"Q" sells out

[Gary Whitta]

Does anybody else think it's as sad as I do to see John Cleese doing commercials for Best Buy? I know it's not the first ad he's done (far from it), but there's just something so... sleazy about this one. *shudder*

[Jim Preston]

Hasn't the entire James Bond franchise turned into an ad for Best Buy...and BMW...and Rolex...and Motorola...and Oakley...and whomever else paid them to make a "special edition Die Another Day version of our product"? If the Broccoli family, who I understand float around the Mediterranean for two years on a yacht and only come ashore to buy more sunscreen and to rake in obscene amounts of cash with the further bombastic adventures of the chronically overdressed spy, why not let John Cleese make a little coin?

[Greedo]

I thought this was going to be a thread about John de Lancie.

[Nathan Phoenix]

That was what came to mind for me as well

[Ben Sones]

The whole direction the Bond series has taken is sort of depressing, though perhaps not surprising. They should just put an end to the series before things get any worse. Ever since the cold war ended, all the Bond movies have been awful.

[Greedo]

I still think of "Q" (of the James Bond variety), as Desmond Llewelyn.

[Jason Levine]

The whole direction the Bond series has taken is sort of depressing, though perhaps not surprising. They should just put an end to the series before things get any worse. Ever since the cold war ended, all the Bond movies have been awful.

Just like Tom Clancy's novels.

[Gary Whitta]

Just like Tom Clancy's novels.

Clancy's novels didn't jump the shark post-cold war, but they have been wildly erratic. Rainbow Six is one of my favorites of his, and I greatly enjoyed The Bear and the Dragon, but Red Rabbit is the first book of his that I couldn't be bothered to finish.

[Jason Levine]

I have to completely disagree on Rainbow Six. I thought it was one of the worst novels that I've ever read. Book as video game: Each episode (and Lord was it episodic!) is a more difficult "level." And all of it made no sense whatsoever. What the hell was Rainbow Six being "tested" for? So they could put their ultimate weapon in the backpack of a character that resembles Shaggy from Scooby Doo? And the environmentalists had to make the most pathetic ultimate villains. Evar.

This was one case where the game was much better than the book it was based on.

[Gary Whitta]

Fair enough - I know R6 the book has plenty of detractors. My enjoyment of it may have been artificially boosted by the fact that I was playing the game and reading the book at the same time, and it made for quite an enyoyably synergistic experience.

I agree that the environmentalists were a bit silly, but I did find their evil plot plausible (in my lay opinion) and very scary.

[Bub, Andrew]

I think Clancey might be a good example of an author who's debut is his best novel. Or maybe I just find the story of how that book came about to be inspiring....

[Gary Whitta]

Red October was a great debut, but I still think his best book is Red Storm Rising (with all due credit to Larry Bond). That book is pretty amazing in terms of its ambition, scope, verisimilitude and just good old-fashioned page-turny-ness. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I read a book that thick that fast.

[Jason Levine]

Well, there we're in complete agreement. I thought Red Storm Rising was his best work too. I think I also read that in one night. Clancy is much easier to take when he doesn't let his views on domestic politics get in the way, which was a real problem with RB6.

[Nathan Phoenix]

Wow, I didn't realize that John de Lancie did the voice of Antonio (the antagonist) in Interstate 76, and a handful of other games like Planescape:Torment. That's interesting