Skyfall: Bond #23

maybe eggers could script?

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/01/05/bond_update_sam_mendes_in_talks_to_direct/

They need to quit being so cautious and let Tarantino direct one, someday.

ha, the article agrees with me.

i thought the fassbender/myers scenes in IB were the most tolerable scenes. but he is such an epic douche and it'd have shitty references to other films and ugh.

iirc he is actually talking about doing a len deighton novel.

he should do austin powers 4 imo.

Should be Mark Neveldine amirite?

had to google that (for shame): guessed it was the director of 'the room'. wrongly.

I think there's a queasy disturbing emo quality to the Cranks which wd fit nu-Bond to a tee.

wonder if it'll be in 3d

pretty sure the world is ready for james cameron's bond, if that wasn't already done in true lies

I think 3D is a fun party gimmick but sucks for watching movies in.

true lines would have been epic if it hadn't starred arnie and that annoying guy.

ya 3d would suck... unless eva green agrees to star amirite.

lol trudat

her eyes would be amazing in 3d

Spot where the roffles begin:

No, this isn't an April Fool's prank. According to both The Times' Hero Complex blog and the Hollywood Reporter, Sam Mendes, the wonderfully cerebral and cultured filmmaker who once upon a time won an Oscar for directing "American Beauty," is in discussions to make the new James Bond film, which could go into production as early as this June. Daniel Craig would be onboard, reprising his role as Mr. 007.

i like the suggestion that instead of this, mendes should do an 'after hours' and make a low-budget indie movie to get his mojo back. perhaps he could team up with a hip young novelist to do it? and it's true -- like martin scorsese he should avoid playing the industry's game by (say) making a sequel to someone else's movie.

I think the April Fool lies somewhere between "wonderfully" and "cerebral".

Mendes has never made a good movie and should stay far, far away.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/nolan-says-hed-love-to-do-bond/

this would be better than mendes

clive owen and nolan 2012 imo

^ yes

And away we go.

Godammit. New Bond title "Boredom is Forever"...or "Stare At This Thing For A Long Time While Nothing Happens"

You Only Have a Midlife Crisis Twice

Theme song by Josh Groban.

A Merchant Ivory co-production

so i'm pretty psyched for this now. i like how he says the new script excites him more than Casino Royale's did.

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/daniel-craig-bond-23-will-be-better-than-casino-r/227418

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pw7i82JUaw

fuck sam mendes with a big fucking stick

He's hardly going to say "the script is worse than Quantum of Solace", but, yeah, will watch. I don't give a monkeys about gadgets though, really.

not even watching the interview but yeah Craig's quote is basically "this new album is my strongest work yet" and fuck sam mendes with a great big fucking stick and yeah will watch

Skyfall appears to be the title, Javier Bardem to play the villain.

http://fusible.com/2011/10/new-james-bond-film-to-be-titled-skyfall-domain-names-privately-registered/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/javier-bardem-bond-23-villain-246719

Works for me.

I hope he actually reprises Anton Chigurh.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a348799/james-bond-23-press-conference-live-daniel-craig-on-skyfall.html

Bérénice Marlohe, Naomie Harris are the new Bond girls. Albert Finny and Ben Whishaw also cast. Scotland, London, Istanbul and China the locations.

Elder Scrolls XXIII: Skyfall

fuck the poster sucks

god i REALLY hope this is good. Royale was a frickin masterpiece of a Bond movie.

our Dan looks a bit knackered mind

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pixies/2011/11/3/1320333022686/Daniel-Craig-and-Sam-Mend-007.jpg

Sam Mendes: danger danger danger

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/skyfalls-daniel-craig-to-endorse-heineken-as-james/259502

Altogether now.. "HEINEKEN?? FUCK THAT SHIT.. "

next thing you know, he'll be endorsing ford mondeos or something...

more tittle tattle. i think this is gonna be amazing tbh.

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/james-bond-skyfall-director-likens-movies-to-doctor/267394

hey and check the wacky user comment at the bottom too while you're there. interesting.

wacky, but I like it. A good chin-scratcher.

Trailer in the next few days. Meantime:

http://images.fandango.com/images/fandangoblog/skyfall-poster-1.jpg

Cool poster. If it's half as good as Casino Royale I'll be happy.

Sweeeet

HOW IS MAN WALKING UP GUN BARREL??

he's v tiny, iirc

"Man. Ant-Man."

"Look at this exploding fountain pen, Q, it's huuuge!"

"Sure is, Tiny Bond!"

Tiny Bond confronts Blofeld.
Blofeld steps on Tiny Bond.
Fin.

Hold me closer, tiny Bondster

Tiny Bond: For Your Microscope Only

Supposedly there's a scene set in the London underground and the gun barrel poster is apparently referencing that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24mTIE4D9JM

heckfire. seemed to be a bit 'Teal and Orange'y but i might be imagining it.

the film-makers have definitely seen Inception.

looks very english

Looks alright.

I see Mendes was taking notes from Tinker Tailor.

that is crazy t&o

looks pretty dope imo, i like the less-frenetic style. not as down on QoS as some folks but it was def too bourney.

QoS had some great location choices in that the plot _was_ the location. Unfortunately the bits more reliant on dialogue and emotion were not as good.

I felt like The International, which came out the following year, had some similar issues.

roger deakins is the DP on this and it looks great

The guy certainly has a resume.

see a helicopter fly through tower bridge on 9 june. probably for this.

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/05/21/helicopter-to-fly-through-tower-bridge/

what if the bad guy turned out to be skynet

You can't say those things first thing in the morning, s1ocki. God, I need more coffee.

Lol

On a random note, I feel like Casino Royale succeeded _despite_ Paul Haggis being one of the screenwriters, because damn, can I not really stand that dude's work.

btw s1ocki does the email you've got connected to your ilx account work? Going to be in yr neck of the woods next week, may collect on that coffee.

yup yup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgr2syY_OU4

Had no idea (or more likely had forgotten) Bardem was the baddie! My expectations are high.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61933000/jpg/_61933524_bardem1.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfyfyyq62T1qfnj6zo1_500.jpg

looks fun tho

blondem

sweet move at 2:15

cant believe james bond lost the extra special usb drive with all the spies on it and now they're on youtube

lmao

looks like it was m that actually lost the flash drive

i hate that movies now have to be all like "you think you know fear... this guy is the scariest guy EVER!!!" cuz of course he's not going to actually be

its cool how that was deflated as soon as we see bardem in his blonde wig

idk man that kinda skeeves me out

be cool if they just pulled walken's zoran wig out of mothballs

it made me think of chris walken as max zorim

beaten...

In that 2nd pic he looks like Lance Henricksen with collagen injections

Or octomom with a new haircut and dye job.

They need to quit being so cautious and let Tarantino direct one, someday.

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, January 6, 2010 11:14 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM oh shit I wrote that

“The reason they did Casino Royale all comes down to me,” Quentin said.

“I made it a point, I said I wanted to do Casino Royale. They were already on record as saying the movie was unfilmable but then after I said it and talked about it for a little bit — then the big thing on all the internets was that that was what all the fans wanted to see and so that’s when they said, ‘Oh, maybe it’s not so un-filmable.’

“Actually if I had done the film, I wouldn’t have done it with Daniel Craig, I would have done it with Pierce Brosnan.”

yeah, that would have been great

I'd be up for a book of interviews in which Tarantino takes credit for other successful films he didn't make.

Tarantino talks about how he would have filmed Ben Hur: "Like, yeah. Instead of chariots, they would have been racing 70's muscle cars..."

they allegedly used a bunch of tarantino's ideas in the 06 CR

i hate that movies now have to be all like "you think you know fear... this guy is the scariest guy EVER!!!" cuz of course he's not going to actually be

― joaquin haus-partizan (s1ocki), Tuesday, July 31, 2012 11:58 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its cool how that was deflated as soon as we see bardem in his blonde wig

― Hungry4Ass, Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:01 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol totally, he looks like a fred armisen character

gotta give it to him for being consistent in playing bad guys with weird hair

lol totally, he looks like a fred armisen character

^ actually thought it was Armisen for a couple seconds while watching the trailer

tbqf this movie looks dope and it appears to be a pretty cleanly directed flick, with none of that that marc forster jiggle cam shit from QoS.

watched QoS again the other night and still think it rocks bells, meanwhile Mendes is the biggest cunt on god's green earth and i am wildly cautious

a lot of work has gone into making Bond super awesome again and i can see it being pissed away in one long windy makes you think monologue

QOS sounded good on paper - shortest Bond ever, I think?, pretty kickass Bond girl, etc. - but Forster just bungled the action up too badly.

it also had the lowest stakes of any bond ever iirc... didnt the bad guy want to like corner the bolivian water market or something

Yeah, they pretty much set up this shadowy organization and the villain was a member using their resources to corner the water market. It was kind of an understated "DON'T YOU SEE oil isn't the only valuable resource" plot.

my heart's beating a little faster just reading that

I thought that was a super Bond-y plot twist tbh

also I <3 Mathieu Amalric, but I remember his villain being pretty damn pathetic.

It was really not a great Bond film, but then I can't conceive any Bondometer that scores Craig higher than Brosnan, so..

borsnan

yeah roman polanski jr. was a crummy villain

I thought Brosnan was a good Bond, but the films became very much late-period Bond where there's more goofy shit and gadgets than intrigue and seduction. The action is cranked-up to new levels in the Craig films, but I feel like the "blunt instrument" angle of the new films is a good departure.

QoS having an understated threat is kind of a non-starter when you remember that Casino Royale's main section was about beating the investment specialist of a criminal organization in cards to try to turn him. The exploding plane section was more intense, but it was the setup.

If anything, the water plotline of QoS was taken directly from the news: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Cochabamba_protests

I hope whoever decided that what Bond needed was ripped-from-the-headlines verisimilitude got thoroughly sacked.

^^^

new trailer looks really awesome

you could probably make a good bond movie about bolivian water stealing or whatever, but it would just have to be like, written better, and directed better

i haven't watched the new trailer yet; i hope badem's good: i see him & he just seems like the exact same villain they have now, like a well dressed pouty guy with serious hair. they should mix it up a lil. get a really big, comely & charismatic guy. or a cool talking animal. like a tiger. the action in james bond films now just seems to be him running over terracotta tiled roofs & through narrow fruit stall littered streets.

new trailer looks really awesome

― Elrond Hubbard (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, August 1, 2012 4:13 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed tho tbh i can't get armisen out of my head now

http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2012/08/New-James-Bond-Villain.jpg

did they do the willem-dafoe-in-wild-at-heart thing to his teeth?

<3 the californians btw

http://www.soulculture.co.uk/music-blog/newmusic/adele-skyfall-james-bond-theme-new-music/

That is frankly stunning.

I am also stunned - I'd have thought she could at least gone the extra yard and worked in something on the moon/june theme.

go Epworth is all i can say. cool bastard.

yeah, the actual song isn't much but her voice plus that production sounds pretty great, sounds like a fucking bond theme. i welcome its oncoming unavoidableness.

anyone who thought chris cornell and jack white were good candidates for bond themes should be fired from any job.

Cogoddamnsign

sounds like a fucking bond theme. i welcome its oncoming unavoidableness.

I just hope that the movie is worthy of the song!

i like 'die another day' but feel madonna missed a real opportunity to go big adult contemporary power ballad there. ever since she got blatantly terrified of being old she's completely ignored that aspect of her sound, at least as big a part of her prime as bringing danceteria to top 40. also got too optimistic at first that this would just shoehorn the title in in passing like 'nobody does it better' did but nope pretty soon 'skyfall' kept popping up like that is a term anglophones actually commonly use. it's like they feel the need to amplify the fact that these recent bond (ie post roger moore) movies have awkward titles.

anyone who thought chris cornell and jack white were good candidates for bond themes should be fired from any job.

― omar little,

Maybe I'm alone in thinking You Know My Name is a great Bond theme! The Jack White one I can't really remember, which suggests it wasn't up to much.

yeah the cornell song is good, tho it took time to grow on me. now jack white... that was a disaster

you guys are nuts, also the Jack White song had Alicia Keys

what's the 2012 equivalent of Duran Duran doing a theme, they have Bardem looking like Walken's villain from A View to a Kill, might as well complete it

i like 'die another day' but feel madonna missed a real opportunity to go big adult contemporary power ballad there. ever since she got blatantly terrified of being old she's completely ignored that aspect of her sound, at least as big a part of her prime as bringing danceteria to top 40.

So otm. I think this has played a big role in her decline in the charts.

Yep. Live to Tell is one of favourite Madonna tracks.

what's the 2012 equivalent of Duran Duran doing a theme

Take That, possibly.

OH FATHER

live to tell could even be a bond title! theme might not work unless movie was about bond going after the guy who molested him or something, some real 'this time it's personal' stuff

"Live to Tell" is a top-shelf Bond title! Get writin balls

Get writin balls? They already covered that.

http://www.ciaranbrown.com/images/mikkelsentorturescene200.jpg

live to tell could even be a bond title! theme might not work unless movie was about bond going after the guy who molested him or something, some real 'this time it's personal' stuff

― balls, Friday, October 5, 2012 4:33 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm and lol

i'd watch that

getting RAVES left right and centre. in teh main.

That is frankly stunning.

otm - track is DOPE

Didn't clock that Deakins was doing the cinematography. Actually psyched now.

fwiw i'm always wary of really early RAVES for tentpole pics

A roundup... more worried about the "lost his parents" mandatory angle than that he's given up smoking.

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-sam-mendess-skyfall

They got the Deak? Rad

Few Bond films have one-word title; Goldfinger comes to mind. Skyfall is one of them and to sum up its appeal in one word, it's terrific

oh my god is there a worse writer alive than emmanuel levy

to coin a phrase, it's terrific

glad Ben Whishaw has the classical training necessary to play Q.

Not often a bond fan (never a mendes fan), but really liked this. Looks great, moves quickly, none of that bad-bond stuff where it's all a bit confusing-boring. Bardem disappointed me a tiny bit, but sold on the mid-long term cast. Good at London too, always approve of that.

it's sort of blade runner meets home alone. dug it.

ha, get that on the poster

glad Ben Whishaw has the classical training necessary to play Q.

Rory Kinnear in the Guardian the other day was pointing out that between him, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Whishaw, this is possibly the first quadruple-Hamlet film, certainly the first such Bond.

how many keatses in it

Well that was most enjoyable, though the final Scottish sequence was a little drawn out. Pre-credits was up there with the franchise's best, and gotta approve of any action movie that features a henchman being eaten by a komodo dragon. Casino Royal>Skyfall>>>>>>>>Quantum.

Quantum sucked kinda

iirc Quantum didn't have a real script during shooting due to WGA strike; they were making shit up as they went

(didn't see it tho cuz it had a dumb name)

The title of the thread made me wonder : is there a film series with as many films as the bond ones ? 23 is a lot !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_%28film_series%29

Oh ! Never heard of that !

Porn, mostly (hah, moistly is a pretty good typo there).

Other than that there's still a few. "Abbott & Costello" is probably cheating as a film series - I guess the most famous long series would be Godzilla then?

Oh ! Never heard of that !

You wouldn't have if you're not British.

I keep coming up with alternate skyfall theme songs in the shower, shirley bassey-style

"but... you could lose it all! in skyyyyyyfaaaaaaaal!"

Seeing this tomorrow night...

rub it in, why don't you

gotta wait another week and a half, here

The name's James Bond. James Bond.

wtf.. even happened in this

my flatmate went to see it, wasnt overly impressed..."not enough girls and it was too long"

last two posts have me even more excited!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/board/flat/206367651

wait, really?

wtf.. even happened in this

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 30 October 2012 20:57 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my flatmate went to see it, wasnt overly impressed..."not enough girls and it was too long"

― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Tuesday, 30 October 2012 21:31 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

last two posts have me even more excited!!

― goole, Tuesday, 30 October 2012 21:31 (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha otm

this had many enjoyable moments and was better than quantum but it was somehow leaden and effortful too much of the time. something i miss in this new bond series is bond's smile, his joie de vivre, his don't-give-a-fuck-ness, the suspicion that bedding beautiful women ranks right about the same place in bond's personal hierarchy of importance as tracking down terrorists, the sense that bond is the best not from any sense of loyalty to the mission or even his country but because of the sheer narcissistic pleasure it gives him to be the best

I liked the lack of that - between the Tinker Tailor moments and the gaunt lord of the estate look at the end, they managed to get 10-15 minutes of acting out of Craig, which was more than I expected.

its just a different vibe, i kinda dig grim fascist bond just because the series had gone so overboard in the other direction so many many times

if you don't like james bond overdosing on his own awesomeness you don't like james bond

james bond being a grim jerk is kind of at the core of jamesbondness if u go back to the books

I should read more of the books! The only time I really did was when I was on a vacation to Cancun and it was kind of cold out, so I laid out next to the pool under a towel and read Casino Royale and a collection of short Bond stories.

I really like James Bond as an awesome gadabout btw, Brosnan 4eva, but I don't think that Daniel Craig is any good at that, he just seems blank - so I'm glad when they get something out of him.

idk, being a dude who gets tortured occasionally and runs around killing some people and deceiving others seems to be a thing that'd make you less than jovial

Got a good bond for you Craig deniers

http://austenprose.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/downton-abbey-thomas2-x-200.jpg

Exactly, there's not much room for joie de vivre when your day job requires killing people. xpost

I mean, Fleming's Bond is a virulent misogynist to a point, but it's more that it's 90% misanthropy with a little misogyny on top. I feel like earlier film adaptations played down some of the misogyny by skimming from the bottom 90%, but they're doing a reasonable job of skimming off the top this time around. Opinion might change after I see Skyfall, I guess.

it's a pretty misogynistic movie all around tbh

how'd you see it already? reviewer screening?

let's just say i have some highly-placed friends at MI6

O_O

s1ocki I've always liked you, you know that right

yeah i have to say "that's a waste of good scotch" pretty much turned me against the movie actually

btw i'm not a craig hata at all! he's probably the best bond ever. but if you go back to spy/counterspy by dusko popov, aka agent tricycle, so named for his predilection for three-ways, i.e. the guy ian fleming was apparently a little bit obsessed with and the inspiration for bond, the guy wasn't exactly pierce brosnan (look at the photos of him some time) but he certainly knew how to enjoy himself, and how to get ladies to cackle

otm re: scotch line

also.. SPOILERS..

the movie rather firmly and happily reinforces the patriarchy in the way it ends... M is a man again, that pesky female agent is a secretary now...

also wordlessly creeping into the shower and bonking a victim of sex slavery, nice moves bond

aaaand removing bookmark from thread for a week

eek sorry d00d

it actually IS in character for bond to be a fairly unpleasant person in a few respects, and the last act of casino royale certainly set him up to be a bitter little cunt, so it's not like the scotch line is out of character for him exactly (though calling it "scotch" is...) but i dunno, it's like the movie had a little too much fun with it, i was genuinely horrified at the outcome of that scene and the movie's like welp, finito, put a quip on it, onto the next bit, seeya lady

If there's a spunky lady and a sultry lady in a Bond movie the sultry lady usually gets offed.

also wordlessly creeping into the shower and bonking a victim of sex slavery, nice moves bond

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, November 1, 2012 2:45 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this scene didnt make much sense, after he does that, they go on deck the next morning and immediately get apprehended... i had kinda assumed bond had 'taken out' her handlers when he did the bonk-sneak? or was that his whole plan?

it actually IS in character for bond to be a fairly unpleasant person in a few respects, and the last act of casino royale certainly set him up to be a bitter little cunt, so it's not like the scotch line is out of character for him exactly (though calling it "scotch" is...) but i dunno, it's like the movie had a little too much fun with it, i was genuinely horrified at the outcome of that scene and the movie's like welp, finito, put a quip on it, onto the next bit, seeya lady

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, November 1, 2012 3:24 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya i agreed, i thought this was supposed to be the moment where bond got really mad, and he was just like, LOL scotch

can we both agree that the bladerunner-esque shanghai sneak-up and fight was awesome though

yeah, str8 up homage to collateral by my lights

the boat scene was a weird one.. when the henchman comes down and says "we're ready to cast off in 5 minutes" he gives her this weird stare.. what was that about? was bond already on the boat at that point? if he was, did she know? it seemed set up to be a wistful "well i guess he got killed and isn't coming" scene, but if that's really what was going on it makes the shower scene even weirder..

by the way.... whatever happened to the hard drive?

also do you think the movie is aware that the bad guy basically succeeded at his plan and bond in the end did nothing to stop it in any way?

I assume that the hard drive was recovered from the last level of Inception, thus putting a stop to Silva's "plan" (tho the "ah that was just a plan so he could get us in close for his planned-to-the-second real plan" kind of annoyed me)

ya i kinda hate that plotline... "we caught him... but he wanted to be caught... so he could... escape."

any movie where it turns out everything the hero did was part of the bad guy's elaborate plan kinda retroactively makes the fun parts less fun imho

Also, everything Silva did in the whole film was a totally cackhanded and elaborate and excessive way to execute a plan which could have been achieved v. easily with a single bullet at any given moment.

Shanghai fight scene was awes though, but ugh, the pay-off for Eve was ridiculous.

They flag that fairly early though - he waits until M is out of the building before blowing it up, he wants her to suffer first - the "plan" is to kill her at the point where she's seeing her life's work crumbling in front of her (but instead he presumably causes the government to take MI6 much more seriously - good thing he's crazy)

Yeah, I got that, but it's such a shit plan!

I liked the "waste of good scotch" moment, if only because I hated that the rest of it was far too much in the vein of The Dark Bond Returns - now filled with more anxiety, self-doubt, and holding onto a childhood loss. I want Bond to be less stubbly and bleary-eyed, and kind of more of the smug thug of old.
The film felt really flat, tonally, as well. Some nice looking sequences, but so dreary.

Also: teal & orange!

Yeah "miserable alcoholic Bond" is not something that needed excavating tbh

I think I have a tendency to shut down all critical faculties while watching Bond-movies, cause I always love them, pretty much unconditionally. Some good points here, though. But I never see them myself.

Wasn't expecting Oedipal Bond - this was even more ludicrous than usual.

I don't know which movie you guys watched. My first reaction was "so they're back to making traditional Bond movies with gags, laughs and over-the-top villains", only allowing Bond to have a personality of his own unlike Brosnan. There was no real anxiety or dreary darkness here. Having said that it's not as good as CR and not as impressively slick as QoS. Fun, though.

Well, there is the entire subplot regarding "Bond is clearly unfit for service but he and M conspire to cover this up"? It bobs in and out of view amongst the usual superheroics, but it's not like it's not there.

Thought the final 30 minutes or so was a cringeworthy embarrassment. I think this could have been a much better film if edited tightly and reined in on the sentimentality.

I think I have a tendency to shut down all critical faculties while watching Bond-movies, cause I always love them, pretty much unconditionally. Some good points here, though. But I never see them myself.

i sympathise with this point of view a lot tbh

Thought the final 30 minutes or so was a cringeworthy embarrassment. I think this could have been a much better film if edited tightly and reined in on the sentimentality.

― Bob Six, Saturday, November 3, 2012 9:38 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god it looked so good how can you say that

i also sympathize with that point of view and everything i've complained about in this thread is more just me having fun picking it apart and didn't bother me THAT much... though i felt the proceedings could have been shorter by about 20-30 minutes. but i feel that way about every movie nowadays

Scottish stuff looked great, glad M brought her tartan blanket. Totally called the Home Alone bit when they mentioned they needed to 'get ready'.
I really liked this although so much of it made no sense. For a start there would be no 'list of agents'. Also why the return to 90s 'OMG CYBERHACKING' movies complete with red laughing skulls and 'oh he hacked it' as a way of handwaving everything? Why was Bond wearing gloves in one bit where he's got a special handprint gun?

Don't know where else to put this, but... http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5izjjbrFAkaRmn6Ovl5w-gyciTYSA?docId=CNG.7aeed17960b063a7c07b9fb34dbbefe7.ab1

BEIJING — A British businessman murdered by the wife of top Chinese politician Bo Xilai had informed on the couple for over a year to his country's spy agency, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Neil Heywood shared details based on his unusually close access to the powerful couple, the paper said, citing his friends and current and former British officials.

"He had been knowingly providing information about the Bo family to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, for more than a year," the report said. ...

Heywood drove a silver Jaguar with the licence plate "007", the Journal said.

I don't know if anyone's been following this - Heywood was no Bond, but the spy links along with the license plate are just more amazing details in what's already a pretty insane story (cyanide poisoning, money laundering, the downfall of a Chinese political star, a corrupt top cop etc.).

Absolutely hated it. Title credits were good and there was a nicely topical line about remote destruction via laptop but everything else, from the muddled plot to the cringe-inducing dialogue was as bad as I have ever seen in a Bond film.

I just gave my two weeks notice to my current job, so I took a long lunch and saw it at a local theater that got it a day early.

It was a solid Bond movie. The opening set piece was really good, and set up some of the recurring themes for the movie. Title sequence, including Adele's theme song, was good and Bond-y. Short car chases were effective, hand to hand stuff maybe a little weaker than CR. The locations were great, and Bardem was a very good Bond bad guy.

I thought the over-arching themes were a little bit strong armed, but nonetheless effective. Captain Obvious point: I took this to be a movie-length defense of the Double 0 branch and it's non-digital means, and a statement that regardless of how computer based and intangible the enemies may get, there are just some problems that need to be taken out with extreme prejudice.

If some parts were too on the nose, so what? It's fucking Bond. It's not Bourne. He's gone through a lot of death and pain, and now he's that wry spy we all know and love.

I dug it. B/B+.

Definitely going to see this this weekend...maybe tomorrow's 1st show before school/work lets out.

Ebert loved it fwiw, 4 stars.

The critics have almost all loved it. The Observer said it might be the best Bond yet.

I'm sure there's an agreement in the media to built it up for the sake of the British film industry. History will eventually bear me out on the terrible last 30 minutes (and the rest of it is only average - at best).

Seeing this Saturday morning

Somebody said to me earlier taht they'd heard Craig had said he wasn't going to do any more Bonds. I really hope that isn't true, been enjoying him as him. Looks really moddish in bits of this, maybe its just the well cut suits.

Did really enjoy this last night, though I really wasn't sure about the return to an equivalent of the original M & Moneypenny. The Fiennes character seems to be an attempt to portray the role pretty similarly to Bernard Lee. Ex-military commander etc, did just occur to me on thinking that that I wondered if some of the character's body language was based on Bernard Lee's. Don't think I've really watched Lee that closely but there seemed to be some really old-school-tie body movement from Fiennes that on further thought might have been his attempt to base himself on various Bernard Lee roles.

Might go and see it again, or just wait for it to continually turn up on tv over the next few years.

sorry, was that too many spoilers. Maybe I should leave that for another week or so.

Was wondering about product placement earlier cos I couldn't really think of taht much. & somebody had asked about it on another list

Volkswagen Beetles - not really seen in full but used as props.

Heineken just about recognisable though Craig's fingers are over the label. So surprising that I'd seen Heineken ads based on their sponsoring of the Bond film or something.

Not sure about other brands of booze, I didn't notice any of the labels being readable. & the martini when it appears doesn't get named just the barmaid extolled for having made a perfect one.

London Underground & the Metropolitan Police, the latter portrayed as a multiracial group, to the extent that the same black cop gets shot twice which was one of the few gaffes I noticed.

Went to midnight showing last night. I don't mind Serious Oedipal Bond, but the movie felt like the answer to "what if Russell T Davies wrote a feature-length episode of Spooks?" Visually striking (Shanghai scenes = A+), but halfway in, I was unengaged enough to be sympathetic to the bureaucrats who wanted M out. Bardem's character was more just an asshole than psychopath. For that matter so was Bond.

Missed Felix Leiter.

Adele song a stormer, but wasn't used thematically anywhere else. Did I miss it?

Yup - when he was riding the gondola to the casino in Macau. It scored over the slow tense ride amongst the lanterns.

Check this out:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/james_bond_countdown/

Although the last 30 minutes had the most amazing dusk-turns-to-night thing going on, I agree with Bob Six, it was horrendously staged, was a stupid plot development and left me feeling bad about the whole movie.

Once Javier shows up the film stopped feeling like a Bond film and felt like a lot of shots of Daniel Craig walking from one place to another

And the "Bond dies!" thing off the top seemed to serve no dramatic purpose whatsoever

There were a lot of great things, though! I loved the music. The dialogue-free sequences in Shanghai and Macau were beautiful.

Well this should have an awesome opening weekend. Tried to go see it tonight, but all 11 screenings were sold out already at 5:45.

Had a work outing and the rest of the afternoon off, thoughts to come. Wish they'd had more creepy disfigured Silva shots. Was the island they were on earlier that Japanese coal mining one that was abandoned, or just made to look like it?

(I half-view films as cinematographic and architecture porn)

bob six otm. this wasn't bad; it was really pretty and the action was coherent again. when it comes to the Emotion Experiments i am ok all the way w bond/m relationship-developing scenes cuz it means more dench (altho i thought a lot of her dialogue in this was p flat), but the "backstory", which unless i missed something they hilariously never actually explain in any detail (his parents died somehow and he had to hide in a cave?) and which even if they did is just a Childhood Trauma anyway, torpedoes the end of the movie. also around exactly the same time it gets really wink-winky w 50th anniversary metajokes and having that hit you at the same time as all the out-of-nowhere sentimentality is this bizarre kind of exhausting like someone's trying to make you cry about people you've never heard of while you're on a theme park ride. (literally could not believe it when the crusty old bond estate gameskeeper showed up to make scotland jokes and was played by albert finney instead of sean connery, which like: after introducing the crusty old bond estate gameskeeper is not the time to show taste and restraint). bardem kinda disappointed me but it was really his lines that let him down: he's not any more smartly written than jonathan pryce in 1996 and his Hacking looks p much exactly the same as alan cumming's in 1992, so he pulls some good faces, plays w a couple intonations, goes for some laddish-bond-audience gay panic, and outsources the rest to his thinly veiled assange hair which i totally loved. the only things i loved more than it were judi dench's fuzzy little power fleece, macau, and daniel craig who i think is connery-level.

i like the song. the opening titles w the pop-up headstones were the goofiest thing.

can we both agree that the bladerunner-esque shanghai sneak-up and fight was awesome though

Yeah, this was incredible. Maybe my favorite Bond setpiece.

It was good to see Ola Rapace in a film this big, even if he had no lines as Patrice.

The more I think about the film, the more it annoys me. The dialogue is so clunky and the plot, from the boat scene onwards, an insult to the intelligence. The reviews and opening weekend will probably ensure that Bond 24 follows the same pattern but the series needs a new director and writing team.

im trying not to think too much about... like... the plot.

xpost
It's on course to be the highest grossing film of all time in the UK and has taken crazy numbers elsewhere before it even opened in the US. Eon will be begging Mendes et al to stay on for the next two.

There is one hilarious scene where Mallory turns up in M's office, sits down in a ministerial manner, trades some barbs with Bond ... and then leaves.

(his parents died somehow and he had to hide in a cave?)
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, November 10, 2012 4:27 AM

I think this was more, his parents died so on hearing the news he, overcome with grief & wanting to be alone, went and hid in the one familiar place he could be alone. Stayed down there for 2 days if I remember what Finney says right.
Didn't the Bond parents die in a crash somewhere? Is that one version of the origin myth?
I know that there is now a series of young James Bond books written by one of the writers of the Fast Show which. I'm not sure if those are considered canonical but they might fill in some early background detail.
There's also a book around called 'James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007' by John pearson but it's debated as to whether it's canonical or apocryphal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond:_The_Authorized_Biography_of_007

I picked up a copy a while back but haven't got around to reading it yet.

that was fucking dope, during that fight in Shanghai where the giant neon jellyfish started rising up the screen i nearly blew up with the thrill rush.

best bit was when Joe Pesci got hit in the face with the tin of paint.

kudos to Finney too, nailed that Scottish accent.

script was mostly shite but even my boy knows you're not watching this shit for the script. wd marry J. Bardem.

as my friend put it, "javier bardem's plan was to get arrested, escape, and then run into a room shooting wildly at M"

i like the bit of the plan where he sends a dozen goons into Skyfall shooting wildly at everybody then tells his second wave of goons to make sure they don't kill M

thought this was pretty good. it's no Casino Royale but it's a respectable bond flick. if nothing else this is possibly the crowning achievement of roger deakins' career, its just an incredible looking movie. it's really overtly influenced by The Dark Knight, which, okay, I don't mind for one bond movie but I hope it doesn't become the default approach for future installments. or if it does just get Nolan to do it.

The film felt really flat, tonally, as well. Some nice looking sequences, but so dreary.

― DavidM, Friday, November 2, 2012 6:09 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

yeah otm. i was just thinking that mendes seems to have no tonal control - no idea what suspense is. the good scotch scene, the way it just glibly ends with cgi copters and the bond theme blaring, i was thinking "that's really how you wanted this scene to play?"

i actually liked the climax best, because i anticipated basically every beat of the movie except for that part, and it looked so amazing. i almost wonder the movie looking so good works against itself - at times the movie feels embalmed, it's not muscular and sweaty and hotblooded like a martin campbell bond film. but i think that's more on mendes who has one of my least favorite directorial styles on the planet, burdening every scene in everything he does with meaning and importance, which is just deadly for a playful genre picture

the title song's been in my head since i left the theater. it's a grower!

it is

copter gunning the house was viscerally horrific, it was like suddenly black hawk down for a second or two

sam mendes' greatest talent is in hiring cinematographers

Shanghai scenes were amazing. Liked this, didn't love it.

Damn you, Casino Royale! Everything else is just second or third rate in comparison.

In other news, new trailer for new Tarantino flick is encouraging.

i'd go far enough as to say that the acting and the cinematography totally eclipse the flaws that people have correctly identified, thing is so beautiful and so beautifully played that even my "fuck Sam Mendes with a big stick" was forgotten for 2 and a half hours. the set pieces were nearly all fucking great, i only got sniffy about the Komodo dragons not behaving like proper Komodo dragons, the sound design on the subway bomb/train bit was terrific. i've loved all the Daniel Craig Bonds but i'm pretty sure i've enjoyed this one the most.

loved the komodos. very much in the classic bond tradition of bad guys keeping dangerous exotic animals as pets.

i enjoyed them but they don't feed that way!

pretty sure the python from moonraker didn't feed that way either

Don't get we wrong, Craig still rules. And there was a lot to like

meh, i've forgotten everything that happens in the Moore flicks.

pretty sure the python from moonraker didn't feed that way either

― let's keep this board about feet, please. (latebloomer), Saturday, November 10, 2012 6:00 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha

Shanghai scenes were amazing. Liked this, didn't love it.

― Raymond Cummings, Saturday, November 10, 2012 4:38 PM (3 hours ago)

This, pretty much. Jesus, the lame patter!

And when you say "this was your father's favorite hunting rifle," Albert Finney, don't be waving a GOTT-DAMN SHOTGUN!

meh, i've forgotten everything that happens in the Moore flicks.

Never forget this:

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

the title song's been in my head since i left the theater

same here except in my head it goes

When the sky faaaaallls
Apple crumblllle

how was the Dame?

fine at the beginning, but she kind of flat-lined by the end.

In my head it's not only CRUMBBBLE but TRIFLLLLE as well

I thought Dench was good in this. I think all of M's alternating swagger and doubt were there in the performance leading up to the "I've fucked this all up, haven't I?" line.

My new alternative ending: Silva is somehow rehabilitated, not allowed field duty and becomes new secretary instead of Moneypenny. Suggestive banter continues, and he indulges in a lot of suggestive eyebrow waggling.

i like that better

Yah that'd be great. I wish they'd had Silva take out his retainer and done another gayfear scene

also I hope the next Bond is set in space

My bro on Skyfall: "it was all like pow pow pow vroom sex pow!"

My favorite Bond movie idiosyncrasy is how whenever he has sex it is for basically no reason.

Whereas Harry Palmer was trying to father "one from every continent"

as opposed to the rest of us, who have sex for very specific reasons

thought this started off incredibly then really, really crawled to the finish

the shanghai setpiece was incredible... the set up reminded me of the similar scene in "collateral" which blew my mind at the time iirc

were there some overt homages in this or am i just imaging things? opening scene = indiana jones, obv a pretty explicit 'silence of the lambs' thing happening w/ they first imprison bardem... even HOME ALONE

anyway i really disliked how this focused just on a personal vendetta on the part of the villain's instead of something more... overarching. not enough international intrigue! and i def thought that bardem just shooting everything up at the end was a snooze.

oh well. i still think craig is an awesome bond but this really squandered what was a really good initial idea (hacking + secret agent identities)

also was i the only one that got weird/creepy anders breivik vibes when bardem is dressed as a cop? kinda freaked me out tbh

My favorite Bond movie idiosyncrasy is how whenever he has sex it is for basically no reason.

it's a lot like life

bardem is an amazing actor and i think he pulled this off decently but it was all a bit "HEATH LEDGER as THE JOKER" for me

"Funeral services and interment will be held privately. In lieu of flowers and in his honor, go see the new James Bond movie."

bardem is an amazing actor and i think he pulled this off decently but it was all a bit "HEATH LEDGER as THE JOKER" for me

This movie is gonna play very differently in Mexico and Latin America, because Bardem was basically playing Juan Gabriel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS8DX4mVhxM

also do you think the movie is aware that the bad guy basically succeeded at his plan and bond in the end did nothing to stop it in any way?

I mostly enjoyed this movie but this point bothered me.

I like stories in which the hero's efforts are ultimately futile.

Skyfall, Epic of Gilgamesh, etc

still can't quite articulate it, but it felt kind of like a deconstruction of the bond franchise

http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/nolan-says-hed-love-to-do-bond/

this would be better than mendes

clive owen and nolan 2012 imo

― D, dilly, dillies, dill, d-bombs (history mayne), Friday, July 9, 2010 3:04 AM (2 years ago)

Had stayed away from all the spoilers and by the end tonight was seriously thinking "So Christopher Nolan does Bond here" and I see we'd already made plenty of jokes/references. But that it is what it feels like!

Liked it as a weird tense riff on Bond but I was honestly surprised at the ending being so...well, small scale, to allow the characters to pump up the melodrama. Not a complaint, I just didn't figure it would conclude in such a fashion and setting, though I do like this idea of finally going home for him at least once. And yeah, Bardem's plan actually succeeding makes it all a bit 'well wait a minute.'

Whishaw was fun, was wondering when Finney would finally show up, Naomie Harris should end up out in the field again anyway, Ralph Fiennes clearly needed a new franchise now that Harry Potter's done so hey (also figures he'd be a new Tory M). Bardem was worth it just for that opening monologue in which I expected him to start talking about how he invented Tron and sexbots while he was at it.

And so they actually did ice M. Odd arc for Judi Dench's character if you think about it -- starts with GoldenEye (which this reminded me a LOT of as the greyer/grimmer flipside, former agent goes rogue and all), ends here, seven movies ranging from hypergoofy to blunt instrument.

Bardem was worth it just for that opening monologue in which I expected him to start talking about how he invented Tron and sexbots while he was at it.

loool

it was fun but as been said by many others, so many incoherent/wtf moments.
like the flashlight used while they try to escape secretly (the guy has been living there for decades, he should know the place like his pocket !).
also bardem having planned everything (the bomb so that the metro would come right to the spot where bond was standing !)... and ends up shooting around stupidly and failing to kill M at the ministry meeting...
and yeah, by the end, his goal is achieved as he succeeds in killing M... so I was like "all that for that ??".

also, the bond girl (french !) was completely useless. why did she bring him back to the island knowing they were trapped ?
and why bond didn't do all his tricks and kill all the guys and have the helicopters coming 1 minute BEFORE so that the girl doesn't get shot ??

well, quite

why did she bring him back to the island knowing they were trapped ?

this whole transition was strange, i didn't quite understand her plan or his. in macau he's like "who do you work for" and she's basically like if you can make it out of here alive and get to my boat before i leave i'll show you. so he sneaks aboard, immediately STRIPS and bonks her in the shower, which she loves obviously, then.. they're woken with juice, toast, and a few submachine guns pointed at their noses? bond tries to take out the baddies offscreen but fails? or they just stroll up to the deck and wait to be cuffed? in which case she has basically sacrificed herself?

exactly ! I wonder if even the director could explain !
the komodos were fun (although bond left his special gadget gun... which he didn't even use once !)

well the only gadget was that the other guy cdn't shoot him with it tbf, so he did "use" it

i like the fact that Bond essentially exploits Bardem's girlfriend to get to him, another version of the "strictly business" riffs that run thru the movie. she has no way of knowing what his business is with Bardem at that point, and he presumably "regrets" the fact that she dies getting him to the target.

but perhaps those of you looking for a clearer explanation of why the bad guy's girl decides to hook up with JB are unfamiliar with the previous 22 movies.

I do wish every action movie had komodo dragons now.

ahah. I second that !

but why limit it to action movies ?
ALL movies should have komodo dragons in them !

Especially romcoms.

@ Noodle Vague : it's not just the fact she hooks up with him and he exploits her, it's the fact that the plan for her makes no sense at all !

is this the inception thread? who cares about the plot? this was cool.

and psychological dramas.
arguably, "amour" by haneke would be a bit more fun with komodo dragons.

is this the inception thread? who cares about the plot? this was cool.

Hasn't anyone in the James Bond universe seen the first "Mission: Impossible" movie? Why do they keep having lists of all the undercover agents around the world if all they're going to do is get stolen all the time?

This was OK, still not nearly as good as the admittedly high bar set by Casino Royale, which I watched again the other night. Enjoyed the somewhat tongue-in-cheek meta-nods to the franchise history. The hacking stuff was very "lol 90s."

Naomie Harris is an amazingly beautiful woman, btw. I was actually afraid they were building to her being some double agent or something. The
way it turns out is a little arch, but anyway.

also bardem having planned everything (the bomb so that the metro would come right to the spot where bond was standing !)

I think it was more a matter of, this was the route Bardem chose for his escape, and he planned to blow the track just at the point where he ascended out of the Tube, and Bond just happened to be there at the time. The bomb itself was a diversion to get as many London police as possible away from M's hearing.

Part of the movie seemed like a prolonged answer to the question that started to be put forth shortly after Judi Dench took the role -- Bond does his work for queen & country, but the spymaster/spy relation has unraveled in the last few films to the point where it's become ambiguous whether M is mother or master. Or at least that's the angle that Mendes seems to be playing, fairly bluntly, in this film.

Pretty obvious symbolism when Bond comes back from the dead post-bombing and the only thing from M's office to survive is the bulldog paperweight that now has a visible crack in it. Everything's back to normal at the end of the film. M's a man, surely the master, and Bond gets the paperweight as a reminder that he's the bulldog.

"amour" by haneke would be a bit more fun with komodo dragons.

I hate Haneke so I think all of his films would be improved by having komodo dragons.

Werner Herzog and komodos would have been great. Klaus Kinski would have killed and eaten some on camera.

Well, Herzog did have some lizards in his Bad Lieutenant...

Klaus Kinski would have killed and eaten some on camera.

whislaw as Q had me hoping the villain was Nathan Barley.
funniest bit is how thoughout the entire movie, the biggest emotional reaction from Bond is when they blow up his car.

Hahah yes. Down to the musical sting.

the biggest emotional reaction from Bond is when they blow up his car.

yes ! that was a great moment (with the music blasting at the same time) !

as well as the old theme playing when he gets the old car out !

yeah there were quite a few quality lols in the film, i forget mostly.

Bardem does a fabulous "OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE" eyeroll just after the knife hits him in the back and he turns round to face Bond, he's not even angry

Haha, yeah, Bardem's annoyed "fer crissakes" take after Bond shoots the ice around him and the henchman is absolute gold.

yeah, it is really fun, for various reasons and in various ways.
the "how do you know it would be the first time?" moment was another good lol.

Thought large amounts of the intro was pretty lol. Good old fashioned crate-busting car chase through a market! Driving a digger on a train! Good old fashioned fist fight on top of the train! Bond playing drinking games with a scorpion!

thought the scorpion cgi was a bit amiga 500.

was he shown taking drugs, or was that just something alluded to in the assessment report?

and having depressed sex !

he has pills in the bungalow before he leaves for the beach bar, hasn't he ?

i think the pills are pain-killers but clearly he's been caning them. the opening chase was fully hilarious

the opening chase reminded me of the big chase in the Tintin movie !

back to the movie as deconstruction of the Bond series

Silva has such a tormented relationship with MI6, to an extent it being the flip side of the government's need for secret agents. We're told via the hearing that agents are a cold war relic, that they're not as useful in a more transparent society, and possibly more of a liability when they're outed. M isn't just justifying the existence of agents, she's justifying the public's want for Bond pictures. Silva is what happens when governments don't need secret agents -- they still exist, but he's outside the system. Even makes a reference to coming up with his own "secret missions." He, as much as the audience, fetishizes and sexualizes the idea of agents as much as he does Bond.

Silva as audience stand-in

Silva as private contractor potentially having public work outsourced to him

or, as my friend reminded me:
"this is the bond that returns M to the paternal figure with a feminine assistant, and the bad guy was an unstable homosexual who wanted to die with his mother, whom he felt betrayed him"

kind of not the best movie when it comes to presenting reasonable social views

the opening chase reminded me of the big chase in the Tintin movie !

― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, November 12, 2012 11:23 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, I thought so too!

did I imagine Bond doing a "dude, stop hitting me, there's a komodo dragon behind you" gesture to his opponent before he gets eaten. kind of out of character to warn a guy. maybe this nu-bond has more empathy for henchmen?

this whole transition was strange, i didn't quite understand her plan or his. in macau he's like "who do you work for" and she's basically like if you can make it out of here alive and get to my boat before i leave i'll show you. so he sneaks aboard, immediately STRIPS and bonks her in the shower, which she loves obviously, then.. they're woken with juice, toast, and a few submachine guns pointed at their noses? bond tries to take out the baddies offscreen but fails? or they just stroll up to the deck and wait to be cuffed? in which case she has basically sacrificed herself?

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, November 12, 2012 8:38 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes this exactly! i assumed he had taken out her minders... but he didnt? and he just moseyed onto the deck the next morning unaware or not caring that there were guards all around?

also can anybody fill me in on what the assassin was actually doing in shanghai? who did he kill? some kind of art expert? the whole thing was a set-up i guess?

"this is the bond that returns M to the paternal figure with a feminine assistant, and the bad guy was an unstable homosexual who wanted to die with his mother, whom he felt betrayed him"

I liked the movie but this is a good summary of some stuff in it that was icky

also Bond girls are by definition pretty disposable but "that was a waste of good Scotch" after she got shot seemed needlessly cruel

add me to the list of people who didn't understand what the heck happened on the boat

well replacing M wasn't really icky in itself but the whole "women aren't cut out for field work" thing with Moneypenny, and Bardem seeming like a mincing gay stereotype at first (this kind of got less pronounced as the movie went on)

that scene where he took his teeth out was great

Bond is trying to meet her boss why because radio + gunships -> he convinces her that he can kill her boss -> she tells him about the ship going to meet her boss -> Bond arrives on the ship and basically gives himself up, possibly because fuck finding Silva in a place that size when he can be just taken to him, possibly because he is sure that he can escape why because Bond -> she has judged poorly.

Or she figures that she doesn't mind dying if there's a chance Silva will be caught.

The assassin was doing a completely different job, Bond as always relying on blind luck.

no right i got that it was a totally difft job, just wondering what the job actually was (and why bond seemingly needed to wait for him to shoot the dude before wreckin shop) - it didn't bother me, actually i liked how it was this window into the routine workaday world of the international assassin, just wondered what was up

if the assassin didn't execute, the employer would have gotten suspicious.

how come bond only had the one bullet wound? shouldn't he have at least another from being pegged by moneypenny? plus years of spying.

He had a couple, the one that was swole was where he still had shrapnel in there

I love how trying to understand stuff that make no sense in this movie make the movie even better !

if the assassin didn't execute, the employer would have gotten suspicious

see i'm starting to realize why mi6 never called me back

haha also i will admit that for a long time i thought the bullet he extracted FROM HIMSELF like a goddan RONIN HARDMAN was the moneypenny bullet and i was like, why are you having this analyzed, just ask moneypenny, wait why is moneypenny using radioactive rounds that makes no sense, wait oh

guess i was the only one...

is bond canonically half-French? it'd be a weird thing to add to the franchise just now unless the next movie they reveal le chifre was his uncle or something.

well it would explain his retrograde attitude towards women and his need for approval from a mother-figure

/yeah that's right

yeah, I was also quite suprised that his mother was french (or canadian ?).
there are many french bond girls, that said !

maybe it's because I come from a backwards country, but kinda surprised "what makes you think it's the first time? (smirk)" hasn't gotten more attention. het sex icon in gay-brag shocker?

The MI in MI6 stands for "Male Intercourse." True story.

the flirty back and forth between bond and bards SCANDALIZED the audience in the theater i was in

haha, really?

A guy in our theater yelled "WHAT?!?!" like he was very taken aback -- it was one of the most emotional responses to a movie I've seen since a guy ran out of Crossroads crying.

lol

haha, really?

― d-_-b (mh), Monday, November 12, 2012 4:38 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah—i don't think they were grossed out, just... scandalized

hope you mean the macchio crossroads

steve vai... oh god *chin trembles* i can't take it

Parental stuff is canon, but she's not quite French:

James Bond was born of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix, from the Canton de Vaud.

Tracer you were NOT the only one about the bullet, I promise, I thought the same thing at first

Of interest:

http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/10/hashima-island.cfm

cool, I was asking about that upthread

Bullet confused me as well, Tracer. Wasn't helped by having him reflected in a mirror as he dug out the bullet fragments, either.

ugh wtf batcave batmansion batdeadparents fuck off and just make a bond movie ffs

Thought this was an okay way to spend 2:30 but overall pretty leaden and over-plotted, could have been one of the terrible Brosnan Bonds except with better acting/more edge. Pretty annoyed at killing off M and making Naomie Harris Moneypenny.

every half decent 'grown-up' action movie lately was overlong and overplotted, so sick of director's writing chops. Watch some mctiernan, learn something you hacks.

good reference point because the villainy here was some lesser-Die Hard shit, except Timothy Olyphant >>>>> Javier Bardem

jeez guys this was massive dumb fun try watching it when yr not clinically depressed

notm it was massively dumb fun spoiled by bad drama intruding for the last half

man weeping for his bombed out vintage car was excellent drama and also makes u think.

weeping for the cold war instead of this 21st century everyone's-a-spy, you-get-no-toys shit

even when it went all Hogwarts it was great, Albert Finney was fantastic as Albert Finney With A Beard

god the "hacking" in this was friggin' embarrassing.

^^^

actually to be honest I could've accepted all the "hacking!!111" if the film hadn't been premised on the theft of a comprehensive MI6 cover list that was unaccountably on a laptop hard drive that was then transported to another country.

xp heh i'm sure actual brutal murderers nudge each other and say much the same thing during the fight scenes, whaddayagonnado

ps what the hell ever happened the big important fuckin list of names, they kinda dropped that ball huh

M. ejector seat gag was great tho

(wish it had actually been used)

watching dame judy fly above the highlands shrieking wd. have been a crowning achievement of action cinema

doesn't Rafe Fiennes actually say at one point, "why do you have a fucking hard drive full of cover names?" and Judi Dench is all "suck it"

i dunno has it been said but she's been p bad at her job throughout her stint as m

Srsly she went through three different 007s, should've been fired years ago tbqf

"I mean look it costs a lot to train these, can you keep it under control for a bit?"

who was third bond?

someone who died before craig's recruitment i guess

someone otm upthread, this pic weighed down heavily by the spectre of christopher nolan. if only nolan and peter jackson could find themselves a writer/editor or two between them, what great work they could do

nothing wrong with Jackson that a 9 hour trilogy of Meet the Feebles wdn't put right

i tihnk he's fucking makin it is the problem

always felt the hippo's back story needed elaborating

tim burton to write in daddy issues, gillia offering the 'accountants can't judge me' angle, good collaboration imo

i like to think that the wackiness of the hacking scenes in this was a wink to how ridiculous the technology scenes in the pierce brosnans bons were (srsly that shit has aged so poorly) but prob not

i like to think the "rule Britannia" shite was satire but prob not

outside of UK i thought it played ironic/funny/kind of sad

Actually the thing that freaked me out a bit was when things started going into the Underground sequence and I started wondering if there was going to be a bomb or the like, just because of 2005. Very glad that they didn't go that route, obv.

there was an explosion that derailed a train wasnt there? i was surprised they went there actually

yeah, but it was conspicuously empty

I like how in this movie encryption is just, like, this thick metal bar that you can bend if you're a bad enough dude.

M's password was probably "password"

That actually happened in Spooks. I love Spooks.

I like how Vaio paid big product placement bucks to show their computers getting repeatedly hacked

Or Heineken so that James Bond is seen covering the label with his hand, while drinking himself to death.

There's only been one 007 I think - they retire the numbers.

Talking of product placement bucks, virtually every single ad before the film was Bond-related, some even including appearances by Daniel Craig. Really shameless stuff, even considering how nakedly commercial the films have been for a long time now. I wonder what proportion of the budget was raised through tie-ins? Wouldn't be surprised if they turned a profit even before they started shooting.

The lingering close-up of Bond's watch during the otherwise breathless opening chase scene got a major lol from me.

and yet, what does it matter. if movies get made cos some rich ppl still think marketing so obviously works, what harm.

Most obvious markets was ' MACALLAN 15 YR I HEAR IT'S FUCKIN YUMMY' but i mean, it is fuckin yummy, cheekless ghoul otm and i'd expect bond to know it's fuckin yummy ppl like stuff and like to be seen liking the right stuff even (especially?) pyscho ubernationalist killer playboys

and obviously the books are full of relentless lifestyle porn, what he drinks, what he wears, what he smokes etc etc

ahah, yeah, the commercials were pretty fun. especially since they were saying where the shops were nearby the theater (I watched it on champs elysees) !
yet, since I don't care about cars, watches, hi-tech or else, the only thing I wanted after the movie was... a glass of whisky !

Well, it matters to me in that I find it distracting when characters stop what they're doing to deliver a pitch for a product. The last couple of seasons of Fringe stick in my mind for having the most horribly obvious shilling for phones and cars, for example, which did annoy the fuck out of me. If it means the difference between the show, or others like it, being made then I guess I'd rather they did it but it doesn't mean I can't find it horribly crass or think it's the thin edge of a wedge which will force even more distracting ads into narratives where they don't naturally fit.

In the case of Bond, it's less of an issue to me because the series has always been an aspirational jet-set fantasy and it's doesn't seem unrealistic for these characters to compare their money-dicks by extolling the virtues of expensive stuff. It did seem notable that the commercial sponsorships bled from the film itself into nearly all of the ads beforehand too, simply because I don't think I've ever seen that level of blanket tie-in advertising before.

xxp, obv

all fair enough. I found myself distracted more by the fact than M hadn't been sacked ten minutes in, or that bond hadn't been killed falling shot through the chest off've a mountain, etc etc. The rest, i think you take going in as v much part of the knowing wink-wink bond franchise lifestyle porn that, as NV says, is directly transferred from the books

i mean, the car, the watch, the drink, the tailor- i think that a good writer or director can use these products as very apt and telling shorthand for the character- with bond lately it's hard to tell where the shill becomes the knowing reference becomes the scathing comment and back to shill again.

If the next bond was just a docustyle following of craig in character on bond's day offshopping in the high-end parts of london at what stage would it become satire of the whole job lot?

about M being sacked, it's also weird that Fiennes tells her they decided to let her go, she says no, and they just say ok you can stay !
I also thought that a younger fiennes would have been a nice bond.

I think it's more "If you go now you can go quietly please go quietly", and she doesn't so it gets dragged out in a tribunal.

Also good to see Norn Iron is still providing a proving ground for British officers of a certain age.

There's only been one 007 I think - they retire the numbers.

― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, November 14, 2012 6:03 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I was making a bad joke based on past casting changes. Although "Casino Royale" kind of screws up any kind of continuity by establishing that Bond acquired 00 status with his second kill in the Czech Republic; I.e. some time after 1993.

Oh surely there's something in the 60s that ties it to then - you'd go mad trying to keep it all in step.

yeah, also why would moneypenny appear now when she was already there in the 60s !

The Bond Ouroboros

about M being sacked, it's also weird that Fiennes tells her they decided to let her go, she says no, and they just say ok you can stay !

ha ha yes. "Just kidding! Of course you can still run MI6"

Samantha Bond played Moneypenny during the Brosnan years, which means there was already a Moneypenny during Judi Dench's time as M.

xp

so is moneypenny like a codename like M ?

I don't think I have thought/discussed so much about a bond movie !

I... guess so? Maybe? There's really no logical way to make the franchise hang together as a cohesive whole, fun as it is to try.

Maybe they should have a Crisis on Infinite Bonds movie where Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig are forced to team up to fight a secret evil hellbent on rewriting reality. Then reboot the whole thing with Milla Jovovich as Bond. Directed by Paul WS Anderson.

ahah, that would be brilliant (the all bonds together) !
and there would be CGI versions of young connery, moore... and they would meet their old self !

I guess it depends on whether, when Naomie Harris says she is Eve Moneypenny, you think she is saying "I am M's secretary now"

I would watch the living shit out of an Anderson/Jovovich Bond.

Doesn't she talk about being given a desk job? If they were trying to give any impression other than "I am M's secretary now" I think they failed.

I'd watch a Bond / Resident Evil crossover for the lulz.

M does get sacked, fiennes tells her she has 2 months to get out

someone said it already but it's pretty fun cos when she gets sacked, M says she doesn't want to leave the MI6 in a worse state than she got it... but things only get worse and worse after that !

That's less irony than Silva's plan working, though.

I did love the He says you sold his ass down the river / I sold his ass all the way down the river.

someone said it already but it's pretty fun cos when she gets sacked, M says she doesn't want to leave the MI6 in a worse state than she got it... but things only get worse and worse after that !

― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, November 14, 2012 9:29 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

come on, mi6 only gets... blown up...

xp, haha yes, "You bet your ass I gave him to the Chinese, and I'd do it again!'

Oh man, the product shilling in this film was so less overt than it is in other places. My theater didn't have any Craig-starring commercials before the movie, luckily. bg otm about Fringe being a bad offender, but it always struck me that those scenes existed in some sort of aside and could be ignored completely.

On the other hand, I rewatched the tv series Alias and there's a pivotal chase scene in one episode where a F-150 is chasing a Mustang for about five minutes

If I were M, I would be super-pissed at the Chinese for not just killing the dude

Things I learned from this movie: If I had to live/work next to a building with a gigantic electronic billboard that constantly made it appear that my whole building was collapsing straight down, I'd probably throw up a lot.

The product placement in Casino Royale was a lot worse, btw. I especially loved the resort in Nassau whose security camera backups were conspicuously done on SONY BLU-RAY.

Alias was shilling for F-150s?

Things I "learned" from this movie - cyanide tablets don't work, but can fuck up your teeth.

Hang on, I misunderstood what you meant there mh... carry on.

Things I learned from this movie: if you're having trouble aiming your weapons following serious bullet wounds, shoot two teacups under the tutelage of Albert Finney and you'll be cured.

Things I learned from this movie: radios are badass.

hahaha ya. "ever hear of RADIO!?!?!"

I love how Bardem says "James!"

i love how he says bond

I love how Bardem says everything tbh

bardem was lots of fun in this.
him and the komodo dragons.

Is his hair in this perhaps more ridiculous than his Anton Chigurh bowl cut?

I'm bleaching my hair to see if it works on me, brb

Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig are forced to team up to fight a secret evil hellbent on rewriting reality

Or just have them in a deathmatch?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9C7yYomVuo

Meantime, just now on Twitter:

Cee Angi ‏@CeeAngi

Hospital employee to a full waiting room looking for a patient: "Last name BOND....James? Are you kidding me?!"

Of course the old man scooted over with his walker and said "yes. I'm Bond. James Bond." I love this place.

And that man... was Sean Connery.

FB friend said that George Lazenby needs to let it go.

some throwaway line in this movie about "orphans making the best secret agent recruits" has me worried they're going to do some spy kids-y oliver twist young james bond spinoff.

they already did, it's called Spy Kids

after the events of "Spy Kids 3-D", the parents and Danny Trejo all die in a tragic tandem parasailing accident

could always resurrect this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_James_Bond_Junior_003%C2%BD

Charlie Higson has been writing those for a while.

There's only been one 007 I think - they retire the numbers.

― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, November 14, 2012 6:03 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I was making a bad joke based on past casting changes. Although "Casino Royale" kind of screws up any kind of continuity by establishing that Bond acquired 00 status with his second kill in the Czech Republic; I.e. some time after 1993.

― super perv powder (Phil D.)

http://www.cracked.com/article/18367_6-insane-fan-theories-that-actually-make-great-movies-better/

Obviously doesn't hold up at all, but I kind of like it nonetheless.

Works until you introduce parents named Bond into the movies. Unless... they have brain imprinting technology

It would also mean Moneypenny is a codename too.

timothy dalton would make for a bitchin bond villain.

^^he kind of already played one on Chuck, which had a lot of fun messing around with that idea.

This spin-off also has a couple of books out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moneypenny_Diaries

more like Shitefall

my considered review

More like bumsidered review.

timothy dalton would make for a bitchin bond villain.

― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, November 14, 2012 7:21 PM (3 days ago

like in The Rocketeer?

when watching the country house scenes, where Bond, M and Kincade make their own weapons, bombs etc., I kinda expected to hear the A-Team music and see B.A. Baracus' bejeweled hand enter shot holding a welder...

sort of ruined it for me.

Macaulay Culkin should have played Kincade

mcguyver 4 next bond

But he hates guns!

this sucked.

Hey, gives 'em something to live up to.

psssh

at least give cred to that great teal/orange underwater frozen lake shot right

can we stop saying teal and orange. It's Roger Deakins ffs

^^

dont freak the deak

Most of the Shanghai sequence was filmed in London and Berkshire surprisingly http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/s/Skyfall.html

Hey, I didn't mean it as a negative. Not my fault that a bunch of hacks have overused a nice complimentary color scheme. The underwater lake fight was awesome.

this had too many problems moment-to-moment and as a whole for me to like it very much.

problem was the script basically, but mendes didn't help. inconsistent tone, unfunny humor pulled out at bad moments, action badly staged, plot didn't make much sense, scenes didn't make sense on their own let alone cumulatively, scary computer stuff was dated, and the running theme of old-school human agents vs 'technology' in an age of faceless terror was dimwitted.

casino royale had a cool re-imagining of what bond is: a driven thug who's able to withstand relentless punishment and still sit down and play cards (rather than a suave charmer who dodges the bullets w/o getting his hair mussed), bond as unflappable by dint of being unkillable. this movie didn't seem to know what it was about. by the time the crowd-pleasing aston martin showed up in the third reel i was already checked out. albert finney can't do a brogue.

i think there are upper limits to how good a bond movie can get and all those shortcomings are part of what makes it a bond movie. casino royale seemed far too dour and brooding to really be a bond movie. plus texas holdem??

well the bros aren't down with baccarat, what do you want

a new franchise called Dour Secret Agent.

I don't think Finney was even attempting an accent. Kind of like a reverse Sean Connery

to be honest, skyfall was also missing the requisite henchman death puns.

Guys CS was the best bond movie in eons, it's a lot to live up to

Cuantum of Solace?

Ca Sinoroyale

yeah i thought this was stupid

the running theme of old-school human agents vs 'technology' in an age of faceless terror was dimwitted.

i dont have any clue WHY this was the theme ??? the whole movie seemed so anxious about bonds place in the world w/r/t "hacking" -- all that, do we really need field agents? except that its a totally undeveloped as them -- AND in the bond universe "hacking" has been dealt w/ by field agent bond for two decades now. and all the winky aston-martin shit seemed really out of place, like grafted on from one of the late brosnan bonds.

generally that whole last bit was kind of, like, you cant just ASSUME that were all comic nerds about bond desperate to see his ancestral home and fucking albert finney. if thats going to be INTERESTING you have to sell bonds backstory first, in this movie!

strong field agent moneypenny becoming secretary moneypenny was idiotic. worse still was the bit of "we havent been properly introduced" dialogue. seemed to be part of this weird sense that this was, like, a reboot? like why bother with the whole moneypenny thing at all -- just give m a cute secretary.

okay but yeah it looked dope and dench and craig and finney and bardem were all great. (though bardems whole, flower-shirt gay-panic zorin-hair thing was like. i dont know. another weird nod to past bond that didnt actually FIT into any kind of theme or pattern.) ON THE OTHER HAND the music was horrible -- the shanghai scene looked and felt so fantastic, except for the fucking tribal drum soundtrack. vangelis people!

to see his ancestral home and fucking albert finney

Finney's too out of shape to endure it

Kind of want to use Bardem's character as my new style icon

I certainly want to get a coat like that long leather one but I've wanted one of those for years. Either that or one of the green leather motorcycle despatch rider type.

at least give cred to that great teal/orange underwater frozen lake shot right

Went to see this with mookie last night, had this exact thought.

Also the "Bond correctly deduces that terrified woman is a former child prostitute being raped/used as pawn by supervillain, promptly sneaks into her shower naked, could have offered her a way out but no, she just has sex with yet another violent stranger who will do nothing to help her right before she's beaten up and shot as a game" was so enormously disgusting. Also the gay fear bit, also everything. This was so pretty and had potential and just ended up being stupid and scummy. The Bond that we've been shown as played by Craig deserved better.

Something about her bloody face and her posture against the rock and then how she falls when she's shot, it's so...DOLL-LIKE, it gives the impression of someone having cut the strings on a marionette. It's revolting.

Also the "Bond correctly deduces that terrified woman is a former child prostitute being raped/used as pawn by supervillain, promptly sneaks into her shower naked, could have offered her a way out but no, she just has sex with yet another violent stranger who will do nothing to help her right before she's beaten up and shot as a game" was so enormously disgusting. Also the gay fear bit, also everything. This was so pretty and had potential and just ended up being stupid and scummy. The Bond that we've been shown as played by Craig deserved better.

― grossly incorrect register (in orbit), Sunday, November 25, 2012 3:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is otm

there are people who think this is the best bond in decades, which, i dunno, i just dont get that.

I feel like they had the problem of how to make Bardem as scary to the aud as he had been promised to be by the conversation about the woman's fear, but without knowing anything about makin no movies, I think casually murdering the pretty sex doll was a fucking lazy and gross way to do it.

yes laurel otm

I thought that was Orbit

could have used a scene of him being creepy as shit to women without inherently devaluing them, setting him up as an equal-opportunity creep imo

We talked about this a bit upthread, but I read the "gay fear" scene as having been reversed by Bond turning it into another opportunity to brag about his vast sexual history. orbit I take it you disagree?

Seriously, people are calling this the best Bond in years??? No fucking way, this was one of the worst evet

I honestly think those reviews were written before they saw the film simply because of Mendes, Deakins, and Bardem

Aside from CR, last time Bond was awesome was probably the 80s

honestly i think bardem's bad guy was really, really un-scary. he just seemed like a goofy dude with a dumb plan

http://i.imgur.com/kbd1v.jpg

Aside from CR, last time Bond was awesome was probably the 80s

Goldfinger holds up!

er, Goldeneye

yeah pretty much. plus they couldnt decide what kind of villain he was - joker clone, genius cybercriminal, burnt out ex-agent? it shifts from scene to scene.

Goldeneye's a sack of shit. i just watched it on thanksgiving and found that it was way worse than I remembered, like a bad Moore flick. brosnan is totally vacant and dull. famke janssen and the tank chase are the best things it has going for it

can confirm that goldeneye is worse than any given person probably remembers, but it does have those two things + robbie coltrane

bardem was totally wasted in this movie; i can't remember a single line. i remember his hair.

wasted as in unused i mean. would have been better if he'd been wasted.