Welcome to the newest edition of In Conclusion: The James Bond Series. My countdown of my favorite Bond films is down to #6 and #5. But first here is a recap.
22.Die Another Day (2002)
21.A View to a Kill (1985)
20.Moonraker (1979)
19.Octopussy (1983)
18.Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
17.Quantum of Solace (2008)
16.Live and Let Die (1973)
15.The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
14.Diamonds are Forever (1971)
13.Goldfinger (1964)
12.Dr. No (1962)
11.Thunderball (1965)
10.The World is Not Enough (1999)
9.The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
8.For Your Eyes Only (1981)
7.Goldeneye (1995)
That being said, let us resume with Number 6 and Number 5.
6.
The poster is pretty straight forward and ties right into the “no-nonsense” style of new Bond. The lack of life in this poster there but at the same time its direct, gritty, and realistic, which I don’t mind as you see both Bond, Vesper, and the actual Casino. I still take it over the ridiculous posters from the Moore era. Bond looks like a total badass and really that’s all that matters. This was the 2nd best way to reboot Bond in my opinion.
I only say that because I feel that they should’ve gone with the original setting of the novel (The Cold War circa 1953). Although I will say that it is a great modern update of Bond. Every “first” Bond film has to have a “new” feeling to it and this one does a good job with that. Despite my dislike for Daniel Craig as James Bond, I feel that he did a great job in this movie in his effort to re-capture the feel of the Novel Bond (something I feel that Brosnan lacked at places.) The one thing I feel he lacks though is charm.
I just think he seems too “smug” to me. Then again, I have a hard time evaluating Craig’s Bond in comparison to Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, and/or Brosnan because you can argue the Bonds in the original series of films(1962-2002) is a much different take than the Bond presented here. Hell each Bond was a different take on the character (except Lazenby who seemed like he was imitating Connery). Mads Mikkelson plays Le Chiffre the main villain of the film. He plays the slimy, sleazy, and yet dangerous villain well and I think comes close to emulating his Novel counterpart perfectly.
Eva Green is the Bond girl, Vesper Lynd. I felt her and Craig had good chemistry together which was something I felt had been missing from Bond films in the Brosnan era. She’s beautiful, hypnotizing and you can really see why he falls for her. The looks she gives him are just deceiving and yet you can’t help but be drawn to her if you were Bond. I think that quality alone made Eva the perfect casting for that role, I don’t know many female actors who could’ve pulled it off that well.
The action scenes in this film are straight out of the Connery days. Theirs not as much CGI as you seen in the Brosnan series and their are a lot of fast, intense sequences. The film leaves you in suspense in every action scene. From the pre-title sequence onward its just a thrill ride. I felt the shots inside the Casino were brilliant and it was nice to see Venice in a Bond film again.
The theme song, “You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell is perfect in all 3 categories of music, lyrics, and singing. Cornell brings energy to the song, the music feels Bondish(something that was missing from the previous 3 films), and the lyrics and song name is perfect and fits the Bond character presented here to a tee. My only real complaint (aside from the time setting issue I took) is the re-casting of Judi Dench as “M”. Don’t get me wrong, I think Dame Judi Dench is a great actress and that I thought she did well in the part at times in the Brosnan series but I felt that because this was intended to be a “new beginning” to the Bond series that bringing someone in from the Brosnan series killed the effect. I’ll give her credit for at least trying to play a different version of her “M” but I still think they should have gone with a re-casting another female (if they wanted to stay in that direction with the character) or at least stay completely true to the novel by making “M” a male again.
Overall it is difficult to compare a reboot that is in a different tone and continuity to the other films in the series. The new Bond series is a whole other entity in comparison to the original series. If this wasn’t made by EON I likely wouldn’t have included it (more on that in another article.) However, because it was made by EON and Michael Wilson/Barbara Broccoli I put it in this ranking. Like I said though its almost like trying to compare the Nolan Batman to the Burton/Schumacher Batman series. They’re two different concepts, tones, and overall direction, but what makes Bond different is that every actor seemed to have their own thing going on at times and that at least its the same people making it.
5.
Talk about a major jump. We begin the article with a film from 2006 and now we’ve gone back to 1967. The poster art is very nice and I like the depiction of the scene shown here. It’s very nice artwork and the scene itself just makes you wonder what you’re in for in this movie. It gets your attention, it’s well done, and it shows Bond kicking ass and taking names, the perfect combo.
This was in my opinion, the beginning of the downturn of the series (ironic because I really like this movie and the one that ensued.) Sean Connery is James Bond once again and I feel that his performance is bland at times and it just seems like Connery is thinking after every take “Are we done yet?” This alone drags the film down pretty easily but the film is made up with the other aspects. Donald Pleasence plays Blofeld and for the first time in the series we get a good look at the arch villain. His performance is fine and I do like what they were trying to go for with his character (with the eye scar and Pleasence’s “neutral evil” acting (sinister and deadly but not too overly insane.)
Part of me wishes that Donald stayed on as Blofeld, but in a way I’m glad he didn’t (more on that in another edition). This is one of the few Bond films where there are two Bond girls that stand out. The original one is “Aki” played by Akiko Wakabayashi. She’s very useful, beautiful, and while Connery’s performance is bad, I did think his interaction with Aki helped his performance a bit. These two had good chemistry in this movie and I wish they had more of them, I felt she brought out the best from Connery when he was at his worse.
The second and I guess you can say primary (although she doesn’t really come in until the latter part of the movie) Bond girl is Kissy Suzuki played by Mie Hama. I thought Kissy was a decent Bond girl but I preferred Aki. At the end of the day, however, she did do her part in being beautiful, useful to the mission, and she did something most Bond girls that followed didn’t do…not get in the way. The action in this film is spectacular and I give that credit to director Lewis Gilbert. I didn’t like Moonraker much but I always liked his direction in the Bond series and use of elaborate sets and action sequences.
Nancy Sinatra’s vocals make “You Only Live Twice” one of my favorite songs in the series. The music composed by John Barry and Nancy’s vocals help make the song one to remember. I feel that the only negative about this film was Connery’s acting, it drug things down in a lot of scenes. Other than that this film had suspense, action, a great villain, a beautiful song, and two of my favorite Bond girls. Easily one of the best Bond films ever made.
Well that is all for this week’s edition of In Conclusion: The James Bond Series. Stay tuned though, we still have a bit of ways to go. Until then, I recommend tuning back to the F.A.N. every day for the best articles you’ll ever read.