Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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A ★★ review of Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The end of an era, and a spectacularly damp one at that. After Lazenby left the role, there were several names thrown about to replace him as James Bond. Some of the more notable actors considered were Adam West (who turned down the role because he felt James Bond should not be American), Clint...
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Yeah, that one was a bit limp. Possibly in part because part of the appeal of Bond had been him travelling to foreign locations that presumably would have seemed exotic, which Las Vegas isn't. Charles Gray totally can make a good villain, but in this story...eh. Nothing really good sticks out. The only memorable bit is the two gay bad guys, and there's issues there.
Even the Vegas setting could have worked out better, but they don't do enough with Vegas itself. Most of the film is in the deserts around Vegas, so it kind of wastes the potential there.
My mom loves this movie, and pretty much all of the James Bond. As far as she and my dad (He doesn't care much for Daniel Craig Bond. Pop's considers him too "cold") are concerned, there are no bad Bond movies. Diamonds Forever I consider fine, but that's about it for me. I think the only reason my parents like this movie is for the main theme. It is a great theme. You go Shirley Bassey!A ★★ review of Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The end of an era, and a spectacularly damp one at that. After Lazenby left the role, there were several names thrown about to replace him as James Bond. Some of the more notable actors considered were Adam West (who turned down the role because he felt James Bond should not be American), Clint...
Absent
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Ah harsh. This one grew to become one of my favorites if not my favorite. It has the flaws of a probably too aged Bond actor, a clumsy attempt at OHMSS closure (oooh James Bond is sooo angry at Blofeld in the pre-title, such an epic quest for revenge, he was clearly strongly affected by the murder of his spouse in that parallel universe), and indeed a wasted Jill StJohn character (she starts great and then becomes one of these abominable mary-goodnight-like bumbling child-women that plague the history of cinema). The hidden tape scene was some stupid Benny Hill shit, and really gave the impression that she was written by different characters in each scene. Women, even more than men, are only allowed to be competent as enemies of the hero, his allies most let him shine alone. But then there's also the horribly sexist end to the bambi/thumper encounter. At least when Bond killed female enemies, they were dangerous to the end.A ★★ review of Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The end of an era, and a spectacularly damp one at that. After Lazenby left the role, there were several names thrown about to replace him as James Bond. Some of the more notable actors considered were Adam West (who turned down the role because he felt James Bond should not be American), Clint...
But anyway. It is still one of the wittiest (the wittiest?) Bond movie, and I like the fact that Witt and Kidd have most of the one-liners (they are baddies but still a cool fun couple, which depiction is less creepy than in the novel). Still, the best Bond line for me remains "alimentary my dear Leiter". I actually like the plot very much, it's much more investigative than the later Bond movies, and has some cool "film noir" aspects. And it features this marvelous space laser menace as a twist, again something that will become a staple of the genre.
But above all, it's a collection of my favorite sequences. I love the silly moon buggy chase (I even love the moon landing scene). I love the "good idea - wrong cat" idea. I absolutely adore Bond hugging and kissing himself in the street (again, lovely film noir trick), and the fight in the elevator is really a high point of the series - such limited space, yet eventful, thrilling, well filmed, and clever, a great example of the "witty tactical fistfights" of these films, like Thunderball's widow's furniture mayhem. Simple idea (elevator fight), great use of all the weaponizing possibilities it offers.
As a kid I didn't like it much. It felt too grounded despite the diamond satellite, it felt too starsky and hutch, not globe-trotting enough. Now I love it because of that. It has the best dialogues, it makes more sense than most Bond plots, it had a cool use of not too outlandish gadgets (great balance in those). For me it's the most solid Bond despite its lack of some trademark elements (such as the forced exoticism of other movies that seek pretexts to start each new scene with a new ooooh location card).
I see it as a very respectable, mature swansong for Connery's Bond. And I wish (a bit like Goldeneye) that it had defined the series style and quality, like finding its footing at last. But Connery's run was ending and the series would go in a very different direction afterwards. So I see it as a lonely peak.
Amusing how the last two reviews are really at the opposite of my own impressions. Bond movies are fun to light through different angles.
Get Shorty
Well this was fun. I missed these guys! John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Dennis Farina, James Gandolfini, Miguel Sandoval. Great first watch.
Well this was fun. I missed these guys! John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Dennis Farina, James Gandolfini, Miguel Sandoval. Great first watch.
A ★★★½ review of Live and Let Die (1973)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
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It's probably the one about which there would be the most to say, if only because Moore held and published a whole day-to-day journal of his experience on the set.A ★★★½ review of Live and Let Die (1973)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
I love that film because I have a fondness for Hollywood voodoo (it's a bit confused but samedi in the film isn't implied to be a priest but the loa itself, there's a fun hint of supernatural in there, with sets this movie's tone a bit apart). Just a couple things : that j.w. pepper character turned out very popular with the public for some reason, that's why he was inflicted on us more than once. Also, woah, sjw wokeness destroying my childhood : james bond kisses a woman who is black, and that was deemed a super progressive society redefining first, of which Moore is very proud.
And yes, it's one of my favorite soundtracks. Not just the title (possibly also the best Maurice Binder titles designs, love that burning skull with the song's dramatic turns), but also its uses in the movie : I've already posted the boat chase music in this forum somewhere.
And I like low-key gadgets. And I like Bond movies to take place in trains. And I love the filet of soul's tricky tables. And I love the opening with the funeral march murder. And that crocodile farm stunt - so awesome that they used the stuntman and farm owner's name, Kananga, for the big baddie. If you ask me, they should have named all the movie characters after him.
And the Moore era started with it. Less serious and in a roundabound way more mature (Moore found the Bond movies too silly for a self-serious treatment). This one marks the transition.
On one hand I'm not sure I like the idea of using an actor who had already defined a character to bring along (I don't see much difference between Sinclair, Templar, Moore's Bond and Ivanhoe), on the other hand I'm really happy that Bond got defined by those moorisms for a long while. He really strongly shaped, maybe even more than Connery (or refined it, or pushed it further) the suave unflappable politely sarcastic spy trope.
Antman the latest one.
You know if you look at it as whole, eh not so bad. But there's just so many individual bits that are straight up fucking garbage that they drown out everything else in the movie.
I still think just how bad it is has been exaggerated, but can't really blame people. Definitely not something I'd have wanted to watch in theaters.
You know if you look at it as whole, eh not so bad. But there's just so many individual bits that are straight up fucking garbage that they drown out everything else in the movie.
I still think just how bad it is has been exaggerated, but can't really blame people. Definitely not something I'd have wanted to watch in theaters.
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One thing I forgot to mention in my review is one of my favorite moments in the movie where Kanaga, in his Mr. Big disguise, first confronts Bond after capturing him. Normally, this the part where the bad guy goes through his evil plan and leaves Bond in a death trap. Here, we get this. "My name is Bond-" "Name's is for tombstones, baby. Take this honky out back and waste him."
Wish he had stuck around to that no-nonsense approach, but it was refreshing to see a Bond villain actually start with the "just shoot him" plan.
Wish he had stuck around to that no-nonsense approach, but it was refreshing to see a Bond villain actually start with the "just shoot him" plan.
Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
- Jan 25, 2023
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A related thing I loved in the novel is as Bond and Leiter get captured and separated by their captors, Bond escapes through some violent bondery, and later reunites with Leiter who had in the meantime escaped his own fate just by chatting with his guardian and bonding over shared musical tastes, leading the baddie to let him go. I had found this oddly humanized turn of events (and humanizing of the standard goons) delightful.
Maybe there's something political to nag about (white man spared by black harlem thug because he also likes jazz), but for me it was just a nice can't-we-all-get-along, we're-not-all-that-different moment in a genre that tends to deny it as a premise.
Jeremy Brett could have been Bond?!
Also, Live and Let Die has a coffin that you put over someon and it scoops them up. Only way I can think of this working is that the actor has to grab on to things on the inside, and wouldn't work well with a real corpse.
Also, Live and Let Die has a coffin that you put over someon and it scoops them up. Only way I can think of this working is that the actor has to grab on to things on the inside, and wouldn't work well with a real corpse.
I think the idea with the coffin is that it has a false bottom that folds inward, but not outward. Kind of like a push/pull door scenario.
But i'd have to slide underneath the corpse laying on the ground, I don't see how such a mechanism could work. If someone has a trick coffin, though, I'd like to see it.
Fair point. I had the idea that they'd lower the coffin down, and the weight of the body would push up the false bottom on a sort of hinge, and then the weight of the body would push the false bottom shut again, but the hinge would have to be able to slide under the body as well for that to work. Huh. Guess I'll just chalk that up to something to not think too hard about.