Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Dec 4, 2015 21:26:29 GMT -5
That is a really, really good price.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Dec 6, 2015 16:23:27 GMT -5
SKYFALL - REVISITED
Fans of the James Bond series clearly love tradition, as evidenced by how they have no problem on average with the fact that the majority of films in the franchise repeat a lot of the same plot/storytelling tropes. After finally catching up on the rest of the series I hadn't seen yet, I suppose I can understand why, even though I don't really feel the same way. When I first saw Skyfall on its opening day three years ago, I had no problem in declaring it the best I'd seen of the series, partly because of its break with tradition, and after having now seen all the other movies, I still have that same opinion. Skyfall is not just a kick-ass Bond film, but a kick-ass spy flick in general.
Time-honored elements of the franchise are still here: the megalomaniac villain (Javier Bardem), a variety of exotic locales, the pre-opening credits action sequence, a Bond girl or two, etc. But what makes Skyfall so compelling as just a movie is that the filmmakers AREN'T treating it as a traditional Bond movie. As a result, it's a refreshing and welcome change of pace, not unlike 2006's Casino Royale. With Sam Mendes at the helm and Roger Deakins in charge of cinematography, this is perhaps the best-directed Bond film to date. Mendes manages to make it all feel big and personal at the same time, putting more emphasis on characters and atmosphere rather than spectacle, as evidenced by how the majority of the action scenes in Skyfall aren't as lavish as we're used to, but it works in spades. One sequence that really stands out is a dialogue-free one in which Bond tails an assassin in Shanghai. The whole approach to this movie helps you get more invested in the story, which is a good thing because the emotional stakes of the plot are important this time. Yes, Skyfall's plot borrows a lot from The World Is Not Enough, but the big difference here is that Skyfall is a much better-executed movie. It may also borrow a lot from The Dark Knight in some areas as well, but I don't care. Why? Because Skyfall executes like a motherfucker, THAT'S why. Daniel Craig is in top form as Bond, Javier Bardem is a fantastic and not overexploited villain, the pacing and atmosphere is just right and the film as a whole is just compelling as hell.
Skyfall still deservedly reigns supreme in this franchise for me.
****/****
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 6, 2015 16:31:24 GMT -5
We get it. You hate James Bond but love Daniel Craig. But that still doesn't explain your love for Skyfall. You HAVE seen Casino Royale, right? Saying Skyfall is better than Casino Royale is absurd. That's like someone saying Harry Potter 2 is better than Harry Potter 3.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Dec 6, 2015 17:00:21 GMT -5
Let me put it this way: Casino Royale (3 1/2 stars) is a better action movie, but Skyfall is just the better movie in general. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 6, 2015 17:10:14 GMT -5
Let me put it this way: Casino Royale (3 1/2 stars) is a better action movie, but Skyfall is just the better movie in general. No. Casino Royale is better in every shape and form than Skyfall. |
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Dec 6, 2015 17:11:19 GMT -5
Let me put it this way: Casino Royale (3 1/2 stars) is a better action movie, but Skyfall is just the better movie in general. Strongly disagree. For all Skyfall's talk of Bond being an orphan and being washed up, none of that is nearly as effective in exploring his character as this simple scene: |
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Dec 6, 2015 17:22:00 GMT -5
And as good as Casino Royale is -- and it's REALLY good -- Skyfall feels more seamless, never loses steam and allows for more quieter scenes/moments in one film than any of the others.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 6, 2015 17:25:59 GMT -5
When Martin Campbell directed GoldenEye, he said he wanted to go back to the feel of the Sean Connery movies. I think he brought that again in Casino Royale. Even though the movie is a departure from formula, it still has all the elements that made James Bond popular in the first place. There's great locations that are beautifully shot, there's cutting edge action scenes and James Bond is a man that other men aspire to be. There's really none of that in Skyfall and Spectre. Skyfall wants to be The Dark Knight so badly that it ruins the opportunity for James Bond to standout as a character. And Spectre is BY FAR the ugliest Bond movie ever made. Who the fuck thought it was a good idea for most of the movie to be brown? Seriously. What the fuck were they thinking? I remember GoldenEye got some criticism because people felt the Russia locations were ugly, but Campbell at least made it to people by having the climax take place in Cuba and in that Lewis Gilbert inspired set. Mendes just finishes the action back in London. When it's all said and done, Mendes was a shitty choice for James Bond. I know Campbell isn't randomly gonna come back for any random movie, but at least the directors who followed in his footsteps understood what he brought to the table. The exceptions seem to be Lee Tamahori, who did that cartoonish Die Another Day, and Mendes who's just a Chris Nolan wannabe. The next James Bond director needs to be someone who watched GoldenEye and Casino Royale and understood why they worked. |
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Dec 19, 2015 12:32:52 GMT -5
Ian's Bond Education
A View to a Kill
 First I gotta talk about the title of the film. Always thought it was "A View to Kill". That second "a" really makes for an awkward title, doesn't it A view to a kill? Doesn't roll off the tongue very well. Anyway, had to mention that... Also, Duran Duran? Really? Ugh. So its interesting to me how knowingly these Moore films are willing to enter into camp territory. This is quickly made apparent with the first appearance of Beach Boys music in the opening scene. Wow... So its clearly on purpose. I guess it depends if you are okay with it and think its funny? Its funny in a "man this is brutal" kinda way. But not in a way which benefits the film. A View to "A" Kill has a cohesive storyline, which is more than I can say for other Moore films which seem to bounce all over the place. However, it is poorly paced, which led to me looking at the clock to see I was only 45 minutes in when I thought it should be nearing the end... This has been a problem with many of these Bond movies, I've noticed. We are also given a surprisingly dull villain performances from Christopher Walken. I'm glad I'm through with the Roger Moore era. 5/10
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 19, 2015 13:34:18 GMT -5
Ian, go watch Star Wars.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Dec 19, 2015 13:51:54 GMT -5
You go, Ian!
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 19, 2015 14:06:45 GMT -5
You too. Go watch Star Wars. |
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Dec 19, 2015 23:53:50 GMT -5
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Dec 31, 2015 12:31:43 GMT -5
Ian's Bond Education
The Living Daylights I've made it to the Dalton era! I must say I like Timothy Dalton as Bond a lot more than Roger Moore. He's a lot less smarmy than Moore was. He's more suave, though I have to say he does lack some charisma. I guess that's why he only lasted two films? Living Daylights was alright, but its the 15th film in the franchise, and it feels like the 15th film in a franchise. There's nothing new or fresh anymore. So its really just about fun spy stories and sequences. We start with a training sequence going wrong in Gibraltar, move on to helping a defecting general past the iron curtain, and somehow end up in the Afghanistan conflict. Nothing was exceptional, except maybe the ski car (once again we have an action scene on a ski hill), and the lin e"he got the boot". The Afghan stuff wasn't too interesting, and I didn't understand how the girl fit into everything. 6/10
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Post by Neverending on Mar 10, 2016 20:12:17 GMT -5
Ken Adams passed away. He designed all the classic James Bond movies.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Mar 10, 2016 20:41:18 GMT -5
Ken Adams passed away. He designed all the classic James Bond movies. Master of his craft. He also collaborated with Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove, 2001, and Barry Lyndon. Sad to hear of his passing. |
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on May 27, 2016 9:52:04 GMT -5
Ian's Bond Education
License to Kill
 Timothy Dalton's second and final effort as Bond sees him going renegade to catch the man who attacked his friend Felix Leiter. Leiter has his legs bitten off by a shark. I mean, that's pretty insane, especially for a recurring character. Does he ever come back into the series until the reset with Casino Royale? And if so, does he have prosthetic legs now? So Bond hunts down international drug cartel leader Sanchez. My first thought was, a drug dealer, really? How boring. But I guess this was the 80's so they were the in vogue villains at the time. This movie offers us some interesting stuff, like a very young and skinny Benicio Del Toro and a scene were a guy's head explodes. And blackjack. Love the classic casino scenes. At first this movie seemed like the same mundane ridiculousness that I had seen from the last 5 or so Bond films, but in the second half it really toned itself down and became a more subdued Bond story. And if you remember previous ramblings, I prefer the more subdued stuff, so I sunk into this film quite nicely and ended up enjoying it.
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Post by Neverending on May 27, 2016 10:59:49 GMT -5
That's pretty insane, especially for a recurring character. Does he ever come back into the series until the reset with Casino Royale? And if so, does he have prosthetic legs now? Nope. This was his last appearance till Casino Royale. He gets replaced by Jack Wade, and later, a character played by Michael Madsen. The shark scene is straight from the books... Live and Let Die, I believe. And in the books, Felix does continue to show up and he is handicapped for the remainder of the series. Even at the time it was underwhelming. I watched this movie for the first time in the mid-to-late 90's, when it was still fairly new, and it did bother me that it was a Lethal Weapon/Die Hard knock-off. They even got Michael Kamen to do the music. And let's not get started on that TV-quality cinematography. Watching License to Kill is no different than watching an episode of Miami Vice. Yeah, when it's all said and done, it's not a bad movie. If you can accept it for what it is, it's fun to watch. This one, since it was fairly new in the 90's, did air on television quite a bit and I always tried to watch it. I'll always have a soft spot for it... and A View to a Kill... cause they were just on TV a lot when I was a kid. Never Say Never Again also aired a lot. I think those 3 were the ones that aired the most on TV... in the 90's... with Octopussy a close 4th. For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights rarely aired. When TBS did its Christmas marathon those were part of the early morning airings. |
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Justin
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Post by Justin on May 27, 2016 11:10:19 GMT -5
Ians obvious vendetta against the Bond franchise.
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on May 31, 2016 18:20:08 GMT -5
He disagreed with something that ate him.
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Jul 8, 2016 14:18:28 GMT -5
Ian's Bond Education Goldeneye  With Goldeneye, Bond producers decided to take a different approach and adapt the popular video game into a film. And it works, providing a strong first entry for Pierce Brosnan as 007. Goldeneye is a solid 90's action movie and works as a new age bond thriller. I honestly didn't pay much attention to the plot, but I believe the gist is that former soviets are trying to control a space missile system thanks to, of course, hackers! (it was the 90s ater all) I'm sure the plot is fine But what really works here is the tone of the movie. Its just the right level of seriousness an goofiness, and the action scenes actually kept my interest (most of the time). The opening scene on the hydro dam feels stealthy. The car chase with the tank is good because, hey, at least it has a tank. The climactic fight is.... a problem. Sigh. It was pretty much telegraphed how the end would play out. So bloody cliche and uninteresting, I really wish they could have capped off an overall good action flick with an interesting action climax. C'est la vie. A lot of the credit for the tone needs to go to Brosnan himself. He certainly has a presence as Bond. The villains are also fun, especially Sean Bean. I also like how a lot of the Bond staples are there: the secret lair, the casino scenes, a playful race on a cliffside road. But they are all a little bit modernized so as to be less banal. I did have to laugh at some terrible movie cliche's thrown in for good measure, like how Sean Bean wont just shoot Bond, he stands there with the gun pointed at him long enough for Bond to get out of it. Or how when Bond gives the girl a gun and says do you know how to use this? Of course she can't jsut say yes, she has to answer by reloaded the magazine and resetting the chamber. Goldeneye: one of the better Bonds. 8/10 |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Jul 8, 2016 14:28:52 GMT -5
With Goldeneye, Bond producers decided to take a different approach and adapt the popular video game into a film. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Jul 8, 2016 15:28:22 GMT -5
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Jul 30, 2016 20:52:30 GMT -5
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Jul 31, 2016 0:42:28 GMT -5
Yeah, yeah, Neverending...
What's wrong with the ice cream line? He's patronizing her.
And the part where he gives her the shoes is hilarious.
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