Movies | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Man With The Golden Gun

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Darren

This post is part of James Bond January, being organised by the wonderful Paragraph Films. I will have reviews of all twenty-two official Bond films going on-line over the next month, and a treat or two every once in a while.

The Man With The Golden Gun is frequently derided as the worst film of the Roger Moore era, guilty of taking all the excesses of the period and turning them up to eleven. Being honest, I’m not entirely convinced. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bad film – one of the worst Bond films – but I’m not entirely convinced that it is as universally disappointing as Moonraker or as ridiculously underwhelming as Octopussy. There is, I’d argue, very possibly one tiny little gem buried amid this trainwreck of a Bond film – the man with the golden gun himself, as played by Christopher Lee.

This foe is going to put Bond through his paces…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, britt eklund, Christopher Lee, daniel craig, Dominic Greene, films, Francisco Scaramanga, Golden Gun, Hugo Drax, james bond, james bond january, List of James Bond villains, Man With The Golden Gun, Movies, review, Roger Moore | 12 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Live and Let Die

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Darren

Who’s the ~~black private dick~~ honky secret agent who’s a sex machine to all the chicks? Bond, James Bond.

It’s blaxploitation, but with a British accent.

Strange bedfellows…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: African American, Caribbean, films, Geoffrey Holder, james bond, james bond january, List of James Bond villains, live and let die, Man With The Golden Gun, Movies, New Orleans, non-review review, racism, Raven Software, review, Roger Moore, sean connery, stereotypes, unfortunate implications, voodoo, Yaphet Kotto | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Diamonds Are Forever

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Darren

When George Lazenby refused to come back to do a follow-up to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the producers were left with a bit of a problem. Three actors playing Bond in three films would perhaps be a little bit too much for audiences to grapple with, so an emergency appeal was made to Sean Connery to return to the role which made him iconic. Charging a then-astronomical fee, which he donated entirely to charity, Connery donned the tuxedo once again. Reteaming with Guy Hamilton, the man who directed Goldfinger, once would assume that we were pretty much assured a winner – a return to the good old days. What we got was something of a flash-forward. If I didn’t know better, I would suspect that somebody had pulled a “George Lucas” on us, using wondrous new technology to digitally superimpose Sean Connery into a Roger Moore film.

Adam West was considered to play James Bond in this film. I think that tells us everything we need to know.

Sean Connery's Bond was never afraid of wetwork...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: A View to a Kill, art, camp, diamonds are forever, film, George Lazenby, james bond, james bond january, Movies, non-review review, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film), review, Roger Moore, sean connery | 10 Comments »

The Devil Eire Effect: Historical Films and Villains…

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Darren

I wrote a little while ago about how suspicious I am concerning “true stories” that make it to the big screen. Truth be told, life doesn’t exactly fit into the three act structure or one-hundred-and-twenty minutes of screen time – I understand that changes need to be made. Real life characters are often boiled down or reduced to mere collections of quirks, the hero faces a more streamlined obstacle than they did in real life and sometimes even ends up a far better person for it. However, I was sitting down watching The King’s Speech at the weekend and I couldn’t help wondering if we really needed for Albert’s elder brother David and his American fiancée Wallis to be portrayed as nothing more than scheming villains, just because we needed to root for Albert a little more.

The Simpsons?

Note: The ever-wonderful TV Tropes describe this as a “Historical Villain Upgrade” if you’re looking for more examples of what I am talking about…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: alan rickman, Éamon de Valera, Easter Rising, Fianna Fáil, film, historical villain upgrade, history, Ireland, Irish Civil War, king george vi, liam neeson, List of political parties in the Republic of Ireland, michael collins, Movies, prince albert, prince david, United States, w.e. simpson, wallis simpson, we simpson | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Darren

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is a relatively low-key Bond adventure. The action set pieces aren’t spectacular, it’s mostly confined to one geographical locale and it features a genuinely moving love story. Coupled with the fact that George Lazenby is replacing Sean Connery, you’d be forgiven for assuming that you’d accidentally been given the wrong video at the video store. It’s not that the changes are necessarily bad (though, to be frank, some of them are), just that it doesn’t exactly feel like the smoothest possible transition.

… And I thought Bond was only married to his job….

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aston Martin, Aston Martin DB5, bond, diana rigg, ernst stavro blofeld, film, George Lazenby, james bond, List of James Bond vehicles, Movies, non-review review, on her majesty's secret service, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film), review, Roger Moore, sean connery, telly savalas | 12 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Austin Powers

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Darren

It’s a little sad to think that Austin Powers is the last true comedic character that Mike Myers brought to the screen, and he was created nearly fifteen years ago. Yes, I have seen The Love Guru.

Powers to the People!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: austin powers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, comedy, Dr. Evil, ernst stavro blofeld, james bond, Love Guru, Mike Myers, Movies, non-review review, review, Roger Moore, sean connery, spoof | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: From Russia With Love

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Darren

Dr. No demonstrated that Ian Fleming’s suave British secret agent could make it to screen. Sean Connery’s James Bond was on the pop culture map, but perhaps just short of becoming a pop culture icon – that was a sequel or two away. Of course, a second movie was pushed into development, with a rich library of Fleming’s novels to adapt – as faithfully or as loosely as the producers might like. When President Kennedy, one of the other “coolest men of the sixties”, announced that From Russia With Love was his ninth favourite novel of all time, it seemed th choice had been made. Rumour has it that Alfred Hitchcock was at one point intended to direct the film, but Terrence Young’s From Russia With Love is still a wonderfully iconic Bond film, which represents a pretty large step from “an entertaining espionage movie” to “globe-spanning spy franchise”.

Bond was already making a splash at this stage of his career...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, Cuban Missile Crisis, espionage, films, From Russia With Love, ian fleming, james bond, james bond january, Movies, non-review review, review, Roger Moore, sean connery, terrence young | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Dr. No

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Darren

Sure, there’s an opening scene involving the murder of a British agent stationed in the Caribbean, but the start of the movie that everybody remembers takes place in a late-night British casino over a game of card. A beautiful young woman is losing to the suave cigarette-smoking stranger on the opposite side of the table. “I admire your luck, Mister…?” she remarks, locking eyes with the figure. He coyly lights a cigarette.

“Bond,” he introduces himself. “James Bond.”

The rest is cinematic history.

You know the name… You know the number…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: British Empire, Caribbean, Dr. No, films, GoldenEye, Honey Rider, james bond, james bond january, List of James Bond villains, Movies, non-review review, quantum of solace, review, reviews, Roger Moore, sean connery | 4 Comments »

Who is Bond?

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Darren

This post is part of James Bond January, being organised by the wonderful Paragraph Films. I will have reviews of all twenty-two official Bond films going on-line over the next month, and a treat or two every once in a while.

If you only count official EON productions, there have been six actors to play the role of suave British Secret Service agent James Bond, 007. However, the continuity of it all gets kind of tangled. Is Roger Moore’s clownish spy the same person as Daniel Craig’s cold-hearted assassin? Has the same agent been in operation since Dr. No (clearly taking place in the 1960s) through to Quantum of Solace (featuring all the technology of now)? There’s a popular fan theory that “James Bond” is just a cover identity, passed down from agent to agent as easily as the number “007” – so each iteration of the character is a different agent given the rank. It actually holds up surprisingly well when you watch the twenty-films in the official series.

What’s on the cards?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bond, daniel craig, EON Productions, films, George Lazenby, james bond, james bond january, Movies, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film), pierce brosnan, Roger Moore, sean connery, timothy dalton | 19 Comments »

Eleven for Eleven: My Ten Most Anticipated Movies of 2011

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Darren

What with listing my top ten films of the past year and all that, I thought that I’d take the opportunity to look forward rather than backwards. So here are my eleven most anticipated movies coming out in the next year or so. I picked eleven, because I’m not 100% certain about the release date of one. As ever, these are for Irish and British cinemas, so four of these will be arriving in our theatres within the next three weeks. Which, I suppose is something to look forward to. Anyway, without any further adieu, here are my eleven most anticipated films of the year ahead.