I just saw the movie, and it was fun. I especially like how Bond and the latest hottie are on the run but still manage to have dynamite wardrobes for every occasion.
The only downer was that Christoph Waltz wasn’t nearly as evil as he should’ve been.
Damn you 007
Well played Mr Bond
I kept wondering where all of those people wearing black suits working at all of those monitors in that crater in the middle of the desert slept, ate, and shopped. And I guess they all died in the (rather strangely excessive) explosion. I would love to see a film from the point of view of one of these minions. Do they really think that these evil overlords are right in what they’re doing?
I like Ben Whishaw and I’d love to see Q turn out to be a badass who can take care of himself out in the field.
The minions in Bond films have always fascinated me. Remember when they all wore orange jump suits? I mean, who does the laundry? They would need to have whole departments of support services to keep that many minions in food and do the laundry and clean the toilets (everywhere is always spotless).
Regarding the dinner jacket on the train. Sean Connery might have worn a dinner jacket on a train but only because he was still wearing it from the night before and had been constantly on the go since then. He wouldn’t have brought a dinner jacket with him especially. It’s like this film wanted to include as many “Bond moments” as possible and was just ticking them off. Evening gowns and dinner jackets on a restaurant train car - check. In previous Bond films they’d be wearing that stuff for a reason or because they had nothing else to wear. In this one they were wearing it just because “it’s something Bond would do”.
And there was nobody watching that destruction on the train, and nobody came around to ask him to pay for the damages, they just let the two of them off at that depot in the middle of nowhere.
I liked Dave Bautista, I guess they realized his limitations and just made him muscle, including as few lines as possible.
He was ok, but the car chase was more than over the top, and frankly just stupid.
When I think performance car driver, I don’t think 300 pound, muscle bound henchman.
When he got thrown through the windshield, and Bond went over and looked at him, I silently screamed “SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD!”. It was so obvious he was going to come back and be trouble in the future!
Yet another point that made me hate the film.
Talking of which, why doesn’t he kill Blofeld at the end? That’s what a double-oh does.
Whats the point? He always seems to come back to life.
He was his step brother.
So, a villain from the character’s past now is part of an elaborate criminal organization of some kind and is planning an absurdly, almost operatically complex revenge scheme during which multiple henchmen will shoot at the target (and all just-barely miss), so the final dramatic confrontation can occur.
But enough about Judi Dench’s M and Raoul Silva, what’s this new movie about?
Saw it last night. I loved it.
Comments (no spoiler boxes, so read at your own risk)
1.) I lovced the opening scene, a huge portion of which appears to have been shot in one single long “take” – I was paying attention as I watched it unfold. I know that it’s possible to achieve that look with CGI blending (I’m sure that’s how they did that long track across the ocean, up onto Miami beach, into the club and up onto the stage in The Birdcage), but I suspect that was all done in an actual take. They must have choreographed that scene to death to get it so smooth.
2.) This is a “tribute” film, with a lot of shout-outs to True Fans referencing the older movies and even the books (even the non-Fleming ones).
a.) You had the Aston Martin, as in Goldfinger and later films, and you had the gadgets on the Aston Martin. *They even labeled them with Dymo tape*.
b.) You had the Fight On The Train, (the North Africa Express, no less), as in *From Russia with Love*, and as repeated in *Live and Let Die* and *The Spy Who Loved Me*.
c.) You had Bond go into a hotel room with a beautiful woman, then inexplicably stepping out the window , in his tux, ready for engaging the enemy, a la *Diamonds are Forever*.
d.) Blofeld, of course, right down to the white cat (When they had Blofeld show up in the non-Eon *Never say Never Again*, the last time we saw him anywhere, they made sure to use a non-white cat. But this is the REAL James Bond, dammit!)
e.) After Blofeld gets scarred, it's a long facial scar going around one eye, just as it was with Donald Pleasance in *You Only Live Twice*, the first time we ever saw Blofeld's face. (No other Blofeld copied that scar, although we did get the baldness. Curiously, although Mike Meyers copied everything else about Pleasance's Blofeld for his Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies, he didn't copy the scar)
f.) We get the Visit to the Clinic atop the Swiss Alp, as with Piz Gloria in *On Her Majesty's Secret Service*, where Blofeld's lair purported to be an allergy clinic. (The restaurant they used is still around. If this mirror-sided cube is a real building, I hope it lasts as long.
g.) In the closing credits, they thank "The estate of KIngsley Amis". Amis is the first one who, after Fleming's death, wrote a new James Bond book. He published *Colonel Sun* under the pseudonym "Robert Markham". I wondered why they were thanking him -- the plot of Colonel Sun is completely different from this film. And if they borrowed from it, you'd think they would give him a credit under "based on". Then I recalled the Bond Torture scene, and realized there were similarities.
3.) I get the feeling this will be Danial Craig’s last outing as Bond, despite his “Executive Producer” credit. He’s apparently been bad-mouthing Bond, and that’s the kind of thing that got George Lazenby kicked off the franchise. But I’ve noticed that whenever they do a “Bond retrospective” , bringing up lots of old movie references in a film, that tends to be that actor’s last outing as Bond. It happened with Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (The opening montage under the credits is a retrospective, and he has his reverie in his office after his “resignation”), and it happened with Pierce Brosnan after Die Another Day. That entire movie was a giant collection of Easter Eggs.
Uh, yeah, he did.
No. Not even close. The exterior shots and interior shots were filmed on different continents, IIRC. It looked cool but I knew there was no way that was one take. They must have blown all the CGI money on blending that shot which is why they didn’t have any money left over to make the helicopter fight look less terrible.
Missed the edit window. Here’s an article about blending the opening shot. Sounds expensive.
Interesting. I’m glad you linked.
Mea Culpa, but it’s far more understated than Pleasance (or Chritoph Waltz), especially in his recent SNL appearance, which is what I recall most.
I saw this over the weekend and it was pretty bad, for all of the reasons that everyone has already explained in the last couple of pages. It was a paint-by-the-numbers Bond, except all of the colors were the most bland, insipid colors they could find.
Also, it’s the first Bond theme song of my lifetime where I had no idea who the artist was, and that makes me feel old. Though the song itself did grow on me a little by the end of the credits. Still a rough transition from Adele, though.
Has anyone explained why the building blew up in the opening scene?