Renewed appreciation for Spectre

Really? SP’s first half was decent and there was the makings of a solid film there, but it went off the rails after the train scene. GE and TND are far better.

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Agreed. Goldeneye is good but still not comparable to the Craig era. I don’t get the love for TND I remember coming out of the theater disappointed and it hasn’t gotten better since.

Tomorrow never dies is considered one of the worst bond films by most Bond films. The problem with the film is there is just too many action scenes and it drags on. After Germany there shouldn’t had been any more action scenes. The plot had so much potential. This is the problem with the brosnan era they focused too much on action and getting the girl. TWINE could have been a classic if they didn’t include the jones character or the forced ski action scene along with the submarine climax.

Will i get banned if I say I prefer Spectre to Skyfall, despite the ‘McGarett and Wo Fat are brothers’ angle?
If that doesn’t do it, how about admitting that TND comes second after DAD for me?
No? DAF, TMWTGG, OP!
I’ll be in the Lounge of Solace, waiting for security to escort me out…

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I too prefer SPECTRE to Skyfall aside from the ridiculous foster brothers scenario. I think it’s because Bond looks to be enjoying himself for the first time since Casino Royale. He understandably wasn’t having fun in Quantum Of Solace but that lack of enjoyment continued into Skyfall even though it apparently was years removed from Quantum since Bond was suddenly an older agent.

I also find Tomorrow Never Dies the second best Pierce Brosnan film (behind GoldenEye) and one of the best Bond films.

And I also love Diamonds Are Forever and Octopussy. I can’t go as far out on your limb for The Man With The Golden Gun though. :grinning:

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That would have been exactly what audiences love to see in a Bond film.

There we show SPECTRE on an endless loop, Blofelding it directly in our relaxed brains in order to make everyone appreciate it.

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Serving taste👏

I thought that the sequence in Hamburg is, by far, the strength of TND. The film almost falls on its face once it leaves Hamburg, only somewhat recovering when Bond boards the stealth boat. The film has a terrific premise, one that’s eerily ahead of its time (and would make a great plot to revisit, in the same vein that TSWLM revisited YOLT), but it fails to do anything particularly interesting with it.

That said, it’s often a fun action romp, and miles better than SP.

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Definitley. That film created fake news and click bait two decades early.

@dalton I agree the movie was fun until Hamburg and the film predicted fake news which is happening in real life. Speaking to many bond fans over the years they all tell me the same thing not enough character development and too much action. Casino Royale had so much action in the 1st act but then in the 2nd act they focused on the character development. This is what the producers learned from the Brosnan era to make sure at least one act has some character development. I would have love to learn more about Carver and his wife Paris.

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The assertion that TND was ahead of its time isn’t quite right. Spreading fake news and manipulating people that way was something that, back in the day, was something that could have been almost exclusively done by large media outlets and the people behind them.

Only with the arrival of the interweb, it became possible for almost everyone. Carver’s plan couldn’t have been executed that easily, as there would have been the need of many more seemingly independent sources for definite confirmation.

Who else but us Bond fans should know better how this whole fake news thing has developed in the past 20 years. Those who’ve been around here (or on other Bond fan sites) for long enough may well remember the days when we still had to rely on “real” news outlets. I still have a fake interview from 2006 from some Croatian tabloid with Tina Turner in which she “confirms” that she’s going to sing the title song for CR. All it needs today is Beyoncé posting a pic of a Martini glass on Insta to convince everyone that she’s going to be the one…

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It would definitely be interesting to revisit the premise of TND (which is my favourite Brosnan).

I thought Dominic Greene had the potential to be a truly great villain if they really leaned into him having a facade of being an environmentalist and philanthropist. As it was, aside from the party he threw, they really didn’t do much with that set up. A villain posing as a philanthropic, environmentalist influencer could be an intriguing antagonist and an update on Carver.

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I watched the helicopter sequence on YouTube with earphones and the volume way up just now. I know people aren’t fond of the reused Skyfall tracks, but once the music resumes after a moment of silence, and the chopper starts spinning, it’s pure Bond to me. I’d love to experience that feeling in a movie theatre again. September, don’t let me down.

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As this thread had a significant TND discussion, here’s a video essay that echoed a lot of those thoughts here:

I agree that the first half of TND is great, almost perfect in my mind. I lose interest after the HALO jump, and then it picks up again with the stealth boat. Highlights for me in the first half are Bond waiting for Carver in his hotel room, the Kaufman scene (very Fleming), and the pre-titles sequence.

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During his always excellent political segment “A closer look” Seth Meyers recently has put in a very funny Christoph Waltz impression (followed by a Werner Herzog one). Skip to 14:53…

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It’s very much his Inglorious character that Seth is going for…Spectre would’ve been VERY different if Waltz had played it like that.

I like Waltz - but… isn’t he always playing Christoph Waltz?

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At varying levels of excitement. Spectre is restrained evening dinner Waltz, Inglorious Basterds is Waltz after 3 litres of coffee.

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Remember Waltz in that Ruby Martinson adaptation back in the 70s? That was my first encounter with his performance and I always get flashbacks of that vaguely naïve sidekick whenever I see him, even in recent films 40 years later.

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