Chosen not because of him - but so people would bother coming up with a way to describe a new Bond rather than rolling out “the best since Connery”
You get the tenure back when you’re original.
Lazenby. Good movie. But I would not miss it.
EON certainly acted as if it didn’t happen.
I love OHMSS, but I reluctantly agree. I wouldn’t want to let go of those big chunk eras or even Dalton’s two. Thankfully we don’t have to be actually doing any erasing.
Moore for me, liked him in The Saint, but his films didn’t aged well, and he’s really old for the role, that some of his bond girls really looked like his daughters, he’s also not believable in action scenes.
My alternate universe would be Lazenby continuing with Diamonds Are Forever and The Man With The Golden Gun or maybe even up to the year of The Spy Who Loved Me, then Dalton stepping up to the role more earlier in 1979 (the year Moonraker was released), both of them were young and could do better than Moore.
The Franchise would have taken a different direction and it’s for the better, more closer to the books and grounded.
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Brosnan gets the boot from me. I dont feel his tenure added anything, really. Based on how often I revisit them, its like those years are gone already. And in my “head canon” the series ended with LTK, anyway…
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I am on record as not being a big fan of Brosnan. I appreciate what he accomplished in terms of keeping the brand alive and viable, but I have a hard time watching any of his films now and I am constantly aware of the effort he’s putting forth to convince the audience that he is Bond. I could easily give up his entire run to keep Lazenby’s one film in the canon.
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I went with Daniel Craig. With four of his five films (Casino Royale being the exception) in my lower half of the series’ rankings, he gets the boot. After CR, his films lost a lot of the series’ sense of fun. I like Craig as Bond, and technically his films were well done (well, except for the quick cutting and shaky cam in Quantum Of Solace), but that lack of fun takes out a lot of the excitement and enjoyment level of his films for me–particularly No Time To Die, ugh.
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For June 30, last day…
These have been an adjunct to the knockout Deathmatches elsewhere, but many, many thanks for all the voting and contribution and discussion here. I have learned much, namely:
- Never Say Never Again may have some merits
- 007 in New York is ripe for filming
- More Dalton not happening is a major missed opportunity
- Someone likes Pamela Salem’s Moneypenny
- Kronsteen and Machine Gun Granny deserve more attention
- There’s lots of good, fun, unfilmed Fleming out there, still some wild stuff
On that last one, loads of those seem ripe for pre-titles for years to come, as and when they ever bother to make another Bond.
Anyway, onto today:
The main Deathmatches are now over and I’m mulling doing it again this year but with different categories (I have to find ones that apply to every film, so pre-titles are out, and ones that have some semblance of “being interesting” about them, so gunbarrels go too).
Proposal is for a later month in the year with 30 days (this seems to fit) so will probably be September.
Categories:
Women
Principal henchpersons
Title sequences
Score (aside from main Song)
If anyone can think of a category that can apply to every Eon film, do suggest - but it does have to apply to all of them.
Anyway, the vote - if I go with Women (and despite understandable rumours to the contrary, I do) - and we say that’s the principal female lead, moe often than not that is the character with whom Bond has some semblance of a romance. Whether that is a rule or whether that’s just how things have played out and it doesn’t have to be so stiff, so rigid, leads to the question:
Who is the Bond Woman of Skyfall? Moneypenny seems to have the quasi-romantic spark (and they obviously do the squishy, but leave it ambiguous because she’s Moneypenny), but M is the predominant female character and whilst there’s no romance, perhaps there is Romance with a capital R in what happens to her.
Anyway, over to you. Personally I thnk it’s Moneypenny.
Who is the Bond Woman of Skyfall?
- Moneypenny
- M
0 voters
Hands down Eve Moneypenny. As you said Jim, she has the quasi-romantic spark, flirtatious banter and all, and joins him on the mission–twice, in the pre-titles sequence and in the film proper in Shanghai. She ticks all the boxes of Bond girl whether she does shag him in the hotel room or not.
M is just Bond’s boss and he’s trying to protect her–nothing more, nothing less. You could change her female M, Olivia Mansfield, to the male M, Gareth Mallory, and nothing in the film would change other than Silva’s lines about mother to father.
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“I thought M was a randomly assigned letter. I had no idea it stood for MacGuffin.”
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True, actually he’s my second choice after Moore, don’t get me wrong I loved him as an actor, he’s great, loved all of his performance, but outside of Casino Royale all of his films have been subpar to me, especially his last two, him being too involved in the creative process of his films, how his decisions affected the result of his films, and because of his involvement in these films, him trying to do something “more” with Bond, and whatever that was, it didn’t work, and as it turned out, a depressing, soap opera, melodramatic interconnected storylines.
If only looking at Casino Royale, I think the movie itself was great enough even without Craig, the material was strong that you could place any actor there and it would still work, because the plot and story was really more than great.
He became too much involved and demanding in the creative process of his films.
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I’m proud to say that someone, is me! Long live 70-80s British TV. Who needs Netflix when you can Youtube grainy episodes of The Professionals…
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Once again, thank you, Jim, for all the fun of this year’s Bond Deathmatch!
I miss it already, but I’m a greedy sonofagun.
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I’m really having fun with this too.
I’m excited for a new event in July, do we have a new one in the plate? @Jim
No; summer holiday of sorts then back in September. Will keep these polls open, espcially the last one, for a while yet.
That depends on Jim. We currently have him sitting underneath a volcanic geyser.
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Oh, if that is available…
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Llewellyn can’t be touched, but I rather liked that fella in the tweed jacket in QOS, so he gets my vote. Of course, I’m a huge QOS apologist and a fan of Elvis, so… grain of salt or two.
Late to the party, but I picked Dalton to boot. Not that I want to lose any of them. Can’t jettison Connery, Moore, or Craig as they are my top 3. Lazenby only had OHMSS, but on any given day I might list that film as my favorite of the whole series. Brosnan was the Bond I grew up with the late 90s, so for me that leaves Dalton, despite Licence to Kill being one of my favorite films in the series. But honestly, if I could have, I would have picked David Niven. I refuse to lose any of the real Bonds.
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I’m aghast. Sellers escapes???