So, jamesbond.com is starting another marketing campaign, insisting on the October release:
Going through the motions or determined to do it for real this time?
The Amazon/MGM thing might change the game. MGM no longer need it to make pre-pandemic money.
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Time will tell. They say October but donât cite the year.
Is that so?
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The italics was to really emphasise the need. Itâs no longer the film needs to make more money than any Bond film ever or MGM goes under.
Whether or not the shareholders would be okay with it is another matter.
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This October is in the copy, and the US version airing during the Olympics specifically has October 8.
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Edit; Rotten Tomatoes places Spectre above all but For Your Eyes Only in the run bookended by maud adams. The critical dislike for TSWLM surprises me>
I know a lot of people on here love TSWLM. While I am really glad it brings them joy, I am among those who would have it near the bottom of the Bond films. I was 9 years old when it came out and loved Roger Moore when I was young. When I watch it or Moonraker now, I feel like I am watching Bond does Austin Powers. That said, there are some scenes in both those movies I do really like. As I grew older, I began to look for Bond movies that were closer to the spirit of the books and along came Timothy Dalton⌠For my money, SPECTRE is far superior to any of the Moore films save FYEO (which is great). But to each his own and as I say, I am very happy there are people who draw joy from TSWLM. All to say, I am not surprised by the critical dislike of that film.
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I agree with you. Oddly, they put Moonraker (an almost identical film) quite a few places above it.
Reason and logic apparently has no place on review aggregators
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And so it beginsâŚ
Only in the UK where itâs distribution are a low budget affair/indies only, this particular one will be the added expense of Covid precautions on the Press tour
(Entertainment Films - YouTube)
The question is, can other distributions afford to release their films?
If not for that Amazon buyout, MGMâs answer would be a firm no. Universal have so far decided they can (FF9 - street racers drive their cars IN SPACE) but it is a coin toss really.
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No surprise here. Once the vaccines proved to be highly effective back at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, there was always the probability that weâd have a stretch where things were looking fairly good, some semblance of normalcy returned to our lives, before the selfishness and stupidity of a large number of people took all of that away again. Once science solved the problem, there was always going to be the phase of this where the anti-science crowd struck back, and thatâs where weâre headed right now and into the fall. If many of the worldâs superpowers are not back under some kind of lockdown come the fall, Iâll be shocked beyond belief.
Not sure what the answer here is for MGM and EON regarding NTTD. I donât think theyâre going to be able to rely on Amazon to financially bail them out in the short term, as Iâd imagine the US government is going to be bending over backward to slow walk the sale process. Theyâre going to fall incredibly short of their expectations at the box office by releasing it in October/November, when mask mandates are back as well as the probability on limits to the number of people who can attend public activities, such as the cinema. I doubt weâll be in a position where releasing NTTD in October/November makes much financial sense for MGM, but then again does holding onto it for yet another six months help them either?
I donât know the answer to that question and am glad I donât have to make the decision. Still holding out on my longstanding prediction from last year that we wonât see Bond until sometime in 2022. Still seems the most likely, especially with Delta raging and Lambda (and potentially worse variants) lurking in the background.
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I see MR as an improved version of TSWLM. The former film established a new Moore Bondâone that fit Moore perfectlyâand the action and set-pieces are fine. But MR tweaks the formula in just a few key places to result in the highpoint of Moore Bond. I particularly enjoy:
Lois Chiles as Dr. Goodheadâone of the few Bond women to never don a bikini (she wears the skimpiest outfit in the movie poster).
Michel Lonsdale as Drax (so much better than Kurt Jurgens)
No USSR/Cold War plot complications
A better PTS
Barry (entering his symphonic stage) instead of Hamlisch
MR is truly a star vehicle for Sir Roger
The different ways Bond finds to succeedâespecially when he has to use wit to get Jaws onto his side.
The flow from set-piece to set-piece.
I will quote again from the great Tom Allenâs review in The Village Voice:
⌠it is as stylized as animation, and as choreographed as musical comedy⌠The people who made this impudent, wry, and exhilarating movie completely left out the '70s and its predominating motif of realism. Moonraker is the most expensive avant-garde movie since Barry Lyndon
Amen.
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Moonraker holds a very special place in my heart. I was at the premiere. So many moments and most of itâs first half is Bond doing detective work aside from the action bits. Bond arriving it Rio (Love Barryâs track) and the establishment of locale is evocative of the early films.
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Moonraker was my first Bond and therefore is my most special one: it set the template for what I thought a Bond film should be ((I remember getting a nasty surprise with For Your Eyes Only, though I love it now). Drax remains the greatest villain with so many witticisms and the set designs are just incredible, with the Amazon base being my favourite. So happy to see it getting some love here!
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And a new TV spot:
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With the Maserati badge now removed from the carâs grill on the bridge!
Not my brilliance. Someone else on MI6.
I guess if youâre not paying for it, youâre anonymised.
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I still think this movie is one giant deep fake. No Time To Die doesnât actually exist. Itâs the real reason the film keeps getting delayed. There is no film.
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Just wanted to be the wisecrack and say that itâs a Lancia, not a Maserati, because old Lancia grills used to look very similar. Good that I checked before, it is indeed a 1990s Quattroporte
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A 90s Quattroporte in a 20s Bond film. The villains are squeezing the expenses triggerâŚ
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I recall in NSNA they had to tape over the Chevy emblems on the Camaro Bond jumped over because they hadnât gotten the licensing from GM.
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