No Time To Die: Bond 25 - Out Now

[sandman]

20 hours ago, AstroBot said:

Thunderball and Dr No D tier…what the ever loving fuck.

I know my view of Dr No is unusual 

 

But I’ve never met a single human soul who likes Thunderball 

[mexos]

On 18/11/2021 at 15:07, Marlowe said:

Now the dust is settling on the Craig era, it's time to rank the series again:

 

S Tier:

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Goldeneye

Casino Royale

 

A Tier:

Dr No

You Only Live Twice

OHMSS

For Your Eyes Only

Tomorrow Never Dies

 

B Tier:

Thunderball

Live and Let Die

The Spy Who Loved Me

Octopussy

The Living Daylights

The World Is Not Enough

Skyfall

No Time To Die

 

C Tier:

Diamonds are Forever

The Man With The Golden Gun

Moonraker

A View To A Kill

Licence To Kill

 

D Tier:

Die Another Day

Quantum of Solace

 

E Tier:

Spectre

The Living Daylights B tier?

 

STOP GETTING BOND WRONG!

[FishyFish]

These tiers are rubbish. Clearly they should be Bondian themed to work properly.

 

Licence to Kill

Licence to Thrill

Licence to Spill (your popcorn in excitement)

Licence to Still ( have a good time overall)

Licence Revoked

 

Or some that are less shit than the ones I hastily thought up.

 

[Nick R]

1 hour ago, FishyFish said:

Or some that are less shit than the ones I hastily thought up.

 

S: I am invincible!

A: I must be dreaming

B: A delicatessen in stainless steel

C : All I wanted was a sweet distraction for an hour or two

D : Grow up, 007

E: I've seen angels fall from blinding heights, but you yourself are nothing so divine

F: This never happened to the other fellow

[Eric86]

On 28/11/2021 at 08:27, AstroBot said:

Watched it.  Felt like a grab bag of Bond moments and the tone was all over the place. It was enjoyable enough but entirely forgettable.  
 

Special award goes to whatever construction kept Paloma’s (or should I say Goodnight’s) dress on during her fight sequence.

 

 

Agreed. Enjoyed it in the moment, but can't remember much about it only a couple of hours later. Seemed like they used the random bond generator to write it. I have no idea what Freddy Mercury's motivation was or who he was meant to be. Best bit was Ana de armes. Should have had a whole film with her playing off bond, much more fun than moody bond and his french girlfriend. 

[Vimster]

Not sure if this needs a new thread but The Guardian asked some writers what they'd do with Bond going forward - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/08/james-bond-acclaimed-writers-explain-how-they-would-reinvent-007

 

Naturally it contains spoilers. The first person they asked hadn't even seen the film, great start, but being a literary writer they were more concerned with Bond and his story than exciting espionage action. Another writer feels this is the time to make a totally clean break and have a young female Bond. Another view is have a Bond origin story, and the last one is a bit spoilery but felt more like a spin-off. 

 

I've always been critical of writers making the main character the centre of the story rather than a player in someone else's. There has to be some mystery about characters like James Bond, and it's not surprising these writers wanted to expand on his character or totally reinvent it. I still maintain this would be a good opportunity to strip it back, be aware of the legacy but not crush everything under the weight of it. 

[Marlowe]

4 hours ago, Vimster said:

Not sure if this needs a new thread but The Guardian asked some writers what they'd do with Bond going forward - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/08/james-bond-acclaimed-writers-explain-how-they-would-reinvent-007

 

Naturally it contains spoilers. The first person they asked hadn't even seen the film, great start, but being a literary writer they were more concerned with Bond and his story than exciting espionage action. Another writer feels this is the time to make a totally clean break and have a young female Bond. Another view is have a Bond origin story, and the last one is a bit spoilery but felt more like a spin-off. 

 

I've always been critical of writers making the main character the centre of the story rather than a player in someone else's. There has to be some mystery about characters like James Bond, and it's not surprising these writers wanted to expand on his character or totally reinvent it. I still maintain this would be a good opportunity to strip it back, be aware of the legacy but not crush everything under the weight of it. 

 

The only bit of sense in that article:

Quote

Plausible though these ideas are, Cumming argues, “all that might take up a lot of unnecessary screen time. The producers could just as well make no reference to what happened at the end of No Time To Die and introduce a new James Bond to a new generation. Audiences won’t care how or why 007 has come back into their lives as long as the script is entertaining and Barbara Broccoli has cast the right actor to play him. Bond is like Hamlet or Sherlock Holmes. He’s eternal.”

[Bacon Horsemeat]

Just watched it, one of the dullest Bond films with no defining moments other than the obvious bit at the end.

[Festoon]

Imagine the makers watching the Ana deArmas sequence and then going "well now, what boring, thudding slab of beef do we get to be Bond next?"

[gone fishin]

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was on ITV4 last night, it reminded me how No Time To Die couldn’t even be bothered to make up a new end song, instead just re-using Louis Armstrong.

 

[Nick R]

7 minutes ago, gone fishin said:

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was on ITV4 last night, it reminded me how No Time To Die couldn’t even be bothered to make up a new end song, instead just re-using Louis Armstrong.

 

If you're going to complain about that, we might as well throw out all needledrops of familiar songs in movies!

 

The whole point of using an old song is to make use of the audience's familiarity with it, applied to a new context. You can criticise this example for being too obvious, or nostalgia-bait, or unearned. But they put it in the film for a good reason, so saying it's there because "couldn't be bothered" to make something new is a ridiculous complaint.

[K]

Even worse, they couldn't be bothered to make up a new James Bond theme. Talk about lazy!

[Chadruharazzeb]

The main character even has the same name, for crying out loud!

[JohnC]

At least it’s a good song. Imagine if they got some young talent, like Billie Eilish for example, to do some forgettable thing. 

[Eighthours]

3 hours ago, gone fishin said:

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was on ITV4 last night, it reminded me how No Time To Die couldn’t even be bothered to make up a new end song, instead just re-using Louis Armstrong.

 

 

But it was really good that NTTD used that music through the film.

[Sexton Hardcastle]

Watched this yesterday & was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I'm not normally a big fan of Bond movies, and the recent Daniel Craig efforts certainly hadn't changed that. However there's only so many posters of Ana de Armas you can see before it breaks your will & you watch it.

 

Anyway even though they really stressed that 'This time its REALLY personal' I thought it was great from start to finish. The Cuba but being a highlight, but also that was a ballsy ending & I liked how they turned it more into a John Wick encounter. I did think the main villain was a bit weak, and had no really hammy scenes. This was especially apparent when the wheel Blofeld out for 5min for a scene stealing appearance.

 

All in all - good shit!

[Phantoon]

On 12/01/2022 at 08:30, gone fishin said:

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was on ITV4 last night, it reminded me how No Time To Die couldn’t even be bothered to make up a new end song, instead just re-using Louis Armstrong.

 

You misunderstand why they used that theme. They played it early in the film and I knew what it meant:

Spoiler

somebody actually important was going to die. That wasn't some idle callback, it was a statement of intent

 

Also it's an incredible song

[Simmy]

I've an admission to make - I haven't enjoyed a Bond film since Goldeneye and I haven't wanted to watch a new Bond film since TWINE. I saw Casino Royale in the cinema and... Didn't enjoy it, sadly  

 

I dunno what it is about Goldeneye (honestly, I don't - I really can't put in to words why I think it's a masterpiece and timeless) but it's just so good that anything that followed just... I don't enjoy them  

[Isaac]

I think a post-Brexit James Bond has to lean into the increasing irrelevance of the UK as a player on the international scene, the rise of China, and the overall decline of the international order and the USA.

 

Probably not the right franchise though, James Bond has always seemed to be Marvel for gammons.

[Captain Kelsten]

Watched Spectre and this new one back to back, having previously only made it about halfway through Spectre back when it came out.

 

Both a load of old shite. Sack Bond off, the franchise is redundant and has no place in today's world.

[DeciderVT]

Finally watched this. Felt completely indifferent to it throughout but I haven't enjoyed any of the Craig films except Casino Royale.

 

Spoiler

Ana de Armas was fun, though.

 

One thing that caught my attention during the credits were licencing acknowledgments for Monster Hunter World, Mega Man 11, Halo 5 and Space Invaders Extreme. I don't think I remember seeing a single videogame in the film.

 

Finally, "Q, hack into Blofeld's bionic eye" had me laughing so hard that I had to pause the film. I don't know how Fiennes ever managed to deliver that line with a straight face. I genuinely couldn't tell if it was thrown into the script for laughs or not.

[Darwock]

I watched it also, with some trepidation - for me all the DC Bond films post-Casino Royals have been interminably dull, with me struggling to pay attention to all the interconnected world building they were doing.

 

I was pleasantly surprised that this more or less stood on it’s own the way a classic Bond film does (yes there was some talk about former characters and if you didn’t know who Blofeld was it wouldn’t make much sense). OTT villainous lair, complete with scheme to destroy the world, simple relatable goals for Bond to achieve etc. Yep, I liked it. Daniel Craig looked way too old and decrepit though, which is a shame. He was in no way a believable match for his female co-stars.

 

The Heracles thing doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny though, if they are machines then how do they replicate themselves endlessly to pass from person to person? Would make more sense if it was just a FOXDIE virus (which it probably was until COVID forced a change).

 

edit - there were video games playing on the TV in the kids bedroom during the opening sequence (possibly when that location is revisited later in the movie, but I think it was at the start)

[Hanzo the Razor]

10 hours ago, Darwock said:

Daniel Craig looked way too old and decrepit though, which is a shame. He was in no way a believable match for his female co-stars.

 

Have you watched A View to a Kill recently?

[Darwock]

Was that the one with Grace Jones?

[Jammy]

1 hour ago, Darwock said:

Was that the one with Grace Jones?

Yes, Roger Moore’s last hurrah. He was 57 when he filmed it, and looked like a well used Chesterfield sofa, with creaky springs to match.

[DeciderVT]

15 hours ago, Darwock said:

I was pleasantly surprised that this more or less stood on it’s own the way a classic Bond film does (yes there was some talk about former characters and if you didn’t know who Blofeld was it wouldn’t make much sense). OTT villainous lair, complete with scheme to destroy the world, simple relatable goals for Bond to achieve etc. Yep, I liked it. Daniel Craig looked way too old and decrepit though, which is a shame. He was in no way a believable match for his female co-stars.

 

Rami Malek also wasn't old enough to sell his role.

 

Spoiler

He's only a few years older than Lea Seydoux, so when he turned up after the prologue we were both a bit thrown by the idea that he was supposed to be the same person that had killed Madeleine's mother.

 

[smithstock]

54 minutes ago, AstroBot said:

even he thought he was too old. 

Yeah in his book, he says he wanted to finish after Moonraker as he thought he was getting to the point that he couldn't be taken seriously anymore. 

 

I don't think Daniel Craig looks that old but when you've been doing it for 15 years, it's going to be difficult to be perceived as a spring chicken. 

[Jammy]

Moore didn’t like AVTAK much either - thought it was too violent.

[Monkeyboy]

AVTAK does have that great (violent) scene where Walken and his henchman kill their entire workforce with machine guns and then drown them just in case.

[Jammy]

Yup, that’s the bit