Bond... James Bond.

[AIM]

My buddy is a huge James Bond fan, and he's claiming that this Bond film will be the greatest one ever. He watches every Bond film from beginning to end whenever a new 007 film is about to be released. It does look pretty cool though.

Is anyone going to watch this film this weekend?

[Mark Asher]

I might take my kids. They want to see it. I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but I have no idea how good it is, of course.

[Tyjenks]

I kinda lost interest in the bond films after Timothy Dalton signed on. They seem to have become cheesier and cheesier. One liners, gadgets and all. I am not sure I have seen even one with Pierce in it (although I have seen every episode of Remington Steele with him and Stephanie Zimbalist).

Sean Connery was the shit. Roger Moore was somewhat lesser shit and Timothy Dalton gave me the shits.

[Met_K]

It's a return to the best era of Bond films---Dr. No, Goldfinger, etc. With this Bond flick, they're actually making Bond into a respectable spy again, albeit it's not the best Bond movie, but it's far from the worst. It'll rank up there in the top few.

I'm glad to see they're returning to their roots and making him into Bond, James Bond, again. Instead, they were turning him into Generic Hunt, Ethan Hunt, Clone.

[AIM]

I kinda lost interest in the bond films after Timothy Dalton signed on. They seem to have become cheesier and cheesier. One liners, gadgets and all. I am not sure I have seen even one with Pierce in it (although I have seen every episode of Remington Steele with him and Stephanie Zimbalist).

Sean Connery was the shit. Roger Moore was somewhat lesser shit and Timothy Dalton gave me the shits.

Yea.. Mr. Dalton allmost single handily destroyed the Bond series. My buddy can not stand him. And actually, Pierce makes a very good Bond.

[Tyjenks]

And actually, Pierce makes a very good Bond.

Better than he was as a love starved scientist in Dante's Peak? Inconceivable!!

[Desslock]

I have no interest whatsoever in the new Bond movie. The series now resembles its own carciatures, like Austin Powers, more than it resembles the Connery Bond movies. I actually much preferred Dalton's Bond to Brosnan's version -- at least Dalton had some of Connery's toughness, while Bronsan has Moore's smarmyness.

[Mark Asher]

Another reason to go. From Blues:

"This Blizzard Entertainment Press Release announces plans to premiere a new cinematic trailer for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos in theaters beginning tomorrow with the opening of James Bond: Die Another Day. The new trailer will also appear "before such movies as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Star Trek: Nemesis, and Solaris." Word is: "Additionally, patrons of AMC Theatres will be able to take home a free Warcraft III Game Sampler CD-ROM when they purchase a large Coke and a Butterfinger candy bar at the concession stand. This exclusive disc includes a playable demo of the game, featuring three new Warcraft III single-player missions, and three new multiplayer maps to be used with the full version of the game."

A new trailer and you can grab a demo with some new missions.

[Tyjenks]

I have no interest whatsoever in the new Bond movie. The series now resembles its own carciatures, like Austin Powers, more than it resembles the Connery Bond movies.

I started to say that exact same thing, but I have used the word 'caricature' ~3 times in the last week or so. I need to pull out the old Thesaurus and find some synonyms. Plus, I believe I have spelled it in a different incorrect way each time.

All the believability and any tension in the Bond films went right out the window around the time Moonraker came out.

[Tyjenks]

A new trailer and you can grab a demo with some new missions.

Do you think Blizzard was saving the public release of a WC3 demo for this? Interesting.

[Mark Asher]

A new trailer and you can grab a demo with some new missions.

Do you think Blizzard was saving the public release of a WC3 demo for this? Interesting.

Maybe, though I think it's more a matter of going after a target audience they might not otherwise hit with game magazine ads and game website coverage. The number of people who will go to a movie primarily to see the trailer and grab the demo has to be small.

I'd have to think Blizzard is paying a lot for this kind of exposure.

I have to admit to wanting to see the trailer on a big screen. Could be pretty cool. And the demo for Starcraft was interesting. It had missions that foreshadowed events in the full game.

[Chris]

It's a return to the best era of Bond films

It's funny, this is what they said about the first Dalton Bond movie. They were moving away from the silliness that crept into the series under Moore's portayal and going back to the grittier version of Bond. In addition, they were toning down the smoking and womanizing due to the anxiety of the times. It didn't take long for the over-the-top aspects to work their way back into the series.

Of course, earlier they were retooling the franchise with Roger Moore's For Your Eyes Only, as a means to make up for the cheesiness of Moonraker.

I liked the first Dalton Bond, but hated the second. I only enjoyed the first Brosnan Bond, again I thought his second one was horrible. Still, I always enjoyed the Bond movies so I'll probably see this one.

[Anonymous]

Bond has totally gotten formulaic and predictable, and it bugs the hell out of me that they keep making these movies. Dull, dull, dull.

He doesn't actually "spy" anymore, he's just a overblown action figure.

They really neutered everything great about Bond when they made him more politically correct. The great Bond movies are the ones when he has a sadisitc edge to him and he just screws every woman in sight with no guilt.

[Bub, Andrew]

Another reason to go. From Blues:

AMC Theatres will be able to take home a free Warcraft III Game Sampler CD-ROM when they purchase a large Coke and a Butterfinger candy bar at the concession stand.

A new trailer and you can grab a demo with some new missions.

Yeah, but what do you do with that Butterfinger bar? Eugh!

[Bub, Andrew]

I think Bond "lost it" when they ran out of Ian Fleming books.
Aside from The Spy Who Loved Me, which I love because I saw it as a kid, I think only the Connery Bonds are worth anything. Particularly Goldfinger.

[Ben Sones]

I just can't get past how these films have become such blatant vehicles for product placement and tie-in marketing (sometimes for products that don't even have anything to DO with the film). It makes the whole experience feel sort of like a 90 minute commercial.

[Mark Asher]

I think Bond "lost it" when they ran out of Ian Fleming books.
Aside from The Spy Who Loved Me, which I love because I saw it as a kid, I think only the Connery Bonds are worth anything. Particularly Goldfinger.

I don't think they've aged well. If you want to talk Austin Powers spoofs, many of the Connery films are closer to that than the Brosnan ones, IMO. I do think Goldfinger is the best, followed by From Russia with Love.

[Mark Asher]

I just can't get past how these films have become such blatant vehicles for product placement and tie-in marketing (sometimes for products that don't even have anything to DO with the film). It makes the whole experience feel sort of like a 90 minute commercial.

Well, if the TIVO devices result in more and more commercials being skipped, expect a lot more of this in network TV.

[Bub, Andrew]

If you want to talk Austin Powers spoofs, many of the Connery films are closer to that than the Brosnan ones, IMO.

Well of course they are!
Myers is spoofing 60's Bond films and "Our Man Flint" with Austin Powers. Connery is also the Bond archetype. Why would he use a 60's character to spoof Brosnan's Bond du jour?

[Murph]

I haven't been able to finish a Bond film with Brosnan. Well, maybe Goldeney -- I might have sat all the way through that one, now that I think about it, but I didn't care much for it. (The N64 game was great, though. :) )

None of the others have managed to catch me, either. I just don't like Brosnan in that role. (And I grew up on Remington Steele reruns. :) )

[Anonymous]

I have no interest whatsoever in the new Bond movie. The series now resembles its own carciatures, like Austin Powers, more than it resembles the Connery Bond movies. I actually much preferred Dalton's Bond to Brosnan's version -- at least Dalton had some of Connery's toughness, while Bronsan has Moore's smarmyness.

Agree completely.I also think that the great Bond movies were in part great due to the times-they are perfect backdrops to their cold war era,and they do a pretty good job of outlining that era in their own way.The post-Connery Bonds are just more action movies to either like or dislike,and they really offer nothing in the way of period atmosphere.

[Jason Becker]

I believe Dalton never even really wanted to be Bond, and it showed in his perfomance. His second one where he goes rogue was just plain bad. Brosnan is a very good fit IMO. His first was the best(The tank chase scene was cool). The second was ok with the Hong Kong female action star in it. The last sucked. No idea why they thought that bimbo 'Wild Things' chick was a good cast.

[Brad Grenz]

Yeah, like anyone was going to buy Denise Richards as a "nucular" scientist. I can buy Bond driving a jet boat on city streets, but that I could not buy.

[Jakub]

Dalton was my favorite Bond. License to Kill wasn't a very Bond-like movie, the script sucked but I still liked Dalton's portrayal of Bond.

Back to the main top. What I've seen of cutscenes and promos of the new Bond leaves me with mixed feelings.

On the positive side, there's a Bond villain again. On the negative, Brosnan seems to be at his most wooden. It's like watching Harrison Ford "act". Bond seems to be a totally one-dimensional character, with absolutely no variety of expression beyond a cocky half-smile and a few dandy quirks. I like Brosnan, but he's got to do more with Bond than this. In fact, he did, back when he was called Remington Steele.

While no one has ever accused Bond girls of being Oscar nominees*, Halle Berry is just wrong. Heather Locklear might be a bit old, but she's got more charm in her pinky finger than Halle has in her (admittedly magnificent) body. But if you're going to pick someone solely based on looks, why not just go straight for the top - Laetitia Casta?


*No, I don't take the Oscars seriously. Anybody who does, try to remind me just what movie beat out Saving Private Ryan for Motion Picture of the Year, off the top of your head.

[Tyjenks]

One huge positive: John Cleese as Q.

[Jason Levine]

One huge positive: John Cleese as Q.

Yeah, but I liked Desmond Llewelyn. And he had the best Q line:

"I never joke about my work, 007." -- Goldfinger

And as for the quality of the various Bond movies, there's From Russia With Love and there's Goldfinger, and then there's all the rest.

[Tyjenks]

One huge positive: John Cleese as Q.

Yeah, but I liked Desmond Llewelyn. And he had the best Q line:

"I never joke about my work, 007." -- Goldfinger


He will be sorely missed, I agree.

The whole PC, non-slutty Bond turn it took with Dalton was more than I could stomach.

[mtkafka]

I think Dalton was pretty good as Bond though probably the most serious of all Bonds.

I look at the Bonds in this way

Connery - The scottish rogue type
that guy in late 60's - seems almost American
Moore - Londoner high class
Dalton - almost Irish heavy handed type
Brosnan - throwback to Moore with modern class.

etc

[Tyjenks]

I think Dalton was pretty good as Bond though probably the most serious of all Bonds.

I look at the Bonds in this way

Connery - The scottish rogue type
that guy in late 60's - seems almost American
Moore - Londoner high class
Dalton - almost Irish heavy handed type
Brosnan - throwback to Moore with modern class.

etc

Was that 'In Her Majesty's Secret Service'?

[DrCrypt]

George Landry. And although Landry himself is mediocre as Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service ties Goldfinger and From Russia, With Love as the best all-around Bond films. Best Bond girl, too.

[DangerMouse]

It was George Lazenby in OHMSS

And I rate Dalton above Moore. Yes the scripts sucked as they tried to make it PC, but Dalton came closer to the mean, sadistic hedonist Bond that Fleming created and Connery made his own than Moore or Brosnan ever did.

Roger Moore is without a doubt the worst bond EVER. That smarmy, upper class english wanker routine is an insult to the Fleming books.

I would love to see them take Bond back to his routes. A proffesional, commited agent who does what it takes to get the job done for Queen and country. A man who enjoys a drink, a smoke,is not afraid to beat the crap out of someone to get the info he needs and is more than happy to bang a chick afterwards.

Give Colin Farrell 5 more years and he would be a perfect Bond

[Jason Levine]

George Landry. And although Landry himself is mediocre as Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service ties Goldfinger and From Russia, With Love as the best all-around Bond films. Best Bond girl, too.

I believe that's George Lazenby. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was certainly the most faithful movie to the book, but Lazenby was a bit too laid back for my tastes. As for Bond girl, Diana Rigg or Honor Blackman? Emma Peel or Cathy Gale? Tough choice.

[Anonymous]

Screw Colin Farrel. Can't stand that bastard.

Clive Owen. There's your next Bond. Just watch Croupier and his BMW films.

[Thierry Nguyen]

Give Colin Farrell 5 more years and he would be a perfect Bond

Or let Clive Owen be BOND RIGHT NOW.

[Anonymous]

Clive Owen also had had a great British series on Mystery where he played a Chief Detective of the Metropolitan Police going blind due to a genetic disease, but he kept it a secret because he was obsessed with doing his job and didn't want to get relieved. Every episode it gets tougher and tougher for him to conceal the the truth, so he manages to solve one last major homicide case and then he announces his sudden and surprise retirement at a press conference.

I really liked that series.

[Tyjenks]

Clive Owen. There's your next Bond. Just watch Croupier and his BMW films.

Ooooh. Good call. Croupier, yippee!

[Anonymous]

Hasn't Brosnan said this is his last Bond? That he wants to move on and make room for the next guy?

Yeah, Clive Owen is the guy. Just ignore the fact that he had the starring role in Privateer II. *shudder*.

[Tyjenks]

Hasn't Brosnan said this is his last Bond? That he wants to move on and make room for the next guy?

He knows Bond has been good to him as it has provided him with the pull and freedom to work on other projects he would, otherwise, not have been able to do. I bet he will do them as long as they want him. I had not heard him say this might be the last, though.

[Jason Levine]

Clive Owen also had had a great British series on Mystery where he played a Chief Detective of the Metropolitan Police going blind due to a genetic disease, but he kept it a secret because he was obsessed with doing his job and didn't want to get relieved. Every episode it gets tougher and tougher for him to conceal the the truth, so he manages to solve one last major homicide case and then he announces his sudden and surprise retirement at a press conference.



Hmm, an actor to play Bond who starred as an ill detective in a TV series. . . How about Tony Shaloub?

[Anonymous]

I really haven't noticed that. What have been his major non-Bond roles since he's taken up the role?

The Thomas Crowne Affair
Tailor of Panama
He's got a new, small Miramax-type movie about playing the father who challeneged Ireland's child custody laws and won.

Check out the last para... this is just one of the articles I found googling
http://www.manlyweb.com/entertainment/jamesbond/piercebrosnan.htm

Also, Brett Ratner said last year in an article that when he was vying for the director role of Bond 20. Then again, Ratner also said that Bond 19 would have been his last Bond movie if the Brocoli's didn't pick him to direct.

http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/story/0,1259,---7618,00.html

[Anonymous]

Hmm, an actor to play Bond who starred as an ill detective in a TV series. . . How about Tony Shaloub?

Hey, back in 1987, would you have picked Bruce Willis, the guy known only for Moonlighting, to play a hard-assed NY cop for Die Hard?

[Desslock]

I believe Dalton never even really wanted to be Bond, and it showed in his perfomance.

Dalton actually almost became bond in 1969, right after Connery, but he turned it down.

[Desslock]

Clive Owen. There's your next Bond. Just watch Croupier and his BMW films.

Ooooh. Good call. Croupier, yippee!

I'd actually see a Bond movie with him in it. He was great in Croupier. Hell, he was cool with only 3-4 lines in Bourne Identity.

[Anonymous]

Dalton was only 22 or 23 in 1969. That seems awfully young for a Bond.

[Anonymous]

Dess was partly right. They approached Dalton after Moore wrapped up Bond, but Dalton dithered. They then tried to get Brosnan, but he was stuck in his Remington Steele contract. So they came back to Dalton for the Living Daylights in 1987.

As a Clive Owen aside, BMW films just released the latest Driver film today. It's by Tony "Top Gun" Scott.

[Desslock]

Dess was partly right. They approached Dalton after Moore wrapped up Bond, but Dalton dithered. They then tried to get Brosnan, but he was stuck in his Remington Steele contract. So they came back to Dalton for the Living Daylights in 1987.

Here's the source of my information indicating that Dalton was offered the job in 1969, as a young-un:

http://www.nationalpost.com/artslife/story.html?id={A2A47AEE-5727-4DBC-AC86-CFCBDD330C82}

Remember, George Lazenby was in his 20s when he replaced Connery in 69, so Cubby and crew were definitely looking for a young replacement.

[Tyjenks]

I really haven't noticed that. What have been his major non-Bond roles since he's taken up the role?

The Thomas Crowne Affair
Tailor of Panama
He's got a new, small Miramax-type movie about playing the father who challeneged Ireland's child custody laws and won.


I heard an interview where it was all his idea for the TC re-make and without Pierce and his Bond 'power' it would not have been made. Maybe that was just showbiz producer talk now that I think back. I thought he was going to open up his own production company as well with Bond money. Hehe, bond money. That's sorta funny.

[voltaic]

I thought Thomas Crowne Affair was a good movie. I even own the DVD.

[balut]

(edit: sorry, just realized this point was posted earlier, but, hell, might as well reiterate it. Clive Owen is just too supercool for them not to use him as Bond.)

I'm still waiting for Pierce Brosnan to step down so Clive Owen can take over the role. IMO, Clive Owen probably comes the closest to evincing that ideal, Sean-Connery-esque James Bond air out of the current crop of British actors.

Pierce Brosnan is good in his own way, and definitely better than Timothy Dalton or that mincing nancy-boy, Roger Moore. But he projects nowhere near the level of toughness and danger that Sean Connery projected as Bond, or that Clive Owen would.

[AIM]

We'll my buddy saw the film last night and said that it's the best fucking bond film ever! He loved it. He's a huge bond fan, and for him to say that it must be very good. He said that the action was incredible and over the top.

anyone see this film yet? is it that good?

:?:

[voltaic]

anyone see this film yet? is it that good?

I'll let you know, the matinee starts in about an hour.

[Wholly Schmidt]

Just got back from the theater. It's insanely over the top, every detail of the movie carefully chosen to set up a horrible pun. That's all there is to it. No spying, no acting, no thrill, just explosions and a couple of gorgeous cars. And the cars aren't even that fun when they're nothing more than throwaway props for more insane stunt sequences. I'd love an honest car chase like from The Bourne Identity or even The Transporter.

Oh, and as for the women, I was cheering for the one that didn't make it :(

[voltaic]

Also just back form the theater. I think that Brosnan's first Bond film, Goldeneye, had one of the best opening sequences of all the Bond movies (yes, I have seen them all). I also think that the openingsequence for Die Another Day is just as cool. Seriously bad ass opening sequence.

However, this iteration also had what I can confidently call the worst blue-screen scene in any Bond film I can remember. For those who have seen it, its the part where he is (no, this isn't a spoiler) kind of surfing/parachuting on the glacier. Oh, the horror! The horror!

[Wholly Schmidt]

Spoilers, I suppose.

Ok, this was odd to me. We get into the theater and see a preview for Charlies Angels 2 in which the girls drive a truck off a dam with a helicopter on the back and manage to get into it and start it in free fall. We're laughing at the absurdity and how weird that was, then it happens as the climax to Die Another Day. What are the odds?

[Gordon_Bleu]

I think that Brosnan's first Bond film, Goldeneye, had one of the best opening sequences of all the Bond movies (yes, I have seen them all).

I thought it was good until Bond defied the laws of physics. Curse being college educated. That's why these Bond movies were more fun when we were kids: we didn't know any better (and didn't care)!

[DrCrypt]

The new Bond is terrible. I was reading the other day the new book by robot-mummy Stephen Hawking, where he suggests that our universe is merely one brane on an infinitely long, curving saddle of possible dimensions. I know what you're thinking - is there any such dimension on that infinitely long saddle where even giggly retards still find Bond's pitiful one-liners humorous? I suggest yes - the UGC cinemas in Cork seems to be a transdimensional wormhole to one. As a visiting cosmonaut from an entirely different universe, it was all I could do to remain slack jawed with my hands trembling as the entire theatre erupted into jactitations of hysteria at the "Saved by the Bell" line. The alternative, as far as I could tell, was shoot myself in the face with an Uzi.

It starts off well enough - Pierce Brosnan being tortured for 14 months. Then it goes downhill. This movie sucks like an event horizon. Don't go see it.

One thing of interest to note: I have the same mobile phone as James Bond.

[DennyA]

Well, I stopped expecting much from these films after Moonraker was released... So I more or less enjoyed the "ride", but I went in not expecting much. It was certainly more entertaining than that first "PC" Dalton film, at least.

(spoilers follow)


But yes, Bond does not live in a universe where our laws of physics -- or genetics (replace your DNA?) -- apply.

The helicopter was absurd, but it was the "big" weapon that cracked me up. After he demonstrated his "giant LA-SER beam", I expected him to demand "one million dollars....

[Jim Preston]

The only thing worse than they pitiful Die Another Day movie is the pitiful 007: Nightfire game. I played the PC version for about 45 minutes before I had to uninstall it. It's like Gearbox and EA couldn't be bothered to move the game beyond Alpha before putting it in a box and shipping it. Embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

The first 3/4 of Die Another Die is vastly promising. I'm thinking the best Bond movie in decades. I like the veering away from formula, I like the edge Bond has...

THEN the last 1/4 hits, and the entire thing reverts to mindless, overblown, ear-deafening, over-the-top action. Kills the entire movie. The entire chase scene with the Jaguars is totally overblown. They kill off all subtletly in the last 1/4 hour. They totally lose whatever edge Bond had in the beginning. What happened to the guy who was tortured for 15 months? Hello filmakers, remember that's what happened to your main character at the beginning of the flick.

[Mark Asher]

As I posted previously, my boys want to see it. To me, a Bond movie is a big bonus if I have to be dragged to a movie. It could be much, much worse, and has been -- like Digimon, for instance.

[Anonymous]

And don't even get me started about the helicopter... do they understand things like the shearing power of wind when you exit an airplane going several hundred miles per hour? That a helicopter would snap in two if you dropped it out the back of a transport that's screaming down to earth? Or, at the very least, the rotor blades would shear off/bend badly, etc, etc.

[Anonymous]

I went in with low expectations and left underwhelmed. God, this was terrible. I can't believe people think this is a return to form for Bond movies. It was filmed in a more "extreme" manner than XXX, for god's sake. Ugh.

I did like that the villain looked like some annoying college yuppie. And Halle Berry looks good in a catsuit, but I can't believe they're thinking of spinning her character off in her own series... wait, I think I just answered why, but she couldn't hold a gun, her action scenes were unconvincing... the other woman looked much cooler (no pun intended).

Awful, just awful.

[DennyA]

And don't even get me started about the helicopter... do they understand things like the shearing power of wind when you exit an airplane going several hundred miles per hour? That a helicopter would snap in two if you dropped it out the back of a transport that's screaming down to earth? Or, at the very least, the rotor blades would shear off/bend badly, etc, etc.

Well, not to mention that the fuel in that Antonov would very likely have exploded when it passed through that heat beam. And if it hadn't, there would have been a structural failure from all the physical damage you saw to the skin.

Look at any video of a drone plane that's had a missle explode nearby (doesn't even have to hit)... They rip apart. Only planes in IL-2 Sturmovik can fly with that many holes in the skin. :-)

[Brian Koontz]

This was easily the best Bond film I've seen in the last 10 years and it probably ranks as 4th or 5th best ever. Its obviously going to disappoint if you're looking for wit or humor or good writing, but Action lovers will rejoice. It was super-cool, even icy, with great action scenes.

Admittedly the Bond series has probably abandoned sly British humor to its detriment, but in this one at least it fully compensated in other ways.

[Tom Chick]

Admittedly the Bond series has probably abandoned sly British humor to its detriment

Well, that's what this (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0274166) is for. I saw a trailer for it and, unfortately?, missed a chance to go to a screening last week.

-Tom

[graller]

Saw it yesterday. I was torn on this one. On one hand I liked the major plot elements. Bond betrayed and "out of sanction". M holding him at arm's length. Cleese as Q. I liked the villian - I kept thinking Branson every time he was on screen. The duel in the club. Then the bad. I hated the extreme camera work. Its a Bond movie, it just does not need all the whipping camera followed by super slo-mo. That and the surfing - they had to have been able to come up with a better way for him to get out of that one. I was not as offended by the helicopter as some of you. Why are you harping on the physics of the copter but blindly accepting that the villian can build a huge orbital weapon on his own nickel without some major oversite by government? Also clearly they were all too stupid to fire multiple weapons at the satellite at once. That and product placement.....

All that aside you tend to skim that if the action is good, the girls are hot and the humor is there.. This was a 3 out of 5 affair. On the other hand I got Goldeneye again the other day and would give that one a 5 out of 5.

[DrCrypt]

This was easily the best Bond film I've seen in the last 10 years and it probably ranks as 4th or 5th best ever.
Exactly. Thank you. Remember when I said: "This movie sucks like an event horizon. Don't see it" earlier in the thread? Brian Koontz just proved it. Ask yourself this - do you REALLY want to see a movie that wins a kudo from Koontz? The last game that did that was the world's first MMORPG, Doom.

Although Brian's statement has left me in a bit of a poser. Simply put - I was positive that Die Another Day was the worst Bond movie ever. But on the Koontz scale of excellence, it is the fourth or fifth best Bond movie ever. Which makes me wonder - which Bond films do I need to critically reappraise to sink them down to the stinky cinematic nadir above which Die Another Day shimmers like a sub-aqueous beacon of quality?

[Bub, Andrew]

Moonraker?

[Brian Koontz]

The last game that did that was the world's first MMORPG, Doom.

Note that this is a lie by DrCrypt.


Although Brian's statement has left me in a bit of a poser. Simply put - I was positive that Die Another Day was the worst Bond movie ever. But on the Koontz scale of excellence, it is the fourth or fifth best Bond movie ever. Which makes me wonder - which Bond films do I need to critically reappraise to sink them down to the stinky cinematic nadir above which Die Another Day shimmers like a sub-aqueous beacon of quality?

You have to treat the film independently. If you love the series based on as I said, wit, humor, and good writing, this one sucks badly. If you can't stand any other kind of Bond movies, you should have already stopped watching the series and started talking with a Grandpa voice "Back in my day, they made *smart* Bond films". If however you go in with an open mind and are not against action movies, this is perhaps the best Bond movie ever in terms of pure action. Good acting, interesting plot elements, cool toys, great action scenes.

The directing and choreographing of the action scenes was excellent.

Thankfully TBS has provided me fairly recent viewings of most of the Bond films. Here's what I remember of Bond rankings...

#1: From Russia With Love - most classic Bond film

#2: On Her Majesty's Secret Service - they compensated for Lazenby, and created a very original Bond film. The most "chick flickish" of the Bond films.

#3: Goldfinger - this was nonstop fun and featured the best supporting cast... other than Bond Oddjob is the most memorable Bond character of all time for me... and that hat wins for best Bond prop.

Die Another Day lost (or never had) many things (strong plot, wit, humor, writing) that made these movies great, but as I said it compensated in Pure Action. Bond LOVERS who like the non-action aspects of Bond films are better off renting those movies on DVD.

Don't hate Die Another Day (DAD) because its not your father's Bond.

More wordplay...

Going to see DAD must mean you're Bonding.