I like to think that Doyle and Fleming would be proud of what others had done with the character. And not try to steal credit for every single idea(s), like Bob Kane did with Batman.
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With Fleming we know from the canon he was shaking up his own recipe quite a bit - leaving Bond backstage for a third of a book, ending books with either Bond’s death or an amnesiac hero fading into the landscape for example - and he also struggled with later books to make them ‘different’. Half jokingly he mentioned possible collaborations with other writers, and if that had been more of a thing outside The Saint, who knows what might have come of it?
There’s no doubt the films took liberties with both characters. But none of them actually diminished the respective canon. The Study in Scarlet is still what it is, regardless of Ritchie’s Holmes and Moffat’s Study in Pink. Moonraker is still a gripping novel no matter what MOONRAKER and DIE ANOTHER DAY make of the material. As long as these adaptations/interpretations entertain their audience I suspect their creators could be proud - if a little baffled - of what their work evolved into.
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He’s a perfect age for that film because he grounds it. A younger actor wouldn’t have had the nous to just sit back and let it flow. I think it’s why I prefer it to TSWLM it’s Rogers performance, he’s more relaxed in this, a conduit rather than a combustible force.
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I imagine at the very least he’d be honoured and even flabbergasted that the craze lasted this long. From his point of view the books were just things he wrote while staying in Jamaica. Fleming did demonstrate a willingness to embrace aspects of the movies, such as Connery’s heritage and increasing Bond’s humour. That’s an aspect of life I’m always fascinated by - how our point of view evolves over time. Tell the man who wrote Casino Royale in 1953 that he’d write Doctor No five years later. Moonraker (1979) took the existing traits of adventure and pushed them further, but I don’t think to an unrecognisable degree.
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Exactly. MR is a Classical Hollywood star vehicle updated to 1979. Sir Roger is getting a great salary; his craft is at its peak; knows his character will triumph in the end; and has nothing to prove.
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DUCK SOUP (1933)
THE OLD FASHIONED WAY (1934)
Two comedies from more than 90 years ago. Both still made me laugh out loud.
To be part of the chorus: DUCK SOUP is the best Marx Bros. movie. Leo McCarey was their best director (Groucho agrees), and his silent film background helps usher the movie along from scene to scene with grace and elan. His touch is light, and keeps things moving agreeably. Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby’s script (with insertions from the radio program “Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel”) segues nicely into the musical numbers (also written by Kalmar and Ruby)–a first for movies in having songs carry a narrative purpose.
Part of the joy of the film is that one never quite knows where it is going to go, and when it does arrive at a particular place, it does not stay there long. The big musical set piece “The Country’s Going to War” pinballs from one moment to the next like Busby Berkeley on acid.
Hail Freedonia, indeed!
Released by Paramount one year later is a mellower confection, THE OLD FASHIONED WAY. Growing up, the movie was a Christmas morning staple–after the presents under the tree and breakfast, there was W.C. Fields on Channel 11. Fields is The Great McGonigle–actor; impresario; flimflam man, and loving father. Based on a story written by Fields, we watch as The Great McGonigle outwits sheriffs; overacts in the chestnut 'The Drunkard"; juggles; seduces a widow for money; and gets the best of Baby Leroy. There is even a Stella Dallas moment when McGonigle overhears commentary on himself.
THE BANK DICK or NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK–those late Universal masterpieces–are films where Fields is all Fields (in the second the film his character is known simply as The Great Man), TOFW has a deep charm for me, and Fields’ performance is multifaceted, and beyond his usual henpecked husband or individual flummoxed by reality. I always enjoy the moment when he is dressing on the train, preparing to disembark at Bellefontaine for his troupe’s next performance, and he asks his assistant to get his parade costume. The combination of dignity and hope is sublime, and utterly Fieldsian.
Both of the films are available on line.
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After Hours (1985) Dir. Martin Scorsese
Loved this late-night mis-adventure film following a simple accountant who gets in way over his head once a phone call turns into ricochet of drama. I had to keep reminding myself it was a Scorsese film as it 1: wasn’t a mob movie and 2: was under 2 hours. High recommend!
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Nice to see Paul Thomas Anderson finally get some Oscar love. Even if he deserved the awards sooner. Also, Adrien Brody deserved to be heckled a bit after his overlong speech for no reason last year.
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Project Hail Mary
A gentler experience in some ways than the book, but overall a good time at the movies. There were moments that startled me with their fidelity to what I had imagined while reading. Plenty of laughs, too. The t-shirts in this thing were a riot.
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The Living Daylights - still very bi-polar with how it wants to be but hugely enjoyable. Not sure how this would’ve worked with Moore.
MOD NOTE: Moved from the Movies 2026 and beyond thread.
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The Running Man (2025)
It was an OK movie, but it was done in by the humor. There’s too much of it, and it’s a bit too over the top, for a film like this. I’ve never read the novel, so perhaps that’s in there, but for a story that hits home now far more than it did back when Schwarzenegger starred in the original, the humor feels way, way out of place.
The rest of it was pretty good, but the tone of the film very much betrays the story that it’s trying to tell.
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That kind of humor definitely is wrong for this story and King‘s intention. It’s like turning LTK into a musical.
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Please do not give people any ideas.
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A Real Pain (2024 film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, co-starring Keiran Culkin): We’d heard Eisenberg and Culkin interviewed on The Graham Norton Show and were intrigued. Then I forgot about it, as I often do, but my husband spotted A Real Pain in our streaming service, so we watched it last night.
A Real Pain is a comedy-drama about two cousins who go on what is essentially a Holocaust tour in Poland, in honor of their late grandmother. The chemistry between Culkin’s Benji and Eisenberg’s David makes this movie work. Benji is equal parts grating and endearing, contrasted with David’s introverted, nervous demeanor. If the actors weren’t so good with one another, their relationship wouldn’t be believable. They genuinely come across as two cousins who have known and loved one another their entire lives, then drifted apart as adults and are trying to reconnect after their beloved grandmother’s death.
Given the subject matter, you don’t expect a comedy, and it’s no laugh riot. A Real Pain’s comedic element comes mainly through Benji’s unfiltered, manic persona, which takes some getting used to (and not just by the other characters).
One of my lasting impressions is how beautifully A Real Pain was shot, scene after scene. We in the audience sense the horrors of the Holocaust not through the cinematography, but through the characters.
BTW, apparently Eisenberg cast Culkin sight unseen. Eisenberg was originally planning to play Benji (makes me wonder who he’d originally planned for David), but he decided that Culkin was a better fit based on his “essence”:
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I don’t know, Licence to Kill: The Musical wouldn’t be the worst idea to come around the franchise in recent years.
Maybe they could bring Pierce Brosnan in to play Killifer so he and Dalton could sing a duet called “Old Buddy” as they fight over the trap door above the great white shark.
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And ofcourse the shark sings also along with the voice of Stallone, because it is not just a shark….. it is King Shark!
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The Exorcist 2: The Heretic
One of the worst films of all time. Everything the original excels at this sequel fails spectacularly at. And so on.
Critics weren´t kind to John Boorman’s attempt at creating a second part to the zeitgeist gripping mega success of William Friedkin´s first movie. In fact, they slaughtered it and soiled Boorman’s reputation probably forever, even if he recovered with some films in his career later on.
I had never seen this, mainly because of that bad stench around it. But for some reason I thought I should at least try a few minutes and see what all the fuss is about.
Surprise. I actually liked this film quite a lot. It definitely is not one of the worst films of all time. Quite the contrary, it is constructed very intelligently, beautifully shot and scored (Ennio Morricone). It only commits one cardinal sin: it is completely different than the first film. The sheer terror Friedkin conjured is not what Boorman is after. Instead it is a meditation on how Good attracts Evil, how faith can be manipulated and everything on this planet is connected. It is about reality and dreams and how both can mirror themselves. It just is not following the same formula, not “another girl gets possessed”, but instead tries to tell the story of how Regan, now a young adult, tries to go on with her life but is still haunted by the specter of expectations and fears others project on her.
Once again: it is not horror Boorman is after. Instead the film is more of a drama with forays into the adventure genre.
But audiences wanted more of the same, not something different.
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It’s not even the worst film in its own franchise.
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In honor of its 35th anniversary, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Watching it with my dad (I know, nice father-son movie, lol), I noticed this time how cinematic it truly feels. Namely with its use of camera movements and focus, often at the same time. Clarice is noticeably shown to be in the middle of a man’s world in several scenes, in terms of blocking actors. As for Sir Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector, what can I say that already hasn’t been said, in terms of great acting? He owns the movie. As great as the two leads are, I’d like to offer praise to the main supporting players, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Brooke Smith and Anthony Heald. They portray their characters with the right tones and moods. If you enjoyed the movie, try reading the original Thomas Harris book. It’s just like reading the movie, with a few added details. All in all, SOTL is a great example of a horror story done smartly. It still stands on its own all these years later, and my mom said that this is the only movie that she saw in a theater twice. Both times the audiences were on the edges of their seats, she said. A rare horror/thriller that I can watch more than once, and a must have physical copy for me. A pretty much perfect movie for me. You just have to look CLOSER for those find details that make it great. It’s a great movie to have dinner with, provided that YOU aren’t the dinner.
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Agreed but… dinner? Watching it I have no desire to eat anything.
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