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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Messages
12,734
Location
Northern California
i'm going to admit this - I have yet to see the last Bond film - don't judge me. But that all changes tonight as in today's mail my Netflix disk of "Spectre" just came. Can an adult man be giddy with excitement?
Bond movies are one of the few that I will for certain see at the theatre during their first week of release. For me they have the big event big screen type feeling. Enjoy!
:D
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
Missed this one the first go around in 1986! Didn't miss much.
zone%20troopers%20sma_zpsyyjtdb1s.jpg
 

AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,126
Location
Nebraska
Bond movies are one of the few that I will for certain see at the theatre during their first week of release. For me they have the big event big screen type feeling. Enjoy!
:D

I'm the same. I always go to the theater to see a new Bond movie. It's become a tradition for me.
 
Messages
17,198
Location
New York City
dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun deDON Do do do

Bond turns into a firing stance and shoots

Badap ba daa ba da daa ba daa da deda daa Badap ba daa ba da daa ba daa da deda daa

And so begins another Bond film - this time, "Spectre."

For many reasons, I saw this for the first time last night.

All the parts of a really good Bond film are there: a dead serious Bond (played by Craig) operating on the edge of legal and illegal, an internecine struggle at British Intelligence, an evil international cabal on the cusp of world domination, incredible panoramic shots of exotic locals, things speeding, falling, blowing up here, there and elsewhere, physically over-powering villains, psychotic and brilliant villains and mysterious and beautiful women maybe on / maybe not-on Bond's side - but with all that, it still doesn't fully come together.

Did I enjoy it - yes, absolutely. There is enough good to make it a really fun romp and Craig is second only to Connery as Bond and second only to Connery in Connery's first three outings as Bond.

Craig brings a believable intensity and an outsider / loner aura to the role without being maudlin or comic-book heroic. He owns and saves the movie. The only action sequence I really enjoyed - and which wasn't overwhelmed by CGI - was at the end when Bond was simply firing his handgun at the helicopter from the boat - felt very "single man thinking versus machine" not big weaponry used to overwhelm.

But the entire film felt like it was made up of parts - the parts referenced above - that they were speeding through to check boxes - "yup, exotic wintery shot, done," "okay, evil, world-dominating headquarters destroyed, it's a wrap -" versus truly integrating them into the story and letting it unfold organically.

Maybe I've seen too many Bond films, but I saw the tailoring - the stitches - too easily to be fully engrossed. But even with that, it still, basically, worked as a solid Bond film. Fiennes' M had his best outing - manipulating and moving around politics and, when necessary, fighting physically for his and his organization's life in a way that made you understand how he became M.

Q provided comic relief without too-many cliches and Madeleine was overall an enjoyable Bond "girl," but would have been better if she had held her accent more. The villains were adequate but not memorable; unfortunately, the CGI action sequences seemed mailed in - almost like they farmed them out to a vendor to do.

I'll miss Craig - I believe he is now done - as he held this one together. But, with or without Craig, they need to slow the next one down to let the story build naturally.

N.B. After seeing him in "The Night Manager," I'm rooting for Tom Hiddleston to get the role.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Craig brings a believable intensity and an outsider / loner aura to the role

Craig's 007 looks a bit of Steve McQueen and Vladimir Putin, not quite the suave debonair Royal Navy commander Ian Fleming created,
an elegant spy educated at Cambridge and schooled to the world-Craig reads more hardscrabble enlisted East Ender sailor.
Besides, it takes an Irishman like Pierce Brosnan to play Bond.;)
 

Julian Shellhammer

Practically Family
Messages
893
Star Trek Beyond; enjoyed it a lot, especially since much of the humor is self-deprecating.
Jason Bourne, on the other hand, was not so enjoyable. Director Paul Greengrass's direction gives us a movie that is nearly entirely a jumpy shaky visual tilt-a-whirl. Much too many jump cuts (three shots of Bourne getting into a car, each one a little closer), smash cuts, pan and zoom or zoom and pan shots, quick shots in a fight scene or car chase that make it's hard to clearly follow the action. The story seemed like a recycling of most of the previous Bourne movies (double-secret government program, highly-placed federal officers bent on covering their tracks, Bourne eluding all attempts to capture him, and so on)
 

AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,126
Location
Nebraska
dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun deDON Do do do

Bond turns into a firing stance and shoots

Badap ba daa ba da daa ba daa da deda daa Badap ba daa ba da daa ba daa da deda daa

And so begins another Bond film - this time, "Spectre."

For many reasons, I saw this for the first time last night.

All the parts of a really good Bond film are there: a dead serious Bond (played by Craig) operating on the edge of legal and illegal, an internecine struggle at British Intelligence, an evil international cabal on the cusp of world domination, incredible panoramic shots of exotic locals, things speeding, falling, blowing up here, there and elsewhere, physically over-powering villains, psychotic and brilliant villains and mysterious and beautiful women maybe on / maybe not-on Bond's side - but with all that, it still doesn't fully come together.

Did I enjoy it - yes, absolutely. There is enough good to make it a really fun romp and Craig is second only to Connery as Bond and second only to Connery in Connery's first three outings as Bond.

Craig brings a believable intensity and an outsider / loner aura to the role without being maudlin or comic-book heroic. He owns and saves the movie. The only action sequence I really enjoyed - and which wasn't overwhelmed by CGI - was at the end when Bond was simply firing his handgun at the helicopter from the boat - felt very "single man thinking versus machine" not big weaponry used to overwhelm.

But the entire film felt like it was made up of parts - the parts referenced above - that they were speeding through to check boxes - "yup, exotic wintery shot, done," "okay, evil, world-dominating headquarters destroyed, it's a wrap -" versus truly integrating them into the story and letting it unfold organically.

Maybe I've seen too many Bond films, but I saw the tailoring - the stitches - too easily to be fully engrossed. But even with that, it still, basically, worked as a solid Bond film. Fiennes' M had his best outing - manipulating and moving around politics and, when necessary, fighting physically for his and his organization's life in a way that made you understand how he became M.

Q provided comic relief without too-many cliches and Madeleine was overall an enjoyable Bond "girl," but would have been better if she had held her accent more. The villains were adequate but not memorable; unfortunately, the CGI action sequences seemed mailed in - almost like they farmed them out to a vendor to do.

I'll miss Craig - I believe he is now done - as he held this one together. But, with or without Craig, they need to slow the next one down to let the story build naturally.

N.B. After seeing him in "The Night Manager," I'm rooting for Tom Hiddleston to get the role.

Great review, FF. Like you, I felt there was something that was a little "off" with SPECTRE, especially as opposed to Casino Royale and Skyfall. Cristoph Waltz gave a briliant performance, but I think his motive for going after Bond was a little too cliche. I wanted more. Of course, the man is a psycho which would explain why he killed his father and then went after Bond, but to me, the motive of "this poor orphan boy came into my life and my father liked him better than me, so I am going to kill my dad and blow up the world" wasn't strong enough. I think that's the part that bothered me the most.

I did like the plot of an organization arranging tragedies and then exploiting them through the media, then using that to justify international surveillance of the world's population. That was quite believable for this day and age, and it's also why I liked the inclusion of M's nemesis, C (Andrew Scott).

But yes, it didn't quite gel and it didn't feel like a strong enough story to come after Skyfall. Basically, everything from Casino Royale to now has been one, big long plotline - this international organization specifically going after James Bond and the women he loves, etc., - but the mastermind behind it is doing so because he didn't get enough love from Daddy...and I don't buy it. That was a big disappointment to me.

I really liked the helictoper scene in Mexico City - from my understanding, that was an incredibly difficult scene to shoot and I think they did a brilliant job.

Like you, I feel Craig is second only to Connery.

I'm not sure if he's completely done or not; I think that is still up in the air. I'm still not sold on Hiddleston even though I watched The Night Manager and could see potential for Bond there...I hear Aidan Turner (from Poldark) is also in the lead. He might do a bang up job, too.
 
Last edited:

Formeruser012523

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,466
Location
null
I prefer streaming and stream everything I can. "Spectre" seems only to be on disk. Using a disk today feels the same as using a VHS tape did ten or so years ago.

Would LOVE to stream movies from Netflix IF THEY WERE THERE! It seems few movies *cough* good movies are on the service these days. Been contemplating joining Amazon. *shrug* Everything of quality seems to be vanishing.
 
Messages
17,198
Location
New York City
Would LOVE to stream movies from Netflix IF THEY WERE THERE! It seems few movies *cough* good movies are on the service these days. Been contemplating joining Amazon. *shrug* Everything of quality seems to be vanishing.

Amazon is great value, especially if you order stuff from them, which we do all the time, as the shipping is free - then, the video stuff feels like a complete extra as I'd pay the $99 / yr for the free shipping alone. If you do get Amazon, check out "The Man in the High Castle," some of the best made-for-TV in years. Amazon is - again with the free shipping for stuff - better value then Netflix. But at $10 / month, Netflix is worth it too.
 

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,138
Location
Joliet
A Beautiful Mind. It was a wild film, and seriously boggled my mind a few times where I myself had to question what was real and what wasn't.
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
Bombers B-52 (1957) Worth watching, just to see a BUFF refuel from a KC97 Stratotanker! Also great to hear a radial engine helicopter taking off and landing!
 

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