# Bad News: Mendes to Direct Next Bond **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 11, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237 "2013-07-11T17:19:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/21 "2013-07-11T20:54:29Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Oh, like he was actually going to call them the next day! I just think it’s interesting that Bond is often thought of as extremely skilled and competent, but gets a lot of things wrong if you stop and think about it. _Goldfinger_ was pretty much one fuck up after another. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/22 "2013-07-11T21:01:48Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Oh, like he was actually going to call them the next day! The novels are sexist today, for they were written in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the novel Bond is not a playboy in a tuxedo. 🙂 He was in love with her in Casino Royale, until at her death he discovered that she saw a traitor. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/23 "2013-07-11T21:03:33Z")
Weird. Is it just me, or is it a bit of a trend lately on the Dope to start threads complaining about how much extremely popular, successful, critically acclaimed movies suck, to the confusion of most everyone other than the OP? Perhaps I’m just thinking of the several threads (starting with the one, long before it came out, promising to “boycott” it) on the new Star Trek franchise. Two instances a trend make, right? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/24 "2013-07-11T21:16:34Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Two instances a trend make, right? 😃 I think people did to be passionate abut Trek and Jmes Bond. Someone finally did science fiction right, and some folks hate to see it change. I’m dissapointed in the reworked Trek, but I don’t lose any sleep over it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/25 "2013-07-11T22:32:47Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I just think it’s interesting that Bond is often thought of as extremely skilled and competent, but gets a lot of things wrong if you stop and think about it. _Goldfinger_ was pretty much one fuck up after another. In fact, Goldfinder is pretty much the epitome of the incompentence of Bond. He nearly gets himself killed in the pre-title sequence by ignoring a very explicit warning from his comrade, gets knocked out twice by Oddjob, is nearly evicerated in the famous “Do you expect me to talk?” scene, managed to crash and get captured (twice) despite his tricked out Aston Martin, gets both of the Masterson sisters killed pointlessly, fails to send a message to his superiors or the CIA despite the fact they are watching the compound he is in, kills Oddjob only by accident, and even fails to disarm either the bomb in Fort Knox and Goldfinger on the plane, resulting in having to bail out of the depressurized aircraft at low altitude. In fact, it is only due to the extreme hubris of Goldfinger and Pussy Galore’s last minute doublecross that he manages any successes at all. And this is Britain’s best line of defense against megalomanics seeking world domination or destruction? Shocking…positively shocking. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/26 "2013-07-12T00:16:36Z")
Sorry…I loved Skyfall, so I guess this is good news to me! I thought QoS was a jumbled mess, but Casino Royale and Skyfall have been the two best Bond films in a VERY long time, IMO. Of course, I love Craig’s portrayal of Bond…he’s the first bond who truly feels like he’s a dangerous man to me…which is odd considering the whole license to kill stuff. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/27 "2013-07-12T03:16:57Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > It’s not that the dalliances are gritty, its that the woman is a sex-slave and Bond still comes on to her, because…Bond. Wasn’t that the point within the context of this movie? This was about how people used people - how Q had used both Bond and Silva and how they each responded to being used and how they used others - Bond is not a nice person and the business is not a business for nice people. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/28 "2013-07-12T12:39:46Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Wasn’t that the point within the context of this movie? This was about how people used people - how Q had used both Bond and Silva and how they each responded to being used and how they used others - Bond is not a nice person and the business is not a business for nice people. The whole deal with the woman is also meant to show that Silva isn’t in complete control. She was meant to just bring Bond to Silva. Instead, she lays out the part of his plan she knows and convinces Bond to kill him. It doesn’t work, but I think we were meant to take away from that she isn’t a slave anymore. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/29 "2013-07-12T12:45:41Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Wasn’t that the point within the context of this movie? This was about how people used people - how Q had used both Bond and Silva and how they each responded to being used and how they used others - Bond is not a nice person and the business is not a business for nice people. QFT. The new Bond movies aren’t supposed to be like the old ones. There was an actual point to this movie; the way people are chewed up and used is the movie’s theme. I much prefer the new ones, whereas most of the old ones look pretty terrible in retrospect. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/30 "2013-07-12T12:57:47Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Weird. Is it just me, or is it a bit of a trend lately on the Dope to start threads complaining about how much extremely popular, successful, critically acclaimed movies suck, to the confusion of most everyone other than the OP? I take it you guys don’t read Dope much.😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/31 "2013-07-12T13:33:01Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Bond’s dalliances are supposed to be gritty and non gushy/romantic. That’s a small part of why I enjoyed Skyfall and why I was irritated with that Vesper tramp in Casino Royal. You missed the point entirely then; Casino Royale is basically the Bond genesis story, and as such, has the whole Vesper romance and subsequent betrayal, etc… which is all part of molding Bond into what he ends up as later. Had he had a meaningless, gritty dalliance in that movie, he’d be just another sociopath, working on the good guys’ side by happenstance. Instead, there’s actual character development there. I personally like the Daniel Craig Bond films, and even worry that they’re veering too much back toward the silliness of the earlier crop, after a relatively un-silly start in Casino Royale and the first half of Quantum of Solace. We don’t need gadgets, big explosions, or crazy runaway subway cars- we need character development, gritty fight scenes and gripping suspenseful scenes where Bond basically cons and bluffs and sneaks his way into things- real spies wouldn’t be nearly as obvious or spectacular as movie Bond is. I firmly believe that they could make a great Bond movie without any automatic weapons fire, explosions, or gadgetry. I even think it’d might be really interesting to see Bond seduce a not-gorgeous woman for the job- real spies do that kind of thing also. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/32 "2013-07-12T15:14:53Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I firmly believe that they could make a great Bond movie without any automatic weapons fire, explosions, or gadgetry. I even think it’d might be really interesting to see Bond seduce a not-gorgeous woman for the job- real spies do that kind of thing also. They did. It was called _The Tailor of Panama_. It turns out Bond is a total creep, and so are the people he works for. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/33 "2013-07-12T16:13:58Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > It turns out Bond is a total creep, and so are the people he works for. > > Stranger He would be, you know. That’s what would be so intriguing- he’d be a sort of anti-hero in the Tony Soprano mold, who would be working for the good guys, and really competent, but also violent, and all the other negative stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/34 "2013-07-12T16:26:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > You missed the point entirely then; Casino Royale is basically the Bond genesis story, and as such, has the whole Vesper romance and subsequent betrayal, etc… which is all part of molding Bond into what he ends up as later. > > Had he had a meaningless, gritty dalliance in that movie, he’d be just another sociopath, working on the good guys’ side by happenstance. Instead, there’s actual character development there. Bond did have a meaningless, gritty dalliance in _Casino Royale_. He traces that cell phone call to someone in the Bahamas, wins his car in a poker game, then sleeps with his wife to find out where he’s going next. When she’s killed he doesn’t bat an eye. And that’s all before he met Vesper. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/35 "2013-07-12T16:40:12Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Weird. Is it just me, or is it a bit of a trend lately on the Dope to start threads complaining about how much extremely popular, successful, critically acclaimed movies suck, to the confusion of most everyone other than the OP? Perhaps I’m just thinking of the several threads (starting with the one, long before it came out, promising to “boycott” it) on the new Star Trek franchise. Two instances a trend make, right? 😃 Confusion of most everyone except me? Reading this thread there are plenty of people who disliked _Skyfall_. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/36 "2013-07-12T16:50:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > You missed the point entirely then; Casino Royale is basically the Bond genesis story, and as such, has the whole Vesper romance and subsequent betrayal, etc… which is all part of molding Bond into what he ends up as later. I’d buy this line of thought if this was the first time we’re introduced to the character. But it isn’t. Everybody knows his story. The chip on his shoulder was plenty big before his romantic involvement in Casino Royal. It wasn’t necessary to establish his character in this way but they went ahead anyway. That’s fine. I just didn’t like the Vesper character. > [@bump](#): > > Had he had a meaningless, gritty dalliance in that movie, he’d be just another sociopath, working on the good guys’ side by happenstance. Instead, there’s actual character development there. He’s recruited as a top spy _because_ he is a sociopath, with a penchant for protecting his beloved England and the free world. > [@](#): > > I personally like the Daniel Craig Bond films, and even worry that they’re veering too much back toward the silliness of the earlier crop, after a relatively un-silly start in Casino Royale and the first half of Quantum of Solace. DC is the best Bond yet in my opinion as well. > [@](#): > > I firmly believe that they could make a great Bond movie without any automatic weapons fire, explosions, or gadgetry. I even think it’d might be really interesting to see Bond seduce a not-gorgeous woman for the job- real spies do that kind of thing also. No, YOU miss the point! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/37 "2013-07-12T17:39:57Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Confusion of most everyone except me? Reading this thread there are plenty of people who disliked _Skyfall_. Before this thread I thought that Skyfall was universally loved. And according to Rotten Tomatoes (92% critics, 88% public) it is. > **[Skyfall | Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall)** > > When James Bond's (Daniel Craig) latest assignment goes terribly wrong, it leads to a calamitous turn of events: Undercover agents around the world are exposed, and MI6 is attacked, forcing M (Judi Dench) to relocate the agency. With MI6 now... ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/38 "2013-07-12T17:49:08Z")
Heck, wasn’t the Craig verion of Bond supposed to be _new_ to the 00 stuff? Barely three movies later, he’s already burned out. Tough gig. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/39 "2013-07-12T19:00:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > They did. It was called _The Tailor of Panama_. It turns out Bond is a total creep, and so are the people he works for. > > Stranger Except for the not-gorgeous woman part. My only problem with **Skyfall** was the super-annoying cliche of “bad guy’s plan was to get caught all along!” This has been happening in movies\* lately, and it needs to stop. There’s just so many implausible things that the bad guy was relying on to hatch his plan that it’s fucking irritating. \*cf. The Dark Knight, The Avengers, A Good Day To Die Hard ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237/40 "2013-07-12T19:21:09Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > My only problem with **Skyfall** was the super-annoying cliche of “bad guy’s plan was to get caught all along!” This has been happening in movies\* lately, and it needs to stop. There’s just so many implausible things that the bad guy was relying on to hatch his plan that it’s fucking irritating. Silva’s plan was to kill M at the public hearing. The fact that he had a _ **backup plan** _ in case of capture just proves that he’s a Bond villain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-news-mendes-to-direct-next-bond/663237.md?page=3)