Shaken, not stirred

[Golgo 14]

If you consider goofiness a negative, the Bond series might not be for you. Every once in a while they try to get gritty, mining the supposed psychological depths of the character, but then a few years later he's driving an invisible car in an ice castle. That's all right with me, but your mileage may vary. Goldeneye is mid goofy at most. Ziggy's right that Die Another Day is the epitome of goofiness, but Goldfinger is a classic and that's crazy goofy too.

Casino Royale is as straight as they come. The followup to that isn't well-regarded. Skyfall's great, but the goof is already coming back a bit. Spectre and No Time to Die have their moments but few would call them top-tier Bond.

[opa]

I picked up an LP of Bond theme songs for my brother (who is a way bigger Bond fan than me).
For $5 I felt it was worth it for the art alone.

Caution: large images (I should have taken these pics in a brighter room but whatever)

[o.pwuaioc]

If he doesn't want it, I'd gladly pay you the $5 for it.

[o.pwuaioc]

If you consider goofiness a negative, the Bond series might not be for you. Every once in a while they try to get gritty, mining the supposed psychological depths of the character, but then a few years later he's driving an invisible car in an ice castle. That's all right with me, but your mileage may vary. Goldeneye is mid goofy at most. Ziggy's right that Die Another Day is the epitome of goofiness, but Goldfinger is a classic and that's crazy goofy too.

I don't mind the genre goofiness (including invisible cars, although that reallllllly stretched it for me), and Goldeneye is probably my favorite bond, I'm guessing because it was my first. That said, the earlier goofiness, with some exceptions, were just done better than the late 90s/early 00s goofiness. Love me some Halle Berry, but even she couldn't save Die Another Day for me. It just wasn't the right kind of goofiness, almost like it misunderstood what the earlier movies were about? Or just poorly thought out? I'm not sure which, I haven't watched it since I rented it at Blockbuster in 2002. (Fortunately, I got it for free, since I was an employee there then.)

Casino Royale is as straight as they come. The follow-up to that isn't well-regarded. Skyfall's great, but the goof is already coming back a bit. Spectre and No Time to Die have their moments but few would call them top-tier Bond.

I for far too long ignored the Daniel Craig Bond films. It just wasn't the same Bond as what I was used to. By the time it came out, I had watched nearly all of the Bond movies, and for the most part enjoyed them for what they were. But the Daniel Craig one felt different. Not to mention that Casino Royale was already made, and was this silly, funny little film starring Woody Allen and his hair-brained plan to kill everyone taller than him. It wasn't Bond proper, but it was fun. But this Craig thing? Nah, too serious.

Eventually I came around to the Craig Films and actually enjoyed the new Casino Royale and Skyfall. I'm glad I watched them long after the hype died down, as it wasn't perfect, but it *was* in fact Bond. I saw the tropes and clichés under the grit and psychology (which actually were more hype than film). And there was some decent cinematic shots amidst the shaky-cam chaos.

Turns out, it's just like the rest of Bond, a mix bag, some unbelievable moments, some over-the-top this and that, but still just a bit of fun.

[marurun]

I think the modern take on Bond with Craig is simply a function of the sillier Bond style not really having a place in modern cinema outside of, say, The Fast and the Furious. I'm not sure trying to stick to the same older model of camp would really get the series an audience. I actually really like On Her Majesty's Secret Service with Lazenby, but a lot of others don't. I liked that it was a little more serious in places and Dianna Rigg's Contessa wasn't just another Bond girl. I actually really didn't like Goldeneye, or really any of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films despite liking Pierce Brosnan himself as an actor. But everyone really has their own relationship with the 007 films, I've found. Because the series has run so long with so many different leads it seems like there's a Bond for almost every taste.

I'm a little worried about what MGM/Amazon will do with the series. I kind of do hope the find a way to dial back a little from the Craig films, but I'm not sure how they would make that work without taking away some of the cinematic appeal.

[Golgo 14]

I picked up an LP of Bond theme songs for my brother (who is a way bigger Bond fan than me).
For $5 I felt it was worth it for the art alone.

Cool album. You can tell they're getting dangerously close to capturing Roger Moore's likeness without crossing the line. There's a similar album at the record store I shop at, but I haven't bought it because the cover is lame photo of some rando Bond pretender in a tux.

One reason the Bond series has lasted so long is its willingness to, well, evolve with the trends of the time is one way to put it; shamelessly steal would be another. It's 1971, so let's do a Blaxploitation movie. Star Wars was a big hit, so let's send Bond into space. Licence to Kill is basically a gnarly two-hour episode of Miami Vice. The Brosnan films are very much of the silly late 90s, and the Craig era reverses that in a post-9/11 world, as well taking on the grittiness of action movies of the time like the Bourne films.

Die Another Day is just an insane movie. I'd probably read a book about how it came about. It was filmed and released in 2002, but it's mostly a frothy, silly creation from the carefree, ridiculous summer of 2001 before everything went to shit. I say mostly because there are a few serious moments that I imagine were added after 9/11. In the opening credits sequence, instead of watching naked chicks frolicking with firearms, we get three minutes of Bond being tortured . And then after Bond is swapped out of North Korea, M very seriously says, "A lot has changed since you've been away" and the audience thinks, "ah yes, 9/11, this is very serious business", only to watch Bond surf a tsunami thirty minutes later

Die Another Day was actually a big hit at the time, but the producers were probably wise to course correct with the more dour Craig films.

The Amazon takeover will be a big change for the series. It's kind of sad that Bond won't be the product of one weird family anymore, but I'm sure we'll get more Bond movies that we have in the recent past, and I am looking forward to that tbh.

[marurun]

I have a certain fondness for the Roger Moore bond. I first encountered Bond films as a pre-teen, and Roger Moore and the films he was in were just more compelling to the pre-teen brain than Sean Connery. And Brosnan wasn't a Bond, yet.

[Golgo 14]

Cool album. You can tell they're getting dangerously close to capturing Roger Moore's likeness without crossing the line. There's a similar album at the record store I shop at, but I haven't bought it because the cover is lame photo of some rando Bond pretender in a tux.

On second thought, the art on that album is *really* close. Maybe it is official.

Anyway, here's that album with the fake Bond I was talking about. Check out the fake Bond girl in the lumpy bikini and high heels lol



They also have this cool Casino Royale lp with a great cover. I'd get it, but $20 is too much for a used record imo, and it's not really a Bond movie anyway.