It’s just so wrong
21 Apr 2008 2 Comments
in Movies Tags: adventure, bad movies, james bond, movies
So very, very wrong.
My love and I both had crap days. We both got home tonight feeling the need for utter mindlessness, so when we discovered The World is Not Enough waiting for us, it felt like fate.
It’s just such utter crap!
Denise Richards – Dr Christmas Jones – argh! What an embarrassment to the sorority of Bond girls everywhere!
Even Sophie Marceau is pretty crap. And I loved Hamish Macbeth, but Robert Carlyle is also quite average.
As for Pierce Brosnan… well, it’s reaching Roger Moore levels of stupid one-liners, in this one. The stunts aren’t quite as daft as they get in the next one – and the speed boat chase is pretty cool – but still, I feel quite impatient watching it a second (third? Can’t remember) time.
Perfect, though, for a Monday night with the need to do nothing.
James Bond and the MSO
31 Mar 2008 Leave a Comment
in Movies, Music Tags: james bond, mso pops, music
We spent Saturday night at the Pops, with the MSO doing James Bond.
It was freaking brilliant. Absolutely overwhelming and hugely enjoyable (despite some bung notes from the main trumpeter… although I just found out yesterday that he had his face smashed in by some random punk last year, so maybe that explains it). They did all of the theme songs, except Die Another Day and A View to a Kill (and Tomorrow Never Dies as the encore, which was good).
The really good bits:
1. Sitting right in front of the double basses, and watching them do their thing – brilliant!
2. Mary Carewe singing “The Man with the Golden Gun” – so trashy, so funny.
3. Realising just how much work the tuba does in the Bond theme itself.
4. Oh look, basically everything except for…
The average bits:
I hadn’t expected there to be a singer, and I had been trying to figure out whether it would make the night better or not to have one. Mary Carewe sang maybe half the songs – a bit less I think. She did some spectacularly well – “Diamonds are Forever” and “Goldeneye” were up there. But I had three issues:
a) She was way too cabaret/musical theatre for my tastes: prancing around, hamming it up.
b) She sang “Live and Let Die” (and is no Paul McCartney, nor Axl Rose!), and “You Know my Name” (and sure isn’t Chris Cornell).
c) For me, she destroyed “The Look of Love” – one of my favourite sappy songs in the whole world. [1]
Also, my love and I had quite contradictory opinions on her costumes: I thought her first dress – a halter-neck affair – was dreadful, unflattering and quite ugly; he thought it was great. The second I thought was stunning – dark silver strapless, which I thought was very flattering, but he thought made her look frumpy! We both agreed that the third dress was lovely, though.
My laugh for the night was from the souvenir brochure. In part, it had this to say:
“With the recent success of the Die Hard, Terminator and Bourne pictures, Bond had to compete with other action heroes.”
Yup, totally with you there… although I’m not convinced that Bond is competing with Terminator for their audience. At any rate, the next sentence reads thus:
“As the Bond series has progressed, contemporary artists such as Wings, Duran Duran, Sheena Easton, A-ha, Gladys Knight and Sheryl Crow have been drafted in to keep up with the times.”
Excuse me while I hold my sides, because I’m laughing so darn hard.
And it was recorded for ABC Classic FM, so I reckon if you looked hard enough you’ll be able to find out when it’s on. In fact, I might do that too….
[1] If you’re confused: it was used in the original Casino Royale, which was a spoof with David Niven in it.
The Moneypenny Diaries
09 Jul 2007 Leave a Comment
in Books Tags: adventure, books, james bond
I started and finished it this morning. Apparently ‘edited’ by Kate Westbrook, Jane Moneypenny’s niece, it covers 1962: starts with Bond’s wife Tracy dying (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, I think), and ends with Bond in Japan (You Only Live Twice). Lots of stuff in between, of course, some of it about Bond – but mostly about Moneypenny, naturally enough. There’s a romance, intrigue, all the stuff you’d expect. It’s separated into months, with each month starting with a short bit from Westbrook about her search to validate the contents of the diaries.
My mum and sister told me it was great, so they loaned me their copy. I have to admit that I didn’t read it in all that much detail. I’m not really in a Cold War mood, and the writing wasn’t quite good enough to sucker me in completely. Which is why I was able to read it in a couple of hours. It was pretty good, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of Bond and the Cold War. Interestingly, it’s written with lots of footnotes, explaining exactly who various personages are in ‘real’ life. Some of them definitely are/were real, others I’m not sure about – they could be, and Westbrook has woven them into the story, or she’s just made people up conveniently. I’m actually happy with either explanation, personally.
And it’s totally up for a sequel, too, which I think I would probably read.
Dr No
11 Apr 2007 Leave a Comment
in Movies Tags: james bond, movies
I read this for Popular Fiction when I was at uni, but I’d never seen the movie until last night.
I was really pleased to see that the standard Bond features of the opening sequence – the shot through the gun barrel, the silhouetted figures, etc – all started right back here; really does bring a lovely sense of continuity to the franchise.
As for the story… it was a bit different from how I remember the book. Ursula Andress (what a beautiful woman) has a perfect nose, unlike Honeychile in the book, which certainly changed her and Bond’s relationship. The action was a bit laughable, and the car chases were cringe-worthy. And if this was all the anthropology you were given, you would only ‘know’ that black people are always stupid, exist to obey White Man orders, and can be either good or bad; and Asians are always devious, cunning, and bad. And played by white people with bad make-up. Ouch.
Dr No himself is an interesting character. The reason I remember reading the book is because of an essay I wrote talking about how the villains are physically malformed somehow (No’s hands, and Lecter’s eyes in Silence of the Lambs), while the heroes are physically perfect. And really, No was always going to be a villain: a product of miscegenation (German and Chinese) and sin (a German missionary and a Chinese girl!). Poor lad never had a chance.
Overall… I did mostly enjoy it, if only for its historical value, but it really makes me doubt J’s occasional, continued push to buy the entire bck catalogue. The early Bonds just aren’t that good.
Bond. James Bond
18 Dec 2006 Leave a Comment
in Movies Tags: adventure, james bond, movies
I liked this movie.
I liked that this line only occurs once, and only as the last line of the movie (hmm. Spoiler?)
I really liked that this was designed as the first Bond but was still made as an ultra modern movie – the development of Bond as a man and as a spy is something that fascinates me and has never really been explored in any other movies.
I liked that there were no gadgets, not even any Q (hmm. Another spoiler). And that the only SFX were explosions, which to my mind aren’t real FX.
I liked the chase-scene that was on foot – oh my! – because it was very clever, and it had me cringing a number of times.
I liked Daniel Craig. Heck, he’s played an archaeologist before, so he must be good (Alex West in Tomb Raider).
I liked Vesper. She was the best Bond girl of the recent Bonds – I think she’s better than all of the Pierce Brosnan Bond girls. And her character was actually quite interesting and complex.
I liked this movie.
