A lot of recent upheaval in the production of the next Bond film (cunningly titled Bond 25), with Daniel Craig being on board, but the loss of Danny Boyle as director.
I see now they have announce Cary Fukunaga as the replacement Director and the release date still down as November 2019.
I believe e that Cary Fukunaga was the director of the first season of True Detective, which was one of the best TV shows in recent years, so in my mind this looks promising…
So….
– Is Bond still relevant ? Has Mission Impossible stolen it’s thunder ? Any thoughts on this new director ? Who will be the next Bond ? Who is the best Bond ? Which was the best movie ?
Over to you lot……
For the record, I still love Bond films, so Yes, No, Promising, Idris Elba, Connery (with Craig just behind) and Goldfinger.
They have latterly seemed formulaic to me, so I’m in no hurry for 25.
Relevant? Well, if Mission Impossible exists, there has to be room for a good Bond.
MI? Nope. All shine, no substance.
Fukunaga? Couldn’t tell you.
Next Bond? Elba seems so heavily tipped it’s bound to be someone else. Depends if they want to make them somewhat lighter fare, or go for dark and menacing. Keep a spare $ for that guy off Grantchester and McMafia James Norton.
Connery. No question. ALthough I do still ike Tim Dalton’s ill fated stab at the character.
Best movie? Isn’t it the first one you saw? The Spy Who Loved Me. The young me loved the car underwater.
Yes
Pfft! – No!
No idea – I thought True Detective overrated
Aidan Turner (Elba’s too old)
Connery (with Craig just behind) – I can’t improve on that
Dr No
Subsidiary question – what’s the best theme tune? Answer – From Russia With Love of course.
Aidan Turner plays a good-looking rapist in Poldark, so that’s a good fit.
I think that’s a really interesting choice, it’s not just a retread (eg Martin Campbell or a has-been). At the time of True Detective he was getting rave reviews.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1560977/
I bet EON think they can control him though and he has never done big-budget action.
MI:Fallout was fab – but Bond is a different style of film and they need to differentiate this film from it.
I think of the 700 or so Bond films only about 2 or 3 are actually decent films. I think the producers/writers are really in control, the directors make less artistic decisions than they would do on other projects.
Yeah you’re probably right there.
Ooh I love talking Bondage.
Favourite Bond – well if you had asked me a few years ago I would have said Craig. But I think he has blotted his copy book with the last two, revealing himself to be little more than a GQ model. Casino Royale is glorious but now seems like a fluke – and proof in hindsight that Craig needs a decent film around him to look decent himself.
Connery, then, who was uniformly fantastic no matter how poor the film was (Diamonds Are Forever?) surely must remain unchallenged as the daddy of all Bonds.
Moore was MY Bond however. The one I grew up with. I have a lot of respect for Dalton though, and I think he could have been interesting if he’d stayed on for a couple more films.
I think the franchise itself is still fresh, and has the capability of producing something new and interesting. I prefer the forward-looking stuff – I know there’s been some talk of doing a period Bond, but I think that would just be gimmicky.
Idris Elba seems perfect.
This falls into my “any excuse” category…… So The Rhythm Devine is the title and Bond played by Keely Hawes is tasked with putting the world back into said Rhythm by stopping 3 deranged leaders from The East and West controlling the good vibe mountain in North Korea. The final scene involves each being killed by their favoured form of execution. Guns, novichok and synchronised marching as the world resetc to peace and love. The theme tune of course is https://youtu.be/th2NM67bEw0
It wasn’t M:I that stole Bond’s mojo, it was Bourne. Casino Royale was first after the “Bourne reboot”and is therefore the best film in the entire Bond ouevre, and Craig in that film was easily the bestest JB.
You can’t really blame Craig for the way the series has reverted to Roger Moore-era levels of stupidity in the last three films.
Next Bond? No idea, but hope it’s not Tom Hiddlestone.
Casino Royale is “the best film in the entire Bond ouevre, and Craig in that film was easily the bestest JB.” I am 100% totes agree with both these affermations.
So….
– Is Bond still relevant ? I suppose we need to consider whether it ever was. The early films were actually quite ground breaking in terms of effects, action, sound etc. and were (sort of) serious thrillers. That got lost with late Connery and in particular with Roger Moore in the role and they became campy romps. Up until Daniel Craig I felt they were torn between the two approaches – do we make this a real thriller? Oh, hang on, people want the puns and oneliners and ridiculous stunts.
Has Mission Impossible stolen it’s thunder ? Perhaps this is the wrong question – wasn’t it Bourne who made them change?
Any thoughts on this new director ? No.
Who will be the next Bond ? It will almost certainly be a surprise, but don’t put the house on it being a female or a person of colour. Hiddleston would be good.
Who is the best Bond ? Connery for me, but then I grew up with him. Craig is good, but I think some of his films are overrated (not because of him). Skyfall so obviously wanted Connery in that highland sequence, but the ending was a mess. Spectre was OK, but they are so bloody long – you just want some of the action bits to just stop!
Which was the best movie ? Goldfinger is my favourite. You Only Live Twice is very good, and Casino Royale is terrific – just a shame the next one failed to follow it with an understandable plot.
” – you just want some of the action bits to just stop!”
Quite right.
My patience wore particularly thin with the wrecked aeroplane chase down a snowy mountainside in the last one. If it was designed to be so silly it was funny then it didn’t work out for me.
Is Bond relevant? Probably not, but it’s a comfy pre-internet link to the past, and it’s the only series of films I’d go and see with a group of mates. I do this every time they make a new one, and then I insist I won’t go and see the next one – I haven’t properly enjoyed a Bond film since 1994! And please: stop the ski and/or car chases. There’s zero chance of Bond dying, so there’s absolutely no tension involved; it’s rather tedious.
Next Bond? I wouldn’t be surprised if Tom Hardy gets the call. I totally understand that, in a more enlightened age of equality, people are clamouring for a woman or non-Caucasian to play Bond. I think it’s a shame, however, that there aren’t better – and more original – roles for these actors. Sod Bond – do something better.
Best Bond? Timmy Dalton. Favourite Bond? Roger Moore.
Best movie? The Spy Who Loved Me or From Russia with Love.
The chances of the new Bond being other than clean-cut, white and male-hetero are virtually zero. The producers will want good takings in US cinemas and for that to happen in the current climate there, non-white, female or gay would be box-office poison.
Favourite Bond? Roger Moore. Best Bond, Connery.
None of the James Bonds are favourite movies of mine. Thunderball was an early-teen excitement that hasn’t aged particularly well.
Haven’t watched a single Bond movie in the last 20 years. Lack of desire to do so my sole reason.
No opinion on directors or which white, hetero male should be chosen for the part in the new one, as it’s highly unlikely I’ll be watching it.
Not entirely sure the film industry is still reeling from the huge flops of Black Panther and the last few Star Wars films….
I also won’t be watching the new Bond. The whole franchise is a nasty misogynistic right wing fantasy for people who’d desperately love to be part of the Establishment, and I hate it all. OOAA of course.
Black Panther a flop? I presume you are being ironic.
Worldwide take of $1.3 billion, the ninth highest grossing movie of all time. It’s the highest grossing solo superhero movie ever, beating all the Batmans, Spider-Mans and Supermans. In 2018, only Avengers Infinity War is ahead of it.
Great soundtrack too.
… But it’s rubbish…
Honestly, my worst film of the year so far.
Ah, you obviously haven’t seen The Nun then.
That bad, eh? I’m usually quite forgiving of daft horror films. I even like the Paranormal Activity series – stayed with it until the end.
All the Paranormal Activities films had at least one scene that gave you the shivers. That scene in 2 or 3 with the sheet was just brilliant.
Me and my horror mad daughter (not quite 15, so a bit of sneaking was involved) were so looking forward to The Nun. We both love the Conjuring films and she loves the Annabelle ones too (I wasn’t bothered about those, but she had us buying her a lifesize replica Annabelle doll for her birthday!), and the scenes with the nun in whichever film it was were great. But she turned to me halfway through, just as I was going to say to her that I thought it was rubbish, and rightly said they just keep repeating the same jump ‘scares’ over and over again. In the end it became so predictable it was boring. Such a wasted opportunity and never has the term ‘less is more’ been more appropriate.
uhhh, yeah. I was taking on Mike’s claim that “The producers will want good takings in US cinemas and for that to happen in the current climate there, non-white, female or gay would be box-office poison.”
It’s ok. I got the sarcasm. I don’t superhero movies, but I was delighted when the sort of Twitter feeds with which I line my echo chamber copied the most egregious ‘pc gone mad, will bomb at the box office’ protests when a movie with a black hero was given a big promotion, then proceeded to demolish record takings.
Thinking again about it, the sort of people that wouldn’t go to a movie with a black hero, wouldn’t go to a James Bond movie anyway.
Hollywood money people are so risk-averse though, these days, that they still might bottle it.
We shall see.
I think the series is in something of a pickle.
They rebooted Bond for Casino Royale – taking into account the likes of Bourne and 24 (which, on the whole, played things straight and did not lean on gadgets, one liners, suave good guys or bad guys backed by their own private armies ensconced in volcano lairs / ice palaces).
I enjoyed the first 2 Craig efforts and the first half of Skyfall. But, for me, things went south when the bad guy dropped an underground train on Bond’s head before the whole thing descended into an homage to Home Alone. Spectre had it’s moments, but the fundamental problem for me was Blofeld. The Austen Powers movies had lampooned the character into irrelevancy – it’s hard to take Dr Evil seriously.
So now what? Double down on the daft side of Bond and drift back into the smirking Moore- era movies, or try and aim again for Casino Royale?
Meanwhile, the last Mission Impossible was a tremendous action movie – heaving with set pieces many of which would form the centre of a Bond movie. Plus it featured not one but two properly menacing bad guys. It was globetrotting, had a properly thought out objective for the bad guys, – but was knowing enough to mock the MI crew for their flappy masks/disguises. This is likely to be the film against which the next Bond is judged. Good luck with that.
Yeah that’s so true about the last MI film there. It really was a high watermark in terms of stunts and high impact action – but with just the right doses of espionage and emotion.
Well, you never know – a decade ago Bourne spurred Bond into new heights in the race to keep up. So maybe the same will happen here.
And by the way, Cruise is over 50. So age shouldn’t really be a huge factor in the new Bond, whoever it is.
I’m a proper Bond fanboy and collector (I have just short of 300 autographs of actors/directors/soundtrack singers from the Bond films, for example), so yes, keep them coming. Just stop making rubbish ones like the last one. It was so promising too, but it’s the first time Christoph Waltz has put in a dull performance. Skyfall was great, if you didn’t think about it too much (i.e. Bond failed, badly), whilst Quantum of Solace is slightly better if you watch it straight after Casino Royale, as one film in two parts.
As someone above said, it was the Bourne films that gave Bond a kick up the backside. The last Brosnan film, Die Another Day, was absolutely awful. The invisible car??? The CGI car door snowboarding??? I do, however, own a piece of the parachute that Toby Stephens’ villain uses to land outside the Palace (as part of my treasured James Bond trading card collection, which I’m hoping they have stopped producing, as it’s got quite out of hand). But Die Another Day was awful and that’s the film Brosnan went out on. Connery went out on Diamonds Are Forever, Moore on A View To A Kill, both also amongst the weakest in the series. Craig knows this and wants to go out on a decent film. It’s his last chance. He should have gone after Skyfall really.
The new director, don’t know much about him, but the producers do like their ‘yes’ men. I wonder if he could fetch Alexandra Daddario from True Detective as a Bond girl? I, er, enjoyed watching her in True Detective.
The next Bond will probably be someone who is lesser known, as happened for most of the previous Bonds. I’d love to see Christopher Nolan brought in to direct a couple, with Tom Hardy as Bond, but I think he’d want too much of a say for the producers’ liking, much like Danny Boyle. Failing that, I think Dan Stevens would be a great Bond and he’s young enough to do three or four. I had just dismissed him as a typical stage school posh boy when I’d seen clips of him in Downton Abbey, but then I watched The Guest and he was brilliant. Idris Elba is too old and, although I like him, I don’t think his acting style would lend itself to Bond. He’d make a great villain though.
Best Bond? I like them all. I really couldn’t decide.
Best movie? Either OHMSS (also the best soundtrack, if you don’t count the soundtrack from the 60s Casino Royale, which is fab) or The Spy Who Loved Me, with From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Goldeneye and Casino Royale also up there. There’s lot to like in most of the films though. Except Die Another Day.
A lot of people on the interweb think Danny Boyle would have been completely wrong for Bond. But speaking as a non-fan of the franchise, I was quite excited at the prospect of seeing his take on it. I thought his take on the Getty saga (‘Trust’ – though he only directed the first three episodes) knocked the spots off Ridley Scott’s more conventional approach (‘All The Money In The World’).
I agree Gary, I think the loss of Boyle is a big wasted opportunity. I’m sure Fukunaga will do a serviceable job as Director but Boyle could have made a classic.
I think Aidan Turner for next Bond. I saw him on stage recently and he looked like a man who could kill with his bare hands (he was playing a killer)
And i’ve never quite forgiven Connery for the paunch and the pink tie in Diamonds Are Forever
Have to disagree on Skyfall, Paul. The love for that film truly baffles me. The opening sequence was decent, if overblown. But within ten minutes it was just cringeworthy.
I loved Quantum of Solace at the time. Still do – although it’s definitely not a patch on Casino Royale.
And every time someone anywhere mentions A View To A Kill, I MUST defend it. No joke, it’s my favourite Moore one. And definitely in my top five overall. I just think it’s magnificent – great villain, great theme tune, brilliant use of scenery and landmarks, and the plot is a clever rewrite of Goldfinger so how could that really go wrong? I think with Moore films you just have to take a deep breath and accept you’re going to get slapstick and ridiculous gadgets- once you roll with it, A View To A Kill is a blast.
Just out of interest, what do you think of Never Say Never Again? I’ve got a lot of time for it. I think Connery is brilliant in it, despite the wig. First Bond film (well, fake Bond) I saw in the cinema.
And the first one I saw at the cinema was A View To A Kill!
I don’t like NSNA if I’m honest. The whole film seemed a bit tired and to me Connery looked to be going through the motions. I wouldn’t worry too much about the wig, as he wore one in every Bond film. Could have done without the wink at the end too, but then again one of the best stunts in the entire Bond canon is spoiled by a stupid whistle effect! But the main thing that is lacking in NSNA is a John Barry score and the Bond theme. I think with those it would look a whole different film. Actually, change the very dated theme song too whilst you’re at it.
AVTAK had the 15 year old me sat mouth wide open, but when you watch it alongside the others Moore and MacNee seem ancient and their fight scenes a bit silly, when they were only around the same age as Craig is now, or Moore was at least. It’s not the worst Bond film, but I’d put it down there, just outside the relegation zone.
I totally get you on Skyfall. To enjoy the film you really have to leave part of your brain at the door. What amazes me is that most people see past the fact that he effectively kidnaps his boss to save her life, but then puts her in harm’s way where she gets killed. He failed, badly, and went totally outside his orders to do so. So why wasn’t he being hung out to dry at the end of the film, particularly in view of the fact that he didn’t pass the tests to be made operational at all. But, if you can get past the preposterous plot points and just take it for what it is, a good looking action movie with high production values, then you can just about make an argument for it. It did take me a few viewings to get onside with it, however, as I came out of the cinema thinking it was all a bit daft. You can’t really be a James Bond film fan though, without being prepared to overlook quite a few things and putting credibility on the shelf for a couple of hours!
The thing that annoyed me even more about Skyfall was the bad guy’s (can’t remember his name) whole plan. So, what, he was trying to kill M? So he blew up her office to show he COULD kill her, then went through the whole rigmarole of being caught, just to go through an elaborate plan to kill her by other means… yawn. At least A View To A Kill is simple and elegant – bad guy, wants money, big plan, millions of people will die, ticking bomb…. BAM. That’s it, essentially.
In Skyfall, the plot after his escape was so contrived that it either relied on a lot of luck and coincidence or he could see into the future and time everything to the millisecond. If he could do all that why didn’t he just sit outside her flat one dark night?
But it was quite exciting in places and the cinematography once they got to Scotland was great!
I’ve never seen a Bond film, and I’m not going to start now.
“James Bond” is a code name for anyone. That means anyone with the right qualities should do it, though I’d rather a British sadistic thug.
More importantly, they could reboot most of the franchise by making the films that didn’t follow the books, and have a strong 50s retro look. The style would be ace, and there would be great jokes when Bond has a mobile phone in the booty of his car running on valves,.
…with a skiffle soundtrack? Like it…
I think John Lydon should be the next Bond.
They’ll have to put him on a diet for those action scenes.