Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

General Bond discussion from Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Kristatos »

Funnily enough, the chapter of Pearson's Bond biography I read this morning was all about the rookie Bond's first assignment, which took place at Royale-les-Eaux, where Bond learned the art of gambling from a master card sharp. It's not difficult to see how it could have formed the first act of the movie, with the novel adaptation as acts 2 and 3, but I don't know if EON had the rights.
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Omega »

One thing we know for sure is won will never pay for the rights to after Fleming books. So it was probably floated by the wrigglers as more Bond begins material then lawyers suggested buying the rights and the babs shut it down.


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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by dirtybenny »

Austin Powers Shagged Us!

The title to this rant is a reference to something Craig said a while ago concerning the darker direction his films took compared to his predecessors. Of course Craig’s quote was far cruder, containing his obligatory F-bomb, but what else would you expect from a man who looks like a longshoreman? His implication is Austin Powers spoofing some of the spy tropes of the 1960’s and You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever specifically, required a more shall we say “Bourneian” approach to the films. I’m not questioning that the series needed a course correction from the extremely over the top Die Another Day, but you’re telling me the Powers films, those goofy parodies, required the largest film franchise in history to completely retool because they made fun of a few clichés from three plus decades ago?

Casino Royale is wiped clean of any of the Bondian panache established over the previous 20 films. Apparently depicting Bond as a suave, sophisticated man of the world who knows what he wants and how to get it, is impossible because Mike Myers put on a bad wig, false teeth and a horrid pair of glasses.

Quantum of Solace is basically just a shot for shot remake of the third Bourne film, because EON shan’t have an original thought any longer.

Skyfall, is where thing get a bit weird, suddenly, EON became obsessed with creating gritty reboots of the Powers plot lines. Two films ago they tore the formula asunder due to Powers shenanigans and now he seems to be an underlying template to the franchise. For example once Craig is shot off the train in the pre-title sequence, he spends the first half of the film trying to get his “mojo” back, just as Austin does in his second film. Craig’s Bond is a wreck wallowing about in his own misery and self-pity while bumming around some third world country. Once he decides to return, he fails all of his physical and mental tests, eventually his self-doubt reaches its apex when he can’t shoot a glass of whiskey off the doomed Bond girl’s head. However like Powers he realizes he had the power of the mojo inside him all along when he suddenly and effortlessly disarms and incapacitates all of Silva’s men in an instant and finishes the film with a renewed vigor.

You knew this was coming, the most egregious example by far, SPECTRE and the brothers Bond. What was a most ridiculous plot device in a campy spoof comedy is suddenly and unapologetically made canon in the Bond mythos. Now the most ridiculous thing in the bond catalog is no longer double taking pigeons, invisible cars, bad CGI or even Bond in space, no, now we have this absurd coupling of Bond and his nemesis by a familial link! On top of the crap plot line the meeting at SPECTRE H.Q. contained gritty versions of Powers characters; Frau Farbissina is most certainly in attendance!

One has to wonder what Bond 25 has in store. A morbidly obese Scotsman? A tiny person? Blofeld’s teenage son? We can only wait and see; perhaps we’ll finally get those gritty “Fem-Bots” we’ve all been waiting for!
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Omega »

I never got why eon was so affected by powers, they sued over the use of goldmember . I also didn’t get why Bourne was such a influence on them, it’s a hack job at a spy adventure that makes less than half of what bond does. Mission impossible has taken up the position bond once held certainly the last two maybe three movies set them up as the new home of decent spy adventures.

It’d be ironic to have eon finish up Craig term by following more of the Austin powers saga, personally going by recent casting rumors the return of vespers child or a Bas***d bond forgot about is more likely. The one thing Fleming absolutely didn’t want was the stories to be driven by bond, he wanted the stories to be about bond reacting to situations nothing to do with him. Moonraker would have to be remade to be some lost uncle jealous about bond being granddads favorite trying to destroy the world. The stories were never supposed to be about or be driven by bond but this is exactly what babs bond of our lives is about


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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by carl stromberg »

I wonder if the Austin Powers ruined traditional bond theme was a thing to prop up the Craig reboot. On the forums posters would say " I suppose you want an Austin Powers film" in response to complaints about the rebooted Craig Bond series.
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Veronica »

carl stromberg wrote:I wonder if the Austin Powers ruined traditional bond theme was a thing to prop up the Craig reboot. On the forums posters would say " I suppose you want an Austin Powers film" in response to complaints about the rebooted Craig Bond series.
It's basically an extremely lazy way of saying all the previous Bond movies couldn't be taken seriously and that FINALLY, we have Bond that not only could but should be taken that way. To quote Connery from epic rap battles of history(James Bond v. Austin Powers) "Your performance doesn't stir me and I'm certainly not shaken if I wanted shitty acting in my action film I'd go and watch taken." Well quite.
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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Veronica wrote:To quote Connery from epic rap battles of history(James Bond v. Austin Powers) "Your performance doesn't stir me and I'm certainly not shaken if I wanted shitty acting in my action film I'd go and watch taken." Well quite.
I think that's a bit unfair. Mike Myers is a fine comic actor, and his gentle spoofing of the Bond films makes me think that he probably has more affection for the franchise than Babbzy does.

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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Veronica »

Kristatos wrote:
Veronica wrote:To quote Connery from epic rap battles of history(James Bond v. Austin Powers) "Your performance doesn't stir me and I'm certainly not shaken if I wanted shitty acting in my action film I'd go and watch taken." Well quite.
I think that's a bit unfair. Mike Myers is a fine comic actor, and his gentle spoofing of the Bond films makes me think that he probably has more affection for the franchise than Babbzy does.

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You misunderstood. Connery's Bond said that to Craig's Bond not Austin Powers. A premise was that Craig's Bond and Powers "battle" and then Connery pops in when Craig says something about being the original spy.
I like Myers myself.
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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Ah, sorry. I have seen the rap battle, but it was a while ago.

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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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Without Russia From Love


As we await the run up to the pre-production of Bond 25, I thought we could take a look back to a statement made by Michael G. Wilson’s son Greg concerning the direction of the series. The younger Wilson said after the release of SPECTRE:

“We’ve just begun to doodle with ideas for the next movie”, “Each script process begins when we ask ourselves the question ‘what is the world afraid of now?’ In the case of Spectre the theme was global monitoring and utilization of information. So now we are trying to find out what will be relevant in the coming years”.

What junior failed to realize is cinematic Bond has been eschewing fear since the beginning. Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made a conscious decision to remove the U.S.S.R as Bond’s advisory from the Fleming novels which included them. For example in the novel From Russia with Love, Bond is solely pitted against Russian agents, SPECTRE does not appear anywhere in the story, whereas in the film the Russians are an incidental foe only in that they were also duped by SPECTRE. This is true in every film in which Bond locks horns with a Russian antagonist, they are not representatives of their government but rather rogue agents seeking to sow discontent for their own aggrandizement.

The funny thing is, even in the modern era (of which the youthful Wilson is speaking), shuns fear in the story lines. If they didn’t we’d have had at least one film dealing with Islamic terrorism. Now while government monitoring may be a concern it certainly isn’t a “fear.” You see I, like many, might be concerned with administrative eavesdropping, however, the fact the government knows how often a day I text my wife to ask what we’re having for dinner, pales in comparison with a group of individuals who wish the destruction of the western world on a literally biblical level.

This exorcism of fear from the film narratives lead to the rise of SPECTRE and the various independent madmen who stalked the franchise. SPECTRE who only surfaced in three novels doubled to six film appearances and would have been more if not for the meddling of Kevin McClory. Dr. No morphed from soviet to SPECTRE agent, Goldfinger was a communist paymaster in the novel but went independent in the film as part of a conscious effort not to offend the Russians. The closest they ever came to coming up against the soviets directly was For Your Eyes Only, in which Bond battles Kristatos who is a Russian contractor who is actively working for the U.S.S.R. alongside an agent of that nation and plans to hand the decoding device at the center of the action over to General Gogol the head of the K.G.B.

As a result of EON’s desire to eschew Russian villainy and McClory’s meddling came the rise of the independent megalomaniac, the lone madman plotting world domination for his own benefit. Sometimes this worked other times not so much. For example The Spy Who Loved Me’s Stromberg and Moonraker’s Drax basically have the same plan to destroy civilization and reshape the world in their own image, only one wants to do it from the sea and the other space. The fact these two films were released back to back also doesn’t help. That’s not to say these films aren’t entertaining but they lack a creative edge and cinematic plausibility. Whereas I can accept organizations like SPECTRE and Kanaga’s “Mr. Big” organization finds legions of hapless flunkies to implement their various criminal schemes for fanatical gain, I find it harder to believe that Stromberg and Drax could recruit so many willing drones to wipe out all of humanity.

The other way they tackled this quandary was what I call the “Mad General Syndrome” in Octopussy, The Living Daylights and Goldeneye mad Russian generals hatched schemes to get rich or start a war for self-glorification. This results in giving the foe the full force and effect of national resources but yet depoliticizes the action.

Now that EON has the rights to the SPECTRE organization it will be interesting to see how they use it. They have a ready-made nemesis for Bond who they can utilize to avoid fear and politics as they have for fifty plus years, or they can just c**k it all up, we shall see.
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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We've come full circle in a way, in that Russia is once again the boogeyman du jour. I agree, Cubby's films used topical issues like the space race and the energy crisis to give them a contemporary feel, but they were far enough in the background that they haven't dated too badly. TLD probably comes off worst due to Bond fighting alongside what would later become al-Qaeda, though of course they didn't know that at the time.

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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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As far as TLD I would argue not all of the factions fighting in Afghanistan were Islamic extremists, they were in fact a loosely organized collection of fighters from various Arab counties, Bin Laden's small force was largely ineffectual, but I definitely get your point.
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Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Omega »

Well in 1987 Afghanistan was the popular cause in Hollywood and government circles. Despite the groups bring funded there would go on to become a greater threat.

I was thinking about CR, part of the sales pitch was brosnan was old bond before 9/11 despite being a 2002 movie.the world had changed and the old bond we just celebrated 40 years of was no good any more audiences wanted Bourne so bond would follow make it more gritty and real dealing with terrorism directly because the main bad guy was funding Terrorism. Nubond would fight the real threat unlike old bond.
All bs of course babs was more concerned about damning the western world and helping Cindy Sheehan than you know fighting the bad guys against women’s rights and beheading people left and right. No it is all psychological double talk with mommy issues, and other crap that would make Fleming spin in his grave.

DB I think eon trying to guess the temperament of the nation or world wide audience is a farce, there is no one monolithic threat everyone agrees on or is afraid of, bond before babs was not concerned with being trendy in a political sense it was trying to be trendy with social attitudes and was a place to show off innovations yet to be seen by the public, since 2002 bond has missed a great many milestones in technology to flog Sony crapwear a generation or two behind the cutting edge. The trendy wannabe themes of Cr,QOS, sf, SP, were done poorly and audiences have seen those themes done much better on streaming shows, prime time, and movies .

The fact P&W and the producers think they have to search headlines last to find inspiration for their next movie tells me they lost their way long before the fired brosnan




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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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Omega wrote:DB I think eon trying to guess the temperament of the nation or world wide audience is a farce, there is no one monolithic threat everyone agrees on or is afraid of, bond before babs was not concerned with being trendy in a political sense it was trying to be trendy with social attitudes and was a place to show off innovations yet to be seen by the public, since 2002 bond has missed a great many milestones in technology to flog Sony crapwear a generation or two behind the cutting edge. The trendy wannabe themes of Cr,QOS, sf, SP, were done poorly and audiences have seen those themes done much better on streaming shows, prime time, and movies .

The fact P&W and the producers think they have to search headlines last to find inspiration for their next movie tells me they lost their way long before the fired brosnan

Quite right Big O, that's what make makes little Wilson's comment so laughable! He's claiming they're acting as a catharsis to all the world's fears yet are afraid to tackle them head on! Pervis and Wade are a big if not the biggest problem with Bond since EON had the bad sense to employ them.
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Post by Omega »

Take a look at the billion dollar movie successes out there they are not basing their fictional universe on the headlines or left wing or right social activism, some may argue aspects make it in but marvel for example is not trying to make their characters relevant by using real world standards, it fun it over the top for two hours we believe in mutants, demigods and science experiments gone wrong having adventures in far off exciting places for paper thin reasoning. Bond doesn’t have to try to be news trendy or invent meaning behind every piece of throwaway dialogue. Put bond in a fantastic place for a mission for his country defending a crazy ass villain with crazy ass logic and crazy ass henchmen. Brooding over his place in life and morality of his job killing for a immoral government, why bother ?


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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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Omega wrote:Put bond in a fantastic place for a mission for his country defending against a his country from a crazy ass villain with crazy ass logic and crazy ass henchmen. Brooding over his place in life and morality of his job killing for a immoral government, why bother ?
That is the question we've been asking for the last 2 decades!
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Post by Omega »

True. Part of it imho is Craig was so wrong he couldn’t be bond by anyone’s definition if they acknowledged the the character as written or portrayed, so they invent reasons why it’s more correct than what you remember bond being. First was Craig is Fleming’s bond, not many defenders out there now are using that line, eon jumped the shark long ago nobody can really pretend that Craig is Fleming’s bond. He babs bond but not much more than that.

Babs wants to creat meaning to fill in a character she truly hates with psychological trauma from characters she actually does like. Vespers death was supposed to be what turned bond into a womanizer (like Padmes death turned Vader) she was bonds deep true first love at the tender age of middle age, the loss of this wonderful panda eyed girl scarred bond forever. But that really didn’t pan out so eon moves on to trying to recapture iconic moments that really don’t work with Craig on the screen, then they set up the ultimate broken home skyfall with mommy and gay albino brother issues, then spectre with OHMSS inferiority issues and more gay brother issues.


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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

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Omega wrote: she was bonds deep true first love at the tender age of middle age
+

Omega wrote:the loss of this wonderful panda eyed girl scarred bond forever.

=

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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Veronica »

The problem with the latest villains is that they are all just ineffective.
Even though they constantly hire acclaimed actors like Mikkelsen and Waltz even their talent can not make anything out of the characters they were given. Javier Bardem is generally neither here or there for me and I can't remember who was the villain in QOS so I won't go there.
For all the faults Brosnan movies have I always thought they had quite good villains. The actors seemed like they were genuinely having a blast while playing bad guys. Even Gustav Graves who ended up wearing that bloody... thing is quite memorable in a good way because Stephens makes him so delightfully smarmy.
The same goes for weaker Moore movies as well. TMWTGG had Lee while AVTAK had Walken.
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Re: Dirty Benny's Weekly Rant

Post by Kristatos »

I thought Walken and Robert Carlyle were a little underwhelming in their respective Bond movies, personally. It's a problem that predates Craig.

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