I'm still in the midst of my Bond mini-marathon. I thought I had seen all of the 007 movies, but it turns out that I was wrong. I had missed one, and it turns out to be a really good one:
The Living Daylights (1987)
This is easily one of the best of the series, imo. There is the obligatory Q comic relief scene, and a silly car chase scene early on, but the cheese is really toned down in this installment. What's more it actually has a coherent and entertaining plot which is a rare thing for this franchise.
Next:
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
The Winter Olympics version of Bond. Not very good. There are a lot of problems here. Foremost is that George Lazenby is a poor replacement for Sean Connery. Secondly, the movie looks dated even more so that the earliest films due to the Austin Powers-esque wardrobes on display. Another thing that bugs me is that some otherwise excellent action sequences are ruined by the use of fast motion; it just looks comical.
There are some good points. I like Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas manages to make Blofeld menacing. Too often, imo, Blofeld comes across as a chump. Outside of this movie, I think he works best as the mysterious, faceless, head of SPECTRE. He should never be used in a face to face confrontation with Bond, much less in a physical conflict.
And the ending also works. I have no idea how a movie that I've disliked watching for two hours can still have an effective final 15 minutes but this one pulls it off. The wedding scene with Moneypenny and the final scene on the roadside are both really good.
Next:
Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Connery is the best Bond, but I find all three of these movies kind of boring. There are some iconic scenes for sure but I think all three would have been better if they were trimmed by 20 or more minutes. Goldfinger is the best of the three, but for all the fun things about it, I still find parts of it dull. For instance, do we need both the gin rummy and golf scenes? Another problem is that there are several times when you ask yourself "Why doesn't Goldfinger kill Bond now?" and there's really no other answer than "Bond is the hero and he must win in the end."
Goldfinger highlights:
Oddjob fight and bomb disarmament scenes at the end, the golden girl, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die", Grandma with a machine gun at the guardpost.
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Lame completely unmemorable villains and waaaaay too much cheesy comedy. It's amazing that they kept churning out these movies.
GoldenEye (1995)
There's a lot of silly stuff, but I think this is one of the more entertaining entries in the series. Famke Janssen is sexy and fun, Sean Bean makes a worthy adversary, and there are a lot of memorable stunt/action scenes. I never realized that the Russian chick butchering "Stand By Your Man" was played by Minnie Driver.
There's one consistent thing about Bond pictures: the filmmakers are 100% committed to not giving a **** about the story making sense. This movie has one of my favorite examples. At the end Joe Don Baker has a totally random line about "tobacco plants." It's completely out of left field. If you think back to his first scene he has another random line where he asks Bond whether he likes to garden. Apparently there was some whole running gag planned about Baker's character having a green thumb and a tendency to talk about plants a lot. All of that stuff (thankfully) got cut out out but they couldn't be bothered to remove those two lines for some reason so Joe Don looks like a lunatic.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
I just can't get into this one. The movie felt like a series of action scenes instead of a story. I also didn't think much of the Rupert Murdoch clone and his blond henchman as the movie's villains.
Say what you will about the quality of the movies the Brosnan era did have the hottest Bond girls. Famke Janssen, Teri Hatcher, Cecilie Thomsen, Halle Berry, Sophie Marceau, Denise Richards, Maria Grazia Cucinotta.
