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Do Three Little James Bond Updates Equal One Big One?
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
We’ll see. One of these isn’t so much an “update” just as a way to tie things together. Overall, I just feel like talkin’ a little James Bond on a Sunday afternoon.
First up, we got a little word on when you can expect to see your first QUANTUM OF SOLACE trailer:
Hey Harry,
I'm a theatre manager and have been browsing through the various studio's exhibitor websites we have access to and noticed a few interesting trailer release dates. Thought you might be interested:
THE INCREDIBLE HULK trailer will be attached to prints of DOOMSDAY (3/14)
QUANTUM OF SOLACE trailer will be on HANCOCK (7/2)
Thanks,
"Shathard"
Your nickname conjures up some painful and horrible images, dude, but thanks for the heads-up.
Meanwhile, the oh-so-lovely Suki Jonze reminds us that MGM has already given away pretty much the whole plot to QUANTUM OF SOLACE in an official press release, and, honestly, I don’t see a problem with that. It’s not like Bond films are built on big twists or shocking plot elements... they’re Bond films. We sort of get it already. What I like is the way this hints at how personal the stakes are this time, and it sounds like a hell of a companion piece to CASINO ROYALE:
”QUANTUM OF SOLACE continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (Daniel Craig) in CASINO ROYALE. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal.
Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (Judi Dench) interrogate Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), who reveals the organization which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined. Forensic intelligence links an MI6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman who has her own vendetta.
Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organization. On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world’s most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). Using his associates in the organization, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.
In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene’s sinister plan and stop his organization.”
Sounds good to me. I’m excited about these films precisely because the James Bond series feels adult again, fresh. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to actually be looking forward to a Bond film. It’s been a long time since that happened, and even with CASINO ROYALE, I was skeptical until I actually saw it.
What was the first Bond film you guys ever saw, theatrically or otherwise? For me, it was THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, in a theater in 1977, with my dad, and I think that sort of set my lifelong love affair with the character in motion. I’m intrigued by the idea that we might be able to see a new digital print of that one in theaters, although I’m not sure if this is only for the UK...
Hi Harry
A friend and I caught the World Premiere of the digital version of the classic Roger Moore Bond, 'The Spy Who Loved Me' Yesterday. It was shown as part of the current Film Festival taking place at the National Media Museum in Bradford - UK.
Before the film we saw Michael Palin and Richard Griffiths (Monty from Withnail and I) sauntering around the ground floor. The Museum are showing a whole bunch of Palin related films including two of my faves, Brazil and Jabberwocky. They were very relaxed and gracious with the few people who were approaching them for autographs. I couldn't think of anything to say to them so simply gave a smile and a nod as they walked past which they returned graciously. I did consider walking up to Richard Griffiths and saying 'Monty you terrible C*nt', from 'Withnail and I' but thought better of it!
Then my friend spotted Michael G. Wilson, the producer of the Bond movies, I have to say I didn't recognise him myself but it transpired that he had flown over from the filming of 'Quantum of Solace' from South America to introduce the film.
We entered the Cinema and took our seats and Michael G. Wilson took the stage. He spoke for a short while on the Digital Restoration of the Bond movies and also his work on 'The Spy Who Loved Me', specifically some underwater footage he shot. Then the movie started. This is the second Digital Projection I have seen at the Cinema, the first was the fantastic 'Blade Runner - The Final Cut' a few weeks back.
This was the first time I had seen 'The Spy Who Loved Me' all the way through for a long, long time and I enjoyed the nostalgia of seeing all the great set pieces I loved so much from my childhood again. The opening ski chase, the Egyptian cat and mouse scenes with Jaws, the train battle between Bond and Jaws, The underwater secret base, the ultra cool Lotus Esprit and of course the sultry Caroline Munro (I never like it when Bond dispatches her chopper!).
However, half my mind was also mulling over what I thought of the Digital presentation of the film and it was a mixed bag to be truthful. I can say right away that it was not up to the high standards set by 'Blade Runner'. I have come to the conclusion that Digital Cinema is going to be just as prone to the same quality issues that effect DVD production which makes perfect sense as they are both using similar methods.
I was suprised to see some pretty major 'haloing' or edge enhancement effects in some scenes. This was especially noticeable when Bond was in the Egyptian desert. The image was not as clear as 'Blade Runner' with contrast levels being suprisingly low in some scenes and a general lack of sharpness. This could be due to the quality of film originally used or the state of the negative perhaps. Besides the haloing, my second biggest criticism was that motion was not quite as crisp as I would have liked it to be. Panning shots exposed a slight blurring and lack of definition, nothing disasterous but not quite the standard of presentation I had espected.
I did get a real kick out of seeing a classic Bond on the big screen however and would definately see more digital projections from the series if they play them. Like the guy who reviewed the screening of the digital projection of 'Goldfinger' said, there was definately a feeling of watching something more akin to DVD than film. Of course, the film is 30 years old so this may explain why the image was not 'stellar' but things like haloing are a little careless, maybe it had something to do with the projector settings but there were no such artifacts in the screening of 'Blade Runner' at the same cinema previously.
All in all, I had a great time and I'm not dissing the guys who worked hard on the restoration just sending my thoughts. I do have an urge to buy a load of Bond DVDs when I get my next wage through so job done there. The audience had a good time with a fair few laughs for Roger's one liners and seemed to have a good time which is the most important thing.
Cheers
Fog
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Cant wait
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The posts listing alternative names for the next Bond movie will begin in 3... 2... 1...
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Quantum of Solace = An Amount of Peace.
Like, calm before the storm.
Or, attack of the gay. -
These aren't really updates. We all knew this already and knew that it was not cool news. Meh.
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Ziggy cheets on Scott Bakula and has a beer.
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...at a drive-in theatre on the water back home in Kingston, Jamaica. That's how I fell in love with the movies...Jaws terrifed my 7 year old ass for sure, but I can remember digging the Lotus chase sequence, and being blown away by Stromberg's aquabase emerging from the water....man, it was good to be a kid discovering Bond for the first time.
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Love the guy!
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but The Spy Who Loved Me was my first encounter with 007 ever, on the small screen. I love both of them, in my opinion they're the best episodes with their respective actors. Up there with From Russia With Love, On Her majesty's Secret Service and The Living Daylights as far as I'm concerned.
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A View To A Kill. That is all.
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Worse than 'Meet The Spartans'??
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would be a better title.
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What is that a reference to? Why is that painful?
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what a crappy way to experience Bond for the first time. Luckily I chanced upon For Your Eyes Only when I first got cable and the rest is history. I liked Casino Royale better than anything since Goldeneye, and I got some high hopes for Quantum of Solace, but that name is kinda stretching it.
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because the Lost Boys was playing in the same theater but my date didnt want to see it. It's depressing how long ago that seems. fuck
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Second was Never Say Never Again
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Michael Palin said in his Monty Python Diaries that he thought The Spy Who Loved Me was rubbish. Michael G Wilson should have offered him a bastard right there and then in front of all the guests.
By the way, in summer 2006 I saw an old print of The Spy Who Loved Me on the truly gigantic Screen 1 of the Empire Leicester Square. Absolutely unforgettable. -
wtf are you talking about? Presumably you thought the Brosnan films were better than The Living Daylights?
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nuff said
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nuff said
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Man I loved his gator-suit.
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Daltons two flicks outclass all of Brosnans and Moore's combined. He at least played it like a guy who kills people for a living.
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What a great first Bond flick to see in the theatres with your Dad! Got to see Never Say Never Again right after that too, I believe. Dalton's Bond films weren't bad - better than Brosnan's final two, that's for sure.
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Glad you agree, Dalton's performance, especially in Living Daylights, was sublime.
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I am very lucky my first Bond movie is From Russian With Love, still the best Bond movie ever.
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...will be Quantum of Solace. hell, Casino Royale was the first Bond i've actually seen from start to finish (i remember a few scenes here and there from The Living Daylights when i was six or so).
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I would have been about nine. All I remember about that viewing is being really scared by the scene where the 00 agent in the clown suit gets the knife in his back, and is stumbling around before he dies.
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1979, four years old. My father tells me I was so excited by the experience that I fell asleep when the film started. I love Moonraker, and will defend till the day I die.
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I used to enjoy all the Bond films, even the ones with Roger Moore. Then Casino Royale happened. I don't get people who say they're excited about 007 movies again thanks to the cinematic magnum opus that was Casino Roayle. It was TOO realistic. I much prefer the over-the-top Bond films with gadgets, dry British humor and scarred, cat-stroking villains bent on world domination. This latest incarnation of Bond seems just too "Bourneish" to me.
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think that was fake Bond Never Say Never Again
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Though it easily could have been "For Your Eyes Only" or "Octopussy". I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to one in the theaters. The first Bond film I ever saw was "Moonraker" when it first premiered on HBO ('79/'80). Haven't missed one in the theater since '85, though I try to forget the experience of seeing the lamentable "GoldenEye". I don't despise the film as much as I used to, but the painfully shoehorned-in PC was brutal to watch at the time.
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...that "From Russia With Love" remains the gold standard for Bond films.
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The producers were smart to hype the space aspect after STAR WARS and ten-year-old SpyBoy was thought it was great. And by the time FOR YOUR EYES ONLY came around with the smoking hot Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock, I was officially a Bond fan for life.
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One of them being at the end of "The Spy Who Loved Me" where it says "James Bond will return in 'For Your Eyes Only'" only to have "Star Wars" cause the producers to both backtrack off of what they announced and subsequently produce the silliest (sublimely so) of all Bond films. It also probably paved the way for us to get the great one-off Bill Conti score for "For Your Eyes Only".
Hurray for Star Wars! -
The high rating in the UK of License to Kill ruled that one out, and where I lived there was no chance of old films being screened at the cinema. I missed out on Tomorrow Never Dies so that makes it a paltry 4 I've seen theatrically, and only 2 1/2 were good. Still, I'm really looking forward to Quantum of Solace if only for another Daniel Craig performance.
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The manager knew me and let me into many M+ movies before I was 15. I also got to see Total Recall and Robocop 2 wayyyy too young.
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As a lifelong Bond fan, I waited six long years for GoldenEye only to be slapped in the face by what turned out to be an astonishingly glum, gloomy and boring film. I was gutted. I'm all for change, but that film drowned all that was great about Bond like an unwanted kitten.
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You guys are probably older then me. But I don't understand your negative comments about Goldeneye? That movie was awesome and as far as Bonds go it is one of the best. Brosan was flawless in it.
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Quantum leap, but the idea of Martin Campbell not coming back and leaving it up to Marc Forster. His movies are just so boring. Call me when they've decided which American Band they use this time. Why they haven't used Robbie Williams yes is fucking ridiculous. I bet Lilly Allen will get one before he does. I hope they don't go with one of those gay indie rocks bands that are big right now like The Shins are Wilco.
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... I was 20 when GoldenEye came out. I wasn't making any grand statements about it's quality or anything like that, I just couldn't stand it! Obviously, that's just my own personal taste. I wanted Dalton to continue the role and I really wasn't impressed by Brosnan at all. I just thought he wrong, wrong, wrong. The story was boring, visually it was boring (all that gloomy Russian imagery!), and the music sounded like a mobile phone ringing whilst being rolled downhill inside a bin. I just didn't like it, man. As a footnote, I really grew to like Brosnan in the role, but in GoldenEye he was far too stiff and ... well, dull. It's all good, though. I'm glad the Bond films change style now and then.
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... he'll never get a theme song because he's a cunt. I hope he doesn't even go to see the film in the cinema, let alone record the theme song. I hate the idea of the Bond song being thought of as Top Of The Pops. Each song has a different feel and style, and needs a particular kind of vocalist to get it just right - even if that means going for someone who isn't a pop star, or isn't even commercial. That's why some of the songs over the last decade haven't worked. They should always leave the film's composer to write the theme song and choose the vocalist. You Know My Name isn't the greatest Bond song by any stretch of the imagination, but it works because everything about it is right for the movie. I really hope they don't do a Die Another Day with the new one and hand the whole enterprise over to someone ike Madonna ... or that cunt Robbie Williams.
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Barbara Bach...nude supine akimbo!
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Is a cunt, but I feel that his style given a good song would work well for a bond movie. I was just saying about your age because I was not sure HOW many bonds you were alive to see when they were first released. Also to me the last good Bond song was Golden Eye. I do like You know My Name and it works with the film. Lets just see who they get to do this one.
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All this talk about Casino Royale 'saving' the series makes me sick. First of all, it never needed saving - if the numbers were going down instead of up with every installment, maybe, but no. Secondly, I have been a lifetime fan of Bond because he is different than other heroes - BECAUSE he is cool, suave, unflappable, smooth beyond all belief in the worst of circumstances, not a lower-class brute-force asshole with a fugly boxer's face and a major chip on his shoulder. I don't need gritty Bond! Get this new "fans" - BOND. WAS. NEVER. GRITTY. Repeat that till it sinks in. He was always a fantasy. Go back to the first film, Dr. No - a megalomaniac with metal hands, a robot dinosaur and his own nuclear powered island. Yeah, really gritty, motherfuckers! (And don't give me that same shit about the books - have you read them? Still not gritty.) Bond is a fantasy. It's meant to be popcorn thrills and spills, not "real" or "psychologically dark". Oh shut the fuck up. I'm old, my first Bond in theatres was a double feature of OHMSS and YOLT. I was 7, appropriately. I loved them from the get-go. And the one thing I've learned over a lifetime of fanatical Bond-dom is whenever people talk about making Bond "human"...run for cover. It means a wet noodle like Dalton or a witless thug like Craig is playing Bond and trying to make him something he's not. I like the gadgets, the action that ends with him actually winning, the fucking around with as many women as possible, the glamor, the dry wit, the exotic, the bizarre, the absurd far-fetched plots. Here's a hint: if you don't like those things, you're...not...a...Bond...fan. You're somebody who wants a different kind of hero. Now I love the Bourne movies (first two, third sucks), but Bond is NOT that kind of spy. In the final analysis, as "fresh" as CR was - and there were some great ideas in there, not all of them completely ruined by Campbell or Craig - it just wasn't fun enough. I have watched it completely maybe 3 times, when I usually watch Bond films a minimum of a dozen times. That tells me everything I need to know. Let me be the one to say the emperor has no clothes... Craig is NOT Bond! He had a few good moments, but his overall classlessness and lack of humor/irony just ruins Bond as a character. Brosnan had that perfect Bond DNA. The movies were never quite as good as he deserved, but HE was Bond. If it doesn't have a twinkle in its eye or one eyebrow raised, then you're not watching Bond...you're watching a million mediocre action films with monosyllabic tough guy heroes. And if you just now think you like Bond because of CR - and not the 20 other films that came before - then...uh, find another series for yourself. It's like going to see Star Wars and complaining cuz it's not a Spaghetti Western. Leave my series alone! ...Breathing, breathing... Rant over.
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I meant robot dragon, otherwise I agree with my rant 100%. Well said, Rebeck!
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Mar 10, 2008 12:40:05 PM CDT
So is this large organazation going to be the new version of S.M
by reel american hero
I always liked that aspect of the certain Bond films when I was younger, the recurring villain Blofeld and his evil organization. -
I totally concur. "Reimagining" Bond as a dark, brooding and emotionally tortured chartacter totally destroys what Ian Flemming was trying to create. James Bond is supposed to live the life that every guy wants to have. He gets the pretty ladies, he drives an awesome car, he battles megalomaniacs and saves the world using some of the most outlandish gadgets ever constructed. And all that just before his lunch hour. It's pure escapist entertainment.
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I had enjoyed his movies, but in retrospect, Brosnan was such a girly man. Long live the Craig Bond. What made Casino Royale so tasty had MUCH to do with Eva Green. Now that the bitch is dead, it's gonna be tough to out-do CR.
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You're so right. Bond should be a fugly Putin look-alike with all the class and style of a Dorito chip. That's how we know he's a real man!! Real men are fugly!! Bond was never about brute force, it was about being smart and cool and turning brute force back on itself. Any hero can have muscles, big deal. And as for Eva Green - she IS attractive when she doesn't put the mascara on with a fucking paint roller. I think the real twist of CR was that Vesper was actually a RACCOON!
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I lean toward Rebeck2's argument. I like all of the Bond films, even the bad films, some more than others. But Bond is a fantasy. I lkke it when he gets the girl(s), gets a drink, beats up the bad guy and hardly messes up his suit. Most of the Bond films I can watch over and over again. I havn't watched Casino over and over again, but I think that's because a good chunk of that story is cerebral and over a game of cards. I liked the movie a lot. I think this whole notion of rebooting Bond (Or Batman, or anything) is just silly. Stories are updated to go with the times. Batman in 1989 was a reboot - or update - to the TV series, for example. That said, I hope they don't make James Bond a complete Bourne-type hero. Each Bond film is often a reaction to the previous film. After the over-the-type fun of Moonraker, we came to For Your Eyes Only, which was a way to make Bond more realistic. The character changes with the times. I just hope the eventually bring back Moneypenny, Q and the other characters we have come to love pretty soon. As for now, I am with the new Bond.
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What kind of name is that for a Bond babe. Whatever happened to Yesi Havacunt and Clito Torres?
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I was about 6 years old.. A great Bond film to start on though.
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The new Bonds "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" are wolves in sheeps clothing. Its fucking HILARIOUS now that EON thinks these dont have an orbitting death satellite that these are back to the 60's Flemingesque Bonds (LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Take away the Casino portion and the rest can fit snuggly into any Brosnan movie. Except these new movies have to MASQUERADE as thrillers in the Fleming mold, with the Brosnans they didnt pretend tobe anything other than extravagant actioners, but these ones are a DISGUSTING FECAL LIE. FUCK BABS "WUTS FLUMING LOLZ" Broccoli for squirting these out of her cavernous cankerous TWAT and her boytoy Michael "SONY WHORE" Wilson.
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...at the long-gone Woods Theater in the loop in Chicago for my ninth birthday. The following summer they re-released Goldfinger and FRWL and my Grandfather took us to see them at the (also) long-gone 1-80 Drive-In. Sigh. I will now take a brief nap, then catch the early-bird at Denny's, followed by some yelling at the neighbor kids to get the hell off of my lawn.
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Mar 10, 2008 10:04:57 PM CDT
"Look after Mr. Bond...see that some harm comes to him."
by master bruce
Yes, my first theatrical Bond experience was MOONRAKER as well. This was all my 11 year old self needed to become a lifelong fan of 007. Of course, now I look back @ the film and while It's certainly amusing, it's far from the best Roger Moore or any other Bond film ever made, which is a shame because Michael Lonsdale is a PERFECT Bond Villian as Hugo Drax & his scheme is pretty cool, it's just a shame they went a little too over the top w/it - even for a Roger Moor film!
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...I know, I know. But it was still enough to get me interested in other Bond films. If this one is at least as good as Casino Royale, and I'm betting (oh the puns!) it will be better, I hope they next one is a continuation as well. You can't really call them sequels at this point. So I just hope they keep telling the same story for a minute. They have the freedom to do whatever they want, so why not go all the way with it? They could get deep and twisted with the plots, like a good secret agent thriller should be. And effa title and opening credits - run that shit at the end. It's a Bond film. We know this already.
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There arent, because Brosnan is not in them and Craig is. That's makes the TOTAL difference.
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Duran Duran's title song is in the top four catchy Bond songs.
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We are in agreement. Him sucking on the chick's fingers (mmmm...African blood...)was the gayest thing I'd ever seen in a Bond movie...until he sat down in the assless chair.
The first ten minutes of CR where he got his 00 prefix were badass, but then when he was leaping through the levels of the construction site I kinda lost interest. My first Bond movie was Live And Let Die on cable. First in a theater, the Brosnan one after GoldenEye - so dumb I don't remember the name. My favorite? Either On Her Majesty's Secret Service or Goldfinger.
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