The Next Bond

[nelsonmuntz]

Cannonball Run is a great movie. Not every movie has to be The English Patient.

Cannonball Run is a movie that benefits from nostalgia. Everything about the movie is lazy and juvenile. The movie is basically a bunch of late 70's stars mugging for the camera and making drunk and ethnic jokes.

Roger Ebert's review is the funniest thing about the movie.

The Cannonball Run Movie Review (1981) | Roger Ebert

One of the things that I forgot is that there was no actual T or A in Cannonball Run. 10 seconds of breasts on screen was generally worth at least one extra star with Ebert.

It was one of Burt Reynolds' biggest box office hits, which shows how terrible taste in movies was back in the late 70's and early 80's. There is rumored to be a remake, and there is no way it can be worse than the original. Bringing this back to the Bond discussion, the fact that this was one of Roger Moore's best movie choices during the peak of his Bond stardom shows just how bad the movies he was in were.

 

[ZooCougar]

Cannonball Run is a movie that benefits from nostalgia. Everything about the movie is lazy and juvenile. The movie is basically a bunch of late 70's stars mugging for the camera and making drunk and ethnic jokes.

Roger Ebert's review is the funniest thing about the movie.

The Cannonball Run Movie Review (1981) | Roger Ebert

One of the things that I forgot is that there was no actual T or A in Cannonball Run. 10 seconds of breasts on screen was generally worth at least one extra star with Ebert.

It was one of Burt Reynolds' biggest box office hits, which shows how terrible taste in movies was back in the late 70's and early 80's. There is rumored to be a remake, and there is no way it can be worse than the original. Bringing this back to the Bond discussion, the fact that this was one of Roger Moore's best movie choices during the peak of his Bond stardom shows just how bad the movies he was in were.

I really don’t care what actors do in other productions.

Timothy Dalton is a good actor who wasn’t a good Bond.

Roger Moore is different in that he had a pretty full career leading up to Bond. He was a good one. And I thought his movies were good in that he generally had great villains and he was perfect for the subtle humor that was infused (Anna Onatop anyone?).

 

[Walker11]

Haven't seen that. With some work in the gym and good fight choreography, Hollywood is pretty good at making some actors/actresses look like convincing brawlers on screen that you wouldn't expect it from. So I guess it shouldn't really be a problem.

After seeing Paul Dano in Dannemora I don't think anything is too wimpy to be transformed into a tough guy.

 

[nwhoopfan]

After seeing Paul Dano in Dannemora I don't think anything is too wimpy to be transformed into a tough guy.

Ha, I haven't seen that, but yeah he's definitely someone I don't see as a tough guy in my mind.

The Kingsmen franchise has been brought up in this thread, Colin Firth's role in that is another example.

 

[lne001]

Don't know about the actor, but Bond's next car is an electric Aston-Martin.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Rewatched Tomorrow Never Dies and Goldeneye.

Tomorrow Never Dies - terrible title, really good movie. The High Sparrow from GoT was solid as the villain in TND, and Michelle Yeoh was excellent as the Chinese Secret Agent partner. The German guy was forgettable. Great opening scene, and the car chase in the parking garage was one of the better Bond car chase scenes ever. The plot about an evil media mogul staging a war to drive ratings must have been dated like a week after the movie came out, but does the rationale behind the evil villain's desire for world domination really matter? Brosnan was funny, and overall the dialogue was a lot better than Goldeneye.

Goldeneye - Pretty good movie with a young Ned Stark as the villain. I didn't get how Sean Bean survives the first scene, but if anyone is going to die twice in a movie, it should be Sean Bean. This was the last Bond movie with a budget under $100 million, and it looks like it. The whole movie seems a little cheap, especially compared to TND which came right after it. I liked the the Russian programmer, not because she was a great actress or her character was credible, but because she was really sexy but not in a stereotypical Bond girl kind of way. The actress' name was Isabella Scorupco, and she leveraged her leading role in a bond movie into basically nothing. Famke Janssen's character was kind of silly. Sean Bean and Brosnan basically keep this movie on the rails by themselves, and it is overall pretty entertaining.

 

[ZooCougar]

Rewatched Tomorrow Never Dies and Goldeneye.

Tomorrow Never Dies - terrible title, really good movie. The High Sparrow from GoT was solid as the villain in TND, and Michelle Yeoh was excellent as the Chinese Secret Agent partner. The German guy was forgettable. Great opening scene, and the car chase in the parking garage was one of the better Bond car chase scenes ever. The plot about an evil media mogul staging a war to drive ratings must have been dated like a week after the movie came out, but does the rationale behind the evil villain's desire for world domination really matter? Brosnan was funny, and overall the dialogue was a lot better than Goldeneye.

Goldeneye - Pretty good movie with a young Ned Stark as the villain. I didn't get how Sean Bean survives the first scene, but if anyone is going to die twice in a movie, it should be Sean Bean. This was the last Bond movie with a budget under $100 million, and it looks like it. The whole movie seems a little cheap, especially compared to TND which came right after it. I liked the the Russian programmer, not because she was a great actress or her character was credible, but because she was really sexy but not in a stereotypical Bond girl kind of way. The actress' name was Isabella Scorupco, and she leveraged her leading role in a bond movie into basically nothing. Famke Janssen's character was kind of silly. Sean Bean and Brosnan basically keep this movie on the rails by themselves, and it is overall pretty entertaining.

Goldeneye is one of the best. It revitalized the whole James Bond thing. I need to watch it again soon.

Tomorrow Never Dies is one of the worst.

 

[nwhoopfan]

but if anyone is going to die twice in a movie, it should be Sean Bean

Does Sean Bean ever survive? Off the top of my head he gets killed in LOTR, Equilibrium, GOT, this...

Don't stand next to him I guess.

 

[Mano]

Does Sean Bean ever survive? Off the top of my head he gets killed in LOTR, Equilibrium, GOT, this...

Don't stand next to him I guess.

He didn't die but he had a Boromir type moment of frailty in Ronin, basically wet himself when challenged by De Niro. Great movie, should've considered it for my top 16 in the Boneyard Movie Tourney.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Cannonball Run is a movie that benefits from nostalgia. Everything about the movie is lazy and juvenile. The movie is basically a bunch of late 70's stars mugging for the camera and making drunk and ethnic jokes.

Roger Ebert's review is the funniest thing about the movie.

The Cannonball Run Movie Review (1981) | Roger Ebert

It was one of Burt Reynolds' biggest box office hits, which shows how terrible taste in movies was back in the late 70's and early 80's.

First, referencing a movie reviewer about a comedy does not work. Ebert gave Caddyshack a 2 1/2 out of 4 and Fast Times at Ridgemont High a 1. Sometimes reviewers can't just sit back and laugh at a movie. It's not in their DNA. He did like Airplane (3/4). Surprisingly, to me, he also really liked Animal House (4/4).

I like Cannonball Run. It's still funny to me and my friends and that's all it needed to be. I enjoyed the interaction with Burt & Dom. Jack Elam is creepy funny, the ongoing battle with Dean and Sammy is funny and Roger Moore pretending to be a British spy is also funny. But I can sit back and just enjoy stupid sophomoric humor. Apparently I'm a 51 year old juvenile, but I'm OK with that.

 

[Scalito]

Rewatched Tomorrow Never Dies and Goldeneye.

Tomorrow Never Dies - terrible title, really good movie. The High Sparrow from GoT was solid as the villain in TND, and Michelle Yeoh was excellent as the Chinese Secret Agent partner. The German guy was forgettable. Great opening scene, and the car chase in the parking garage was one of the better Bond car chase scenes ever. The plot about an evil media mogul staging a war to drive ratings must have been dated like a week after the movie came out, but does the rationale behind the evil villain's desire for world domination really matter? Brosnan was funny, and overall the dialogue was a lot better than Goldeneye.

Goldeneye - Pretty good movie with a young Ned Stark as the villain. I didn't get how Sean Bean survives the first scene, but if anyone is going to die twice in a movie, it should be Sean Bean. This was the last Bond movie with a budget under $100 million, and it looks like it. The whole movie seems a little cheap, especially compared to TND which came right after it. I liked the the Russian programmer, not because she was a great actress or her character was credible, but because she was really sexy but not in a stereotypical Bond girl kind of way. The actress' name was Isabella Scorupco, and she leveraged her leading role in a bond movie into basically nothing. Famke Janssen's character was kind of silly. Sean Bean and Brosnan basically keep this movie on the rails by themselves, and it is overall pretty entertaining.

Tomorrow Never Dies was a typo adopted by the producers. The original script name was Tomorrow Never Lies, a reference to the fact that the media mogul was making reality reflect his headlines.

 

[Scalito]

I really don’t care what actors do in other productions.

Timothy Dalton is a good actor who wasn’t a good Bond.

Roger Moore is different in that he had a pretty full career leading up to Bond. He was a good one. And I thought his movies were good in that he generally had great villains and he was perfect for the subtle humor that was infused (Anna Onatop anyone?).

Timothy Dalton is the most underrated Bond. I place him in any conversation not involving Sean Connery.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Timothy Dalton is the most underrated Bond. I place him in any conversation not involving Sean Connery.

I definitely prefer him to Brosnan, not a popular opinion.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Tomorrow Never Dies was a typo adopted by the producers. The original script name was Tomorrow Never Lies, a reference to the fact that the media mogul was making reality reflect his headlines.

That name is 10x better than Tomorrow Never Dies.

 

[ZooCougar]

Timothy Dalton is the most underrated Bond. I place him in any conversation not involving Sean Connery.

He played it too dark and humorless.

 

[nwhoopfan]

He played it too dark and humorless.

Ha, then how would you describe Craig?

 

[Scalito]

Ha, then how would you describe Craig?

Craig blew. He was poorly cast and his movies were poorly scripted. Only Lazenby was worse, but at least Lazenby was a one off. We had a whole generation of little Bond fans brought up on these bizarre imitations of Bond known as Danielle Craig.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

First, referencing a movie reviewer about a comedy does not work. Ebert gave Caddyshack a 2 1/2 out of 4 and Fast Times at Ridgemont High a 1. Sometimes reviewers can't just sit back and laugh at a movie. It's not in their DNA. He did like Airplane (3/4). Surprisingly, to me, he also really liked Animal House (4/4).

I like Cannonball Run. It's still funny to me and my friends and that's all it needed to be. I enjoyed the interaction with Burt & Dom. Jack Elam is creepy funny, the ongoing battle with Dean and Sammy is funny and Roger Moore pretending to be a British spy is also funny. But I can sit back and just enjoy stupid sophomoric humor. Apparently I'm a 51 year old juvenile, but I'm OK with that.

I agree with you on reviewers and comedies. Reviews are all over the place on most comedies, and the ones that get a positive consensus of reviews are generally good, not great comedies.

Cannonball Run is OK as Cannonball Run. It is not a great movie even as a comedy, and I think the whole movie is way too self aware, which undermines it. Basically, a bunch of famous actors that were friends got together and mugged for the camera for 2 hours. And as you point out, the humor is sophomoric. I only brought it up as an example of the kind of actor Roger Moore was. No one took him seriously, and he didn't take himself all the seriously, but I think that is what made him a good Bond.

Brosnan's approach was basically to be a better acting version of Roger Moore, which is why I thought he was great as Bond.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

On a bit of a Bond kick. Watched The World is Not Enough. I have forgotten some of the Bond movies that I had seen, but I had definitely not seen this movie before, because I would have remembered how terrible Denise Richards is as an actress. I will circle back to that.

This movie had a lot of good parts to it. Unlike prior Bond movies, the whole Bond crew, including M, is screwing up all over the place for the first 2/3's of the movie. It made it more interesting, because it wasn't clear who was a friend and who was a foe. Sophie Marceau was good and she was scorching hot in her prime. The plot was credible by Bond standards.

I generally prefer more exotic backdrops than Baku, Azerbaijan for a popcorn flick. Some of the secondary characters were interesting, and probably deserved more screen time. It was a little too formulaic. The ending scene was awkward, and I don't know how any actors could pull off a fight scene on an upside down submarine.

Back to Richards. She was so colossally awful that I wonder if the director was scalitoing with us. How could acting that bad get through editing? Imagine how bad the scenes that got cut must have been. I was literally laughing out loud during some of her dialogue involving nuclear reactors, because she was so ridiculous it looked like a skit from SNL. She has this permanent, dopey, deer in headlights expression on her face no matter what she is saying. I get that she is super hot, but so are lots of models. She was not completely terrible in Wild Things or Starship Troopers, so maybe that is how she got this part, but this should have killed her career.