James Bond : The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection Thread *SPOILERS*

ARMY OF ONE (AKA JOSHUA TREE) (1993) Vic Armstrong

ARMY OF ONE (AKA JOSHUA TREE) (1993) Dolph Lundgren gets caught up in a murder of a cop, arrested. Mistreated, he breaks free and gets back at the bad guys.

LINK/CONNECTIONS:
Actor Dolph Lundren's first screen role was as an extra in A View to a Kill. He was Grace Jones' boyfriend at the time, and when he was seen on the set he got pulled into the appearance.

Director Vic Armstrong is longtime Bond film stunt coordinator (films he worked on include OHMSS, NSNA, TND, TWINE, DAD). Brother of Andy Armstrong. Married to the former Wendy Leech, daughter of Bond franchise stuntman George Leech. The world's most prolific stuntman, according to The Guinness Book of World Records.

Mini Bio (1)
Victor Monroe Armstrong (born 5 October 1946) is a BAFTA winning British film director, stunt coordinator, second unit director, and stunt double -- the world's most prolific according to the Guinness Book of Records. The 6-foot Armstrong doubled for 6'1" Harrison Ford in the first three Indiana Jones films, 6'2" Timothy Dalton for Flash Gordon, George Lazenby for the Swiss Alps skiing scenes in the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and 6'4" Christopher Reeve in Superman and Superman II.

Reportedly, Armstrong looked so much like Harrison Ford that the crew members on the films were constantly mistaking him for Ford. This proved useful when Ford injured his back and had to sit out for filming crucial action sequences in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Armstrong filled in for him.

Producer Andy Armstrong also worked in the franchise.

Mini Bio (1)
Born in England, Andy competed in many forms of two and four wheeled motor sport before entering the movie business. He began his film career in 1972 in England and France as a vehicle stunt performer. Andy's talent was mostly concentrated towards vehicles stunts. Andy decided in 1973 to make use of his organizational skills too and become an assistant film director.

This proved extremely successful and Andy enjoyed a meteoritic rise through the ranks of third, second and eventually first AD to become one of the World's most highly paid AD's. This work took him all over the world. Specializing particularly in very large international productions that involved complex, dangerous and logistically difficult stunts and action sequences, including the three of the largest James Bond films, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. From 1973 to 1987 Andy worked as an Assistant Director on more than 70 International Movies. As First Assistant Director, Andy's credits include, among many others, Hope and Glory, The Last Place on Earth, Getting it Right, Party Party, Another Country and The Dresser (Both Hope and Glory and The Dresser were nominated for Best Picture Oscars).

With these major credits under his belt, by 1987, Andy once again decided to concentrate on action but this time, creating and directing entire action sequences. This move led Andy to design, coordinate and or direct some of the largest action sequences ever achieved on many international productions. These are typified by the huge (Twelve hundred people) Teamster battle in Hoffa, the (Fourteen hundred people) charge and battles in Stargate; the action on Galaxy Quest, the World War One Battle Scenes for Oscar Winner Frank Pearson's TV Movie Truman, starring Gary Sinese and the huge battles in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, the car stunt sequences of Highwaymen, and most recently the action sequences on Scooby Doo 2, Cat Woman, I Robot and Eragon. In 1989, Andy moved permanently from England to set up base in California.

Andy is, with his Brother, Vic, a founding member of Armstrong Action, the largest privately owned and most comprehensive family operated Stunt and Action Facilities Company in the World. Andy has, working with Armstrong Action, Stunt Coordinated, Designed and Created the action elements for The Green Hornet, Thor, Season of the Witch and many TV Commercials and live action performances. For the last almost two years, Andy has concentrated largely on the totally new style of movement and action for Sony's, reinvention of The Amazing Spiderman. [More]
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Andy Armstrong


Prisoner breakout/escape. (LTK, SF)
Overwhelming number of Chevrolet automobiles on screen. (LALD)
Shotgun overkill. (AVTAK)
Machine gun overkill. (TSWLM, GE, TND, TWINE, DAD, CR)
Tommy gun! (GF)
Hero handcuffed to a beautiful, competent lady not on his side yet. (TND)
Car chase--police cars try to follow but end up crashing, flipping. (DAF, LALD)
Frustrated sheriff follows the action. (DAF, LALD, TMWGG)
Hero rolls down a conveyor belt shooting. (GE)
Hero lights a bad guy on fire. (LTK)
Hero fights big Asian with a top-knot. (YOLT, TMWGG, SF)
Hero uses hoist to raise himself to a higher level. (CR)
Hero laying on a creeper moves away from the bad guys. (GE)
Villain has fleet of colorful luxury sports cars. (DAD)
Hero hanging on cliff edge, bad guy tries to knock his hands off. (FYEO)



I'm motivated by my Duty.

Gravity

GRAVITY (2013)

The set-up is simplicity itself, you probably know what it's about, so little point in wasting time with it.

On the positive side it's gripping, fast-paced and often involving. Visually, it is superb, one of the best–looking, best designed movies you're ever likely to see. Overall, an intense little thriller with some well-sustained edge-of-the-seat moments and a neat, quite brave twist as the one half of this superstar two-hander bows out half way through the running time. In some respects, it's the most interesting and charismatic of the two as it happens.

On the downside, the dialogue is mostly doggerel – trite, manufactured and clunky. The hackneyed and stage-managed life-affirming epiphany bestowed on Bullock's insular grief-stricken character is both heavy-handed and monumentally unsubtle. And a bit gag-inducing to boot. I can honestly do without references to a child's missing red shoe and knotted hair and ludicrously imagined conversations in the afterlife and all that phony corn-syrup coating crapola. Why insert trite sludge into what is supposed to be a razor's edge sci-fi suspenser? It doesn't need it. Kid's dead, chick's grieving, cut the Mills and Boon frippery.

The two leads do relatively well with their cardboard cut-out roles. Clooney is his usual practised mix of macho smarm and sophisticated swagger. Bullock whinges and hyperventilates quite effectively all over the place whilst (unfortunately) her frozen face is now surgically incapacitated beyond the remotest chance of projecting convincing emotional expressions.

There are some great touches which could have delivered much more emotional impact. For instance, Bullock's tears floating in zero gravity. Now if only her face could have looked as if she were actually distressed and crying that would have been an amazing scene, rather than one that merely strikes as a very imaginative creative idea.

Cuaron directs with confidence and style and he conveys a stunning atmosphere of outer-space realism with a convincing (to a lay-person) use of physics and dizzying camera-work. He makes it easy to believe in the on-screen environment he has created. Sadly, I found it a lot harder to believe in the characters. It's strange but true, little things like thoughtlessly bad dialogue and blank facial expressions which don't fit dramatic situations can jolt a viewer out of a carefully constructed and immersive cinematic environment, diminishing the experience somewhat.

Bottom line, a solid, well-made, sci-fi flick with an smart narrative hook. Shame that shoddy characterisation and dialogue along with some self-imposed physical restrictions on the part of the lead-actress let it down. Could have been great, but wasn't. However, remains very good viewing despite the wasted potential.

LINK/CONNECTIONS:

From the off, Bond movies have concerned themselves at various times with space craft and outer space. DR NO had its NASA rocket toppling hook. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE involved "kidnapping" rockets orbiting the earth. And James Bond nearly went into space himself - disguised as an astronaut. If only he hadn't been carrying his own air conditioner.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER introduced the orbiting satellite weapon system - a McGuffin resurrected for both GOLDENEYE and DIE ANOTHER DAY.

And MOONRAKER utilised the "kidnapping" (hijacking?) of space craft. Also James Bond actually did go into outer space here and a laser battle on a space station ensued. Those were the days.


"What a helpful Chap."

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - Army of One Armstrong

Okay, maybe the thread is not entirely dead. And that's a good thing.

I agree with your entire review except for your criticism of Gravity's dialogue. Does the quality of what the actors say in a movie like that really matter that much? Dialogue in a Woody Allen film is one thing, but in a sci-fi adventure that's (nearly) a one woman show... Your criticism of "shoddy characterisation and ... some self-imposed physical restrictions" on the other hand is fair I think, especially when a film of whatever genre attaches (too) much importance on the main character's backstory. All in all, I must say that you remain a razor-sharp and witty reviewer.

Two more connections, one for myself and one to make the board thatcher happy:
Costume designer Jany Temime recently made the costumes for Skyfall which unfortunately robbed Bond of just another aspect of his identity.
Sound mixer Chris Munro and visual effects supervisor Neil Corbould won Oscars for Gravity. Munro was a sound mixer on the five Bond films between 1997 and 2008. Corbould has done some work for A View To A Kill, The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill. This certainly has something to do with him being the brother of Chris Corbould who works for Bond since The Spy Who Loved Me; in many cases as 007's special effects supervisor, i.e. head of department.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - Army of One Armstrong

The dialogue matters to me because it was, to be honest, pretty dreadful to my ears and it diminished the movie in my eyes. It needn't have been the case. Even the dialogue in a pulp sci-fi flick like ALIEN, for instance, drips with contextually appropriate machismo and dry wit. To the point that it engagingly sparkled a bit. Yaphet Kotto's comment to John Hurt that the food isn't that bad, as he starts retching and convulsing prior to an alien bursting out of his guts, always raises a smile. So on an emotional level, that's maybe something.

GRAVITY's context is one of...gravity. In several senses. And it has no intention to be ALIEN - but something on an altogether different level. Bullock's backstory is relevant to explaining her persona and mindset but was embroidered with fake schlocky mush in a fakey schlocky mushy sort of way that didn't suit the film. For me, the way it was framed with the dialogue was damaging in terms of the viewing experience in this instance.

So, yeah, I think dialogue matters to me in the context of the type of film being made. But that might just be me.

Thanks for adding some more connections by the way. Appreciated.


"What a helpful Chap."

Gravity

That's a nice assessment, bushtony. I haven't seen the film, and with the Oscar hype (ultra-celebrity cast), I didn't have enough interest to search it out any time soon, but I'll get to it eventually.

And now I've a connection to apply to it: that poor guy outside the spacecraft-swallowing capsule at the beginning of You Only Live Twice. Kind of a haunting childhood memory, a short sober moment at the beginning of You Only Live Twice that left me considering the possibilities.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OfgRE_Zb9bs/Trhgk6JjiEI/AAAAAAAAApM/v029zNKb spo/s1600/you+only+live+twice+9.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CAVsq4hQthY/T1kII-DnHWI/AAAAAAAADiw/N09l5jvR -6Q/s1600/you-only-live-twice-astronaut-717x408.png


I'm motivated by my Duty.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - Gravity

Basically, this: "Visually, it is superb, one of the best–looking, best designed movies you're ever likely to see."

It's not much of a story/screenplay (though, its not bad by any means but it has a dialogue tin ear on par with any George Lucas-calibre script). But still, its always fun (for me) to partake cgi and f/x state-of-the-artiness. So, I likey. It's all about the pans and zooms and space shuttle exteriors, baby. A movie that makes you feel like you're on a spacewalk is worthwhile.


Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - Gravity



that poor guy outside the spacecraft-swallowing capsule at the beginning of You Only Live Twice.




That resonates strongly with me also. In fact, it's the first thing I thought of when Bullock and Clooney were cast adrift. So I'm glad you mentioned it, RTB, as for some reason I neglected to do so. Strong Bond connection.


"What a helpful Chap."

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - Gravity



A movie that makes you feel like you're on a spacewalk is worthwhile.



That's GRAVITY's crowning achievement. I do think though that Hollywoodising the verbal interactions and expressions to aural sludge in what is not intended as a LucasFilm take on outer space - into which it might have fitted quite appropriately - spoils to some degree that immersive experience. And therefore, for me, GRAVITY isn't quite the movie it's being lauded as. But then, few are.

However, I'm likely just being picky over a personal gripe. I enjoyed it, and greatly appreciated the visuals, but I'm unlikely to watch again anytime soon.



"What a helpful Chap."

Went The Day Well

WENT THE DAY WELL (1942)

A latterly controversial propaganda piece that even today represents a powerful, if transparently manipulative slice of British wartime filmmaking.

Taken from a story by Graham Greene, the premise sees a chocolate box English country village, packed to the brim with staunch salt of the earth types from various strata of the class system which plays host to a troop of Nazi invaders disguised as regular Tommies. The locals soon rumble the dastardly plan and gradually, as the bulldog spirit inevitably blooms and swells, turn the tables on their oppressors and merrily chop, shoot, stab, strangle, punch and grenade the evil Hun interlopers into submission – well, death really.

The villagers – from the lady of the manor to the lowly poacher and the local postmistress – are hewn from ye olde stout oak of English courage and fortitude, every man jack of ‘em. The Nazi troops are evil, barbaric, baby-bayoneting, child-murdering dictators through and through. They have no redeeming features whatsoever. They are uniformly inhuman.

Many of the villagers get blown away – main characters die indiscriminately – but they all cop it doing their duty and performing deeds of selfless heroism or flag-waving moral defiance. The Krauts buy it because they deserve to, and that’s reason enough.

The controversy heaped on the film in later times stems from it being so amazingly subversive in its approach along with the gleeful degree of sadistic violence suggested on screen. In one scene the local postmistress throws pepper in the eyes of a Nazi trooper and then whacks him into the next world with an axe. She is subsequently brutally transfixed with a bayonet when another Nazi walks in on the scene. Earlier the local vicar is shot point blank in the church by a Nazi officer – no concept of sanctuary or God, you see? There’s more, much more, but it’s best to see and enjoy (or not) for yourself.

I love this film on two levels. Firstly, as a remarkable historical artefact depicting a fantasy England that never was and never will be. It smartly dupes you into wanting to believe that this is just the way it was and truly should have been. You end up thinking maybe it was a lot like this back then. Even though you know full well it wasn’t.

Secondly, it’s a bloody good crack. It demonises and dehumanises the enemy of old and is more black and white than hot tar on a freshly laundered bed sheet. There is plenty of action and slaughter, and even though it’s tame by modern standards due to a lack of explicit visuals, what it suggests by leaving sight unseen is a force to be reckoned with. There is no doubt who to root for. On the one hand a group of righteous, good, humane, patriotic and caring folk (us). On the other, a bunch of irredeemably evil bastards out to butcher you and your kids (them). Clear enough.

Racist, bigoted, xenophobic, prejudiced and wholly simplistic. But in the context of the times, perhaps not without some justification. And possibly one of the best British war films ever made. Seek it out.


BOND LINK/CONNECTIONS
Author Jack Higgins cribbed the premise of WENT THE DAY WELL for his novel “The Eagle Has Landed” which was filmed with Michael Caine in 1976. Donald (Blofeld) Pleasance played Himmler in this update and Sven Bertil-Taube popped up as a German captain. In 1971 Bertil-Taube headlined the movie PUPPET ON A CHAIN which included a well executed and very popular speed-boat chase – a possible inspiration for a similar chase in LIVE AND LET DIE. Bertil-Taube was also in the original screen version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – later remade with Daniel Craig in 2011.



"What a helpful Chap."

Went the Day Well

Very interesting suggestion, bushtony.


Have not heard WENT THE DAY WELL mentioned in war movie history books and other sources. For perpsective I compared the IMDb user rating total (1794) to a couple war movies I thought would be similar: A WALK IN THE SUN (2373) and A HILL IN KOREA (224), but that didn't help.

Will search out WENT THE DAY WELL, for the wartime propaganda time capsule element and WWII context. Accepting it in the time it was made isn't a problem for me, it's as easy as reading Fleming's LIVE AND LET DIE. Just takes some awareness.


I'm motivated by my Duty.

PENNY DREADFUL (2014, Cable series)

Another recent item, premieres on Showtime Sunday, 11 May. As SuperDevilDoctor pointed out, it's available for viewing now on YouTube.

PENNY DREADFUL (2014, Cable series)

Interesting ideas and execution here. Period Victorian London horror presented in dark, authentic ways. More than one classic horror element introduced in this first episode. At times, medium length exchanges of poetic dialog, a good match for it all. I won't give away too much of the specifics, but the crowd scenes and street scenes and interiors are all pretty impressive. And solid casting. Great delivery of lines by Timothy Dalton and Eva Green, a lot to relish.

Expensive watch but threadbare jacket. Sentimental about the money you used to have. Your eye is steady but your left hand tremors. That's the drink, so you keep it below the table hoping I won't notice. You have a contusion healing on your other hand, the result of a recent brawl with a jealous husband, no doubt. Your boots are good quality leather, but have been resold more than once. I see a man that's been accustomed to wealth, but has given himself to excess and the unbridled pleasures of youth. A man much more complicated than he likes to appear.

There was another thought when she was so very close to me, a strange working of memory. It was a particular lion hunt many years ago. And moving through the tall grass getting a glimpse of the prey, the shoulders mostly, the mane, you prepare your rifle. You're very quiet. And then there's a moment. The wind changes. The grass stops swaying. The lion turns. Looks at you. The moment you realize you are no longer the hunter you are the prey.

Perhaps we are more shadow than light.


It's definitely got my interest. I don't subscribe to Showtime, but will wait for it to appear on NetFlix eventually.

Warning: Eva Green does not play a witch.

LINK/CONNECTIONS: A lot of production and story links.

John Logan - Writer, Producer (Skyfall, Bond 24)
Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill)
Eva Green (Casino Royale)
Rory Kinnear (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall)

Opening titles.
Scorpion (Diamonds Are Forever, Die Another Day)
Tarantula (Dr. No, Octopussy)
Snake (Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Octopussy)
Cards on playing table (Live and Let Die, Casino Royale, many others)
Bleeding flower (not a Bond film, but the John Gardner novel Never Send Flowers has the villain breeding a special blood-tinged rose http://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/pictures/13421.jpg)

Main character loves-and-leaves women, this one didn't even get her name.
Main character's employment frequently involves killing.
Main character accused of altercations with jealous husbands. (The Man with the Golden Gun)
Woman verbally evaluates the man sitting across the table by his clothes, appearance, and manner. (Casino Royale, very similar recreation of Eva Green by Eva Green)
Tarot cards for fortune telling, The Lovers card is selected. (Live and Let Die)
Egyptian connections. (The Spy Who Loved Me)
Birds provide a startling moment. (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill)


I'm motivated by my Duty.

Re: PENNY DREADFUL (2014, Cable series) *SPOILERS*

PENNY DREADFUL (2014)

I watched the eight episodes of season one over two nights. An immaculately immersive (and subversive) gothic roller-coaster ride set mostly in the shadowy metropolis of Victorian London. And what jolly good fun it was.

At its core the narrative is a reimagining of Stoker’s “Dracula.” Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) along with his clairvoyant and seemingly demon possessed companion, Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), are searching for his missing daughter Mina who is supposedly being held captive by some undead fiends. Mina, it is said, was married to a man called Harker – just to affirm the links to the Dracula trajectory. Orbiting this thread are opiate-addicted Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and his monster; a lycanthropic American trick-shot artist, a very louche and decadent Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) and Brona (Billy Piper) a consumptive whore. Ripper-type murders are occurring sporadically in the capital, the devil puts in a couple of appearances, and there is arcane talk of Egyptology and a plot to wreak Armageddon upon the earth. Professor Van Helsing (David Warner) pops up for a few scenes also, but makes a rather abrupt exit. Not before advising Frankenstein on vampirism, though.

Everything hangs together in a remarkably integrated way, it moves along at a smooth and brisk clip. On show is much gore and action; a thrilling atmosphere of impending horror and doom permeates the proceedings. Smart, adult, clever, stylish and scripted with a keen sense of time, place and meaning. The characters are vividly realised and humanely drawn. Production values are convincingly high with some loving recreations of the architecture, locales and landmarks of the Victorian age.

Performances, across the board, are generally excellent, with all principal and supporting performers seemingly at the top of their game. Good to see Dalton in the lead here, but it is Eva Green who delivers a revelation, a tour-de-force portrayal of a dangerous and haunted woman with a complex and highly sexually charged persona. Top rate entertainment that grips and doesn’t seriously disappoint for a moment.

The eight episodes give the impression of actually being a lengthy prelude, an establishing process for the story yet to come. They strike, when combined, as a very elaborate introductory set-up for the real meat of the show - which, as a second series has been green-lighted, is hopefully what we have to look forward to next.

The finale leaves us with Victor in the early stages of reanimating the corpse of Brona (Billie Piper) to serve as a mate for his creation, Caliban (Rory Kinnear). Brona was the doomed prostitute love of gunslinger Ethan (Josh Hartnett) who finally revealed his lycanthropic tendencies and tore apart the two sleazy Pinkerton stooges sent to return him to his homeland. Could he also be the perpetrator of the Ripper-alike murders? Suggestion is strong but I suspect misdirection is afoot here. Mina is located and found to be beyond redemption, thus put to final rest by her father Sir Malcolm (Dalton). She leaves behind the threat of the coming of The Master (Dracula?) who as yet remains unseen. Vanessa (Green) rejects the advances of Dorian Gray (Carney), is confirmed as Murray’s daughter (the product of his illicit affair with her mother?) and seems to have her demons under some sort of control. The stage is thus set.

PENNY DREADFUL drips with quality and care, a rare and intelligent creative endeavour, and the forthcoming 10 episode Season 2 can’t come quickly enough. Lovely stuff.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Not much to add to RTB's quite comprehensive observations.

There is the Dracula connection and Chris (Scaramanga) Lee of course.
Murray visits an armourer to pick up a prototype automatic firearm (shades of Q).
Global destruction and the creation of a "new world" were central themes in both TSWLM and MR.




"What a helpful Chap."

GODZILLA (2014)

Another recent G-force.

GODZILLA (2014)

This sets straight "American" productions of Godzilla. Godzilla appears when he's needed and he fights other monsters. Godzilla 101, it's not complicated. The human drama is also good: there's a surprise early on, soldier balances his duty and family, and the story has humans actually doing useful activity with the the monsters battling it out in the background. They make mistakes inside these incredible situations, but the military aren't wholesale idiots or bloodthirsty killers bent on destroying Zilla-God at all costs. Lucky for them.

I had some reservations and still do, but not as many as I feared. For one, from the trailers I thought the scale of Godzilla was too huge but it worked fine onscreen here, complaint withdrawn. And size was actually used well alongside skyscrapers, or swimming alongside aircraft carriers crossing the Pacific.

The audience I was with loved it. A strange moment when Ken Watanabe speaks the name out loud for the first time--he says it twice in a way indistinguishable between Godzilla and the Japanese Gojira. Laughter from the audience, maybe they thought it was recalling the dubbing of Japanese monster films over the years. But they weren't mean-spirited about it, wasn't any kind of distraction.

My complaints are minor stuff. I don't know why recent movies are doing this for reptiles: making them soft-skinned and squishy faced. Filmmakers take note: turtles, tortoises, and most dinosaur-like creatures have stiff and mostly non-moving features. There are many ways to effect emotion with eyes, nose, mouth but you can't make them into a green-colored Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man faces that jiggle like gelatin or emote like Shrek. I'm exaggerating of course, but get my point. Anyway, it didn't happen much in the film. More Brian Cranston would be good, but that's okay. It's another long film at 2 hr 20 min, with the excitement lined up front and at the end, which is expected and this film needed the slow reveal on a lot of points. All things considered, well done.

An interesting point to me is how things have come full circle from 1954 and the Cold War origins of Godzilla. Created from radiation, and created by the country that suffered horrific damage from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I always considered how the Japanese public viewed Godzilla in light of real world events and World War II.

Seeing GODZILLA 2014, it's our turn for the West. The contemporary world experience is all over the film. Every building that collapses, every downed aircraft, every person covered in ash and dust, running down city streets in terror evokes 9/11. The 4/11 train bombings in Madrid. Tsunamis in the South Pacific, most recently Japan. All strike a real world chord that wasn't there in 1998.

Good movie.


LINK/CONNECTIONS:

No cast or production links.

Locations: Tokyo, Las Vegas, San Francisco. (You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, A View to a Kill)
Sacrificial lamb early in the film. (Dr. No and all others)
Difficulties entering a subway train. (Skyfall)
"Analog" nuke device with spinning gears. (Goldfinger)
Missing nuke has to be recovered. (Thunderball, Never Say Never Again)
Have to try to disarm a nuke. (Goldfinger, Octopussy, The World Is Not Enough)
Birds (seagulls) appear suddenly for shock effect. (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill)
Skydiving/HALO jump. (You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill, Quantum of Solace/Tomorrow Never Dies)
Hero sets fire to an overturned fuel tanker, killing the enemy. (Licence to Kill)
Photographs of loved ones have meaning. (Quantum of Solace)
Out of focus figure walks toward the camera and into focus. (Skyfall)
Resurrection. (Casino Royale, Skyfall)
Eiffel Tower (in Vegas, though) is present. (A View to a Kill)
Golden Gate Bridge features in the action. (A View to a Kill)
Misunderstood hero is redeemed. (Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Man With the Golden Gun, Moonraker, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall)



I'm motivated by my Duty.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - GODZILLA (2014)

But you forgot to enumerate the ways in which G will cause Bond producers to become fearful and Bond audiences to be disappointed and Bond box office to tank.

Not really a review up to this board's standards whatsoever!

Otherwise, thanks


Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

GODZILLA (2014)

Released in the wrong year for that, wasn't it?

Plus it's not animated and Pixar.


I'm motivated by my Duty.

GODZILLA (2014)

GO GO GODZILLA!


Godzilla

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say he's got to go go go Godzilla
Oh no, there goes Tokyo go go Godzilla

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men

Godzilla!

zilla-God-zilla-God-zilla-God-zilla-God-zilla-God-zilla-God-zilla-God-zilla-God-



What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

GODZILLA (2014)

He's not known as King of the Monsters for nothin, izzee?

http://www.unrealfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/godzilla-james-b ond.jpg


I'm motivated by my Duty.

Rosemary's Baby

ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

Polanski’s satanic chiller delivers a masterclass in creeping paranoia and growing unease. It pulls off that elusive achievement, the one whereby most of the action takes place in daylight hours in contemporary New York yet still managing to be eerie and spine tingling. The director knows his Hitchcock well and exploits accordingly whilst imposing his own singular stamp of identity throughout. The integration of bizarre arcane dream sequences and surreal events with a wholly modern environment helps form the spiritual core of this truly satisfying urban horror film. Technically and emotionally, it’s a winner, and the years have done little to diminish its power.

As in REPULSION (1965) before it and THE TENANT (1976) after it, the apartment (block) setting is as much a character as anything or anyone else. Across this concrete canvas, deftly, and in common with those other two films, ROSEMARY’S BABY manipulates audience sensibilities through recurrent interchanging beliefs – from this is really happening, to this is all in her mind, to this is really happening, to this is all in her mind, and so on. The ending is suitably creepy and haunting and will stay with you.

So, it’s cool, stylish, thrilling, scary, suspenseful – good stuff. I haven’t seen it for a couple of years, but intend to revisit soon.

Why bring it up?

Ah, well, because I just sat through...

ROSEMARY’S BABY (2014)...a 240 minute TV Mini-Series in two parts.

And this is a diabolical travesty. For the most part, it seems to be intended as a showcase for the dubious acting talents of Zoe Saldana. Ms Saldana takes the central role of Rosemary. She also produces the show along with two of her family.

In all honesty, Mia Farrow, who featured in the original, irritates me as an actress in ways that cause me to actively avoid films in which she appears. Apart from ROSEMARY’S BABY, that is, in which her cutesy, whiney, elfin, borderline-anorexic, drippy, fragile, neurotic flower-child persona fits the role and the film and the time to absolute perfection. In anything else, I have to avert my eyes, but in RB she’s the ideal choice.

Zoe Saldana is very pretty to look at. Outside of that, she irritates me here even more than Farrow in any film that isn’t RB . Every other sentence she speaks is punctuated by a nervous and incongruous giggle that becomes really annoying after the first ten times it manifests. And it never stops. Just when you think it’s gone, it pops up again. It’s the most unnerving and affecting thing about this whole venture. I don’t know how much creative control the girl had, but someone should have at least advised her to stop with the giggling every other line as it doesn’t effectively represent dramatic punctuation. Maybe they did. Maybe they got fired for it. Lucky them.

RB 2014 is one of the most sterile pieces of work I’ve seen for a long time. It’s a resolutely flat, monotone one chord visual drone that is filmed without style, panache, flair or meaning. The script is mundane, the performances are mediocre and there is very little by way of tension or suspense. Actually, that’s an exaggeration. There’s nothing by way of tension or suspense.

The original didn’t really need overt special effects to make a point or illustrate anything. This version uses them sporadically – computerised hallucinations, flies, blood, gore, viscera, fire, scalded flesh, etc. It’s all amateurish stuff, half-heartedly rendered, and fails to add any life or interest. Worse still, the trajectory of the fates of most of the characters is signposted in the most obvious ways.

The one bright spot was seeing Carole Bouquet in a prominent role. She looks a little faded around the edges these days, but remains something of a vision of stylish beauty.

Some might wonder why I watched it. Why I stuck with it until the bitter end – which, by the way, turned out to be a jaw-droppingly mindless conclusion consisting of a shot of a portly baby in a pram with luminous blue contact lenses blazing like lasers in place of his eyeballs. And this is scary and disturbing how, exactly? As opposed to laughable?

Recently I have been watching HANNIBAL and FARGO and enjoying them. Good quality stimulating and intriguing US TV. HANNIBAL especially pushes the envelope in tone, style and content, with humour so black, serrated and malevolent it almost leaves bite marks. I had an idea that RB might be up to the same standard. Got that wrong.

Stayed till the end because I’m a stickler. And an optimist. Didn’t get any better. More fool me, perhaps.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS: Carole Bouquet was Melina Havelock in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. Mia Farrow was once married in a common-law sense to Woody Allen – Jimmy Bond in CASINO ROYALE (1967). Polanski later directed Piercing Bronchospasm in THE GHOST WRITER (or THE GHOST, whatever). In which the ex-James Bond gave a reasonable account of himself.



"What a helpful Chap."

Rosemary's Baby

Don't think I have the patience for the new Rosemary's Baby.

Glad to read your assessment, bushtony.

What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your assessments until your connections brought me down to earth.
First of all, Mia Farrow and Woody Allen may have been married professionally for about a decade, but they never were a married couple.
Secondly, constantly reminding us of your inane Brosnan fixation may be part of your individual style - and I assume that you know how it makes you look like -, but it does tarnish your contributions. In this particular case, a rather interesting read unfortunately ended on an unnecessarily sour note.
And thirdly, I've seen The Ghost Writer more than once and I honestly don't know what you mean with the former Bond giving "a reasonable account of himself" in this film. My only explanation would be that you refer to the scene where the former PM (played by PB) complains about having frequently been attacked as being not much more than "a beeping actor". Now that kind of anger makes sense to me, since the character is a politician and does not want to be seen as someone who's merely faking his personality. You on the other hand strangely seem to see the actor talking here. Then let me remind you that Pierce Brosnan the actor - in contrast to Adam Lang the politician - was frequently criticized for his abilities (i.e. limitations) as an actor and will therefore probably be deeply contented whenever anyone refers to him as an actor.
Be that as it may, I've not seen the TV version of Rosemary's Baby, but the idea of Carole Bouquet in the Oscar-winning role originated by Ruth Gordon - if that's the part she's playing - kinda intrigues me.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection

Don't know why, I always thought they were legally spliced. There you go.

As for my "inane" Brosnan fixation, or any "inane fixation" of mine come to that - you, really, have little cause for complaint. I enjoy my inane fixations, personally, and how they may or may not make me look to you or anyone else matters to me why exactly?

Gave a reasonable account of himself, acquitted himself well, performed reasonably, relatively convincing, etc. Why so defensive? It's a compliment. What sour note?

Carole Bouquet is more of an intriguing ornament in the role of Margaux Castavet here - wife of Roman - rather than actively playing a part. It was nice to see her. Maybe the highpoint. But not worth the investment of time.


"What a helpful Chap."

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection


any "inane fixation" of mine come to that
Any? You only have one. Which is what makes it even more inane.

you, really, have little cause for complaint
Not sure what you're alluding to here. Of course I'm a formula fanatic, but so is every Bond fan all over the world.

how they may or may not make me look to you or anyone else matters to me why exactly?
It does not have to matter to you at all. But as a loyal reader of this thread, I simply thought that I could point out how much better - at least from my point of view - your last posting would have been if only you'd have stopped yourself from making one connection the way you did. I'm sorry to have bothered you with some kind of feedback.

Gave a reasonable account of himself, acquitted himself well, performed reasonably, relatively convincing, etc. Why so defensive? It's a compliment. What sour note?
I concede that I might have misunderstood that sentence. But it was already written more than a little ambiguously.

But not worth the investment of time.
Even before I'd read your review, I wouldn't have invested the time anyway. But it's nice to know that Bouquet is still getting potentially interesting roles even when they finally lack in execution.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - GODZILLA (2014)


one of the most sterile pieces of work I’ve seen for a long time. It’s a resolutely flat, monotone one chord visual drone that is filmed without style, panache, flair
I haven't seen the remake. But I've always held the idea that if one was to try to replicate Polanski's visual presentation of the NYC apartment block as falsely/deceptively bright and sterile in order to crumble as the character (and viewers'?) trust in sanity dissolves over the story...that it would be a formidable challenge. There are few movies I've ever seen that have pulled off such a visual technique; do you think the remake was going for that?


Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection - GODZILLA (2014)


...do you think the remake was going for that?
Definitely not, pking-2. To be honest, I don't know what the remake was going for. Or if it got it.


"What a helpful Chap."

Rosemary's Baby

I thought this was of interest.

http://www.fearnet.com/news/list/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-ro semarys-baby

10 Things You Might Not Know About 'Rosemary's Baby'
John Squires
Friday, January 17, 2014 - 12:00pm

A demonic baby returns to the big screen today with the found footage film Devil’s Due, which quite frankly makes this week the absolute perfect time to go back and revisit devil baby flicks from the past. Though movies like It’s Alive and Grace should by all means be on any given list of films that fall into that category, there’s one that they owe it all to, and only one that did it better than any other; Rosemary’s Baby.

Proving that the story is as powerful, effective and relevant today as it was when the film was released in 1968, Rosemary’s Baby is in the midst of being turned into a four-hour long miniseries for NBC, which is another reason why now’s the perfect time to either discover or rediscover the classic horror film. So before you go see Devil’s Due this weekend, and before Rosemary delivers the spawn of Satan on NBC, it seems only fitting that we first learn a little bit about the movie that started it all.

Here are 10 things you might not know about Rosemary’s Baby!

1) Though it’s often believed that Mia Farrow cut her hair short for the role of Rosemary, the truth is that she had already done so years prior, before the film was ever on the table. The above shot of Vidal Sassoon creating the iconic pixie cut was confirmed to be a publicity hoax in 2012, when Farrow tweeted that the late Sassoon had absolutely nothing to do with the haircut – in fact, she says, she cut it herself, with a pair of fingernail scissors. Farrow wore a wig for the scenes early in the film, where her hair is long.

2) It was schlock-master William Castle that discovered and purchased the film rights to Ira Levin’s novel, intent on directing the film himself. Paramount producer Robert Evans was interested in turning the book into a movie but didn’t want Castle anywhere near it, since he mostly specialized in B-level movies. Castle ended up producing the film and having a brief cameo in it (above), as the man waiting for Rosemary to get out of the phone booth, when she’s calling Dr. Hill. Proving that it was a wise choice that Castle didn’t direct, his plan was to actually show the demonic baby at the end of the film, an idea that Polanski and the other producers rejected.

3) After the release of the film, William Castle received all sorts of death threats and angry letters, with several of them insisting that he was going to die a painful death, as a result of the “evil” subject matter of the film. Though Castle initially brushed them off, a series of painful health issues soon followed, and he became convinced that a curse truly had been placed on him. “The story of Rosemary’s Baby was happening in life,” he was quoted as saying. “Witches, all of them, were casting their spell, and I was becoming one of the principal players." Castle died of a heart attack in 1977.

4) Though the apartment building the majority of the film takes place in is called The Bramford, in the movie, the actual name of the building was and still is The Dakota. John Lennon moved into the Dakota shortly after filming wrapped, and it was the site of his murder in 1980. He was shot dead at the south entrance of the building, which Rosemary and Guy are seen entering at the start of the film (above).

5) Mia Farrow had married Frank Sinatra just a couple years before filming began on Rosemary’s Baby, and Sinatra was reportedly unhappy about the fact that she was continuing her career, after the marriage. In fact, it was her decision to star in the movie that spelled the end of their relationship. Sinatra’s lawyer delivered divorce papers to Farrow in the middle of the shoot, right in front of the cast and crew. It was either the movie or Sinatra, and Farrow had no choice but to choose the movie, since a large portion of the film had already been shot.

6) In the scene where Rosemary eats raw chicken liver, director Roman Polanski insisted that Farrow actually eat… raw chicken liver. Though she’s a devout vegetarian, Farrow complied, and several takes were filmed of her chowing down on real raw liver. Now that’s commitment… and a pretty damn cruel director!

7) The devil costume that’s briefly seen in the film’s iconic rape scene was re-used in the 1972 film Asylum of Satan, and it can be seen towards the end of the movie. Some rumors suggest that a devil mask used in the film was originally designed to be used in Rosemary’s Baby, but those claims are unsubstantiated.

8) So faithful was Polanski’s adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel that the final running time of the first cut of the film was a massive four-hours long, despite the fact that Polanski considerably cut down the original script he wrote. Nearly two hours had to be excised from the film to get it down to a manageable length, and one of the deleted scenes saw Rosemary attending an off-Broadway play, where she meets Joan Crawford and Van Johnson, playing themselves. The behind the scenes shot above captures the filming of that scene.

9) After the film was completed, Paramount didn’t want to release it, because they had absolutely no idea how to sell or market it. Robert Evans reached out to a friend of his (Stephen Frankfurt), who was the president of an advertising agency, and he told him that he’d come up with a poster for the film free of charge – if Paramount didn’t like it, then so be it… but if they wanted to use it, they’d have to pay him $100,000. After Stephen watched the movie, he designed the promotional poster seen above, which put $100,000 in his pocket and helped Paramount not only sell the film, but make a killing at the box office. Just goes to show the power of a good poster!

10) And finally, did you know that there was actually a sequel to Rosemary’s Baby?! Though it’s never been released on DVD, and has largely been forgotten over the years, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby aired as a TV movie in 1976, with Patty Duke playing the role of Rosemary Woodhouse. Stephen McHattie played Adrian/Andrew, an adult version of the devil baby that was never seen in the original film, and it’s his character the sequel centered around. The film was directed by Sam O’Steen, who edited Rosemary’s Baby.



What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)

Didn't plan on it, I saw a new release worth mention.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)

Not an outright fan but I've seen most of the previous ones. This film is good, fun, serious, funny, and an overall solidly good time at the movies.

To me it's a good balance of characters and action. The special effects and CGI are top notch. One highlight among many is the young Quicksilver disarming and comically disrupting a roomful of armed authorities confronting the Mutants. The sequence takes its time and visually mines clever opportunities with the action you won't see in most any other film.

Can't be for everyone, but as smart as this film is I'm surprised at the success these X-Men films enjoy. Surprised because they deserve it.


BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Halle Berry as Storm (Jinx in Die Another Day)
Famke Jansen as Jean (Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye)
And haven't Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbinder been suggested for the Bond role?

Reluctant souls are drawn back into the hero's journey. (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Casino Royale, Skyfall)
The consequences of past events return and must be addressed. (From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Licence to Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall)
Hero has to go back in time to set things right. (Skyfall)
Female character bent on a revenge killing is dissuaded from acting. (For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace)
Heroes suffer the mistrust of their government. (Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Man With the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Octopussy, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, others)
Hero (or the bad guy) assumes the appearance of another. (From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Living Daylights, The Man with the Golden Gun, Octopussy, Licence to Kill, Die Another Day, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall)
Character small in stature causes big problems. (The Man with the Golden Gun)
Hero moves through a group causing mayhem. (Thunderball)
Kitchen fight. (Never Say Never Again, The Living Daylights, Quantum of Solace)
Intense magnetic field attracts guns or any other metal object. (You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Die Another Day)
Transparent non-metal gun. (Die Another Day titles)
Fire and ice. (Die Another Day titles)
Hero falls from great height to his "death" but is recovered, survives and continues. (Skyfall)
Resurrection. (Skyfall)



I'm motivated by my Duty.

MACHETE KILLS (2013)

MACHETE KILLS (2103)

Danny Trejo continues to be perfect as the hero and covers a lot of ground. Big names all over the place, everybody enjoying themselves here, especially the angry characters. Deft and daft mining of James Bond, blaxploitation, Snake Plisskin, science fiction (Yes, I'm a Star Wars fan, says the villain), and other stuff. The kind of jumping around plot that doesn't have to make sense. Good over-the-top use of Latino elements.

I like. Takes me back to the Super-50 Drive-In and really delivers a more focused product.

Bond Links/Connections:

Actor connections: none.
Production connections: none.

Hero has a job that involves killing, tries to quit but someone he loves is killed and he's drawn back in. OHMSS, CR
Hero is working for the government, sometimes at odds with them. TB, OHMSS, LTK, DAD, CR, QOS, SF
Villain's girl brings hero to villain; villain kills her. TMWTGG, SF
It's not about the money, it's about the ethics (= trust). CR, QOS

Bad guys wear berets. TSWLM
Rubber mask pulled off to reveal another face. FRWL, LALD
Hero under fire spearguns an aircraft to do a human extraction. LTK
Special car for the mission. GF, TSWLM, TLD, TND, TWINE, CR, SF
Headgear used as a weapon. GF, TND
Red LED bomb countdown. OP, TLD, others
Defibrillator pad used to take out security. DAD
Hero in space suit carries an air conditioning unit. YOLT
Walking through the desert, overlapped images effect. TSWLM, QOS

Hero is sensitive. OHMSS, TSWLM, TND, TWINE, CR, QOS, SF
Speech about you live for your job, why did you survive so long, not being able to save your partner(s), partners knew about sacrifice for a greater good, vengeance never dies.
Hero appears to die, is resurrected. FRWL, YOLT, TMWTGG, TND, TWINE, DAD, CR, SF
Villain has a space shuttle and space station, plans to go there. MR
Villain plans the rule the earth after Armageddon. TSWLM, MR
Film ends promising hero will return in the next one.



I'm motivated by my Duty.

EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Full disclosure: I don't have a lot of patience for Cruise and from the start liked about every other film of his (Risky Business, Taps, Color of Money, Rain Man, Born of the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, you get the idea). He's great in the Mission Impossible films, and he's great here. Director Doug Limon is top shelf, though I probably don't agree with the politics on some of his projects.

EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Very well done and thoughtful action time travel film. Clever use of the time travel angle for a string of humor that plays through the film, mostly about the death reset and suffering through the possibilities to find the way forward. Lots of traditional adventure setups used effectively, starts with putting the Cruise character in a position where he HAS to care and act on things he'd otherwise avoid. Obstacles on all sides from limited knowledge/abilities/experience to almost every other character working against him. Interesting points introduced, like how reliving so many days so many times can desensitize a person, lull him into using that effect to slack off for personal enjoyment and apathy (giving up, really) rather than continuing to seriously fight the battle.

Authentic looking and feeling, from large scale effects to more focused action. Good cast, military characters used for more humor in good ways. A crowd-pleaser is Bill Paxton as the yelling knows-everything Master Sergeant, a kind of what-if do-over for the high strung grunt he played in ALIENS.

It's also part mystery as things play out, how can the situation be resolved type of stuff, immediate and long-term. Second guessing the end game, and on the part of the audience figuring out what the current scene will reveal. How many times the character has lived this moment, is it a dead end, what is useful this time around. And what personal commitment he arrived at that he won't compromise to finish the mission.

This movie really clicks. Recommended.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

No cast links.

Neil Lamont - Supervising Art Director (GE, TWINE, DAD)
Noah Meddings - Special Effects (TWINE)
Tim Browning - Art Department (SF)
Ashley Lamont - Art Department (grandson of Peter Lamont)

Hero wants to back out of job that involves killing/danger, but can't. OHMSS, CR
Hero relentlessly pursues his mission.
Death and resurrection. YOLT, DAD, CR, SF
Poisoned, hero must use auto-injector. CR
Car garage car chase. TND
Action at a dam. GE
Man and woman assault the villain's lair. TSWLM, MR, TND, DAD, QOS
Hero shown apparently dead under water. SF
Mission complete, sharply dressed hero returns. SF


I'm motivated by my Duty.

Re: EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)


EDGE OF TOMORROW
Would the action editing induce a headache in one so inclined during QOS? Legit question; that's probably why I'm on the fence about this flick re: theatre vs. eventual rental.


Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

Re: EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)


Would the action editing induce a headache in one so inclined during QOS? Legit question; that's probably why I'm on the fence about this flick re: theatre vs. eventual rental.
I honestly don't think so, but I guess it depends on the individual. Seriously, I don't think that will be a problem.

With respect, folks should know the level of sound and vision they can handle, and whether or not to see something at an IMAX 3D smellovision theater with electrically shocked seat bottoms during the torture scenes. And even in that case it helps to research some of these big budget blockbusters, some of these action films have created unintended consequences for themselves.

Film elements like flashing lights cause some viewers to suffer migraines. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (a film I chose not to see based on the presence of Andrew Garfield and Jamie Foxx, also migraine-inducers) had some reports of that, I think. AVATAR was another one. 3D movie viewing other than straight up straight ahead can confound the brain and work against combining the two images (a parallax view conflict). Sometimes just quick transitions can cause problems. If it IS a problem, regular screens or disk rental or video on demand are the way to go since a person can control their home venue.

Even considering all that, I don't think it will be a problem for EDGE OF TOMORROW. That's based on the visuals and the fact that the story is so engaging I don't expect folks will dwell on the technical effects.

Anyway, go see it!



I'm motivated by my Duty.

Re: EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

I have plans to go and see it tomorrow. I rarely go to the cinema these days - SKYFALL was the last time to date, I think, or PROMETHEUS - but this caught my eye. I don't usually go out of my way to see a Tom Cruise movie but I'm intrigued by this one. Your review was encouraging, RTB. Thanks.


"What a helpful Chap."

Re: EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Seen and thoroughly enjoyed. Prime example of a popcorn flick with some notable semblance of invention, wit and a brain. As wouldbe blockbusters go, it doesn't really put a foot wrong - apart from maybe in the framing of the "science" surrounding the scenario which doesn't come over as even remotely plausible or convincing. But, in the scheme of things - the action, seamless sfx and fun factor - that's a small niggle.

Belts along at a fair lick, a blast from beginning to end, and Cruise, in all fairness, is pitch perfect - as are the supporting cast around him. Will rewatch in due course. Recommended.

Funniest moment: Cruise's attempted escape by rolling under a moving truck and Paxton inquiring "What were you thinking?" Nice black humour.


"What a helpful Chap."

A LONG WAY DOWN (2014), Pierce Brosnan, Rosamund Pike

A LONG WAY DOWN (2014)
A nice little Pierce Brosnan film about four souls who meet on a building ledge intending to kill themselves but don't.
Nice enough.

LINK/CONNECTIONS:

Pierce Brosnan
Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day)
Sam Neill (screen tested for Bond prior to The Living Daylights)

Suicide figures in the story. (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The World Is Not Enough, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace)
A character rationalizes invisibility. (Die Another Day)
Hawaiian hobo look on the beach. (Die Another Day)
Character walks into the surf apparently attempting suicide. (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
Character makes love to a beautiful woman with another beautiful woman inside the residence. (The Man with the Golden Gun)
Bond actor appears fuzzy down a corridor, walks toward camera into focus. (Skyfall)
A heart stops and starts again. (Die Another Day, Casino Royale)
A holiday figures in the story. (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Licence to Kill, The World Is Not Enough)
Pop songs engaged to tell what's happening in the story. (A View to a Kill, Die Another Day)


I'm motivated by my Duty.

We Still Kill The Old Way

WE STILL KILL THE OLD WAY (2014)

I like the idea far more than the execution. What we have here is a wasted opportunity for a jolly good old-fashioned hard-boiled torture-porn blood-spurting gut churning British gangster knees-up extravaganza Eastend-style. What we get is a graphically restrained and disappointingly timid stab at an old-school crime/revenge thriller that fritters away its potential in favour of annoying camera technique, clichéd scripting, over-the top performances, cartoon caricature characterisation and little in the way of thrills and spills.

It should have amped the violence, pumped the adrenaline and sparked the target. Rather, it tones down, cops out and misses the mark. If a film is going to name-check the Krays and the Richardson Gang then the makers should recognise that the violent methods employed by these people was medieval and then some. What happens on screen should go some reasonable distance to reflecting that, rather than shy away from the gratuitous and explicit nature. If, as the title claims, we still kill the old way, then let’s see it, the power and the horror of it.

The simple plot opens the doors to many possibilities, but fails to capitalise. Old geezer comes to the aid of young girl being primed for gang-rape by a bunch of hoodies and gets stomped to death. But this isn’t any old geezer. Oh no, this is Stephen Berkoff playing Charlie Archer, a once revered and feared sixties Eastend crime tsar. Charlie’s brother, Richie (Ian Ogilvy) lives a comfortable life in Spain, but upon hearing of his brother’s demise returns home for the funeral and a healthy slice of revenge. Three of his old compatriots join him, bemoaning the good old days when the streets were safe because Richie and Charlie killed every threat, real or imagined, and the people were happy and danced a jig of joy from dawn until dusk like Dick Van Dyke on acid. The four pensioners amble about their business with sawn-off shotguns, claw hammers, drills, machetes, knuckle-dusters, etc, to teach the young scum a lesson by kidnapping, torturing and killing them all. Which ought to make them see the error of their ways if anything will.

Should have and could have been an electrifying journey into the dark heart and mind of criminal psychopathy, but opts for a pedestrian trundle into blandness instead. On the way they run into Alison Doody as a wholly improbable police detective investigating Charlie’s murder – and a clunky plot device whereby it turns out it was Doody’s wayward daughter who Charlie saved from being raped.

On the plus side, good to see Ogilvy back on screen and actually headlining (nice to see him reunited with his WITCHFINDER GENERAL compatriot Nicky Henson), and Berkoff (fleeting though he may be here) is always worth watching. There is a nice line in black humour on occasion and there are brief flashes of inspiration, such as the juxtaposition of criminal styles between the old school and the young upstarts. The oldies are brutally elegant, ruthless, determined, clinical, unflinching, matter-of-fact, whereas the kids are messy, disorganised, borderline-retarded, histrionic and irredeemably vile. Also, they all communicate through a virtually incomprehensible hip-hop street patois which I’m pretty sure no one uses meaningfully outside of a comedy sketch. Subtitles for translation would have helped.

I liked the cheeky reference to THE ITALIAN JOB (1969) at the end – a nice touch.

Throughout viewing, I couldn’t help imagining how it could have been done so much better, and that’s no desirable pursuit for a film to stimulate in an audience during its running time. For fans of British Crime Cinema it’s not essential viewing, but it passes the time relatively harmlessly whilst entertaining on a resolutely moderate level. I’m not sure if that is a recommendation.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Ian Ogilvy took over the role of Simon Templar in the TV series The Return Of The Saint. The previous incumbent being one Sir Roger Moore.

Alison Doody was Jenny Flex (but of course...) with Rog in A VIEW TO A KILL. She was also in the classic and hilarious Oirish masterpiece TAFFIN with Piercing Bronchospasm.

James Cosmo played a copper in an episode of The Persuaders (Element of Risk) with Rog.

Berkoff was General Orlov in OCTOPUSSY.

Lysette Anthony was in ROBINSON CRUSOE (no, not the Christmas pantomime, a film version) with Piercing (“he’s behind you.”). She also played Lady Rowena in a TV movie version of Ivanhoe in 1982. Rog played the titular character in a series of the same name back in the 1950s.

Chris Ellison was in RANSOM (1974) with Sean Connery.


What a helpful Chap.

Re: We Still Kill The Old Way

Merry Christmas, bushtony!


Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

Re: We Still Kill The Old Way

Merry Christmas, pking-2. And A Happy New Year. 2015 - The Year Of Bond (Again). Let's hope it's a good one.


What a helpful Chap.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection Thread *SPOILERS*

THE SEX THIEF (1973)

Martin Campbell's first film. Very professional looking, starts with an interesting tease of a woman in sheer negligee investigating a noise through her darkened apartment. As we strain to see her female form the titles are intercut, displaying brightly lit nude stills next to the production credits. Quite an attention-getter.

As a 70s sex romp, this has some good ideas and plays pretty well. A novelist turned jewel thief works seduction and sexual encounters into his heists at the residences of solitary beauties (though one has a cat). Middle of the road comedy tone, but also slapstick style moments of sped-up bedroom activity for comic effect. A lot of gorgeous women on full display, the best is probably Diane Keen as the insurance investigator. [Apparently more hardcore scenes were shot with a lookalike and distributed as an outright porn film. Can't think Mr. Campbell was involved in that stuff.]

Overall, no great shakes but interesting to see.

LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Martin Campbell - director (GOLDENEYE, CASINO ROYALE)
Pauline Chamberlain - woman at auction (THUNDERBALL, casino patron)

Anti-hero embraces and quickly seduces a woman "against her will". [Great dialog here. "I'll scream", she says. "Later", he replies and continues the seduction.] (GOLDFINGER, OCTOPUSSY, others)
White Persian cat present. (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, THUNDERBALL, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, OHMSS, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY)
Auction scene where anti-hero identifies beautiful woman to follow. (OCTOPUSSY)

Sporting event (wrestling match) juxtaposed with other action (sex). (QUANTUM OF SOLACE)
Sped-up footage/editing. (THUNDERBALL, OHMSS, DIE ANOTHER DAY, QUANTUM OF SOLACE)


I'm motivated by my Duty.

Bowanga Bowanga - White Surens of Africa (1951)

Holy crap. I just watched one with Mrs. Broccoli headlining.

BOWANGA BOWANGA - White Sirens of Africa (1951) aka WILD WOMEN

A mindscrambler. Tribes of beautiful white women compete over catching a few white adventurers/explorers. Lots of documentary-style narration, lots of inserted stock footage showing animal activity--a moose, even--all in black and white. Lots of female on male, female on female struggling. And pidgin English by the ladies, mostly Queen Broccoli slowly and loudly telling each "mon" what's what, threatening death, threatening marriage. Telling her girls to stop cat fighting. All in black.and white.


BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Dana Wilson - the future Mrs. Albert R. Broccoli.

She also appeared in a Venice scene in MOONRAKER.



What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

THE PYRAMID (2014)

THE PYRAMID (2014)

"How are we going to get out of here?" "Which is the way out of here?" "We should be looking for a way out of here," "Is that a way out of here?" "Let's get out of here," "Forget the history lesson, how do we get out of here?" "We need to get out of here," "We'll never get out of here," "I'm getting out of here,"

This film may hold the record for instances of times the phrase "out of here" is used as the mainstay of the dialogue. Granted, the thrust of the plot - archaeologists and camera crew trapped in pyramid look for a way out whilst mythological Egyptian creatures terrorise and pick them off - does readily lend itself to the phrase. But come on, the audience gets it very early on, so maybe more show less tell should have been in order. And sometimes, when characters have nothing to say it's better they say just that.

Those gripes aside, here is a pseudo-found footage chiller that forgets the found footage aspect sporadically throughout and with some careless abandon. It's not been well written and the words coming out of the mouths of the characters have no sense of spontaneity or realism about them. Fans of The Inbetweeners might be interested to see James (Jay) Buckley as a bearded cameraman and therein may lie some novelty value. It's not particularly inventive, clever or dynamic and relies on the odd jump-scare here and there to excite - though they are signposted pretty obviously, so there's not much to catch anyone out.

It's predictable, feels familiar, but the Egyptian mythology angle is quite a nice hook and works OK in context. The acting never rises above the material and none of the performers acquit themselves particularly memorably. And the CGI is ropey at best.

A passable time-filler if expectations are kept low.

I'm out of here.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

TSWLM had Egyptian locations and pyramids in it.

Poor CGI is an oft-cited criticism of DIE ANOTHER DAY. The CGI in DAD is almost on a par with this. That's progress?

James Bond often finds himself in seemingly impossible situations and needs to "get out of here"


What a helpful Chap.

MIAMI VICE - "No Exit" (1984)

MIAMI VICE - "No Exit" (1984)

Fun with Crockett and Tubbs in the famous 80s television series. On board are Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos, bad guy played by Bruce Willis. Directed by David Soul known for STARSKY & HUTCH.

LINK/CONNECTION:

Courtesy of ringfire211, possible inspirations for LICENCE TO KILL:

1. Main baddie deals in stinger missiles - CHECK
2. There's talk of bringing down a commercial airliner using said stinger missiles - CHECK
3. Main baddie abuses and beats his wife/mistress - CHECK
4. Said wife/mistress is afraid to leave him because he will find her - CHECK
5. Our hero tries to rescue the wife/mistress from the abusive relationship - CHECK
6. Main baddie has a Maserati - CHECK
7. Main baddie will take our hero (who is undercover) to his warehouse to show him his merchandise - CHECK
The Florida locale is also an obvious connection.

Here's what I came up with:

Expert fixes a device before it goes off (character comments "James Bond, my man!"). GF, OP, others
How long have we got? 30 seconds. QOS
Working out of a cabin on a yacht. TB, LALD, TLD
Reptile as pet. LALD, LTK, SF
Deal-making in a sketchy bar. DN, LTK, QOS
Business in the hold of a barge or tanker. QOS
Abused girlfriend of villain. TB, TMWTGG, LTK, SF
Girl kills villain. TB, LTK



I'm motivated by my Duty.

THE ROCKFORD FILES - "The Competitive Edge" with Harold Sakata

THE ROCKFORD FILES - "The Competitive Edge" (1978)

James Garner as Jim Rockford finds himself committed to an asylum following the man his wife hired him to find. He makes it work to find a way out for both of them. Neile McQueen wife of Steve in the cast.

LINK/CONNECTION:

Comic character actor John Fiedler plays "James Bond", who refers to the minders as M and Moneypenny and is convinced the Russians are after them all.

Oh, and Harold Sakata (Oddjob in GOLDFINGER) has a speaking role as (cheated) card-player and inmate John Doe.


I'm motivated by my Duty.

Re: THE ROCKFORD FILES - "The Competitive Edge" with Harold Sakata

Good one, Rich! I remember that ROCKFORD episode. Used to watch that show daily before college. Jimmy Garner was the man!!

Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015)


Mad Max: Fury Road
R 2015 ‧ Fantasy film/Science fiction film ‧ 2h 0m
8.7/10·IMDb
98%·Rotten Tomatoes
89%·Metacritic

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015)

An amazing return of a classic action film hero.

The evolution from MAD MAX (1979) to THE ROAD WARRIOR (1982) consciously drew on Joseph Campbell's book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, absorbing and aligning with myth and legend and the hero's journey. The death of partner Byron Kennedy left Miller on his own and a devolution occurred with MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985). So the third film was chock full of great ideas and moments but overcome by MTV influences, Spielbergy content, and a mismatched musical score with jazzy (vice symphonic) transitions.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD breaks, reinvents, and creates from whole cloth a truckload of movie conventions, audience expectations, and instant classic film history. It isn't a non-stop car chase, there are slower moments building the story and contrasting the incredible action. There are surprises of focus, characters take on changes of port during the story, and everything builds to an intense third act. George Miller is the mastermind the trailers declared him, he has created a different kind of film here. It is superb.

Miller's inspirations famously draw from films like A BOY AND HIS DOG. On display are connections to METROPLIS, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS, and other surprises.

Action and story connections to the Bond films collected by IMDB James Bond Board posters are listed below.


LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Australians.
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.
Hero, an expert driver, crashes his car moments into a chase, rolling it multiple times.
CASINO ROYALE. [and THE ROAD WARRIOR]
Hero haunted by the failure to protect loved one from prior movie.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, LICENCE TO KILL, TOMORROW NEVER DIES,
QUANTUM OF SOLACE.
Hero with long hair and heavy beard is shaven and becomes recognizable.
DIE ANOTHER DAY.
Hero dons a leather jacket.
SKYFALL, CASINO ROYALE, TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, A VIEW TO A KILL.
Hero with bound hands is saved from falling to his death by hanging from a hook.
LICENCE TO KILL.

Villain sports fake teeth.
SKYFALL.
Villain dons a suit of armor.
DIE ANOTHER DAY.
Villain betrayed by his right-hand battle girl, who sides with the hero instead.
A VIEW TO A KILL.
Bad guys use control of water resources as a source of their power.
QUANTUM OF SOLACE.
Drugs and religion are part of the villain's portfolio.
LIVE AND LET DIE, LICENCE TO KILL.
Villain kills his wife after she betrays him with the hero.
TOMORROW NEVER DIES.

Bald, pale, shirtless man involved in chase.
DIE ANOTHER DAY.
Mechanical arm, exposed actuators and everything.
LIVE AND LET DIE .
Old lady shoots rifle ineffectually.
GOLDFINGER. (and MAD MAX)
Harem of scantily clad lovelies
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, OCTOPUSSY, MOONRAKER,
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS.

Dwellings on green mountain tops, surrounded by steep rock cliffs.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS.
An art theme using skulls is employed.
LIVE AND LET DIE, SKYFALL, SPECTRE, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.
Sped-up action scenes.
THUNDERBALL, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.

Character takes the hero's gun to use against him, but it doesn't fire.
LICENCE TO KILL, SKYFALL.
Flare gun used as a weapon.
Shoulder-rested sniper shot--and hero lets another character take the shot.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Multi-vehicle desert chase.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER.
Through the "sunroof" fisticuffs vs. the driver.
Music speakers/amplifiers used as part of a weapon.
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS.
Flying motorcycles.
GOLDENEYE. (and also LIVE AND LET DIE, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY,
TOMORROW NEVER DIES, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, SKYFALL, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN)
(and THE ROAD WARRIOR)
Flamethrower, from vehicle to vehicle.
And machine gunning the driver.
And leaping from one to another.
And vehicle-top fistfighting.
And spinning one vehicle around 180 to face the pursuing vehicle.
And jumping off to survive in the nick of time.
DIE ANOTHER DAY.
Bucket loader/backhoe on moving transportation used as a weapon.
SKYFALL.

Hero hangs upside down from a speeding truck, his disheveled but still ruggedly attractive hair mere inches from the dangerous surface!
CASINO ROYALE
Hero suspended in the air, doing battle at the end of each swing.
QUANTUM OF SOLACE. (and BEYOND THUNDERDOME)
Character hangs off front edge of a vehicle. Tanker truck fighting. Followed by tanker truck exploding/wrecking.
LICENCE TO KILL. (and THE ROAD WARRIOR)
Seated in the front of a vehicle, one character suddenly pulls a handgun and fires on the hero pointblank, misses.
QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

Hero and a group of capable women team up to achieve final success.
GOLDFINGER, OCTOPUSSY.
Hero directly saves a dying woman (by breath or blood).
TOMORROW NEVER DIES, DIE ANOTHER DAY.
Saving (part of) the world from a charismatic megalomaniac.
DOCTOR NO. (and GF, TB, YOLT, OHMSS, DAF, LALD, TMWTGG, TSWLM, MR, OP, AVTAK, LTK, GE, TND, TWINE, DAD, QOS, SF, SP)


What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2014)

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2014)

Obvious connections to Bond in a well done film representing a popular comic book. First class cast with Colin Firth, Michael Caine. Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Hamill. Taron Egerton is probably perfect as a young working class wise guy drawn into higher levels of activity. Sofia Boutella is just as good as a lethal henchlady named Gazelle.

Very informed, fast-moving movie commenting on spy culture, spy pop culture, and other spy stuff. "The old Bond movies are only as good as the villain." Maybe the most exploding heads ever presented on screen, too. A slick project, a lot of fun.

Nowhere near as good as Bond, though, I can report.

LINK/CONNECTION:

Neve Gachev has a minor role. SKYFALL, SPECTRE

Hero is orphaned as a child, has military experience, gravitates toward the service.
Fine clothes, dining, drink, women are recognized.
["The suit is a modern gentleman's armor."]
How to make a proper martini is addressed.
1962 Dalmore Scotch whiskey, it'd be a shame to spill it. SKYFALL

Shoe knife. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, DIE ANOTHER DAY
["In the old days they had a phone in the heel as well" references GET SMART!]
Gadget umbrella. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Gadget darts. MOONRAKER

Villain has a virus. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, MOONRAKER
Villain misuses religion. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, LICENCE TO KILL

Sped up fights. THUNDERBALL, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
Parkour. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, CASINO ROYALE
Skydiving survival. MOONRAKER, QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Locking on a target in space. MOONRAKER

Hero appears to fail, but he's not finished. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, DIE ANOTHER DAY,
CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, SKYFALL
Closing voyeurism. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER,
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, A VIEW TO A KILL


I'm motivated by my Duty.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Originally a product of the 60s feeding off Bond mania, and not in a bad way. The TV series is not for everyone, but it's fun and not to be taken so seriously.

Opens with an entertaining car chase, interesting ideas and execution. Starts more John Woo than anything else, moves on to other ideas. Guy Ritchie camera movements, music, split screen activity all work well here. Unusual for a lot of these type films, the ending comes together very nicely.

Very different from Bond, it's a buddy picture with that kind of ongoing squabbling and one-upsmanship (though OO7 had that at times). Fewer Bond connections than I expected. It was good while I watched it, don't have a lot to say about it. Worth seeing but I probably won't see it again. I'd see the next one.

Bond is safe. It's good, but it's not actually SPECTRE-good.

I did like Henry Cavill here (he's British, playing an American again here). A few more years under his belt, he'll be under consideration for the Bond role.

LINK/CONNECTIONS:

Napoleon Solo's name can be sourced to Fleming.

Hero favors a Walther (P-38) handgun. DR. NO and after (PPK, P-99).

The 1983 RETURN OF THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. included appearances by Bond film alumni Patrick Macnee, Anthony Zerbe, and George Lazenby.

Origin story. CASINO ROYALE.

Villain's caper involves nuclear warheads. THUNDERBALL, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.

Gadget to check for bugs in hotel room. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Fight in a men's room. CASINO ROYALE.

Man beaten is "Count Lippi". THUNDERBALL.

Defection from Communist side to the West. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS.

Rome! SPECTRE.

Italian opera overwrites sound during action. QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

Two vicious dogs chase a character through the forest. MOONRAKER.

Hero drugged. DR. NO, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, LICENCE TO KILL.

Hero restrained for torture. GOLDFINGER, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, LIVE AND LET DIE, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, CASINO ROYALE, SKYFALL, SPECTRE.

Villain unexpectedly kills an associate. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GOLDFINGER, THUNDERBALL, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER.

Villain's warhead is redirected to smite self. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and the Moonraker novel.


I'm motivated by my Duty.

THE FRANKENSTEIN CHRONICLES (2015)

THE FRANKENSTEIN CHRONICLES (2015)

A six part mini-series with a top-notch cast, headed by Sean Bean, great production values and a nifty hook and line in grounding the Mary Shelley mythos in a real-world historical setting. It screams PRIME TIME, but finds itself inexplicably tucked away in a late night spot on the less than essential ITV2 channel. What gives?

John Marlott (Sean Bean) is a London river cop in the early 1800s. In the process of busting a smuggling gang he stumbles upon the washed-up corpse of a child on the banks of the seriously polluted Thames. Only this corpse is a composite of body parts of multiple children crudely stitched together. It could never have lived, yet it briefly grabs Marlott’s wrist before lying still forever.

The Home Secretary (Robert Peel) charges Marlott with finding out who is responsible for the “abomination” and we’re off full tilt into a gothic world of fog, body-snatchers, rotting corpses, child prostitution and murder, bizarre medical experimentation and political intrigue. Mary Shelley (Anna Maxwell-Martin) widow of the poet Shelley and author of Frankenstein and William Blake (Steven Berkoff) poet, writer and artist are key figures who pop up along the way and are instrumental in driving the narrative forward.

It is wonderfully creepy and disturbing stuff. So atmospherically shot and mounted that you can almost smell and taste the stench of death and decay as the characters instinctively recoil from it, covering their faces with whatever they can to blot it out.

Sean Bean gives a master-class performance as a good, honest man adrift in a world of physical and moral corruption. Marlott is an ex-soldier (from the same regiment as a guy called Sharpe, reference spotters), veteran of Waterloo, wracked by grief, guilt and despair after having unwittingly passed on syphilis to his wife and new born child, resulting in their untimely deaths. The illness is active within him, and combined with mercury treatment (a painful and pointless remedy) induces florid nightmares and vivid hallucinations. Anyone who ever wrote Bean off as little more than a movie rent-a-heavy, or sitting duck dead villain in waiting, should reassess on this evidence. His affecting portrayal of tragically damaged and conflicted humanity here is nothing short of superb. Re-imagine it as if Di-Crapio or Crooze replicated in a movie with a bit of a profile, and he’d be instant Globe or Oscar bait.

I’m going to watch the last episode in a day or two, anticipating an outcome that I haven’t even been able to guess at. I have no idea how this is going to pan out exactly, and that’s a good thing. It is always a great, and indeed rare experience to find a period drama that is both captivating and unpredictable. Set at a time when religion was railing and losing ground against the advance of science and in a capital metropolis teeming with filth, crime, social inequality and exploitation of the weak and vulnerable, it’s a compelling canvas upon which the action is drawn. The script is thoughtful and well-rendered and although ultimately it lacks the gloriously overwrought and fantastical dynamic of, say, PENNY DREADFUL, or the heroic wild-west undertones of RIPPER STREET, it represents a solid and entertaining companion piece to those two shows.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

Sean Bean was Brozza’s nemesis in GOLDENEYE – and remains one of the very best things about that movie.

Chris (Scaramanga) Lee was Frankenstein’s creation in Hammer’s 1957 cinematic rebirth of the legend – THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN

Steven Berkoff played (most entertainingly) the rogue General Orlov (slicing the ham yay thick) in OCTOPUSSY

The Frankenstein story is re-imagined also in PENNY DREADFUL – a show featuring Timothy Dalton and Eva Green and Rory Kinnear and...well, see elsewhere on this thread.



What a helpful Chap.

GOG (1954)

GOG (1954)

Recommended by chevsov-396-2325, this is a sci-fi film I've seen available but confused with similar titles. Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, Valerie Vervon, others. Herbert L. Strock directs.

Interesting story about a computer outgrowing its supporting role. Film opens with a woman walking toward the camera with a hypodermic needle--it was filmed in 3-D apparently, but there aren't a lot of obvious moments for that kind of thing. With ROW-butts.

I liked it, won't go into much detail here.


LINK/CONNECTION:

No production or cast links I could find.

Scientists locked in their lab while deadly conditions develop. MOONRAKER.

Helicopter flown by remote control. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

Centrifuge simulator (the spin-table) runs above limits threatening the occupants. MOONRAKER.

Redirected sunlight as a weapon. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, GOLDENEYE, DIE ANOTHER DAY.

Death by radioisotope. SPECTRE.

What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection Thread *SPOILERS*

BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN (2016)

I was gonna wait, but by invitation I viewed the film. It's good, also long and didn't match my tastes on some points.

Before and after I'm against Ben Affleck's presence, though he was good for most of it. Amy Adams is also miscast but performs. It's great to see Wonder Woman, but slo-mo with electric guitar every time she appears for action mode is a puzzler. The brief computer screen appearance of Aqua-man, a character I like, didn't impress.

May sound like I didn't like it, it's worth viewing and deciding for yourself. Cavill is very good, overall I enjoyed it. But it's not something I plan on seeing again and I'm surprised modern audiences have the patience for it.

LINK/CONNECTION:

Henry Cavill is frequently suggested as a contender for the Bond role.

Hero drives a classic Aston Martin DB.

Senate hearing has long, silent pauses.
Spectre meeting has long, silent pauses. SPECTRE

Character has a moment of comic relief with the line, "Oh s#|+!" SPECTRE

Clue "The White Portugese" is a ship.
Clue "L'Americain" is a hotel in SPECTRE


I'm motivated by my Duty.

The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead (2016)

THE DAMNED: DON’T YOU WISH THAT WE WERE DEAD (2016)

This was like a gift from the gods. A comprehensive documentary focusing on one of the most under-exposed and underappreciated bands of all time. And, by the way, one of my all-time favourites. I’ve been a fan since the seventies and even today I continue to love them to bits. Add to the mix that the movie is a self-confessed labour of love by director Wes Orshoski (who helmed the superb LEMMY) and it means I was always going to be first in line for the pre-order of the DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack.

The Damned were nuts from the start. Not just happily eccentric, not merely fun-loving pseudo anarchists, not just a touch out there, you know, but outright, dyed-in-the-wool, full blown, completely, irresponsibly, barking mad, dog raving nuts. Jerry Lee Lewis once summed up his entire life and career in a single psychopathic sentence: “I did what I wanted.” The Damned lived this philosophy in the absolute. Orshoski’s film demonstrates it clearly and without apology. Forty years down the line, and the band are still going with two founder members from the original four remaining – vocalist Dave Vanian and guitarist Captain Sensible. What lies behind them in their bizarre and erratic wake is a random trajectory of physical, emotional and psychological anarchy, chaos and destruction. From which a lot of people never recovered.

And there’s the music, of course. The first British punk band to release a single (New Rose); the first British punk band to tour America and play CBGBs; the first British punk band to release an album (Damned, Damned, Damned); and oft credited with being the originators of the goth movement. Musically they ricocheted all over the place, from two chord speed punk (Neat, Neat, Neat) to seventeen minute prog-rock epics (Curtain Call) to sixties psychedelia (Naz Nomad and the Nightmares/White Rabbit), goth rock (Phantasmagoria), pop (Grimly Fiendish), synth rock (History of the World Part 1), apocalyptic ballad covers (Eloise), and so on and on and on. “Machine Gun Etiquette” remains a true musical milestone, the purest UK punk album ever made.

They’ve been on more record labels than the Queen’s had corgi cremations, had more bass players and line-up changes than Taylor Swift’s had boyfriends, been through more arguments, splits and acrimony than every British political party put together. Yet they keep on keeping on. Vanian puts it down to “sheer bloody-mindedness.” This year, to mark their fortieth anniversary, they have toured relentlessly. At the Isle of Wight Festival they were as loud, fast, dynamic, lean, mean and smack bang on target with their set as ever. They somehow sounded fresh and propulsive, like they’re still chasing something. Meanwhile contemporaries like Adam Ant and the Buzzcocks came across as old, lazy, bloated and tired-out relics going through the motions.

Sensible disparages miserable guitarists, says it’s the best job in the world and he smiles a lot. He’s sixty. He plays guitar like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and a vaudeville comedian. Vanian (the only band member to front and appear in every incarnation of the band) remains a force of nature, seemingly oblivious to any ravages of time, his vocals noticeably undiminished. He’s fifty-nine.

Attitude. They just do what they do and they live it whilst doing it. Maybe that’s the difference, a sense of enduring authenticity. In June 2016 they sold out a one night three hour concert at the Royal Albert Hall (six thousand tickets) a venue that ironically banned them in 1977. So there’s something going on still, some draw. They’ve never lasted for long on a major label, never sold millions, never hit it really big. They never played the game. By rights they shouldn’t exist. But they do and an audience always shows up.

Orshoski’s film is a thing of great beauty and wonder to behold. The “do what you will” attitude permeates nearly every frame. The sheer hedonistic madness and frankly ludicrous dysfunction of the personalities involved is jaw-droppingly uncensored. Even the diatribes and sound-bites from bitter and damaged people who feel they have somehow been touched adversely by “the curse of The Damned” all resonate with something meaningful as a result of their connection with the band. Long time drummer Rat Scabies – and still the best the band ever had (in the context of the band gestalt) – is sometimes aggressive, vitriolic, angry and “damning” about his experiences. Yet, there are flashes of affection, nostalgia and maybe even love and pride that filter through his dour missives.

It is, however, poignant and quite sad to see Scabies and Brian James, along with a wholly inappropriate female American vocalist in tow, trying to eke out a living playing live the songs from the first two Damned albums to practically empty venues. Sad fact is, you can always get another drummer and despite James having written most of the songs for “Damned, Damned, Damned” and “Music For Pleasure” the wealth of material in the band’s diverse back catalogue was composed and recorded after his departure. You will never get another Captain Sensible or Dave Vanian. They are the essential core elements. Lose either of them and it’s like Oasis without the Gallagher brothers. It’s not strictly Oasis.

Orshoski has delivered one of the most honest, heartfelt and powerful rock band chronicles yet compiled. I would suggest that for sheer entertainment value alone this holds appeal not just for fans (who will love it) but for those who are not fans and those who have never even heard of the band. So long as you have some interest in rock music, this movie will connect with you in some way. I’m going out on a limb and declaring it to be that essential. Watch it and be Damned.

BOND LINKS/CONNECTIONS:

A line from the track “Gigolo” (featured on their 1986 album “Anything”) runs: “One imitation, just like Roger Moore.” It’s followed by a few brief and muted chords from the original James Bond theme.

In the computer game “James Bond 007 Blood Stone” there is a level entitled “Burma: The Beautiful and The Damned.”

Dave Vanian performed in a band with Chrissie Hynde before joining The Damned. Hynde who went on to form The Pretenders has always been a fan of The Damned and she is interviewed in Orshoski’s film. She and The Pretenders provided the songs “If There Was A Man” and “Where Has Everybody Gone” for the Bond movie “The Living Daylights.”



What a helpful Chap.

Re: The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection Thread *SPOILERS*

SHIN GODZILLA (2016) AKA Godzilla Resurrection.

Japanese dialog with English and Chinese subtitles. Limited 1-week run in US theaters.

Well done, the audience I was with loved it. Very talky in the first half, but in a good way with humor and wit. Much made of the ridiculous obstacles to progress bureaucracy creates in a crisis. It helps that in the honorific culture of Japan each character in the boardroom meetings begins speaking by saying "Sir" in Japanese--it sounds like "sorry" in English. They also get some mileage from alternately mocking and valuing the US military presence and capabilities. Spoiler: Godzilla is introduced on screen in a laughable form, looks like a failed attempt by Grandma to knit a stuffed animal. Once he's more evolved, Godzilla does some interesting new stuff.

Where the origins of Godzilla were WWII and the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, this film draws on 3/11 and the earthquake/tsunami disaster. A man exclaims that different from nature, this monster is something they can fight and possibly win against.

Abstract end images leave viewers with indications that the monster is a manifestation of man's activities. Sets up future films very well.

LINK/CONNECTION:

Tokyo locations. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, SPECTRE

Reboot reestablishes main character. CASINO ROYALE
Main character looks a little different. CASINO ROYALE
Main character transforms during the story. CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, SKYFALL, SPECTRE

The boardroom meeting to form and discuss a plan. GOLDFINGER, THUNDERBALL, LIVE AND LET DIE, OCTOPUSSY, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, SKYFALL, SPECTRE

Long, telescoping device unfolds and positions itself to attack main character's head. SPECTRE
Wildly flailing lasers during action scene. DIE ANOTHER DAY
US military might on Asian soil. DIE ANOTHER DAY


I'm motivated by my Duty.
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