Interestingly, after the double attraction of OP and NSNA my hunger for Bond went down, and AVTAK was like a confirmation: been there, done that, move on.
I was 16 at that time.
TLD reignited my interest again, only for LTK ending it for the hiatus. But during my early 20‘s I became a snobbish arthouse fan, encouraged by my film professor.
Thankfully, that ended after I left university. Now I can enjoy both.
I am always struck by that as well. For me, there is an air of gentlemanliness to Bond’s interactions with women, which I ascribe to Sir Roger’s own personality informing this pinnacle iteration of Moore Bond: “You have a heat of gold” and “We really need to be getting back.” Of all Bonds, MR"s Moore Bond is the one I would most want to be. Alternatively, viewers looking for Bond to serve as a vicarious Lothario will be perpetually disappointed with MR–the combination of outer space and gentility is just not their glass of tea.
Also, I agree with SAF’s observation that MOONRAKER was designed to appeal to the family audience. I saw it first run with Mom, Dad, brother, and sister at a movie theater in Paramus, New Jersey. The poster we got that Saturday hung on the wall in our basement for years–along with the posters for CITIZEN KANE, FEDORA, and 1900.
It’s fascinating, I do think that Moonraker Bond would be my aspirational choice also. He is truly a gentleman. ( As I’m writing this my wife is laughing saying you may aspire but if pushed you are far more Dalton in LTK ! Meoww)
I love Moore and MR, too.
But his Bond is not a complete gentleman here, I believe.
He does force Corinne into a situation which is her death sentence (and does not think twice about it) and he immediately goes for the undressing to kill a few hours in Rio…
In a Nonchalant " if we must " way, echoing Connery in YOLT - " the things I do for England". Which begs the question, did Lewis Gilbert find the ‘romancing’ distasteful and make it into a joke hmmn
I watched a horror film called What Lies Below (2019)
Starts off interesting and then gets a bit silly.
Saw THE NORTHMAN with Alexander Skarsgard this week. Though grounded and gritty, it is very much a sword and sorcery tale at its core and owes a very big debt to Robert E. Howard and one specific Conan tale in particular clearly inspired an extended sequence in it. I would think anyone with a love for the work of Howard or authentic historical details painstakingly recreated would find it essential viewing. That said, it is a hallucinatory fever dream of a movie. And Skarsgard is a force of nature in it! I also especially liked the great cinematography and the excellent and unique period-style droning score. For me, Robert Eggers is one of the most interesting directors working in film today.
Last Friday,two of my work colleagues, wanting to take my mind off of my mum passing,took me to my beloved little flea pit cinema and we watched OPERATION MINCEMEAT, it was nice to see “Ian Fleming” appear in the movie!
Three tickets, three bags of Popcorn and three bottles of drink,all for £20! At a “proper cinema” it would cost nearly that for one person just to get in!
The Batman
Good in many aspects.
But the advantage of bringing this variation of the character to his detective qualities has one major disadvantage: the narrative structure of a detective story.
Meaning: crime scene, clues, talking, ACTION, crime scene, clues, talking, ACTION, and repeat that.
So after a great first hour the film settled into an all too predictable rhythm.
And… much too long, man. As so many Batman films it is overloaded with characters. Just focusing on one villain would have allowed to bring the film in under two hours and much tighter.
Damned universe building.
Just breaking into it. I feel oddly invested for which I blame you…you and your (shudder) good recommendation.
I know. Strange taste I have.
44:27 in. I’m (from memory of the book) well off the title death, but it’s already making an impression. The cast are clearly enjoying themselves (the French and Saunders reunion giving sparks) then Branagh’s use of colour and symmetry is beautiful.
His fake moustache is still…something.
1h: 38m
It’s showy, but it’s perfectly executed direction with the darkness and permanently spinning camera.
I will note that I’ve read the book. I know
the two that committed the murders
AVTAK just about to start 
Seeing it on the big screen again was actually great fun , it had more in common with Moonraker ( having seen them close together ) than I ever assumed. Stacey in surround sound is not as annoying as I would have thought.
For @MrKiddWint in particular Benson’s review is as follows…
" The stunt man was a better James Bond than George Lazenby, also Dad, if I was James Bond, listening to Stacey, I’d have left her in the elevator"
My Fellow Americans (1996)
Jack Lemmon, James Garner, Dan Aykroyd
Dir. Peter Segal
This was one of my favorite comedies when it came out back in 1996 and has remained one of my favorites in the years since, although I haven’t given it a viewing in quite a while.
It must be said, given the current political landscape, it makes MY FELLOW AMERICANS seem even more funny, given that the stakes of this film, at the time, seemed pretty high, yet would now be brushed off as “fake news” if they were to present the same film to the public today.
It’s a pretty simple tale. We spend the first few minutes seeing the results of three consecutive presidential elections. Jack Lemmon’s Russell Kramer wins the presidency and then loses four years later to his bitter rival Matt Douglas (James Garner). Douglas then turns around and loses four years later to Kramer’s Vice President, Bill Haney (Dan Aykroyd). Three years then pass and we see Kramer is on the sidelines, giving speeches to insurance companies and writing books while Douglas is also in the process of writing a book while also kicking the tires on a presidential campaign to take down Haney. A bribery scheme known as “Olympia”, which involved a contractor paying Aykroyd’s Haney kickbacks for defense contracts during Kramer’s administration, is dug up and the White House begins the spin process of trying to blame the entire thing on Lemmon’s Kramer.
What results is a film that combines two of my favorite types of comedies: the road trip comedy and the political comedy. With both men finding themselves suddenly incentivized to work together, Kramer and Douglas find themselves on the run from a rogue NSA agent (LTK’s Everett McGill), as they try to stay off the grid and make it from rural North Carolina to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where Kramer’s Presidential Library, and the potential key to exposing the coverup, is located.
Along the way, it’s a laugh a minute. Lemmon and Garner riff off of each other as though they’d been working together as long as Lemmon and Matthau had been. They trade barbs that always seem to hit their mark all while being completely game for the several action sequences they are asked to partake in, albeit with some dodgy blue-screen towards the end. Enough can’t be said about the performances of these two acting legends in this film.
Although, I must say, that watching it this time came with a bit of sadness as well, as while watching the opening credits you realize just how many of the great actors in this film have since passed away. Lemmon, Garner, Lauren Bacall, James Rebhorn, Wilford Brimley, Conchata Ferrell, Jack Kehler, and John Heard, who hilariously plays his character as obtuse caricature of Dan Quayle’s public persona), are all not with us now, and it is something that hits you every so often while watching the film.
The current political climate, though, does make this a bit funnier. Given the things that we’re fighting about now, watching the whole government get taken down by backroom defense contract kickbacks seems humoursly quaint by comparison, a plot that is the bygone of a much more simple, and desirable, era. It’s still a highly enjoyable comedy and the perfect fare for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
The Great Mouse Detective (1986).
What a underrated gem of a Disney adventure this is. It’s short and enjoyable for all ages. The thing that I admire most about it is that parodies Sherlock Holmes, without ever ripping on it. That’s rare both in and of a parody comedy. Vincent Price once said that he thought Professor Ratigan as one of his favorite roles, and you can tell he had fun with it. It’s a shame that it isn’t talked about more with good or memorable Disney Animation films. If you haven’t watched it recently, I highly recommend it. A childhood favorite for me.
A couple days ago I watched Hindenburg, which is about as exciting as I remember it being (which is to say, not at all). It takes the position that the airship was the target of sabotage, and stars George C Scott as the “hero,” Colonel Ritter, a career officer in the Luftwaffe who’s assigned to oversee security during the Hindenburg’s flight to the States, given that a threat has been made against it. Colonel Ritter is presented as a “sympathetic German” and not a dyed-in-the-wool Nazi so we’ll give a damn what happens to him. He also has a loving wife waiting for him back home. Ritter must be in a pretty safe position politically based on how he addresses Joseph Goebbels when he’s assigned the job. He says he “gets” that his job is to head off this plot from the German resistance movement. Goebbels angrily asserts that “There is no resistance!” and Ritter answers, “That’s very reassuring…coming from the Minister of Propaganda.” LOL
Anyway there’s a bit of decent effects work involved in recreating the Hindenburg for the screen, getting it airborne and flying it over the ocean, at one point in an electrical storm, but other than that, it’s a snoozefest. Most disaster films start with the disaster, or at least give it to us halfway through, so we can watch the characters cope and see what happens to whom. In this case, the disaster comes in the last few minutes and we already know what’s going to happen. For that matter, 90% of the “crash and burn” footage we do get is from the newsreel we’ve all seen a hundred times.
The cast is an interesting mix of “big names” like Anne Bancroft and Burgess Meredith and familiar-but-not-A-list faces like Alan Oppenheimer (Rudy Wells #2 on The Six Million Dollar Man and various voices in the He-Man cartoon series). The biggest surprise was the prominent role of William Atherton, aka the slimy reporter in the first two Die Hard movies, the dirtbag Professor Hathaway in “Real Genius” and “d*ckless” Walter Peck in “Ghostbusters.” I don’t know why I was so surprised to find him in a movie from 1975 – it wasn’t THAT long before his more famous roles – but it’s the youngest I’ve seen him. And already he’s playing someone who’s going to be trouble (spoilers!).
It was an interesting distraction, but I can’t really recommend it unless you’re a Hindenburg enthusiast, in which case you probably already own it. I looked it up and it did well at the box office despite a cool reception from the critics. Pauline Kael said of the film and its director Robert Wise, “One gasbag meets another.” Ouch. But never fear, a couple years after this ponderous chronicle of largely colorless characters killing time on a slow-moving journey while entirely confined to a famous vehicle, Wise will redeem himself with…um…Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Hoo boy.
The director who gave us THE SET-UP; I WANT TO LIVE!; ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW; THE HAUNTING; TWO FLAGS WEST; and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL requires no redemption–despite his glaring late career infelicities–THE HINDENBURG prominent among them.
And Run Silent, Run Deep, elements of which are recycled for ST:TMP as well as the series episode Balance of Terror. And to be fair, I’m a TMP fan. It just struck me as fascinating how Hindenburg mirrors it in ways.
Supposedly Wise was not happy having it called a “disaster film,” which put it on the level of something like Earthquake. I guess he saw it more as a drama than a spectacle. And it might have been if any characters were at all compelling.