Renewed appreciation for Spectre

DaveBond, I completely agree. QoS especially has some great lines, from arriving at the hotel to “I didn’t know he smoked.”

DC delivers those understated throw-away lines very well, but it’s clear that neither he, nor the current era, are as comfortable with the more overt gags. It’s why pretty much the whole car-chase in SP stands out in the wrong way for me.

Personally, I love the “not the sort of thing you put on a form” delivery, but it does jar with old people driving, Moneypenny in bed, and eye-rolling at 00-whoever’s taste in music.

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I liked that line as well. The clinic is one of the few moments in which Spectre works, and the humor used there is pretty good. The bit with the ordering of the martini is a good laugh as well. Much better than Bond falling on a couch or the entirety of that so-called “car chase”.

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I always thought the couch gag was funny. One of the few comedy bits that landed.

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In planning another holiday as of late to a destination I’ve never been to, I did ask of another fan “So where would a teacher on sabbatical who’s just won the lottery prefer to stay?”. We both had a good chuckle and they quickly shot me five different links to check out.

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I think they got away with the slap stick of the couch, but only because they didn’t labour it with a cheesy line to hammer it home. Instead it was left as is and works well for me.

That car chase, though! Cringeworthy! Pity, because the music was pretty great.

Nicely done :clap:

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And I thought no one would notice :smiley:

Isn’t this the appreciation thread for Spectre?

Appreciation for SPECTRE is a many-splendoured thing.

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I didn’t even take the couch “gag” as a gag, necessarily. There are plenty of real-world examples where something bizarre happens in mid-disaster, something that would be funny if the larger situation weren’t so dire. I know it’s a crap movie, but there’s a moment like this in “Batman v Superman” where after buildings have fallen and thousands are killed, the first thing Bruce Wayne sees coming out of the dust cloud is of all things a horse, which seems ridiculous and dream-like, until you realize it belonged to a mounted police officer. That comic-yet-nightmarish sense of disorientation that attends chaotic destruction can make for powerful imagery on film.

I took the couch scene the same way: Bond has just leveled a whole building and a moment after being in very real danger of death, he finds he’s sitting comfortably on a cushioned couch. It’s insane and illogical, but so is life. Then he gets up and keeps moving and the moment’s gone.

As for comedy in general, I think Craig is certainly capable – “Lucky Logan” is a hoot – but his Bonds leave little room for it, and at this point his version of the character is so set in stone (and sometimes seemingly made of it) that I don’t see that changing in Bond 25. Which leaves a lot of possibilities for his successor.

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Exactly how i read it; ‘gag’ is a quick way of identifying the moment, i guess. It illustrates how luck can be just as vital as all the skill & training in the world. I love that idea and for me it’s arguably one way of reflecting realism; luck sometimes being the decided factor.

Being a huge fan of The Pink Panther protagonist Clouseau i’ve long nurtured the vague and wacky notion that there’s a kind of greater power at work in the subtext of those movies, for which this most ill-equipped of individuals has somehow become the actor in our world.

Bond is kind of the opposite of Clouseau; in control, as often shown in his gambling. He always calculates and plays the odds and never relies on luck.

But, as a ‘Clouseau-worshiper’ it’s for me lovely to have moments in Bond that tip a hat to this notion of a deity named ‘Luck’ who tends to have favourites. In SP’s ‘couch moment’ Bond & Clouseau inhabit a shared universe.

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Sellers’ “Chauncey Gardner” character in “Being There” seems an extension of Clouseau in that respect: a serenely clueless simpleton who rises to great prominence through no skill of his own. The genius of the Panther movies is that Clouseau is the Road Runner and the Coyote all rolled into one: nothing ever goes according to his (needlessly complicated and harebrained) plans, yet somehow everything works out for him in the end, anyway. We can sympathize with Dreyfus – we’ve all seen idiots who got rewards they didn’t deserve – while never completely losing our identification with Clouseau, because we’ve all done plenty of stupid things, ourselves.

I don’t know, he can make some pretty reckless gambles, at least on film. Jumping onto the tail of a plane to save Octopussy, for one: did he really have an exit strategy, there? Then doing the same with the dirigible in the next film (and for what? To save Stacey Sutton of all people? Please). Even if we limit ourselves to the more “sober” Craig-Bond, the “strategy” of removing M to Skyfall with no back-up, no “safety net” and few weapons seems like the biggest case of “who needs a plan, it’ll all workout somehow” in the history of the series. Of course the interesting part is that unlike what might’ve happened in the “classic Bond” era, it doesn’t work out in SF. Not even close.

Interestingly, way back in '85, my younger brother came out of AVTAK saying, “that wasn’t a James Bond movie, that was a Clouseau movie. He didn’t make anything happen, everything happened to him.” I’m still not sure I agree with that evaluation, but it’s an interesting take.

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Better not let him see Goldfinger…

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Yes, but in Goldfinger, Bond doesn’t land rump-first onto a wedding cake. :slight_smile:

I actually got to see GF on the big screen with my brother last year, which was cool because we hadn’t seen a movie together since about 1990, and I’d never seen GF in a theater at all. He didn’t bring up the “Clouseau” complaint. And as I said, I’m not even sure I followed the logic of it, anyway.

His Logic is very sound , I love Mark Gatiss speaking about AVTAK saying when he saw it in the cinema with his Dad, his Dad turned to him and said " Christ son if the western world’s in their hands were all buggered"

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Looking around now…

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Clouseau and Bond both epitomize what was referred to as the unwritten “Eleventh Commandment” - “Thou Shalt Not Give Up”… Regardless of formulaic tropes.

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Bond then opening a door to exit the ruined room would’ve further built on that surreal tone.

Landing on the couch, for me, actually is a fun Bondian moment. No problem with that. Only with the generic chase afterwards.

It’s less a chase and more a phone call. Gotta say though, I do enjoy the weapons not being loaded idea, along with the flamethrower and ejector seat usage. I think the old man being rammed is fun, especially considering the Craig era gets criticised for being too serious at times.

Indeed, the Craig era can’t win. First it’s too dark and serious, then it’s just ‘silly’ (see sofa bit and ‘car chase’ in Spectre).

I for one loved the sofa bit in Spectre. It reminded me of the bit in CR when Bond burst through the wall during the construction site chase- it’s the last thing you expect. I love Craig’s reaction to landing on it too, and the ornament thing he tosses aside. Very Bondian.

Everything about Spectre is very good in my eyes, apart from three things.

  1. The title song

  2. The stupid chase in the alps when Bond is in the plane pursuing Madeleine. A beautiful location which could have had a cracking ski chase- wasted. Bond somehow steering the plane around despite it being busted and smashing into the cars was just unsatisfying.

  3. The third act- breaking out of Blofeld’s lair with such ease and shooting the helicopter down.

Those things aside, the pre-titles in Mexico, Bond’s chemistry with M, and insulting C, murdering Sciarra’s assassins, the clinic scene, train fight, torture scene- great stuff.

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