The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights

Despite the fact that A View to a Kill is almost unwatchable in my opinion, the film still managed to be a financial success.  But it was clear to everyone that Roger Moore could no longer appear in the role of James Bond - most of all to Moore himself.  Change was in the air.  And it wasn't only the lead actor who needed to be a refresh.  The genius of producer Albert Broccoli is that he kept adapting the franchise to fit with the times.  While the essence of the Bond character stayed the same, the approach to the films shifted considerably over the decades.  If you didn't already know going in, it would be almost inconceivable that Dr. No and A View to a Kill belonged to the same franchise.  And now, in 1987, it was time to rock the boat again.  No more over-the-top baddies imbued with super strength by the Nazis and no more killer blimps.  It was time to bring Bond back to reality.

With the Cold War heating up again, Bond (Timothy Dalton, The Lion in Winter) is assigned to help Soviet general Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe, The Fugitive) defect from East Germany.  During the post-defection debriefing in a MI-6 safehouse, Kostov reveals that the KGB is launching an initiative called "Smiert Spionom," which translates to "Death to all Spies."  Basically, the KGB is going to target all Western spies to escalate tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.  Before he can go into more details, the safehouse is attacked by KGB operative Necros (Andreas Wisniewski, Die Hard).  After wreaking havoc, Necros kidnaps Koskov and escapes.  Deciding that "Smiert Spionom" is more important than recovering Koskov, M orders Bond to assassinate the head of the KGB (John Rhys Davies, Raiders of the Lost Ark) before international tensions turn into full scale war.

Of course, being a Bond film, there is more to the story, but why spoil it?  Instead of super villains and secret lairs, we are given a true Cold War thriller, and for the most part, it really is quite good.   The plot is interesting, the action and stunts are great, John Glen's direction is assured, and John Barry's music delivers the goods.  The villains, which also include an American arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker, Walking Tall), are all entertaining. Wisniewski is particularly effective as the henchman Necros, towering over Timothy Dalton, and participating in two of the franchise best fights since the Sean Connery days.

The movie certainly has its problems. Bond's allies this time are a bit less engaging than the villains. The main Bond girl Kara (Maryam D'Abo, The Browning Version) is Kostov's girlfriend and an accomplished cellist, and really does not belong in the movie after the first 45-minutes.  Her role in the plot complete, she is only there to serve as a distraction to Bond and the audience, and that is a bit annoying.  I also found the attempts at humor to fall a bit flat; a leftover feature from the Roger Moore years that seems at odds with the new tone being established here.  It does seem like everyone is working through the process, looking to see what works and what doesn't with their new approach. That results in a few bumps on the road - but only a few.  For the most part, this really is quite a good film and easily ranks in the top half of the franchise.

And what about Dalton?  The Welsh actor is considered one of the "lesser" Bonds, probably because he only made two films and the latter one appeared at one point to be the franchise killer (until Pierce Brosnan brought the Bonds roaring back).  In general, Dalton is dismissed with a "meh" and his films are considering forgettable.  I find this all very confusing.  First of all, Living Daylights was a well regarded success upon its release and Dalton's second film License to Kill is nowhere near as bad as people say. And as for Dalton himself - people seem to criticize him for doing exactly what Daniel Craig is praised for - bringing some darkness and danger to the character.  This criticism must drive Dalton crazy!  Overall, I think Dalton is really quite good.  He brings a new physicality to the role, throwing himself into fights and stunts that Roger Moore hadn't been able to do for a decade.  He is also utterly believable as a dangerous and cold-hearted spy. In fact, Dalton might get the "spy" piece of the Bond character better than any of the other actors who played the part; he is downright brilliant. Unfortunately, there are a few other important pieces to the Bond character than Dalton is not quite as good at. He is generally not very believable with the ladies; it's almost as if he is being forced to sleep with them.  And he is also mostly humorless, even more so than Craig.  A key part of Bond is that he enjoys being Bond.  Dalton's Bond is focused on his duty and doing what's right, but he is not necessarily enjoying himself in the process, and I don't think that was the right approach to take.  But all in all, I think that can be forgiven. He is a great actor and he is doing really good work in this role. He deserves to be re-evaluated!

Okay, back to the movie.  As I mentioned above, it's far from perfect. But The Living Daylights is a good and sometimes even great entry in this franchise.  Definitely see it!

RANKINGS:
Okay, The Living Daylights shoots right up to the top of the list - not in the upper echelon, but close.  It is certainly better than all of Roger Moore's films, except for The Spy Who Loved Me.  That's one of the classics and would be hard to top, but I think Dalton's first entry to the franchise fits comfortably just below it.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. The Living Daylights
6. Dr. No
7. Octopussy
8. For Your Eyes Only
9. Live and Let Die
10. Man with the Golden Gun
11. Diamonds are Forever
12. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
13. Moonraker
14. You Only Live Twice
15. A View to a Kill

BEST LINE:
Bond: Stuff my orders.  I only kill professionals.  That girl didn't know one end of her rifle from the other. Go ahead. Tell M what you want. If he fires me, I'll thank him for it...Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her.

TRIVIA:
Bond casting is always an interesting source of trivia.  It really is a huge deal whenever the part is recast; you are replacing an icon and the world knows it.  A number of interesting choices have been considered for the part, everyone from Cary Grant to James Brolin to Mel Gibson.  In fact, Pierce Brosnan was almost cast in The Living Daylights (I'll save that trivia for my Goldeneye review) before the producers decided on Timothy Dalton.  Dalton was also almost cast on multiple occasions before finally getting the role.  When Sean Connery left the series after You Only Live Twice, Dalton was considered for the part.  I don't know if Broccoli and Saltzman decided to look elsewhere or if Dalton turned down the part, but I think this was the right call - Dalton was way too young at that point.  He never would have worked (even if he would have saved me the torture of having to watch George Lazenby).  He was considered again in 1971 after Diamonds are Forever, and again in 1981 in For Your Eyes Only, when it wasn't clear whether or not Roger Moore was returning.  In fact, he was actually offered the role for Octopussy and A View to a Kill, but turned them both down due to scheduling conflicts.  So Broccoli really, really liked Dalton enough to chase him for twenty years!

MVP:
For The Living Daylights, I am not going to say a person.  Yes, I like Dalton.  And I like the direction by John Glen and the music score by John Barry (his last Bond score, by the way).  No, the MVP for The Living Daylights is not a person.  It is a stunt.  Probably one of the coolest stunts I have ever seen!  Spoilers here: Bond's final fight with Necros takes place in the cargo hold of a military plane The loading door of the plane opens and both combatants slide out of the plane, just barely grabbing ahold of a cargo net to keep them from falling to their deaths.  And then they proceed to fight while hanging on this net.  And two stunt men really spent hours filming scenes of punching each other while being dragged around by a cargo plane. The closeups are obviously filmed on a set, but the wide shots were filmed pretty damn high.  That is just insane.  INSANE! And incredibly dangerous.  My hats off to the stunt team.  I have to say this is the best stunt in franchise history! And an easy winner for my MVP award.

Here it is if you want to see it:

A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill

In 1983, Albert Broccoli found himself up against the fierce competition of a rival Bond film called Never Say Never Again, starring the greatest James Bond of them all: Sean Connery.  The news changed the way Broccoli's production company Eon approached their next film in the Bond franchise, evocatively entitled Octopussy.  Originally Broccoli was going to go with a new actor, most likely the American actor James Brolin, but now they couldn't take any chances.  They needed to ward off this new threat.  They needed a sure thing.  They needed the reliable Roger Moore to come back for one more film.  And even though he was a bit old for the part at age 56, Moore agreed to return for a final hoorah.

Though it has its problems, Octopussy proved to be a big hit, and outperformed Never Say Never Again. And overall, for Roger Moore, this was not a bad film to go out on.  After 11 years and 6 films, Moore could now retire from the role on an all time high (coincidentally the main song for the movie).  He was even given one of the great iconic Bond moments during the film's climax, when he slides down a palace bannister with a machine gun, mowing down down the bad guys.  It's a fun moment.  Check it out!

What a great way to start to retirement!

Except...that's not what happened.

Instead A View to a Kill happened.

Oh, dear heavens, the horror. The horror.

What can I say about A View to a Kill?

The movie begins in Siberia, where Bond is searching for the corpse of a fellow agent 003. But more important than 003 is a Soviet microchip he had stolen just before his death. After recovering the chip, Bond is attacked by the Russians. Bond quickly captures a snowmobile and when that is damaged, he takes off the front ski and uses it as a snowboard...he proceeds to surf down the mountain as the music switches to a cover of The Beach Boys' "California Girls." After a number of slapstick stunts to evade his pursuers, Bond makes it to his iceberg submarine where a nubile fellow agent is waiting to sleep with him.

Sound bad?  That's only the first six minutes.

The film just gets worse from there.  Bond's snooping eventually leads him to Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), a billionaire industrialist psychopath/Nazi experiment gone wrong, who is interested in breeding race horses and blowing up Silicon Valley.  On Zorin's side, we have his super strong bodyguard May Day (a towering Grace Jones) and silly cartoon German scientist Dr. Mortner (Willoughby Gray), who helps him with his genetic experiments.  On Bond's side, we have Sir Godfrey (Patrick McNee), a horse breeding expert, and state geologist Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts).

The less said about the plot, the better.  Just know that we are treated to a long and mind numbingly dull sequence where Bond and Sir Godfrey infiltrate Zorin's race horse breeding event. Then it's time for a slapstick car chase on a firetruck and a building fire where Stacey Sutton's shrill screams will make your ears bleed.  Oh, and let's not forget the thrilling action scene at Sutton's house. After 23 years of fights in locations as intriguing or exotic as the Orient Express, an ancient Greek monastery, an Indian palace, Fort Knox, and a secret volcano base, we are now treated to an extended fight scene in a big, empty room. Really?!  Come on, guys, you're better than this.

Almost no one comes through this mess unscathed, not even Roger Moore.  His performance is as assured as always, but he is just too old, plain and simple. He looks out of shape, it appears as if he's had some strange plastic surgery, and his eyebrows look long enough to hang Christmas ornaments from.  He just isn't believable any more in the action scenes and even less so in the love scenes. It's incredible what a difference only 2 years can make, since he was fine in Octopussy.  Even Roger Moore knew he was too old for the part and said so in his autobiography.  He was shocked when he found out he was old enough to be Tanya Robert's grandfather.  That was when he knew he had to really retire.  But it's not just Moore who suffers in the film.  Tanya Roberts, while easy on the eyes, is bland and monotone.  Christopher Walken overacts and is just trying too hard.  He's Christopher Walken, for crying out loud.  He's already awesome and weird as it is.  He doesn't have to try so hard!  John Glen's normally assured direction is slow moving, and even the always reliable John Barry sounds to be on auto pilot.  What a disappointment!

So is A View to a Kill all bad?  No, it has moments.  Grace Jones and Patrick McNee are fine; the former isn't required to do much but stare angrily at people and she does so convincingly.  And Patrick McNee is just as charming as he was in The Avengers TV show.  He also has a fun chemistry with Roger Moore which gives us the only truly amusing parts of the movie.  There is also a sequence in a flooded mine near the end of the film that is generally horrific.  And lastly, while John Barry misses the ball with his score, he did co-write one of the better Bond songs. The title song by Duran Duran is pretty awesome!

But that's it.  This movie stinks.  I'm done.

RANKINGS:
I remember in my earlier Bond reviews, I was explaining why I disliked On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice for very different reasons.  And in terms of ranking the films, I had to decide whether boring or ridiculous was the worse sin.

Well, A View to a Kill is both.  And it's going straight to the bottom of the list.  No further debate needed.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Dr. No
6. Octopussy
7. For Your Eyes Only
8. Live and Let Die
9. Man with the Golden Gun
10. Diamonds are Forever
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12. Moonraker
13. You Only Live Twice
14. A View to a Kill


BEST LINE:
Here is a line that is so bad, it's good.  It's Christopher Walken at his most Walken-y.
Max Zorin: More!  More power!

TRIVIA:
Here's a cool little fact.  A View to a Kill was Dolph Lundgren's first movie.  He was only in the film by accident.  He was dating Grace Jones at the time, and he was visiting the set.  Director John Glen needed a KGB bodyguard at the last minute and Lundgren happened to be in the right place at the right time.  He has all of maybe 5 seconds of screen time and no dialogue.  Can you imagine that in just a few months this guy would be killing Apollo Creed in the ring and taking on Rocky in a showdown for the ages?!?!?!?

MVP:
Though I am tempted to give the MVP to Dolph Lundgren, that would be petty.  Especially since there is a clear quality MVP winner here.  After four films featuring love songs and ballads, Bond is finally able to rock out again. The title song by Duran Duran is a great addition to the canon and is easily in the Top Five Bond Songs.  The song is more dynamic and exciting than anything in the film. This is an easy MVP pick.  And I think most of the world would agree!

Octopussy

Octopussy

For Your Eyes Only was a divisive film in my group of friends - they found it tedious and frustrating, whereas I appreciated the return of a semi-realistic tone to the franchise and truly believe that just a few missteps derail it from being a great film (though they are pretty big missteps, to be fair).  Roger Moore's next film Octopussy ended up being even more divisive - only this time, it is my friends and me against pretty much the rest of the world!

A British secret service agent is murdered, dressed as a clown and carrying a fake faberge egg (basically a very fancy, jeweled egg).  It's all very peculiar, so James Bond is sent in to investigate. Of course, his sleuthing introduces him to a whole gaggle of villains, including exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) and his right hand man Gobinda (Kabir Bedi), as well as a circus run by a mysterious and dangerous woman named Octopussy (Maud Adams).  Leaping from London to India to Germany, Bond has to discover why these villains need something as rare as a faberge egg and how that all connects to a renegade Russian general named Orlov (Steven Berkoff), who wants to ignite the Cold War into a hot one.

A lot of people point to Octopussy as an example of all that is wrong with the Roger Moore years. And they point to very specific things - silly gadgets (alligator submarine, anyone?), unbelievable action (that silly fight in the Indian market), and ridiculous jokes (there is a Tarzan yell that is frankly unforgivable).  Plus, Roger Moore is looking too old to be wooing such young women and throwing punches.  He looks more likely to throw his back out.

I can't defend against any of these points.  These specific moments are indeed bad, and Roger Moore is starting to look a bit long in the tooth.  But if are trying to find an example of over-the-top Bond shenanigans that go too far, then look no further than Moonraker.  After that space epic, the Bond films actually came back down to Earth and became more realistic.  Octopussy has these absurd and ridiculous moments, but they are only moments.  For the most part, this is more of a Cold War thriller that tonally is feels like it has more in common with Goldfinger and Thunderball than Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.

There is a lot to like here.  The pre-credits scene is terrific. The villains - especially Jourdan and Berkoff, are chewing scenery like they were told they'd never get a chance to act again, and they are both very entertaining.  Roger Moore is looking a bit old, but I think he is still able to hold his own. As for the Bond girl, the producers were wise to cast Maud Adams (in her second Bond film after Man with the Golden Gun). Though 13-years younger than Moore, she exhibits a maturity and authority that makes her the perfect romantic partner for an aging super spy.  I actually think she is the best Bond girl of the entire Roger Moore run.

Also, John Barry makes a stunning return to the franchise and delivers another brilliant score.  The stunts are exciting, much of the humor actually is funny, and some of the gadgets are actually pretty cool (buzzsaw yoyo? Hell yes!).  Octopussy also presents what is easily one of the most tense moments of the Roger Moore run, when Bond has to get to diffuse a nuclear bomb in the circus. It's just a terrific scene.

I don't love Octopussy, but I think it is woefully underrated.  It's a worthy entry to the franchise and is way better than its reputation. I was pleased that my group of friends agreed.  We just don't get it. Why all the hate?

I think it must be that damn Tarzan yell.


RANKINGS:

This one is tough. There is a lot I don't like in Octopussy, but large portions of it work really quite well.  And it is hard for me to ignore the nostalgia factor, as much as I want to.  Octopussy was probably the first Bond film I saw, and it was on a constant rotation in my house growing up. Despite the fact that most people put it near the bottom, I'm putting it firmly in the middle.  The big question is which side of For Your Eyes Only should it be on?  When both films are good, I think Octopussy might be better. When both films are bad, well, they are equally bad.  So I think that gives Octopussy the slight edge - and yes, I know I just made a big deal about For Your Eyes Only having the potential to be Moore's best Bond film.  But the reality is I think Octopussy is just a little bit better.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia With Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Dr. No
6. Octopussy
7. For Your Eyes Only
8. Live and Let Die
9. Man with the Golden Gun
10. Diamonds are Forever
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12. Moonraker
13. You Only Live Twice


BEST LINE:
This is an easy one, even if it is just a one word line of dialogue. It's all in Louis Jourdan's seedy and scenery chewing delivery: "Octopussy."

TRIVIA:
1983 was the year that Kevin McClory was supposed to get his payback.  After decades of litigation, he finally got the rights to the James Bond story "Thunderball" which he had co-written with Ian Fleming in the 1950s.  He also won the rights to SPECTRE and Bond's arch nemesis Ernst Blofeld. And now he was finally going to get to work on producing his own Bond film - even if it was going to be technically a remake of 1965's Thunderball.  McClory even managed a huge coup when he convinced Sean Connery to return to the iconic role that had made him a star.  The new Bond film, called Never Say Never Again as a joke about Connery's refusal to play Bond ever again, was going to come out the same summer as Eon's Octopussy.  It was going to be a battle of the Bonds.  For Roger Moore and Sean Connery, who were good friends, it was a friendly competition.  But there was bad blood between Team McClory-Connery and Team Broccoli.  And I wouldn't be surprised if both sides were out for blood.

And sure enough, the allure of Sean Connery returning to the role made waves at the box office.  The film grossed $55 million in 1983, which is pretty impressive.  Of course, Octopussy grossed $67 million.  Sure, everyone knows that Connery is the best Bond, but let's never forget that when the two actors went head-to-head, Roger Moore won the fight!

MVP:
This one is tricky. Roger Moore is good as usual, though he is definitely starting to show his age. Maud Adams is terrific as the title character, and John Barry gave us his last truly great Bond score. But ultimately, I think the winner has to be the Acrostar - one of the coolest vehicles of the franchise, probably just behind the Aston Martin in Goldfinger and the Lotus in The Spy Who Loved Me.  The Acrostar is the tiny jet that Bond uses in the beginning of the film to take on the Cuban military. Super sleek and insanely fast, this mini jet is just amazingly cool.  I wanted one when I was 8...and I kinda still want one today.  It's just pretty damn awesome.

Moonraker

Moonraker

Damn it, James Bond, this is the second time you've done this to me.  In 1967, Eon Productions came out with Thunderball, one of the best of the series, only to follow it up with the ridiculous You Only Live Twice.  It took awhile for the series to fully recover, but they finally did with The Spy Who Loved Me, the best film of the Roger Moore era and another true highlight of the franchise.

The future looked bright.

And then that future gave us Moonraker.

The Spy Who Loved Me was a big hit, so Bond producer Cubby Broccoli decided to make pretty much the same movie...in space!  There is no denying the similarities between Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me.  Only instead of secret underwater lairs, we get to now visit the villain's secret space station.  And instead of Karl Stromberg stealing nuclear submarines as part of a nefarious plan to resettle the future of humanity on the ocean floor, we now have Hugo Drax stealing space shuttles as part of a nefarious plan to resettle the future of humanity in space.

What the hell, Bond?!  What. The. Hell.

So if you can't tell already, I really don't like this film.  It pretty much encapsulates everything people did not like about the Roger Moore era - bad puns, ridiculous gadgets, slapstick comedy.  Originally, Cubby Broccoli had wanted to make For Your Eyes Only, but the franchise's longevity has always been in large part because of its flexibility to adapt to the popular trends of the day.  Star Wars was the biggest hit of all time. Therefore, James Bond had to go to space and have a laser gun fight.  The strategy worked like a charm. Moonraker, inexplicably, was a monster hit, and made even more money than its better predecessor.

This movie is just a stinker.  I don't even know where to start.  How about with the fact that it makes no sense?  Hugo Drax is one of the wealthiest men alive and among his many business ventures is the design and construction of space shuttles.  If he has a space shuttle factory, why does he feel the need to steal space shuttles from the American government??  And why would James Bond suspect Drax of stealing the shuttles, which he automatically does without any evidence?  And when he visits Drax's mansion, why does Drax decide to just try and kill him for no reason?  The answer is "because this is what happens in James Bond movies" whether it makes sense or not.  More than any other film, Moonraker lines up the formula in a bullet point list and literally just checks the boxes without any sort of rhyme or reason or connective tissue.

It doesn't help that Hugo Drax is lame.  Lame, lame, lame.  He is easily one of the dumbest Bond villains, which is a shame because Michael Lonsdale is terrific actor.  We also have a bland Bond girl (the solid Lois Chiles is also wasted here), and the return of fan favorite Jaws.  Everything cool about Jaws is completely undone with this movie, where he is basically reduced to Wile E. Coyote. In the film's opening fight, the super villain ends up falling out of a plane without a parachute and flaps his arms like a bird, trying to stay afloat. Seriously. Jaws is just ridiculous in this movie, and it is no wonder the character never made a third appearance. 

Later, a gondola sprouts wheels and pops out of the water to drive across St. Mark's Square in Venice, and a pigeon does a double take. I'll say that again. A pigeon does a double take.

So do I like anything about Moonraker?  Well, I still like Roger Moore.  And I suppose there are moments that are good.  A horrific dog attack in the beginning of the film is effectively terrifying - even if the entire scene is undercut by the fact that the victim could have easily just gotten back into a car and driven away instead of running into the woods to get hunted in the first place. 

There is one thing I like a lot - John Barry's music. The Spy Who Loved Me sorely missed Barry's artistry, and the producers did not make that mistake this time around. Barry is back in full force, producing arguably the best score of the Roger Moore years.

I have to give credit to Moonraker for one other thing, and this is an important point.  The movie is like a gateway drug for the franchise. When we showed the Bond films to the young son of a friend, he was sort of ambivalent towards the Connery films.  He just wasn't old enough to enjoy them.  But Moonraker...now, Moonraker, he understood, and he loved every minute of it.  And when that stupid pigeon did that stupid double take, this kid started laughing so hard that he fell off the couch.  It was impossible not to enjoy the film a little bit when I could see it through his eyes.  And it reminded me that I liked the movie when I was his age, too. Moonraker probably contributed to my love of the franchise, even if I am trying to turn my back on it now.

So there you go.  This movie is a turd, but I guess I can't completely hate it.  Meh.


RANKINGS:

Technically, Moonraker is probably the worst Bond film so far, but I can't bring myself to put it at the bottom of the list.  Not after I saw it with that 8-year old.  It changed my perspective on the movie. Granted, it doesn't move it that far up the list, but it definitely keeps it from being at the complete bottom of the barrel.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia With Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Dr. No
6. Live and Let Die
7. Man with the Golden Gun
8. Diamonds are Forever
9. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
10. Moonraker
11. You Only Live Twice

BEST LINE:

Minister of Defense: What's Bond doing?!
Q: I think he's attempting re-entry, sir.

TRIVIA:

Moonraker was the first film to feature the modern space shuttle.  In fact, the release of the film was going to coincide with NASA's first use of the shuttle.  But unfortunately, the launch was delayed for two years.

MVP:

This one is easy.  John Barry wins hands down.  It's not even a contest.  And despite the fact that Moonraker is horrible, it does have the most awe-inspiring musical moment of the franchise.  What I love about film is that it is multiple different arts all working in synch to create one single piece of art.  And there are rare moments in moviemaking when all of these elements merge so seamlessly, so perfectly, that is creates something truly sublime, sending chills down your spine.  This doesn't happen often.  John Williams has a few of these moments - the Map Room in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the final light saber duel in Return of the Jedi come to mind.  John Barry gives me one of those moments in Moonraker as the shuttle nears Drax's space station.  The score in this sequence is stunning, but then Barry ratchets it up another notch, cranking up the organ as the space station makes its first appearance, slowly appearing out of the blackness as the sun comes over the Earth.  It's a BEAUTIFUL shot, and Barry's score just rocks the moment. This moment is a masterpiece in film composing.  It's just the best moment of what is already a terrific score.  So Barry wins the MVP hands down.

Goldfinger

Goldfinger
Goldfinger has quite the reputation.  If Dr. No introduced the icon, and From Russia With Love showed what the character could really do, then Goldfinger is when lightning struck and the Bond formula was solidified.  Goldfinger is considered the quintessential Bond film.

It is hard to argue with that assessment.  If the previous films introduced pieces of the Bond formula, they all truly come together perfectly in this third film of the franchise.  It is in Goldfinger that the villains go over-the-top, and where we are introduced to the truly outlandish gadgets from Q Branch (the briefcase in From Russia With Love is too realistic!  It doesn't count.).  It is also Goldfinger where Bond's pun-ful sense of humor goes from an occasional aside to self-aware silliness ("Shocking," he says, after electrocuting an assassin to death).  And Goldfinger is when we have the sequence that perfectly incapsulates the Bond character.  In the opening scene, Bond dressed in an all black wetsuit swims into a harbor to complete a mission.  Once finished, he unzips the wetsuit to reveal a perfectly tailored tuxedo on underneath.  He proceeds to go into a bar to drink and ogle belly dancers.  If that sequence of events doesn't describe Bond in a nutshell, I don't know else could!

This time Bond is on the trail of Auric Goldfinger, an incredibly rich gold smuggler who plans to contaminate the U.S. gold supply in Fort Knox in order to increase the value of his own holdings.  The plot doesn't sound like much, especially compared to the world endangering plots of the other Connery films, but Goldfinger is a lot of fun.  In fact, that is probably Goldfinger's greatest strength - fun.  The previous films are much more serious, and it is Goldfinger where the franchise fully embraces its silliness.  A car with an ejector seat?  A villainous henchman with a steel-rimmed hat that he basically uses as a deadly frisbee to kill his victims?  Come on, that's silly stuff.  But wow, it is entertaining!  And unlike later films, the absurd elements are perfectly balanced with the serious secret agent adventure.  Goldfinger is the film future Bond directors should watch to see how to interweave what should have been two competing tones.  Even the character of Bond seems to be in on the joke now.  Connery plays the character like someone who works as a suave super spy as a lark. Quite simply, he loves his work.  This is a key character trait that you don't quite get in the earlier movies.  Goldfinger also has a lot of my favorite moments of the franchise.  His Aston Martin is easily my favorite Bond car.  The aforementioned henchman, Oddjob, is a personal favorite of mine, and I love the final fight between him and Bond.  Even the gray three-piece suit Connery wears is my favorite Bond suit.  Simply put, Goldfinger really is the quintessential Bond film. It is the pinnacle which every film that followed judged itself by.

So why isn't it my favorite Bond film?  It used to be my favorite when I was younger, but it has slid down a little bit in the rankings.  Just because the film best represents the Bond formula doesn't make it the best film.  There are things that have really begun to grate over the years.  BIG SPOILERS AHEAD.  Why does Goldfinger proceed to tell the American gangsters his master plan as if he wants to recruit them, only to kill them all?  Huh?  I used to laugh that off.  Maybe now I am just old and cynical, but this bothers me now.  How did the entire army division guarding Fort Knox, as well as the thousands and thousands of people who live in the area effectively coordinate to simultaneously fall down and play "dead" in order to trick Auric Goldfinger during the movie's climax?  This really doesn't make a lot of sense.  The way Bond is first captured is ridiculous, and is a completely uncool way to destroy of such a great car.  And the way Bond convinces Pussy Galore to turn on Goldfinger is just uncomfortable and a bit rapey to me.

This may sound like nitpicks, but the more you watch the film, the more these things will bother you. They certainly bother me, and they knock the film down enough points to keep it from being number 1 on my list.  But in the end, it doesn't change the fact that Goldfinger really a great film.  The direction from Guy Hamilton, filling in for Terence Young, is terrific.  Connery is at his best.  Gert Frobe is a great over-the-top villain, and Harold Sakata is brilliant as his henchman Oddjob.  So far as Bond Girls go, I thought Honor Blackman was solid as Pussy Galore.  She is one of the better actresses of the Connery era, though I feel they could have done much more with the character.  The title song and the score are both superb, with the former staking a valid claim as the best Bond song ever (for me, it is a tie between this and "Live and Let Die").  All in all, it's a great movie and possibly the single most important, defining film of the franchise.    

RANKINGS:

As I mentioned, a couple of years ago, Goldfinger was firmly in the #1 spot.  But those nitpicks knock it back.  And I have grown very fond of the steely professionalism that is on display in From Russia With Love.

1. From Russia With Love
2. Goldfinger
3. Dr. No

BEST LINE:
You have to go with the classic on this one.  Other than "Bond, James Bond," this exchange has to be the most iconic of the entire franchise.

Bond: Do you expect me to talk?

Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond.  I expect you to die. 

MVP:
Now this is really difficult.  I almost want to say John Barry, the Oscar-winning composer who wrote the fantastic title song and composed one of his most memorable scores.  But I think I am going to have to fall back to Connery, who delivers his most assured performance as Bond in this film.  He was terrific before, but the line between actor and character vanish in this film.  It's such a charismatic performance that you simply can't look away.  Connery gets my MVP.

TRIVIA: 
When Shirley Bassey recorded the theme song, she sang as she watched the opening credits of the film, to make sure her vocals were matching the images.  When she hit her final high note, the credits...kept going...and going...and going, and Bassey was forced to hold that high note.  She made it to the end, but almost passed out in the process!

From Russia With Love

From Russia With Love

We are continuing our reviews of all the Eon-produced Bond films...and up next is the second film in the series, From Russia With Love, which is universally considered one of the classics.  The original film of the franchise, Dr. No, is also considered a classic, but I found it to have a few considerable flaws that keep it solidly in good, but not great territory - the biggest issue being that everyone seems to be still finding their way with the character (with the huge exception of Sean Connery, who just knocks it out of the park with his first performance of the character).  So what about From Russia With Love?  Does it deserve the title of classic?

Oh, without a doubt.  The film has the same team (including director Terence Young and writer Richard Maibaum), but they showed that they are fast learners and From Russia With Love is an improvement in every way.

With the Cold War at its height, the villainous organization SPECTRE sets out to steal a secret Russian encryption device, called The Lektor, which they will then sell to the highest bidder.  Of course, they will play the Western allies and the Russians against each other, upsetting the delicate Cold War balance in the process.  SPECTRE's intricately woven plan, which involves tricking a Russian agent Tatiana (Daniela Bianchi) into thinking she is duping the British Secret Service into stealing the Russian Lektor, might be a bit overly complicated, but it's also rather ingenious.  And of course, SPECTRE specifically targets the British agent who messed up their operations in Jamaica and killed their lead scientist Dr. No in the previous movie - James Bond.

There's a lot going on in From Russia With Love.  And more-so than any other Bond film, this one feels like a true espionage thriller.  Though there are a few fight scenes, this is not an action film.  Instead, there is a lot of lurking about, snooping, delivering secret passwords, getting fake passports, and other deeds of intrigue you would generally see in a more realistic spy film.  The pace is deliberate, but unlike Dr. No, it never drags.  The cast is terrific - Connery shows yet again why he is the best Bond, and he is ably supported by a solid Bond girl in Bianchi, a terrific ally in Pedro Armendariz (in his last film), and two iconic villains with Robert Shaw as Red Grant and Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb.

Admittedly, I do have a few problems with the movie.  There is an excursion to a gypsy camp that just seems like a sexist tangent, and an excuse to have two Gypsy girls viciously fight it out over a man they both want, conveniently tearing at each other's clothes in the process.  I don't care if the scene is in the book.  It's just strange.  I also was a bit underwhelmed by the climactic scenes.  Minor spoilers here - even if there is not a lot of action in From Russia With Love, it does still contain the greatest fight scene in the franchise, a brutal fistfight between Bond and Red Grant on the Orient Express.  The fight is so good that both the helicopter fight and boat chase that follow pale in comparison.  They just seem a bit limp.  Now, a film professor friend of mine said that I need to put myself in the mindset of the early 1960s.  Audiences were not used to seeing helicopters, not until Vietnam.  So the scene where Bond is running in a field, chased by a helicopter, knocked audiences out of their seats back in the early 1963.  He remembers being knocked out of his seat.  So there is no way the climax of From Russia With Love is ever going to have the impact that it did 50 years ago, and I'll never quite understand why it was so exciting at the time.  But even if I can intellectually admit that, I still can't help feeling letdown after the Red Grant fight.

All in all, these are quibbles.  From Russia With Love is a huge improvement over Dr. No.  It should be said that audiences noticed, too.  It wasn't Dr. No that was the huge hit and cemented the franchise.  It was From Russia With Love (I suppose it helped when President Kennedy talked about how much he loved the book).

RANKINGS:
Easy.  From Russia With Love moves ahead of Dr. No on the list.

So here is the list which is taking shape...

1. From Russia With Love
2. Dr. No

BEST LINE:
Bond approaches the clerk in the Russian embassy.

Bond: Your clock, is it correct?
Clerk: Always.
Bond: But of course. (he walks away, checks his watch, then comes back) Excuse me, you did say your clock was correct?
Clerk: Russian clocks are always - (Bomb explodes in the embassy) 

TRIVIA: 
Lots of good trivia in this one.  Ultimately, I am going to go with a near fatal accident involving director Terence Young.  A helicopter carrying Young during the climactic scene crashed into the water, trapping him beneath the surface.  There was a small air bubble in the helicopter canopy that kept him alive until the crew managed to dive down and save him.  Safely back on shore, his injured arm in a sling, Young just shrugged it all off like it was nothing and went right back into filming. Wow, that is pretty badass.

MVP:
As good as Sean Connery is in this film, he is challenged in the MVP spot by Robert Shaw, playing one of the super spy's better adversaries, Red Grant, a brilliant killer in the employ of SPECTRE.  Grant is every inch Bond's equal...in fact, you could say that for most of the film, he is running rings around Bond.  Shaw embodies the role perfectly.  Audiences who have only seen Shaw as the craggy, grumpy, and dirty Captain Quint in Jaws need to see From Russia With Love so they can see him play the polar opposite.  Clean, tall and muscular, quietly efficient and brutal beyond words, this character is no joke.  People fear him.  I get the sense that even Bond is afraid of him, and that is the most telling thing of all.  Bond?  Afraid of anybody?  To make that believable, you better cast the right actor.  And the producers did.  They got Robert Shaw.  He gets the MVP.

Dr. No

Dr. No
So this is where it all began, one of the longest-running franchises in Hollywood history, the introduction to one of cinema's greatest heroes and the progenitor of the modern action film.

Our first James Bond adventure takes us to the Caribbean.  A British agent John Strangways disappears in Jamaica and James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to investigate.  Almost immediately, he is targeted for assassination.  The attempts on his life grow more frequent as he closes in on Strangways' killers, signaling that the murdered agent was on to something really big and potentially explosive.  But what does all of this have to do with the mysterious scientist with metal hands named Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman).

I will be honest, it can be a bit difficult to review Dr. No objectively.  After all, this is where the formula originated: the smug and charming know-it-all agent, the women, the fanciful villains...it's a classic!

But is it really?

Well, it must be.  Everyone says so.  But again, is it really?

Look, make no mistake.  Dr. No is a fine film.  I really enjoyed it.  And it is a fascinating piece of cinematic history, but it is hardly a classic piece of filmmaking.  Let's start with director Terence Young, who deserves a lot of credit for making the franchise what it is and for helping mold Connery into what the character could be, but this is hardly visionary directing.  His pacing seems sluggish at times, the fights are rather silly, the dubbing is poorly done, the climax is anti-climactic, and the camera remains detached, contributing nothing to the escalating tension we are supposed to be feeling.  I actually never actually felt Bond was in any danger throughout the entire film except for his encounter with the spider and when he meets Dr. No himself, and that has more to do with the fact that I don't like spiders and because Joseph Wiseman's performance is so deliciously malevolent.

At first, I just figured that it was a different time, with a different standard of filmmaking and I should cut the film some slack.  But then I realized that this reasoning was a bit ridiculous.  Dr. No is lacking even when you compare it to other films made in the 1950s and 1960s.  Look no further than North by Northwest (1959) or To Catch a Thief (1955), both inspirations for the Bond series and both infinitely better.

I was also admittedly uncomfortable with the way Bond treats his black colleague Quarrel, a character whose introduction is badass but who then quickly devolves into a Caribbean stereotype. Bond just bosses him around with colonialist superiority that I could not help but feel a bit offended.

But what I can say is there must have been a learning curve - for the director, the writers, the producers, the composers...really, for the whole darn production team.  And they learned quickly because they came together and made one of the very best films of the series when they produced the sequel From Russia With Love. But they are fumbling a bit in this first film.

Okay, I know this all sounds bad, so now it is time to backpedal a bit.  Remember I said I liked the film?  I actually really do.  I like the fact that it is mostly an investigation, with Bond interviewing Stangways' friends and doing actual spy stuff, instead of bursting into rooms with guns a'blazing.  I love how ruthless and cutthroat the character was in the early 1960s.  They softened him a bit as the franchise continued, but this movie features Bond murdering unarmed men and also having a female enemy spy arrested only after he sleeps with her.  These are reminders that Bond is not a role model. And he's not supposed to be.  But these actions do make him an infinitely more interesting character.

I feel like this review would not be complete unless I mentioned the Bond girl and the villain!  For the Bond girl, you have Honey Ryder, played by the volcanic Ursula Andress.  Most people consider her one of the best, probably because of the iconic moment when she steps out of the ocean in her bikini with a knife strapped to her waist (no better way to capture the franchise's obsession with sex and violence in the same image!).  Andress is fine in the role, but after that first scene she doesn't really have much to do.  So I wonder if the reputation is based less on the character and more on that entrance and the fact that Andress is so explosively attractive.

For the villain, I gotta say I am a fan of Wiseman's Dr. No.  He is cruel and calculating and so unemotional, it is downright eerie.  He also begins the two Bond traditions of having a strange physical attribute (metal hands) and monologuing about what his master plan is.  Though I give credit to Dr. No for actually giving the villain a good reason to monologue - he is trying to recruit Bond to join the ranks of his organization, SPECTRE.  While the final fight between No and Bond is a let-down, it is still a memorable performance and a very cool villain.

So there you go.  I know I spent a lot of this review complaining about Dr. No, but I want to make it clear - this is a solid movie.  I enjoyed it and it is intriguing to watch how everything got started.  And it is very clear from the beginning that there is something cinematically magical about Bond - and especially about Connery playing Bond.  It is no wonder the film was a success.  But let's be careful about calling it a classic.  Because it most definitely is not.

RANKINGS:

So I will be ranking all the Bond films as I watch them. Obviously, there is only one film so far, so we might as well let Dr. No enjoy its brief time in the sun before From Russia With Love comes a'calling.

MVP:
"Bond.  James Bond."

And with that short phrase, two stars were born - James Bond and the legendary actor who played him, Sean Connery.  Connery just owns this role.  Even if he had only made one film, he still would have an easy claim to being the best Bond ever.  Other Bonds generally excelled at one or two of the character traits that are essential to character.  Roger Moore handled the one liners quite well.  He was charming, suave with the ladies, and adept at handling Bond's ambivalence (or pretended ambivalence) to danger.  But I never really believed him in a fight.  Timothy Dalton brought danger to the role, but was completely unbelievable when flirting, Brosnan could handle himself equally in an action set piece and in the bedroom, but the over-the-top antics they put him through kept him from ever being truly believable, George Lazenby...well, let's just skip George Lazenby, and Daniel Craig, who is my second favorite Bond behind Connery, has completely inhabited the role of a brawler who has turned himself into a sophisticated man of the world, but he has yet to show me the nonchalance and the charm that is so essential to the character.  It all goes back to Connery.  He did it all.  He inhabited it all.  Without Connery, Dr. No would have been well received by audiences, it may have even warranted a sequel, but it would be remembered now by only spy film enthusiasts and Ian Fleming fans.  Connery made Bond a legend.  He's the MVP!


BEST LINE:

This is a tie between one of my favorite Bond pickup lines and when Bond ruthlessly kills one of his enemies.  First, the pickup line, spoken just after Honey Ryder comes to shore from the beach.

Honey Ryder: Are you looking for shells?

Bond (clearly ogling her): No, I'm just looking.

And then the great line when Bond kills an enemy whose gun has run out of bullets:

Bond: That's a Smith and Wesson, and you've had your six. (boom)

TRIVIA:
The hunt for Bond was an arduous one.  Connery came late in the search. As fans of North by Northwest, Broccoli and Saltzman first asked Cary Grant, who would only agree to one picture and who also expressed a concern that he was a bit too old for the part (he was in his mid-50s at that point in his career).  Broccoli and Saltzman then asked North by Northwest's villain, James Mason, who also would not agree to a multi-picture deal.  Several actors were thrown into the discussions, such Steve Reeves (Hercules), Roger Moore (who would go on to play Bond in later films), and Stanley Baker (Zulu).  But they liked Connery.  He was manly, a former body builder, but still moved gracefully "like a cat."  Ironically, Fleming did not like the casting at first, but was so taken with Connery's performance that he began to write with him in mind in the later stories.