt open here for another 10 days) and Die Another Day, are fun to watch in varying degrees. Then you add the 1967 Casino Royale (fun, but a product of its time) and Never Say Never Again (the worst thing to ever be peripherally associated with Bond).

Most of the Brosnan Bonds were pretty weak. He'd be the first to admit it. That's one reason the producers fired him late at night. Brosnan wanted final say on the script because he asked for a good one for a change, and didn't like the direction they were going. The Broccoli and Saltzman clan are notorious control freaks, which can sometimes be a detriment to the series.

I think with Skyfall, they're trying to get back to a more "Bond-like" Bond film... a grand, globe trotting adventure with a really diabolical, over-the-top foe, and with Q Branch and all the nifty gadgets assisting him along the way. Daniel Craig even had wanted Bond to be more than a beefed up thug.

Actually, no.

I think I saw Octopussy like 20 times when I was a kid only because my sister worked at the local theater at the time and got me in for free. Watching it again last week, I was surprised by how bad a lot of it was. Haven't seen Never Say Never Again in a long time but I remember it being very ponderous and slow for a Bond film.

As someone who is only seeing a lot of the old Bond films for the first time with this set, I thought OHMSS was brilliant - really engrossing story and a beautifully shot film. Something about it was just so much more interesting than the Connery films - not that I think those are bad films at all, just that their story felt more functional for the sake of getting to the action rather than action that was organically part of a storyline. Wading through the Moore films at the moment. Looking forward to watching the Dalton films as I haven't seen those either.

From Russia with Love is my favorite, it has Connery, Q, great allies and villains, and a smoking Bond girl. It has gadgets, but not to the point of ridiculousness; and it has a streamlined, semi-realistic plot. It hasn't fallen into the paint-by-numbers approach yet.

I used to think On Her Majesty's Secret Service was my favorite, but no more. Having watch it again, it is SO slow. The outfits that Lazenby had to wear were ridiculous. Diana Rigg is awesome, but, as mentioned earlier, the SPECTRE plot is dumb as hell. And Telly Savalas is a terrible actor in my opinion. Every role that guys played was Telly Savalas instead of the character. Telly Savalas as Blofeld? No thank ya, baby!

That said, On Her Majesty's Secret Service will always remain in the top half of Bond films for me however for having the balls to have the only unhappy ending in the series.

When you get to License to Kill, you should see why this late 80's iteration of Bond was almost a death knell to the series. Wayne Newton as a bad guy??? The beginning was silly as all get out. The surrounding cast was not very good, even though the Bond babes were hot. Dalton looked more ridiculous in the roll than ever, rather than more comfortable. He wasn't all that bad in his debut in The Living Daylights.

Except for a couple of Brosnan duds and some parts of OHMSS and Diamonds are Forever,and a good portion of the Dalton films... I've enjoyed the Bond films immensely over the years. Yes, even A View to a Kill is better than License to Kill.
Edited by Dan Hitchman - 10/29/12 at 7:46am

The Man With a Golden Gun.
I have only seen it once and I recall it was rough to get through.
But I would give it a second chance.

The World is Not Enough is one I can live without.
Just awful.

Hey all,

 

We're putting together a non-definitive list of AVS' favorite Bond films, and I wanted to get your opinion of which is the best Roger Moore-era film, Blu-ray quality aside.

 

We seem to have narrowed it down to two:

 

Live and Let Die

 

and

 

The Spy Who Loved Me

 

Seeing as none of the Moore films stand up really well these days, which of these two do you prefer?

Of those two, Live and Let Die.

But Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only are the best Roger Moore Bonds and certainly belong in the series Top 10.

Thanks for your input. It's certainly tough to narrow things down. One man's favorite Bond film could be another's least favorite. I've seen so many conflicting opinions on AVS about this: most of the films are spotty enough that people get widely varying things out of them. 

 

I know that many consider Octopussy to be one of the most ridiculous films of the series. 

There really is no wrong or right answer here. Just watch them and pick your own favorites, I think if everyone liked the same thing, well, it would be a boring place.

Whenever I think of Octopussy, I think of Roger Moore dressed as an old, sad clown:




Not his finest moment as 007, and IMHO, one of my least favorite Bond movies...

This isn't a fair fight at all. The Spy Who Loved Me is a far better movie than the mediocre Live and Let Die. The only things Live and Let Die really has going for it are the great theme song and Yaphet Kotto as the villain.

I don't get the Licence to Kill hate at all. The movie is by far the best Bond film of the '80s. Really, nothing in your description of it is correct (except that the Bond girls are indeed hot).

"Bless your heart!"

I love Licence to Kill, absolutely love it. It's Bond being all dark and moody and serious way before Craig got in on the act. Dalton's Bond was ahead of his time, hence the somewhat lukewarm reaction to him both critically and commercially.

I am in the same boat. It was so refreshing after what had become of Bond in some of the Moore movies (Moonraker, and the uber horrible A View To A Kill) to see a mad Bond who acts more like a operative who has a license to kill. I remember seeing this movie in the theater and really enjoying it. That experience has not changed for me over the years, and Carey Lowell seems to fly under the radar for attractive Bond girls.. I still think she is super hot and liked her in this.


Edited by ack_bk - 10/29/12 at 1:47pm