I can't believe I'm telling you this. In fact I can't really believe I'm doing it, but that's another thing. Regular readers will know that I'm a Bond nutter, and various tragic posts along the way will demonstrate that. But what I'm engaged in right now is a watch thru of 23 James Bond films in a row. I'm not watching them back to back mind, and this process started last year, so I'm not that sad. But I am pretty tragic nonetheless.
The reason for this marathon is simple. One of the things I said I'd do when I had more time was watch my DVDs (of which there are over 500), read my books, listen to my CDs and generally enjoy life. My last few years in England were so stressful that I was in a perpetual state of fugue (oooh, that's a good word !) and my quality of life descended to that of a squashed pea. This wasn't England's fault (calm yourself Bob) but was due to a confluence of work and money hassles. Anyway, I'm all better now. So my 'Bond-thru' as I'm calling it (oh God and now I've told you that too !) is all part of the plan.
So, if this is all so immensely pathetic (I feel you all nodding) why mention it all, why not keep it as a dirty little secret like a porn collection stashed under the bed ? Well, it's because this watch thru has produced some startling results and changed my mind about several things. Now rather than go through them all like a bobble hatted anorak wearing snot face called Mervyn, I shall summarise them instead. That way we can get out of this post before our eyes start to bleed. So, here goes, brace yourselves;
1. George Lazenby was very good. I know !! I was amazed too. But you can't get away from the fact that he was excellent in the role. The youngest actor by far to ever play Bond (just 28) he has a physical presence only matched by Daniel Craig. He looks like he could beat people up, matches Fleming's description of Bond perfectly and looks remarkably comfortable despite having no acting experience. Also his final scene is the most touching thing in all the Bond films, and I don't think many of the other Bonds could have pulled it off.
2. Roger Moore stayed on about 3 films too long. He remains my favourite, due to his immense charm and likeability. I also LOVE his first three films in the role. But if you look at the books, he doesn't fit the bill, and worst of all he is easily the least physical of the actors to play the part. It's hard to convince when you need a stunt double for scenes when all you are doing is running, or throwing a punch and this got even more pronounced as he aged. And the worst sin of all was playing the part at 57 when he looked like he'd been dug up, and could barely even walk quickly. How did they ever get away with that ? Oh hang on, they didn't did they ?
3. Never Say Never Again isn't a car crash. Poor old Connery, he's one of those people that aged very young, and he always looked 10 years more than he really was. So by the time that Diamonds Are Forever came around (which is appalling by the way) he looked about 50. Thus when he came back to the role at 52 one could only fear the worst. Now to be fair he is wearing a bad wig, and he does have wrinkles, but he is still pretty convincing as 007, certainly more than poor old Roger was at the time, who seemed to spend more time on his hair than on killing people.
4. Pierce Brosnan was brilliant, but the scripts he had to deal with (except for Goldeneye) were pathetic and ruined his tenure as Bond. Goldeneye is a stunning debut, but by the end he had an invisible fricking car. Arrrgggghhh !!!
5. Timothy Dalton was too nice for Bond. A great look and physical presence aside, he made Bond a bit too gentlemanly. Not wolfish enough in the love scenes and not ruthless enough in the action stuff. Great actor but more like Bond's dull mate.
6. The following films are crap; You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker, A View To A Kill and The World Is Not Enough.
7. The following films are much better than I'd remembered; Thunderball, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights.
8. The most beautiful Bond girl is Barbara Bach in 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.
9. The best Bond villain is Red Grant in 'From Russia With Love'.
10. The best gadget is the Aston Martin DB5 from 'Goldfinger'.
11. The best joke is 'There's no point in going off half-cocked' from Live & Let Die.
12. The best theme music is 'Live & Let Die'.
13. The best stunt is the ski jump in 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.
14. The Best Bond film is 'From Russia With Love'.
15. The Best Bond is either Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, I can't choose.
16. My favourite Bond is still Roger Moore ;)
And I promise I shan't talk about this stuff any more, unless of course I get a stream of comments disputing my choices.
4 comments:
I like the ski jump, but the somersaulting car and the bungee jump probably top it for me.
J
I put the car jump first and then changed my mind. But there's so much to choose from.
But did you read the books as well? The first adult books I ever read (once freed from the basement children's library and allowed upstairs) were all the Bond books. My father caught me reading the last one and said I was too young. He was rather miffed I had read them all before he's noticed.
No one beats Sean. A gorgeous man.
Oh yes I have read the book, and fantastic they are. In fact I prefer them to the films. I love the taut and worldly way that Fleming wrote, there's no-one like him.
Thanks for popping by.
Post a Comment