Honestly I’d like the next Bond films to go back to basics in many ways. I liked the different approach with Craig’s Bond, with more of a narrative throughline than the other ones, his Bond becoming more and more broken from his losses as they progressed, a darker take on the thing, and it was cool to see a different approach. But I’d say it’s time to move on. I’d like to go back to traditional, Bond kicks some ass, uses fancy gadgets, gets the girl, maybe even a little campy, just fun Bond again.
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Still my favourite Bond action set piece. The perfect union of model work, stunt work, sound stage inserts and music.
Yes, it’s contrived and by today’s kinetic standards a little static in places, but when I first watched Bond and Necros cling onto the cargo net as it flew out the back of that plane, I was blown away. I still get a wee tingle of excitement 39 years later.
This harkens back to when the Bond films saved a ridiculous feat of derring do for the final act …the plane fight in Octopussy, the fight on the Golden Gate in A View To A Kill, the tanker chase in License To Kill. It’s something they don’t really do anymore. Yeah there are usually a lot of explosions, but nothing really noteworthy, or original.
Explosions and gunplay are ten a penny, but high altitude fisticuffs like this…that feels uniquely Bond.
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OHMSS today. Hell yeah
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My totally unbiased as a trombonist opinion is that it has one of the best opening themes.
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New TARDIS32 lore just dropped.
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Who is the best Bond girl, and why is it Tracy?
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I’m slowly doing my rewatch, just watched Goldfinger, and feel much the same. I gave Dr No a 4.5, From Russia a 3 without the like heart, and I think I’ll give Goldfinger 4.5 too, though I’d say I liked it even more than Dr No. Dr No just has so much style, and one thing Goldfinger was missing the previous two had was a fantastic side-kick to be come attached to.
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I gave Goldfinger a 5/5. Dr. No is really good, but it reminds how slow these early Bonds were. Goldfinger picks up the pace a bit and has a memorable Bond girl in Honor Blackman and a very memorable villain in Goldfinger.
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Easily the best so far, and so much iconic stuff to define what comes later. Oddjob is so great too, and I loved the set design and spy stuff. When Goldfinger’s base keeps changing I had a holy balls moment each time.
All of these earlier films bar Dr No I haven’t seen since my dad showed me them as a kid so it’s fun to see these with adult eyes, I have no idea what’s coming until about Goldeneye.
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It feels a little weird to me to call her a Bond girl, because she wasn’t really actually interested in him.
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Got Diamonds on now.
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I’m on Thunderball over here. Bit of a slow first hour…!
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The Connery ones can be a little slow, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Just a different kind of pacing. Slow but still intriguing as you find out how the plot goes.
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Lmao I forgot Joseph Fürst was in this
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Thunderball is my next one. I’ve got it on hold, but someone has it before me.
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Unfortunately Thunderball was Definitely Not For Me 
, probably the only one I wouldn’t watch again so far.
Head’s up, it may not affect you but I definitely would have liked to have been warned: there’s some quite clear real violence committed on sharks in this. And it’s not mild either.
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A shame, I think that one’s pretty good. Probably my second or third of the Connerys. But yeah, they didn’t have the same laws about animal rights back then.
Goldfinger > Thunderball, No, and Twice are all kinda close > From Russia > Diamonds >>> Never Say
Yes, I’m aware that there’s some parts of Twice that really haven’t aged well, but it’s also one of Connery’s more exciting and action packed ones
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Thunderball’s a bit of a chore, for sure. Especially all the underwater action scenes, which are soooo slow and exciting!
The best thing about it is the jetpack at the beginning and the theme song!
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To be fair, it wasn’t only the sharks that didn’t resonate with me. I was slipping back and forth with trying to feel positive about it when that happened though, and it was followed by a Benny Hill sped up fight scene and I decided on falling negative.
There’s some cool elements, it’s definitely trying to go bigger, and in some ways that’s really impressive, but it feels a little to me like too much in there with not enough that works. I didn’t connect with the villain especially after Goldfinger, the underwater scenes are far too much and feel like the film is focused on the novelty of them, it didn’t feel like the spycraft was as relevant, no real cool characters - although I did like third recast Felix!
Looking into it it definitely seems Thunderball is a favourite for most I can tell my feelings are an outlier! Fair enough, not sure where it went wrong for me.
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I was thinking exactly this while I replied, hah
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