Connery's and Brosnan's Bond movies; which are your favourites and Why?

edited November 2012 in Bond Movies Posts: 1,107
Thoughts?

Comments

  • Posts: 774
    Come on, there's probably dozens of threads for stuff like this.
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    i'll entertain this before it gets shut down....

    for Connery..

    FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
    I love the plot, with SPECTRE playing off the British and Soviets against eachother like a sick version of chess... the movie has a terrific pace, Connery is excellent as Bond, Daniella is a smoking hot Bond girl - but the real show stealer is Robert Shaw.. IMO, he is the measuring stick when it comes to a villain - the way he stalks Bond throughout the movie like a shark is thrilling, and keeps you on the edge of your seat - right up until he and Bond fight in the train - which IMO, is a fight scene way ahead of it's time... i am a lover of Hitchcock, and if he were to make a Bond film, From Russia With Love would be it.. and i am personally glad that EON went back and used this film as the template for CR and SF (to a certain degree)..

    for Brosnan

    GOLDENEYE

    it's kind of sad that Brosnan's first Bond film would turn out to be his best.... but Goldeneye is a traditional Bond film with a bit of the 90s updating - this could be where you could say that the villains for Bond to fight started to go the more 'personal' route - and Sean Bean does an excellent job as the traitorous 006.... while Brosnan's performance seems a little mechanical and 'by the numbers' at times - the rest of the film carries him along in his debut as 007.
  • there's probably dozens of threads for stuff like this.
  • AliAli
    edited November 2012 Posts: 319
    Connery: Goldfinger. For the Aston if nothing else.

    Brosnan: if I can rewrite the last act, then TND! Up until the assault on the boat, it was one of the best Bonds in years, but the final act is just very flat and unsatisfactory.
  • Ali wrote:
    Connery: Goldfinger. For the Aston if nothing else.

    Brosnan: if I can rewrite the last act, the TND! Up until the assault on the boat, it was one of the best Bonds in years, but the final act is just very flat and unsatisfactory.
    exactly my thought on TND.
  • For me:

    Connery: From Russia With Love. He was helped by a script, I think, that stayed pretty tight with the plot in the book, but for me this was Connery's shining moment in the role. He really seemed to be Fleming's James Bond in this film.

    Bronsan: This is a lot tougher, but I guess I'll go with Goldeneye. While I think he had better moments in other films (Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day, respectively) as a total film, I think Goldeneye was Bronsan's best.
  • Posts: 1,052
    From Russia With Love is definitley my top Connery film, there is just something about it, I find GF and TB much harder to watch than this one despite all the elemnts being in place in the other two.

    I think with Brosnan I actually rate TND as his best and it also features his best peformance in the role, GE is close behind.
  • Posts: 161
    Connery first four Bond films piss over anything Brosnan even Goldeneye only Craigs Bond films rival Connery's.
  • Posts: 11,189
    lahaine wrote:
    Connery first four Bond films piss over anything Brosnan even Goldeneye only Craigs Bond films rival Connery's.
    Not according to this guy haha!
  • Posts: 11,189
    Kind of funny how both Connery and Broz have both starred in films that are extremely popular yet are also considered horribly overrated by a section of fans.
  • Brosnan- Goldeneye. I was angry when Dalton left but GE made me think that Brosnan wouldn't be so bad after all, he was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed it. TWINE is a close 2nd.

    Connery- Thunderball. GF made the formula, TB perfected it. Still the biggest Bond ever, it's a big, epic, fun adventure and Connery shows why so many people still think he's the best Bond.
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 669
    Both are my favoruite Bonds:

    Sean Connery:
    Dr. No and Thunderball:
    Both of them have totally great storylines and a great formula. Besides, both of them were directed by Terence Young, the man who repaired Fleming's character and made him a MAN!!

    Pierce Brosnan:
    GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies:
    Brosnan brought a great material to the character of 007, lending a mixture of Connery and Moore material to the personality of our greatest hero. And besides, the aforementioned films of his are written by Bruce Feirstein, the best screenwriter of all time.
  • Sean Connery:
    Thunderball: You know, I like this movie, I don't care what anyone else says. It has Sean Connery as 007, hot girls, a memorable villain, and a diabolical scheme that still holds up today. The underwater footage was actually very good, I could always tell who was who. As for the finale, though a bit weak, it was still enjoyable. Was it the best bond movie? No, but sure is fun to watch.

    Pierce Brosnan:
    The world is not enought:Brosnan, Zukovsky, and M were all awesome in this movie, and I like its increased focus on M. And I found Elektra to be an extremely seductive villainous who, is kind of one of those rare characters you "love to hate".
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    Ali wrote:
    Connery: Goldfinger. For the Aston if nothing else.

    Brosnan: if I can rewrite the last act, then TND! Up until the assault on the boat, it was one of the best Bonds in years, but the final act is just very flat and unsatisfactory.

    i will prefice this by saying i don't mind TND - i really enjoy it....

    but in a way, i disliked the team-up of Bond and Wai Lin... i can't pin point exactly why i dont like it... it just feels awkward and uninspired to a degree - their exchanges reminded me far less of Bond and Amasova in TSWLM, and felt more like 'Tango and Cash' - or countless other buddy cop films from the 80s and 90s.. considering there was no sexual tension between the two (unlike in TSWLM).. it just felt like a constant game of one-ups-manship between the two - that by the end, felt a little played out and dull for my personal taste...

    so maybe it's less about their team-up, than maybe the way it was handled... there just was no dynamic between the two, which made the kiss at the end (which was out of place and unnecessary) feel shoehorned in, just for the sake of "we gotta end this like a traditional Bond movie.".. rubbish i say..

  • AliAli
    Posts: 319
    There wasn't any real chemistry, that's for sure, and I felt they should also have given Paris a much longer story arc. But it was the first Bond where I saw Brosnan being comfortable in the character and start showing humanity and vulnerability that we hadn't seen before. They really should have grabbed that with both hands rather than spoiling it with inappropriate set pieces like the garage chase scene directly following the emotional trauma of Paris's death and almost completely negating it. However, in Goldeneye, he seemed a bit wooden, like he couldn't quite believe he was finally playing Bond.
  • LicencedToKilt69007LicencedToKilt69007 Belgium, Wallonia
    Posts: 523
    I totally agree with "Ali" on TND.

    My favourites Connery's and Brosnan's are "Goldfinger", "From Russia With Love", "Dr. No" and "GoldenEye", "Tomorrow Never Dies", "The World Is Not Enough".

    Others of their films either weren't outstanding and significant enough either quite disappointed me : first case : "You Only Live Twice", " Thunderball",next case "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Die Another Day". But they still are close to my favourites. "You Only Lie Twice" as my least favourite.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    edited December 2012 Posts: 4,421
    The World Is Not Enough

    I love this film. It gets a real hiding around here and that stings deep man, stings deep.

    Pierce Brosnan excels as Bond turning in an elegantly lethal performance. Backing him up are the supreme and fascinating double act of Sophie Marceau and Robert Carlyle; Elektra is dead inside and Renard is dead, physically. You feel pity for Renard. He realises Elektra is playing him, but he does not mind; he goes even so far as sacrificing his remaining days to see her happy.

    Marceau is smouldering and sensual, and for me, she shares a genuine chemistry with Brosnan. Elektra is an angel with a wing down, or so Bond thinks. Bond thinks he has found Tracy, but he finds Blofeld. Some people complain about the “quip”, “I never miss”, but I view it as an admittance of Bond’s heartbreaking choices, that Bond has to make.

    Now then in the light of objectivity I shall point out some of the films flaws.

    The more emotional nature of the script allows for some unintentional melodrama. (Primarily the scene between Bond and M in Scotland and the scene where Bond confronts Elektra. I like drama in my Bond films, but when it’s subtle)

    Casting a cheerleader as a nuclear physicist was either very naïve or very cynical. Richards dies when she has to share the screen with Marceau.

    However, the overall premise is inspired and all the Bondian attributes abound and in novel fashion.

    5th 9.5

    From Russia With Love

    This is a very cool movie, very sixties chic. For me Connery may well have delivered the greatest Bondian performance; suave, professional, poised, decisive, charming, virile and ruthless. Need I mention the brilliant writing, the superb translation from book to screen, towering performances from the greatest ensemble cast in any Bond film etc etc etc. Intrigue, romance, action and suspense, plus intelligence and craft in the way the whole package was assembled.

    The climatic battle aboard The Orient Express is superb and very tense. Young and Hunt bring us a master class of directing and editing. One of the best fight scenes, ever; it’s so brutal, really evoking Fleming’s novel. It’s been building to this for the entire movie. Bond, so decisive and authoritative usually, is played as a mere pawn, and Grant has executed the plan brilliantly. Grant is the most realistic and frightening Bond villain’s ever. He’s more than a match for 007, and only Bond’s quick thinking and resourcefulness saves the day.

    1st 10
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,894
    Odd choice of two Bonds, but ok...

    Connery: FRWL & DN are his best, but I do have a soft spot for YOLT.
    Brosnan: TND, only film where Brosnan doesn't come across as his usual unbearably smug self. Dare I say it, if he had remained like this throughout his era.... he may have sat further up my ranking. The scene with Dr Kauffman is my favourite in the film.
  • Posts: 12,506
    I think because he was the FIRST silver screen image of James Bond! With success of the films and how quickly they came out in the early years? Every actor since is compared to Connery.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 546
    From Russia With Love-Sean Connery was fantastic as James Bond just he was in Dr. No. Great chemistry between Sean Connery & Daniela Banchi. Robert Shaw was great as the Bond villian Red Grant. This Bond film is a true classic.

    Goldeneye-I love this Bond film! Martin Campbell did a great job as the director & Michael France did an excellent job writing the script. Pierce Bronsan was awesome as James Bond! Pierce had that charisma. Sean Bean was great as the Bond villian Alec Trevelyan/006. The fight scene between Pierce (007) & Sean (006) was epic. Plus, Izabella Scorupco & Famke Janssen were two of my favorite Bond girls & did a great job with their performance. Goldeneye is a masterpiece! A lot of people thought that James Bond could not be relevant in the 90's. But with Albert Broccoli casting Pierce Bronsan as James Bond, Martin Campbell as the director, & Michael France as the screewriter. Goldeneye proved that 007 could remain relevant in a new era.
  • Err... you forgot to mention Bruce Feirstein.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,687
    HASEROT wrote:

    but in a way, i disliked the team-up of Bond and Wai Lin... i can't pin point exactly why i dont like it... it just feels awkward and uninspired to a degree - their exchanges reminded me far less of Bond and Amasova in TSWLM, and felt more like 'Tango and Cash'

    No way. It was great stuff.
  • Gold Finger was very well made and funny I thought. Had good action, Bond girl & name, and the golf scene still cracks me up.
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