The Seventh Art

November 5, 2008

The Bond Countdown #20

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Bond, Die Another Day, Gustav Graves, Halle Berry, James Bond, Jinx Johnson, Lee Tamahori, Miranda, Pierce Brosnan, The Bond Marathon, Toby Stephens, Zao |
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Die Another Day (2002)
Lee Tamahori
Bond, James Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Arch Rival: Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens)
Bond Girl: Jinx Johnson (Halle Berry)

Die Another Day (2002)

Brosnan’s final film as Bond is a mess, to say the least. Strong contender for the title “1001 bad puns”, this installment follows James Bond after he is captured in North Korea following a betrayal by a fellow agent. He is exchanged for a notorious terrorist Zao, but not after being tortured like hell. He gets out of the confinement imposed on him by M and goes on a journey of personal vendetta and tries to get back Zao, in the process discovering an Icelandic diamond giant’s connections with Zao. Bond now travels to Iceland to meet this man, Gustav Graves and his assistant Miranda. He is also aided by another agent Jinx, as he tries to hunt down the person who betrayed him.

Perhaps the worst Bond film ever, Die Another Day goes on and on without even noting that nobody cares beyond the 70 minute point (and that is for the patient viewer). Toby Stephens as the villain seems like a high school kid who has stolen his father’s pistol and is threatening his fellow school kids. And what were they thinking when they put in the invisible car? A monumental showcase of characteristic Bond puns and double entendres, Die Another Day feels like His Girl Friday for its judicious use of runtime, only that it isn’t even half as funny. It feels like the dreaded days of Roger Moore again, for the bond between the films is so evident (oops!).

November 4, 2008

The Bond Countdown #19

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Bond, Bond Marathon, Christmas Jones, Denise Richards, James Bond, Michael Apted, Pierce Brosnan, Renard, Robert Carlyle, The World Is Not Enough |
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The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Michael Apted
Bond, James Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Arch Rival: Renard (Robert Carlyle)
Bond Girl: Christmas Jones (Denise Richards)

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

The next piece in the huge series would be The World Is Not Enough and follows Bond’s mission to Europe to investigate the rat in the family of Richard King, the wealthy oil giant with a project of a lifetime on the anvil, after his murder at the MI6 headquarters itself. Bond tracks down the person responsible to be Renard, a terrorist whose accident has rendered him incapable of any physical feeling. As Bond tries to restore the hurt pride of both M and the organization, he stumbles across the truth about King’s murder. Bond, in the process, meets an obviously and phenomenally miscast Denise Richards as Christmas Jones (Get ready for the cheesy gags), the nuclear physicist (cough, cough) who tugs along. Like GoldenEye (1995) Bond is caught in another moral conflict as he has to choose between cold formalities of duty and warmth of relationships.

This version scores on the action sequences with lots of eye-candy involving both incredible computer graphics and genuine stunts. However, Renard’s character, which could have been converted into one of the best Bond villains, is wasted primarily to share his screen space with his sweet heart. One of the best soundtracks of the series features a spectacular title track by Garbage (!).This one definitely shows that Bond is not an anachronism and is inching towards the new generation.

November 3, 2008

The Bond Countdown #18

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Bond, Bond Marathon, Elliot Carver, James Bond, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Spottiswoode, Tomorrow Never Dies, Wai Lin |
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Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Roger Spottiswoode
Bond, James Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Arch Rival: Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce)
Bond Girl: Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh)

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Pierce Brosnan would don the role of James Bond for the second time in Tomorrow Never Dies. In this part of the series, A Media Mogul named Elliot Carver, whose wife had been one of Bond’s many old flames, plans to induce war between the British and the Chinese governments in order to win the exclusive broadcasting rights of his satellite channel in China, the only country he hasn’t yet been able to get his hands on. He creates his news and executes them, thereby becoming the first one to publish and broadcast them. To gain advantage in China, he rigs up attacks on the defense forces on either country in order to trick them into believe that the other government had started the war. Enter Bond, who teams up with Chinese media official (?) Wai Lin to blow Carver’s cover and destroying his offshore operations and prevent war before things go out of hands.

There is a marked difference between Tomorrow Never Dies and the previous films in the series. Bond undergoes a much needed makeover and it works. The way issues and characters are handled is more refined (save Carver) and so is the suavity. The actions scenes are intact and issues handled are more pertinent to the age. It is refreshing to see no Soviet characters running all over. One of the better films of the series.

November 2, 2008

The Bond Countdown #17

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Alec Trevelyan, Bond Marathon, Goldeneye, Izabella Scorupco, James Bond, Janus, Judi Dench, Martin Campbell, Natalya, Natalya Simonova, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean |
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GoldenEye (1995)
Martin Campbell
Bond, James Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Arch Rival: Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean)
Bond Girl: Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco)

GoldenEye (1995)

It is now time for the fifth actor to step into the shoes of the world’s greatest secret Agent. It is not just Pierce Brosnan who is new to the world of Bond, but even the new M is a lady, played by the no-nonsense Judy Dench. GoldenEye follows Bond’s adventures in Russia just after the collapse of Communism as he tries to dig into the mysterious character Janus, whose agents destroy the GoldenEye control center and steal its powering source. As the identity of Janus is revealed in the process of tracking down the criminals, Bond’s past is dug up. Bond meets up with Natalya, a programmer who luckily escapes n the massacre at the control centre, and both of them go to Cuba to trace out the other GoldenEye control centre. They have to stop Janus, who is planning the biggest bank robbery in history, from disrupting the computer systems of all the Banks in England. With Bond’s guilt plaguing him, can he act by the mind and not the heart?

Golden Eye remains the most delayed bond film ever, releasing six years after the previous installment. Yes, both Bond and M have changed, but the Russians still speak English among themselves with a Russian accent. Wittier and funnier than many bonds, GoldenEye tries to shed Bond’s macho image to an extent and delve into his personal life of harsh loneliness. Brosnan is good with his lover-boy looks and gives Bond a much required makeover in this otherwise regular Bond fodder.

November 1, 2008

The Bond Countdown #16

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Benicio Del Toro, Bond, Carey Lowell, Franz Sanchez, James Bond, John Glen, Licence to Kill, Lupe Lamora, Pam Bouvier, Robert Davi, The Bond Marathon, Timothy Dalton |
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Licence to Kill (1989)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Timothy Dalton
Arch Rival: Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi)
Bond Girl: Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell)

Licence to Kill (1989)

Timothy Dalton takes up the role of James Bond for one more time in the sixteenth offering in the series. In this one, Bond must avenge the murder of Della, wife of Bond’s CIA friend Felix Leiter and that takes him on the trail of a Mexican drug lord Sanchez, who has established a huge scientific base for the production of narcotic material and has planned to expand his control to as far as East Asia. Bond, with the help of CIA friend Pam Bouvier, flies across the country and infiltrates Sanchez’s loyal group, virtually becoming one of them. He is also helped by Sanchez’s beautiful mistress Lupe Lamora, who seems to have fallen for Bond. He starts his double crossing game and puts down his rivals using Sanchez himself. But Sanchez isn’t as big a sucker as he seems.

Timothy Dalton gives a one-two punch with Licence to Kill after immensely impressing with The Living Daylights. It is a pity that Dalton didn’t play in more Bond films, for he is the best Bond after Connery. The film brings back Bond’s off-the-cuff humour back and it usually helps. Action scenes are all top-notch and make the Roger Moore flicks seem like cartoons. Sanchez makes a great villain and just his stare seems enough to tell that he means business. Look out for a young Benicio Del Toro as Sanchez’s personal assistant. A worthy Bond.

October 31, 2008

The Bond Countdown #15

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Bond, Georgi Koskov, James Bond, Jeroen Krabbé, John Glen, Kara Milovy, Maryam d'Abo, Pushkin, The Bond Marathon, The Living Daylights, Timothy Dalton |
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The Living Daylights (1987)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Timothy Dalton
Arch Rival: Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé)
Bond Girl: Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo)

The Living Daylights (1987)

After an excruciating seven film streak as the English spy, Roger Moore steps down to make way for Timothy Dalton to step into Bond’s shoes – and how! The Living Daylights is a real thriller that has Bond defending a Russian general Koskov who has defected and is under threat from the KGB. Bond succeeds at that but soon finds that he has been tricked and the defection was but an excuse to turn the MI6 organization against the KGB head Pushkin who, as per Koskov’s statement, has started a mission to put down prominent American and British secret agents. Koskov, meanwhile, is allied with the American arms seller Whitaker who is an admirer of tyrants and warlords. Bond along with Kara Milovy, Koskov’s girlfriend, also tricked by him, and a group of Mujahedins try to stop Koskov from getting a huge amount of Opium out of Afghanistan and in turn get ammunition into the country.

Timothy Dalton is one of the most underrated and least spoken about Bond. Even the one hit wonder Lazenby is praised often. Though not as handsome as Connery or Brosnan, he sure can play the part effectively. The film, by the way, is one of the best Bond flicks and the stunts top all the earlier Bond films. The cracker of a climax where Bond fights in mid air is breathtaking even by today’s standards and thank god, no bad puns. The Afghan connection may raise a brow or two today.

October 30, 2008

The Bond Countdown #14

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: A View To A Kill, Bond, Christopher Walken, James Bond, John Glen, Max Zorin, Roger Moore, Stacey Sutton, Tanya Roberts, The Bond Marathon |
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A View To A Kill (1985)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore
Arch Rival: Max Zorin (Christopher Walken)
Bond Girl: Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts)

A View To A Kill (1985)

Final part in the tiring seven part act by Roger Moore is one of his most sober and decent films. In this episode, Bond investigates a dubious racing circuit, where one particular horse seems to get better with more laps. He decides to track the owner of this horse which takes him to Max Zorin, a semiconductor giant who plans to use his might to blow down the silicon valley in the US so that the European companies gain monopoly in the industry. Bond also finds that he was a result of a biological experiment conducted by Nazis on the pregnant women in the concentration camps. He also meets geologist Stacey Sutton, who helps him discover Zorin’s plants and stop Zorin from blowing up his pipelines to flood the semiconductor cradle.

Last of the seven ventures for Roger Moore takes him back to the good old days of espionage rather than mindless shooting and reckless driving. Deliberately paced and developed, the film surprisingly succeeds partly because of the mellow yet charming performance of Christopher Walken as the semiconductor tycoon. The films final half hour turns as Psychopathic as Zorin himself and breaks the finely crafted film abruptly. Another wimpy girlfriend makes you wish for one tight slap.

October 29, 2008

The Bond Countdown #13

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Bond, Gobinda, James Bond, John Glen, Kabir Bedi, Kamal Khan, Louis Jourdan, Maud Adams, Octopussy, Roger Moore, The Bond Marathon |
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Octopussy (1983)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore
Arch Rival: Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan)
Bond Girl: Octopussy (Maud Adams)

Octopussy (1983)

The follow up to the phenomenal debacle For Your Eyes Only (1981) makes up for it to an extent as it takes the famous English spy to India. Bond is behind a wealthy Indian named Kamal Khan who buys the expensive Russian artifact called Faberge Egg. As Bond follows him to his home country, he finds out that he works with a woman who calls herself Octopussy and trains women of various countries to smuggle jewels. Khan, on the other hand, has his own plans and is hand in hand with a insubordinate Russian general Orlov. Orlov seeks to use the circus Octopussy has in Germany to bomb the US airbase so that it is disarmed and is vulnerable to Russian attack. Bond must now race against time to diffuse the bomb, save Octopussy and stop Kamal Khan.

The film could have easily avoided the last quarter hour but it still makes a great watch. Kabir Bedi as Gobinda makes a good impression as the deadpan thug who stops at nothing. The quality of production is visibly great and the stunts remain as stunning as the best Bond films. Indian cuisine is still ridiculed and mystified to the extreme. Moore’s disguise as the clown at the circus is the funniest he gets as his puns keep falling flat. Brace yourself for some high flying stunts by the ever lovable Q!

October 28, 2008

The Bond Countdown #12

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: Aristotle Kristatos, Bond, Bond Marathon, Carole Bouquet, Columbo, For Your Eyes Only, James Bond, John Glen, Julian Glover, Melina Havelock, Roger Moore |
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For Your Eyes Only (1981)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore
Arch Rival: Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover)
Bond Girl: Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet)

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The next offering in the long series is For Your Eyes Only. In this section Bond is hired to hunt down a man who was hired to hunt down a man who was hired to hunt down a lost British device! This takes him back to Eastern Europe where he meets the beautiful Melina with her hunter bow, the daughter of the man who was hired to hunt down the device and who is determined to hunt down the man who hunted down her parents. After warding off a bunch of loonies hired to hunt him down, Bond continues hunting down what he has been hunting for, As Bond is hunting about, he is confronted by Columbo, a gold-smuggler who reveals to Bond that he has been hunting down the wrong person and he is the one being hunted. With the help of Columbo and Melina, Bond finally decides what he has to hunt down and but finds that he has to climb a risky cliff. So do the people whom he is trying to hunt down.

Hands down winner of the worst performance by a Bond girl beating even Jane Seymour of Live And Let Die (1973). Not that the other performances are any good! The plot seems to have been a bit more importance, but the routine is so predictable that nobody cares. Couple of great sequences and a fantastic title song. Technically inferior than its predecessors, For Your Eyes Only seems to be caught between the elegance of the Connery films and the jaw-dropping action scenes of the later films. As a result, it does not engage your mind or your heart. For your eyes only!

October 27, 2008

The Bond Countdown #11

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bond, Bond Countdown, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Holly Goodhead, Hugo Drax, James Bond, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Moonraker, Roger Moore |
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Moonraker (1979)
Lewis Gilbert
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore
Arch Rival: Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale)
Bond Girl: Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles)

Moonraker (1979)

The central piece in Moore’s seven part odyssey as the world’s most famous spy was the costliest and most successful Bond till then. In this episode, Bond investigates the disappearance of a US space shuttle Moonraker. He finds out that a California based tycoon, Hugo Drax, with hardware supplies from Venice and chemicals from near Rio de Janeiro is behind this. If The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) showed us a maniac who tried to build an underwater world, Moonraker follows another trying to take the finest of the human race to space. Bond takes the help of a NASA astronaut/CIA agent/babe Holly and travels around the globe trying to track down his arch rival’s base station. He finally ends up in the deep interiors of Amazon where he finds out that his enemy is out of the world, literally.

I am sure I’m going to be flamed for telling this, but Moonraker is a solid Bond film. Agreed that the plot and action is much over the top, but hey, what did you expect, Bergman? Superior stunt choreography includes a jaw-dropping free fall, a boat chase in Venice and a fistfight over a winch. Bond is funny except for the lines where his puns fall flat (Even then he is funny, but unintentionally so). Jaws arrives as a gem and is as stylish as Bond at many places. Amusing references to both Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but don’t even think about comparison.