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Comments
But then gets a Walther P5
In SP he gives it away on a silver platter at the crater, plus tosses it to the side as not needed on Westminster Bridge (as noted).
He don't need no gun! His Bond can charm his way out of most situations and use inventone and resourceful means to escape.
I recall an old TV guide review of FYEO where it said from this stage on Moore Bond bonked people over the head and only used the Walther PPK from about the middle of the film onwards. Not sure if there's anything to that but I found it an interesting observation nonetheless.
Haha, yes! I'm currently watching the Network Blu-ray release of the TV series. Cool stuff!
Indeed, it's brilliant – both the show and the theme!
I really hope Network will give Jason King a Blu-ray release as well. The Department S one is really nice.
Silva's general activities align well with Spectre's aims, but killing M was obviously a personal thing. But if it had paved the way for Blofeld's man Mallory to get the post, it'd have fit quite well. I'm sure that was intended in the original screenplay...
You have a really good point there. I had never thought of that before. Just goes to show how with too many cooks in the kitchen it’s easy to forget what’s already been put in the pot (and why) or to lose sight of what it was you were even making in the first place.
I’m not inherently opposed to the idea of SPECTRE moving one of their own into MI6 as the new M. That actually sounds like a pretty bold and creative way of shaking things up for a single film and this would have been the perfect time to do it. But I’m glad they didn’t. It wouldn’t have fit with the Gareth Mallory we had seen in Skyfall and would have been a real waste of Ralph Fiennes’ talent and potential as a longstanding M.
That would be pretty frickin’ hilarious if that was actually in the film. You hear the plop in the water and then this faint “&$£%” in the distance.
Absolutely. Ralph is my favorite M. I think he's absolutely perfect as is so I wouldn't have liked to see it. Still, interesting to find that bit of first draft residue...
I have no idea where the source for this would be at the moment, but I recall it was Fiennes himself who refused to play his M this way, forcing them to change it.
Along these lines...I have begun to think that C's fate at the end of SP really needed to be handled far differently. Instead of succeeding at securing the Nine Eyes vote, he should have failed. And therefore, it would have been SPECTRE who took him out due to sheer incompetence. It would have been intriguing if M and Tanner found C dead, with his eyes gouged out.
On a different note, anyone else catch the trailer for Wes Anderson's new film, which features (by my count) FIVE Bond veterans: del Toro, Seydoux, Wright, Amalric, and Waltz.
Oh this looks fantastic. Had no idea Anderson was working on this, but I'm there day one. You can add Willem Dafoe to that list if you want to count the video games. ;)
Only just noticed that Gerrard Butler is a crewman on the Devonshire in TND, usually I zone out during this sequence.
Yeah noticed Hugh before, TND is OK though despite watching it numerous times I lose interest in many of the scenes.
I've always dug the Butler cameo, but yes, TND is my least favorite of Brosnan's. I've tried very hard in the past five years or so to really get into it and find a way to have it click for me but it rarely does.
TND suffers as it at times looks and feels like a generic 90's action movie. PB is actually good and arguably looks his best as Bond. 45 minutes into the film now and its very bland, its one of the worst directed films.
I'd never noticed that before, but you're right that in Bond's two major fisticuffs fights in Hamburg (the soundproofed room and over the printing press) he goes up against some less intimidating-looking types. I'm not sure why that decision was made, but as they were all either Carver's party security team or printing press security, perhaps the filmmakers were going for more of an authentic, everyday Joe feel for these characters. I still think they're both fun and original fights. Plenty of panache from Brosnan's looks and mannerisms too.
Certainly an unfair comparison, you're right, though I'd have to agree with it. Nobody does it like Jackie but that's certainly an interesting looking article and quite the random scene to compare to Police Story. Going to have to give it a read later, thanks for that, @Revelator.
I guess it's just that the Hollywood Bulldogs crowd were starting to get a bit long in the tooth then, but were still able to do their jobs.
Thanks for the find, @Revelator. I haven't read through that article yet, but one thought that comes immediately to mind is that the stunt performers who work on Hong Kong martial arts films have a very dedicated approach to fight choreography that delivers full contact blows in clear view of the camera, often without padding. It's something they've trained for and are able to pull off safely, though you'll even see Jackie Chan have a scary slip-up in the bloopers every once in awhile.
Western fight choreography of course pulls punches and obscures padding for the safety of the stunt performers who have a different kind of training and approach to their stunt work. It's almost a different art entirely and not a distinction that's unique to Tomorrow Never Dies among Western action films. Incidentally, by contrast with most other Western action films, TND does feature a Hong Kong-style fight with Michelle Yeoh's stunt team in Wai Lin's bike shop where the stunt performers deliver full-on blows of the kind you would find in Police Story.
Thanks for the link, that's really interesting reading. I would say it is a bit misleading about the TND fight though. Just watching it again (starts at about 4.20) and he's being a bit disingenuous at points- like claiming he can't tell if Bond's assailant tries to tackle him or not: the two frames he's chosen omit that we see the guy full frame running towards Bond, a wide shot of him pushing Bond along, and then a shot from behind of his head under Bond's arm, pushing him backwards in a tackle. It's not hard to tell what's happening.
That doesn't mean that it's particularly good fight though, or that Jackie Chan's stuff isn't better- naturally it is, he's a master of this stuff. I love his films, but I must admit I find the fight scenes often quite tiring to watch: you really have to be paying close attention to get anything out of them and they almost move too fast to appreciate sometimes! :)
I think the top candidate for worst Bond fight would probably in the chip factory in AVTAK though (again, Bond beating up old men!). The camera doesn't even bother to show how Bond defeats one of them: it just cuts away and when we cut back the baddie is shown having a lie-down on the conveyor belt! :D
That one is indeed an awfully poorly choreographed, filmed, and edited fight. I'm hard-pressed to think of a clumsier fight in the series. The abrupt cut to the thug laying himself down on the conveyor is particularly rough as you say.