The new James Bond movie is a real dud. During the opening theme song I turned to my wife and noted "This song really sucks". Nothing memorable like 'Goldfinger' by Shirly Bassy, 'You Only Live Twice' by Nancy Sinatra, 'Live and Let Die' by Paul McCartney, 0r even 'A View to a Kill' by Duran Duran.
It was noteworthy that the Bond gadgets were gone. No special high tech toys in the good guy's aresenal. No specially equipped brief case with hidden knives, no dart ejecting cigarettes, no specially magnetic watches, no car with ejector seats, oil spewing defense mechanisms, and machine guns behind the head lights.
But what was most missing were Bond quality villains. There was no plot to take over the world's gold supply like 'Goldfinger', destroy the human species and restart a master race in outer space as in 'Moonraker', black mail the western powers with stolen nuclear weapons like 'Thunderball', or destroy Silicon Valley and monoplolize the computer chip industry like 'A View to a Kill.'
In Quantum of Solace there is a weasel who threatens the head of Bolivia with overthrow if he does not buy the country's water supply from his monoploy. Instead of real villains with real evil this Bond fights amoral CIA hacks and greedy businessmen.
This Bond seems to try and copy the Bourne series with explosive fighting and jarring car chase scenes. Even Bond himself becomes a rogue agent like Bourne.
There is one bad ripoff when a Bond sex object is drowned in oil and her dead black shining body left on his bed, reminiscencent of Goldfinger.
Bourne is the new Bond.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
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2 comments:
HO,
Where I do agree that the new Bond is not the Bond of days past, I still enjoyed the flick. When I was growing up...Bond was my "superhero." Most kids were worshiping Batman, Superman, or Spiderman...for me it was Bond.
There were certain things that I observed from the movie that were missing or different. I think that most of this is due to a few if not more reasons.
1.If I am not mistaken, Broccoli's son is now at the helm of the Bond franchise.
2. The past few installments actually take place at the beginning of the series. So technically, Bond may not have earned the "respect" of the toys and tricks as of yet. This may also explain the absence of a "Moneypenny" and "Q" character.
3. The ever evolving "one-up-man-ship" of the current movie industry.
A few other things that I observed....Where was the bad Bond girl?!?! What is up with giving out the recipe for the famous martini? (It was done in both of the past two movies.) The cars were definitely there (I believe I spotted a new two door Bentley Turbo, the new Aston Martin, and several Defender class Rovers). But what was the deal with the bad guy tooling around in a fleet of Ford Edges? I mean really, you've got all the money in the world, you are holding the water rights in Bolivia hostage and a Ford Edge is the vehicle of choice!?!
Which brings me to the next thing...you are an evil genius and you decided the act of villainy that you want to partake in, is the rights to the water in Bolivia? Really?
comment cont.....
Lastly, I like the new Bond. Daniel Craig does a pretty good job. He adds a certain edge to the character. I know a lot of Bond fans like the more polished look, but he’s a spy. I like the darker more sinister feel that is taking shape. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next few movies.
-JJ
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