[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sentai

OHMSS is one of the worst Bond's ever. It's four hours long, Kojak is the villian, the story takes forever to get moving, and the love story is just... idiotic.

Lisence to Kill is just as bad. Both of his movies are, that's why he only had two movies. That dork nearly killed the whole darn franchise!

You want the absolute best Bond movie? Goldfinger. Hands down.

More and more I am becoming convinced that you are the Britta of Tokunation.

OHMSS is fantastic for all the reasons ljacone listed. The only reason it isn't as highly regarded as From Russia with Love or Goldfinger is because it was the Lazenby film. People tend to automatically write him off because he was only in the one film, when truth be told he was... well, not bad. If Connery had been in it, though, OHMSS would be the iconic Bond film.

And like I said in the Bond Girl thread, I love Timothy Dalton's short run. By the 1980s Bond had really become kind of a joke. For Your Eyes Only was a fantastic film, but it was the last real blip of quality in the Roger Moore era. Starting with Moonraker his films just kept getting more and more ridiculous and cartoony, with Moore growing increasingly campy, to the point where I still consider him the Adam West of James Bonds. Dalton helped correct the direction of the franchise, bringing the Bond character in much closer to the books' version of him and largely jettisoning the sillier aspects of the Moore era.

I don't think The Living Daylights is that great of a film overall. There are bits that worked and bits that didn't. It was a good start for a new direction in the franchise, though. Licence to Kill, however, is my favorite Bond film. It has a good and surprisingly personal story, Dalton is at his best as an angry and ruthless Bond, Carey Lowell's Bond Girl is one of the few who can legitimately kick ass, and there are some great action pieces and locations. I know not every likes the darker revenge-driven storyline, but we get to see more dimensions to Bond in that film and I always respond positively to films that reveal more depth in the character. That's one of the main reasons why I personally regard OHMSS, Licence to Kill, and Casino Royale so highly.

Personally, I think Die Another Day and Moonraker are the worst films in the series. Moonraker I dislike slightly less because it was an amusingly naked cash grab thrown together at the last minute to draw in the Star Wars audience. I find that kind of hilarious. Die Another Day, though, is just godawful on every level and the reliance on CGI effects is a slap in the face to a franchise that had always been devoted to using practical effects, no matter how crazy shit got.