Regarding the bucket I don´t think Roger did a lot of real flying by himself in OP and sorry, but your dislike of Brandauer doesn´t make it a bad movie…
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I’d say with some elements NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is the more entertaining film than THUNDERBALL. That weird training exercise at the beginning, the weird M (that is actually seven years younger than Bond). And then it was simply a joy to see Connery back (with a Bentley!) and the fight at Shrublands was a treat.
After that it’s a bit hit and miss for a while. Having Petachi addicted to heroin seemed like a risky thing, killing him with a thrown snake (that didn’t do him any harm) was almost as scurrilous and complicated as Helga Brandt’s scheme to kill Bond.
In some scenes the film is quite enjoyable - but a lot of it is really standard 80s action fare. And it’s doubtful this remake would have interested audiences hadn’t it been for Connery’s return. That was the main attraction. The rest was a reheated stew of an already passé story, sprinkled with some might-have-been.
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And Bernie Casey was a cool Felix in this one who looked like he could really do some damage, I liked the relationship between him and Bond: real buddies but battleworn…
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Indeed, one would have liked to see these two together more often.
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Someone recently asked me if Bond fans are resistant to change. In my view, yes and no. On both sides, fans and behind the scenes, in all media.
EON: it’s been shown in many ways, in particular with the general audience. Think about the jarring tone in particular with going from Moore to Dalton. It’s in someways better that the same creative team behind Moore’s later movies, as Dalton’s. As new writers and a new director would have made the shift more noticeable, in more ways than one. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t moment for Bond, perhaps the biggest one of all. Simply due to change. Or look at Moore, always signing up at the last minute. If NSNA wasn’t released, we probably would have gotten James Brolin as Bond. For me, another reason I wish NSNA was never made. This is an example of the EON behind the scenes people not wanting change. Arguably, out of ego. But it overall did hurt Dalton at the time. The same thing arguably happened with EON with Daniel Craig and their main writers, in the last era. EON didn’t want to change. Now they arguably have no choice. The fans probably want a number of changes for Bond’s cinematic future.
IFP: They held onto John Gardener for too long. It was shown in the creative side of him. Raymond Benson actually did the right amount. But you could tell when he was a beginning author, and when he wanted out. Then, IFP let the adult Bond sit unfairly, when a new adult novel could have easily fit in (a novelization of Everything or Nothing would be one of my choices). Now, for the fans side of things, for IFP. Since DMC by Faulks, the fans have had mixed feelings about IFP’s choices. The “Faulks writing as Fleming” enraged a lot of fans, in particular because Faulks added nothing new, or pushed Bond forward. When Deaver did his own spin on Bond, people felt like it wasn’t Bond, particularly Bond’s character. When IFP heard this, they stayed in Fleming’s timeline. William Boyd and Solo was a true mixed bag for both fans and IFP. It did arguably paid off with the Horowitz beginning, middle, and end Bond trilogy. Next, when IFP announced spin-offs, fans weren’t happy. The Kim Sherwood duology (hopefully trilogy) was given mixed opinions (although A Spy Like Me has more positive than negative opinions). A unique experiment for sure. Now, let’s see if The Q Mysteries (Quantum of Menace) will work. IFP planned more than one story for these, so it’s truly a test of faith. I have always been happy that these spinoffs are in the present day. That’s when Fleming wrote his classic stories. Setting Bond and his world in the past isn’t a big creative risk taker. As fans have often said, no one can truly write like Fleming. And it’s a hard fact that fans have to face.
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20 random musings:
Anya is wooden and TSWLM’s weak link
With MR/OHMSS being embraced, TMWTGG is the most underrated
FYEO is Moore’s weakest, not AVTAK
LALD hasn’t aged well
QoS’s deleted final scene is the most consequential in the series
Dalton wasn’t any more physically convincing than Roger
Dalton is a great actor but lacks star power
TLD is the ideal template for James Bond films
The Miami Airport sequence in CR should’ve been trimmed or removed
OHMSS is great because of Lazenby, not despite him
The Piz Gloria ski escape remains the best action sequence
GE is important, and I still like it, but overrated
Brosnan was a popular Bond who deserved five films
The Brosnan era tackled certain Craig era elements first and better
NTTD is the best final film for a Bond actor
Despite good work on CR/QoS, Arnold never topped his TND score
Charles Gray had the best demeanour for Blofeld
DAF has the wittiest script in the series
OP is the better movie but NSNA is entertaining and influential
Bond will always be popular, but 1995-2002 was the modern peak
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Interesting, and I agree on most of these.
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I’ve come to think that a few times myself over the years. The female parts in Moore’s era have often been quite weak, but the actresses usually delivered on a certain level. Bach really sticks out somewhat unfavourably among these. I read somewhere Catherine Deneuve was in consideration for the part. If true, that would certainly have upped the impact of Amasova. Or at least they could have chosen one of the female co-stars from The Saint, Jean Marsh or Ros Drinkwater, if Deneuve absolutely was too expensive.
Shame.
The most demanding part actually seems to have been the pts of THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. I remember I was very impressed by Dalton just running down that sentry, a scene we wouldn’t have seen with Moore for some years.
That said, I think the general build of Moore, Dalton and Brosnan is perhaps closer to Fleming’s idea when overly trained physicality was an abstract and so rare Bond notices it as peculiar in Red Grant. Bond is supposed to be reasonably fit, sure. But a bodybuilder physique only came to the part with Connery - and finally Craig.
This is one of the huge set pieces - but strangely enough it makes that part seem somehow small. It’s not so much the way it wasn’t shot in Miami but the somewhat absurd way a simple code word was effectively all that kept a terrorist from blowing up half the airport. CARRY-ON showed how the stakes could have been upped there.
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And I hope it doesn’t continue with the next guy, but I’m sure that’s a lost cause.
Dalton was intense enough that it didn’t occur to me for a long time that he wasn’t “physically convincing”…until we saw him shirtless in LTK. Then I thought, “oh, well he’s kind of average, isn’t he?” At the time, like Dustin I put it down to another area where Dalton was accurate to Fleming, who did not write Bond as a Charles Atlas type (it would have been hard, based only on his morning exercise regimen and the contributing factor of scores of cigarettes a day).
But with that “he’s not that imposing” thought now in my head, I started paying closer attention to the fight scenes, and here there’s an awkwardness to Dalton’s movements. Maybe “clumsiness” would be a better word. There are times where it looks his punches leave him off balance, and he gets in his own way with his long limbs like a teenager who’s just had a growth spurt. Looking back, I think the best fight in the Dalton era didn’t even involve him; it’s between Necros and the MI-6 agent in the kitchen.
On the upside, he could run better than Roger, so yes that bit where he steamrollers the sentry at Gibraltar looks good.
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Great list!
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This is one of my many pet peeves.
Until the 00‘s only the Stallones and Schwarzeneggers were so buffed up that they could have been sold as action figures.
Male actors were a bit chiseled at best, but more athletic than bodybuilding steroid types.
Since then even guys in Romantic Comedies look like spending many hours a day with a personal trainer and cook.
Hence, Craig buffing up for Bond.
I would love the next actor to just be athletic. But it seems more likely that he will also look like a Marvel hero.
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Haha! Very witty! 
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This reminds me of when I saw SPECTRE… At the part where Madeline is at the clinic giving him the intake questions and she asks “Do you excercise” and he says “When I have to” and a guy in the back of the theater shouts “Oh f**k off” 
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Great and interesting viewpoints.
In terms of Anya being wooden, it’s a rare time that I blame the actress in this case. I won’t fault Barbara Bach entirely as she was a last minute casting choice. However, the writing material for the Bond Woman is stronger than usual. She feels more human as a character with the writing. Her reactions are fairly natural, in her situations.
TMWTGG is underrated. It has a fairly realistic plot(s) for a Bond Story. Both the assassin’s ego and the energy crisis are real world problems, 50 years later.
I agree with you on TND being Arnold’s best music score. All in a Day’s Work is probably my favorite overall Bond track from him. City of Lovers from CR is a close second.
I agree about Brosnan’s era doing certain elements from Craig’s first and better. The main problem with Craig’s is that they tended to overdo the small human moments. They basically turned those little human moments into a flat-out part of the main plot. To the point there wasn’t really any surprise.
FYEO for me is possibly one of the least memorable Bond movies in general.
Charles Gray as Blofeld is more entertaining than Christoph Waltz as Blofeld. The writing helped Gray camp it up. The writing for Waltz felt forced with his personal revenge plot against Bond. Darker Bond is not always better than Campy Bond.
I view that Brosnan got five movies, thanks to Everything or Nothing trying and succeeding as being a Bond movie, only as a video game.
I can see why you see GE as overrated. While it is important, its middle section does drag a bit. However, it does pickup slack with a great finale.
Some of my shocking confessions. Mine are more novel and video game based.
I actually feel sad for Jeffery Deaver. He went so far to modern Bond and his characters. For either him or someone else to continue Carte Blanche feels like wasted potential.
When I consider Bloodstone and Goldeneye (2010) canon with the movies, Bond’s story arc in SF makes more sense. I also believe that the “boss” for Nicole Hunter was Blofeld in SP. I think Alec Trevelyan was acting alone. Also, for GE 2010, I wish that Sean Bean could have comeback to voice the character. With the older mentor figure to Bond as was the plan in the original GE movie. Same with Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp.
The most cringe-worthy line delivery for me in the movies is in TB with Patrica Fearing and her obnoxious “JAMES, JAMES WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Terrible dubbing!
A great list @sharpshooter I hope you like mine!
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I’ve been saying this for years. After Higson’s Young Bond entries and a “one-off” in Fleming’s timeline to commemorate his centennial (DMC), Deaver’s Carte Blanche felt like a fresh start to the series – charting a genuinely new course in the modern era (unlike, say, Gardner or Benson, who always had Fleming’s novels as part of their backstory). It was a great opportunity to start anew without any baggage.
And here we are almost 15 years later, with all sorts of muddled timelines and side stories and possible retcons. If IFP were not able to legitimately commit to starting and maintaining a new continuity, then what was the point? Maybe Deaver should have just written in Fleming’s timeline (like Faulks, Boyd, and Horowitz).
And I say all this as someone who genuinely enjoyed Carte Blanche.
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Deaver to me seemed a man who really knew what he was doing, but he never made himself much illusions that it was more than a one off job. I was fortunate to do an interview with him when he was on a German CB release event in Frankfurt. Nice chap, and made it easy for the more or less inexperienced “fan interviewer” I was back in the day. He said he’d certainly be happy if CB was made into a movie, but with not very high hopes.
Thought that it might be a start into a new direction after the (more or less) disappointment with DMC, but it wasn’t meant to be.
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And it’s unlikely to be picked up after more than a decade. After all, even Deaver’s born in 1979 version would by now be 46.
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I have ten more to chew on:
Vehicle gadgets are more exciting than field gadgets
Jack Wade is better than most Felix Leiters
Films should now embrace continuation content more strongly
The films require some degree of camp/silliness
Horror elements are their most effective in MR
Few Bond girls match Kara Milovy and her chemistry with Dalton
Sean Connery will always be the standard
Despite other issues, QoS is the most stylish/dynamic Craig film
Lighter films are not detrimental and grow the franchise more
The low key, detective elements of DN should be used more often
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