“Actually I’m an exceptional thief”
Many 90’s villains owe Alan Rickman at least a consultation fee.
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I enjoy the casual cool of Bond changing his costume to leave his girl and walk outside on the balconies. “I won’t be long.” Just like Connery leaving Tiffany to exit the apartment via the window in DAF. “I won’t be long darling, just popping upstairs for a moment.”
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A very interesting thread which really needs to be reassigned to the SP forum, however, adding my tuppence worth to a lot of the excellent comments here, I’d firstly say I agree with byline’s assessment of both the song and the singer - underrated on both counts - and the actress - phenomenally beautiful and a very good performance; I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily better than Eva Green, but given the paucity of decent Bond Girls for Craig to bed-down with [I mean seriously, M as a Bond-girl mother-figure-head in SF? What were they thinking…] she’s remarkably cool, tempestuous and keenly pining. She has much of what I’d expect in a Bond girl and, while she is important to the plot, she isn’t another secret agent, but your original damsel-in-some-distress. Not had one of those since Christmas Jones and I’d prefer to forget her.
Secretagentfan, I must agree with almost everything you have said. Your reply encapsulates much of my general feeling. You are the first person I’ve read or spoken to who agrees the PTS ought to have stopped after Bond lands on the couch!
Basically, and I won’t steal anything you say but mentioning this, to paraphrase your post: the film is simply too long. No one at any point seems to have been prepared to take an axe to the script and pare it to the absolute bones of requirement. It was like watching a bloody Harry Potter sequel, all that referencing the past, all that involvement of peripheral characters. The whole MI6 business is a red herring of the most cumbersome kind. Worse, almost all the action sequences were poorly presented and edited and unbelievable.
I agree Hinx is a wasted henchman, killed off too early.
The stuff in Tangiers and the desert has the feel of a traditional Bond film, intriguing, good to look at, simmering sensuality, the overarch of tension; the meteor crater location and the sets, very good; the initial confrontation with Blofeld, excellent; but then they spoil it with a silly torture scene and a dumb escape which stank of the worst excesses of Brosnan. This cried out for the SAS to come charging in, starting a pitch battle the like of which we haven’t seen since, well, The Living Daylights - for crying out loud. I’ll ignore the Blofeld / Oberhauser epilogue thing because I’ll just get too angry. Suffice to say, OO7 doesn’t even save the day; Q does. That boy has more power at his fingertips and on his laptop than Bond has in his Sig Saur.
For a film so long, I’d expect a lot more thought and cohesion, but there isn’t any on display here, it’s a very dull exercise. The cinematography, mind, was very very good.
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A very interesting thread which really needs to be reassigned to the SP forum, however, adding my tuppence worth to a lot of the excellent comments here,
I apologize for posting in the wrong forum. I’ve made several requests to have the thread moved to its proper location, but for some reason it’s just not happening. Sorry about that!
And yes, I too have enjoyed reading all the great responses here!
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Sorry, evidently my fault; requests to move the thread must have escaped me.
We don’t feature subfora for every previous entry, so the general film category will have to do. Hope this helps.
Thank you, Dustin! I apologize for posting this in the wrong place. That’s my fault. Still getting used to the new(ish) site! (And yes, moving it to the general film category is fine.)
Bond’s briefing with M at the beginning is rather nice, bringing to mind the days of old. Fiennes in full Voldemort mode, snarling that Bond is grounded indefinitely. Craig stands up, does up his jacket button, stares him down and dismissively says “very good sir.” I get the feeling Bond is angered but is holding it all back, maintaining his professionalism. The C joke straight after also shows he’s not intimidated by M’s presence or his decision. It’s these little details that I enjoy.
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“…well that all sounds lovely”
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Yes, love this scene.
I do like the quips - what about the meteorite in Blofeld’s lair?
“I think we’re meant to be impressed” he mutters to Madeleine.
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Craig doesn’t do ‘gags’ - on the nose ‘funnies’ - well at all (and why should he?). But he does these sardonic, dry quips perfectly.
SF gave him a few opportunities; the word association test scene is superb - Craig hits it out of the park. SP gave Bond far more moments like this in terms of a sardonic tone to the dialogue. Hope CJF has more of it lined up.
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“It’s the circle of life.”
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I watched Rogue Nation for the first time last night 
I know…watching it made appreciate Spectre even more, I am a big fan of Spectre despite its obvious flaws, it’s such a classier affair than RN was in my opinion . RN I enjoyed , but it’s very forgettable, Spectre is not
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“Sorry, but that last hand… Nearly killed me.” 
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The 'C ’ line in SP is probably the only time i’ve really laughed out loud at a Bond movie in the cinema.
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“You’re right Sir. You do have a tricky day ahead of you.”
In the Craig era, it’s spot on and lovely, but novel Bond would never have been so outright sarcastic to M.
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Really? I laughed a lot during the Connery and Moore eras.
Yes, the first time I laughed out loud at a Bond film was 1965 when Connery uttered the words “I think he got the point.” Course I was 11 years old.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s been loads of great wit in the bond movies since the beginning. But it’s usually sardonic, dry. Not lol stuff. More a satisfied chuckle.
The ‘C ‘ line was, for me both sardonic and lol. Wonderful stuff.
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I liked the humour in the Craig era, and some of it is very quick and you have to concentrate to catch it all.
Bond, Mathis and Fields have a humorous exchange at the airport in QoS.
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