James Bond Watchathon

[Loki]

There’s clues that a bunch of stuff got cut from the film.  Mr Big mentions Bond killing a brother in Harlem that I don’t think happened, and there must have been more to the scene where Solitaire is tested with Bond’s watch judging by the dialogue.

 So I’m assuming there was a scene cut where a Bond slapped some woman like she owed him money.

 

[Loki]

Previous Films

 

1. Dr No
2. From Russia With Love
3. Goldfinger
4. Thunderball
5. You Only Live Twice
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
7. Diamonds Are Forever
8. Live and Let Die

 

The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

Bond: Roger Moore
Bond Girl: Britt Ekland
Villain: Scaramanga
Henchmen: Nick Nack

How Bond Is It?

This is a really difficult one.  In many, many respects this isn't a great film, or even a very Bondy film by our established standards.  There's no big world-ending plot or megalomaniac bad guy.  There's not a ton of top-level shagging, not a huge number of minorities slaughtered, not a whole load of gadgets apart from the extremely famous golden gun.

And yet... in some ways this is the most Bond of all the films so far.  This is the James Bond I remember from Sunday afternoon ITV in the 1980s, the PG era cartoon spy that was the epitome of TV entertainment.  It's just full of absolutely iconic elements - the terrifying and odd midget henchman Nick Nack, the exotic and gorgeous far East locations like Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok, the MI5 base in the tilted sunken ship..    You have the all-time classic "Come come Mr Bond" scene so brilliantly satirised in The Trip.

And the last half an hour or so, the duel in the Funhouse, is absolutely brilliant stuff.  

Women Bedded

As part of the reduced scope of this film, Bond has eased back on the sex tourist act.  He snogs a belly dancer in Beirut, beds Scaramanga's mistress, and finally gets his legover Goodnight in the closing scene.  There's an odd hangover from the book, in that a previous relationship with Goodnight is referenced in the script but in the movies this is the first time we've seen the Goodnight character.  And thankfully, the last.

 

Women Hurt

AS IS TRADITION, Bond blackmails Andrea Anders into bed, after slapping her about, and therefore she is subsequently murdered.  Seriously, this is the Curse Of Bond.  I thought the scene of James creeping at her whilst she took a shower particularly amusing - nobody would have thought anything was wrong with that in the 70s, now he just looks like the sexual predator he is.

 

Minorities Killed

If the last movie was cashing in on Blaxploitation, this one hangs heavy with the Kung Fu fad in Hollywood.  There are multiple scenes referencing the oriental arts, from a Thai kickboxing tournament to Sumo wrestlers that use kung fu.  Bond himself has a number of "judo chop!" fights, and to be absolutely fair Roger Moore really puts himself into this stuff, with the fight at the karate school being particularly impressive - although as a way of dispatching your nemesis, death by karate student ranks pretty low. 

As a result of all the fisticuffs though, I'm not sure anyone was actually killed in this film apart from Scaramanga, his mistress and his targets.

 

Accommodation?

We get straight into the action in the cold open with Scaramanga's extraordinary paen-to-the-70s island lair.  Built into the sheer rock, it's all indoor plants, teak cabinets and brushed chrome.  Absolutely gorgeous set design.

There's also Scaramanga's junk boat and a very fancy HK casino.  Bond's actual hotel in Bangkok is pretty pedestrian sadly, terrible wallpaper.

Overall

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would.  There's a lot of bad stuff - Goodnight is both an extraordinarily thick Bond Girl, and Ekland is a terrible actress so all her bits drag.  And the plot is even more superfluous than normal.  My highlight was Moore playing his own cardboard cutout, wobbling all over the shop trying to stay motionless.  Oh yeah, the theme is the series worst so far as well - poor Lulu.

But there are some cracking action sequences - the long car chase is excellent and concludes with the famous car jump and then the car-plane transformation which is classic Bond.  Scaramanga is a great adversary and the scene between the two of them is good acting.  As always, Bond is at its best when it reminds us how thin the line is between licensed assassin Bond and his criminal counterparts.

Safari suited Moore is already starting to look quite old but he's still obviously enjoying the role and the shift towards broad comedy has given the series a new lease of life.

I give this a shocking 7/10, with a whole mark removed for the swanny whistle sound effect over the car jump stunt.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Loki

[TheBurningRed]

https://streamable.com/rwsv68
 

Plus we had this great scene where Roger Moores reaction still gets a laugh out of me. 

[seph]

8 hours ago, Loki said:

Minorities Killed

[...]

As a result of all the fisticuffs though, I'm not sure anyone was actually killed in this film apart from Scaramanga, his mistress and his targets.

Scaramanga offed his business partner Hi Fat - not so much a target, more 'Seeing I control your goons for you, I no longer need you'.

Edited November 5, 2022 by seph

[WyattSheepMask]

Looks like they’re all set to leave Amazon Prime again the end of the month.

They’ll probably be back again in a few months but just a heads up if you’re near the end of them all or the end of a particular Bonds run

[Devon Malcolm]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:51 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

They're on a weekly cycle on ITV4 all the time. Just record them off there?

 

[WyattSheepMask]

25 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

I don’t have recording ability, it’s live or OnDemand 

[Loki]

Previous Films

 

1. Dr No
2. From Russia With Love
3. Goldfinger
4. Thunderball
5. You Only Live Twice
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
7. Diamonds Are Forever
8. Live and Let Die
9. The Man With The Golden Gun

 

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Bond: Roger Moore
Bond Girl: Barbara Bach
Villain: Stromberg
Henchmen: Jaws

How Bond Is It?

There was some sort of enormous legal hoo-haa after the last film, so there was a 3 year gap before this one, the tenth in the series.

Bond travels to an exotic Arab location where he engages in a 3-way dance with a beautiful Russian spy and a megalomaniac villain before fighting his henchman on a train.  Sound familiar?  It should, it's the exact same fucking film as From Russia with Love, even down to the overdubbed voice of the Russian Bond girl.  

How about in the third reel, James breaking into the villain's lair, releasing some prisoners and staging a huge firefight to gain control of the facility and save the world?  It won't surprise you to learn that this film was directed by the same chap who did the exact same thing in You Only Live Twice, Lewis Gilbert.  Nobody Does It Better, my arse.

So it's very much Bond-by-numbers, but hold up playa - it's really fucking good! The locations are glamorous, the sets are spectacular, the bad guys are scenery-chewing, and Gilbert shoots one of the prettiest films of the whole series, one that looks incredibly expensive and lush. 

It is quintessentially Bond.  You have a crazed millionaire with his exotic lair, in this case an underwater fortress, dropping the "Mr Bond, I've been expecting you" line.  And yes, he has sharks, despatching errant henchmen with his "kill them" comms button.  You have tons of gadgets, from the iconic Lotus Esprit to an early jetsski, a hi-tec digital watch and even the bad guys have gadgets like a motorbike side-car missile.  In a nice nod to the previous film, there's even an MI5 station in an Egyptian tomb.

We get some interesting additions to Bond lore here as well.  Having established his naval credentials in earlier films, we learn he served on the Arc Royal, and he spends the last part of the film looking fucking cool in Royal Navy dress uniform.  And we learn Q's surname is Boothroyd!  Bond opens up the classic union jack parachute too.

Women Bedded

The pre-credits has Bond finishing up with an unnamed Russian spy ("Log Cabin Girl"), he also delves deep into Egypts treasures with "Arab Girl" and of course he seduces Barbara Bach's Amasova despite having murdered her boyfriend only days before.  Plenty of other ladies give Moore the glad-eye but he's too busy.

 

Women Hurt

AS IS TRADITION, Bond kisses Felicca in an Egyptian apartment, whereupon she is immediately shot dead.  Stromberg's secretary is eaten by sharks to the theme from the Hamlet ads.  And his secondary henchwoman Naomi is killed in a helicopter explosion.

 

Minorities Killed

The bad guys here are mainly German and Sardinian so few ethnic deaths this time out.  I think Stromberg and his minions are meant to be neo-Nazis in look, but it doesn't really translate on screen.

 

Accommodation?

Bond travelogue is back!  From the open-fireplace Austrian cabin to the Sheikh's desert tent, the baroque underwater Stromberg lair, the spectacular sequence at the Pyramids, Sir Clive Sinclair's Cairo jazz club, and Bond's spectacular looking Sardinian hotel suite, the whole film drips with on-location glamour.

Overall

I had very little memory of this film, so I was genuinely surprised at how good it is.  The best Moore outing so far for me, he even looks younger and more dashing.  He's actually doing proper spy stuff in this, being clever and thinking on his feet and investigating shit.  He has genuine chemistry with Barbara Bach despite her face being about as animated as Melania Trump.  

Jaws is absolutely the best mute henchman so far, and is indicative of the effort gone to here.  The characters are good, the script is funny, and the money is on-screen.  The sequence where Bond first tangles with Jaws with the backdrop of the pyramids and the music and voiceover from the show, is one of the best and most memorable scenes in a long time in the series.  There's a number of great references to Lawrence of Arabia, including using the theme music as Bond leads Amasova to the safety of the Nile.  The pacing of the film is great too, it absolutely races along from one great scene to another.

This is the second best film of the series so far for me - 9/10 on the Bond scale.  At least one of those points is for Barbara Bach's wet tits in the final sequence, which are genuinely mesmerising.  Well done Ringo!

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Loki

[Loki]

"I think he may be attempting re-entry!"  


Previous Films

 

1. Dr No
2. From Russia With Love
3. Goldfinger
4. Thunderball
5. You Only Live Twice
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
7. Diamonds Are Forever
8. Live and Let Die
9. The Man With The Golden Gun
10. The Spy Who Loved Me

 

Moonraker (1979)

Bond: Roger Moore
Bond Girl: Lois Chiles
Villain: Drax
Henchmen: Jaws (again), Chang

How Bond Is It?

After the success of the last film, the paint-by-numbers system is well established.  No messing with the formula here.  Shirley Bassey theme tune - tick.  Megalomaniac baddie with futuristic base - tick.  Enormous final reel base explosion - tick.

They certainly pack the exotic locations in.  Discounting space, which I'll deal with later, you have a French chateau in the middle of the Californian desert, a beautifully-shot Venice, spicy Rio de Janeiro, and the Amazon jungle.

There's also very specific gadgets everywhere - from Bond's wrist-mounted dart gun, to his safe-cracking cigarette lighter, all the way to the MI6-adapted gondola in Venice which transforms into a hovercraft, much to the amusement of the tourist crowds in Piazza San Marco.  Incidentally, by this point in the series it's clear that Q absolutely LOATHES Bond, as he hands over the latest multi-million pound toy or vehicle to be immediately destroyed by 007.

We've also got some early product placement here with Bond's Seiko watch.  Perhaps he wore specific brands before but it's front and centre in a few shots here.

Throw in the obligatory powerboat chase, martial arts fight (kendo v fencing, rather nice actually) and the increasingly bad quips, and this is the now fully established Moore-era Bond formula.

Women Bedded

Moore gets more action here than recently, getting to first base with an unnamed air hostess in the pre-credits, pumping the lovely Corrine Dufour for information, wasting a few hours with MI6 contact Manuela in Rio (Emily Bolton who is stunning even by Bond standards, with legs for ever), and of course thoroughly de-briefing fellow spy, the nominatively determined Dr Good Head.  More than once indeed, there's a nice on-again, off-again with the CIA operative who makes one of the best Bond girls since Mrs Peel.  Independent, smart, does her own fighting, and a decent actress.

Even Jaws gets his legover in this one!  I had completely forgotten the Jaws-in-love sub-plot, madness.

Women Hurt

We definitely up the ante in this one.  Having seduced Drax operative Ms Dufour, James casually exits stage left, leaving her to be TORN APART BY DOGS for the sin of sleeping with Bond.  Manuela gets giant-handled by Jaws but unexpectedly survives.  And in the final space battle, all of Drax's Girls (those chosen for their physical beauty to repopulate the world) are blown up which must make the women-killed count here the highest of any Bond film.

 

Minorities Killed

On the other hand, we've taken something of a break from the usual minority massacres.  I think possibly the era of killing lots of swarthy goons may be over, as most of the henchmen in this film are European/Americans.  Sub-boss and Japanese swordsman Chang gets thrown out of the San Marco clock tower.  There you go.

 

Accommodation?

Venice provides all the beautiful hotel suites you could ask for, although I think we really only see Dr Goodhead's apartment as Bond had a sleepover there.  Drax's estate roughly matte-painted into the desert is absolutely stunning in an old-European way.  Poor Bond refuses a cup of tea, which I understand, he's a chap of a certain age here and doesn't want to get caught short later on due to his weak bladder.

The Rio hotel suite looks retro-modern with extremely comfy sofas.  And Drax's second (of 3) lairs is an odd Mayan temple type thing, complete with deadly Boa Constrictor.

Overall

Space!  RAF Space!  The final frontier for Bond.  As we're discovering, Bond films love to follow the Zeitgeist, so with the success of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (specifically referenced via its 5-note code), it was time for 007 to get in on the sci-fi craze.

This really, really is two separate films.  You have the classic Bond travelogue for most of the running time, and very enjoyable it is too although absurdly formulaic by this juncture.  Gaping plot holes even for Bond - why is Drax trying to murder an official UK government representative whilst he's staying in his own house?  We're so inured to periodic attempts on Bond's life we're not even expected to question it.

And then in the final reel the whole thing goes spectacularly off the rails as soon as they go into space.  The Pinewood set crew try their best and build a pretty cool looking space station, but trying to hard to be Star Wars within the Bond-verse just doesn't work at all.  The laser pistol battles look and sound awful.  The running around turning off defence systems, it's all too obviously ripping off its source material.  And Moore, creaking a little at the joints here, is no Han Solo.

Drax is a bit of an odd bad guy, he's all "Your reputation precedes you Mr Bond, have a cup of tea" but resonates on a whole different level today.  He's really an Elon Musk character, private space magnate working in the US but foreign-born, and his plan is to save the world's eco-system from destruction by eliminating humanity and starting again.  It's all very "Just Stop Oil" but with many more short skirts and tanned legs.

The face turn for Jaws is fascinating, with a falling-in-love shot that is straight out of Monty Python.  It also means this is his last outing, which is a pity as I think the original plan was to have him as a perpetual foe.

Up to the moment the Moonrakers launch it would have been a solid 7/10 entry in the canon, but ultimately I give this a 4.5/10.  It was better than I expected but the worst Moore film so far.  I think we're approaching the low-point though, as next up we have the two-Bond year of 1981.

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by Loki

[johnnyboy]

11 minutes ago, Loki said:

Throw in the obligatory powerboat chase...

Bit of an undersell. 

Spoiler

Powerboat with mines and shit and a hang glider ejection system!

 

13 minutes ago, Loki said:

I think we're approaching the low-point though, as next up we have the two-Bond year of 1981.

83 is your double Bondage with Octopussy and the renegade Never Say Never Again.  You're not even close to the low-point until you see a rather old Roger seduce/get seduced by Grace Jones.

For Your Eyes Only...

Spoiler

Pre-title sequence is just a massive fuck you to the Kevin McClory crew.  We'll kill off the disputed character in canon without actually referencing him explicitly by name.  It must be up there as one of the pettiest things ever done in a major film.

 

[Loki]

Oh yeah, still some way to go then.  I remember loving View To a Kill though as a kid so it may not get the lowest mark.  There are some late-period Brosnan films that are just shite.

The Moore era has been much better than it usually gets credited for but holy hell he hates women.  What’s most galling is that they don’t even kill the girls off to give Bond a reason to get revenge (as they did for Connery).  He leaves and then they just get filleted gratuitously.

These films are fun but the formula means they are quite un memorable.

[Vamp]

There's a thing that happens with every Bond where the producers try and convince the newspapers that the new Bond is bringing it closer to the novels. That even happens when Moore gets first cast. Then 4 films in, we're in space. 

I'd quite like to see a period movie of the Moonraker novel. Not that it would ever happen. 

For Your Eyes Only is definitely an attempt at responding to the criticisms Moonraker received. Its arguably the most down to earth of Moore's Bond films and contains a great bit of Bond murder.

Spoiler

It also, hilariously, teases a big battle when Bond breaks into the villain's base but all of the soldiers are asleep. 

 

[johnnyboy]

7 minutes ago, Loki said:

I remember loving View To a Kill though as a kid so it may not get the lowest mark.

In HD the stunt joins are hilariously bad.  There's no way Moore at that age was taking bumps or racing round Paris and you can see the badly syrupped stunt actors in almost every shot.

 

12 minutes ago, Loki said:

These films are fun but the formula means they are quite un memorable.

I think the Moore-era more than any of the others is Bond does... isn't it?  Bond does Blaxploitation, Bond does Kung Fu, Bond does Star Wars... and wrap a Bond story around whatever the current trend was.  FYEO (if you exclude the pre-title shenanigans) is by far the straightest it's ever played or written for Moore.

[Loki]

@johnnyboy Spot on.  Almost every film is an attempt to fit Bond into a genre.  It’s surprising it works as well as it does half the time.

 Bond films reflect the era in which they are made in so many ways.  The series started as the old Hollywood studio system was dying its death, and Bond films represented tent pole movie releases during the rise of indy movie making and new directors working outside the system.

 By this point though the new Hollywood is establishing itself and making big money films, and the Bond producers seem to feel that they have to respond.  So you get this odd mix of a set formula with the genre-du-jour imposed on top.  For such a successful franchise Bond is often very insecure about its value.

Looking forward to the next movie now!

Edited October 15, 2023 by Loki

[Jazzy G]

1 hour ago, Loki said:

Oh yeah, still some way to go then.  I remember loving View To a Kill though as a kid so it may not get the lowest mark.  There are some late-period Brosnan films that are just shite.

The Moore era has been much better than it usually gets credited for but holy hell he hates women.  What’s most galling is that they don’t even kill the girls off to give Bond a reason to get revenge (as they did for Connery).  He leaves and then they just get filleted gratuitously.

These films are fun but the formula means they are quite un memorable.

View To A Kill is my favourite. Maybe it's because it was on so much when I was a kid, or the theme, but I love that movie. I love the Dalton films as well because of what a departure they were from the campy excesses of the Moore Bonds. Moore's Bond always felt more like he was about the mission, and the women were collatoral damage, whereas Connery seemed more of a womaniser. I think Dalton manages to land somewhere between the two. The Living Daylights sufers a little because it's Dalton's "by the book" parachuted into what still feels like a Roger Moore movie, a little like how Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye feels. It's a touch too down to earth and straight laced compared to his other three.