I know a lot of people hate the whole “James Bond is a Code Name” theory, but, I personally don’t hate it for this film. Others often argue The Rock was the Connery Bond, but I disagree. For me, it’s Entrapment, where he left the service, and used his skills to be a master thief.

This scene here, at the end of the movie, after Gin has left, we see all the emotions crossing Mac’s face. An amazing performance by Connery. We see him clearly thinking about Gin, and to me, he thinks about all the women in his past, all of his chance, you can feel his loneliness in the beginning there, the smile, the way he looks down, probably thinking himself silly and sad and underserving. That he’s lost his chance at finding that happiness. Then he sees Gin appear after the train, then his happiness, the music, everything.

THIS film is one of my absolute favourites, of Sean Connery, and in general.

Also, when Gin is at her job, and looking at Mac’s file, you see facts about him, his training and skills, many unnamed lovers, was married, she died, he worked for MI6, basically confirms he was Bond in a way.

Hello! Me again, a few months ago I made a post here after I showed my partner Brosnan’s films and TLD. Well in the last few months we have found time to sit down and watch a few more from some different bonds. I also told him I made notes on his reactions. He was not surprised by this and then gave me an updated ranking post watching new ones.

Added to this list from last time are:
License to Kill
A View to a Kill
Casino Royale

I should note my partner is not a bond fan. This genre isn’t really his cup of tea, but he knows it’s a series I love, hence why we are watching them. His ranking then isn’t on whether they make a good bond film or not. His ranking more is “did I enjoy it?” He doesn’t care if they’re doing the character justice or sticking to the spirit of the books etc. he’s only in for if he can have a good time watching these films with me.

1. The World is Not Enough: This remained low on his list. Reasons have not changed, found it a bit dull compared to the others. Still does not like Christmas Jones. Hated the joke at the end with her name.

2. Licence to Kill: To finish off with Dalton we watched LTK, and it’s probably not as high as expected. He enjoys Dalton a lot, but the story didn’t grip him as much. What dragged it down was the pacing a little and Sanchez not being as memorable of a villain to him. Probably didn’t help I kept pointing out Dario (or a young benicio del toro) over Sanchez every time he was on screen. He did however have to stop the film when the truck did wheelies and just pointed to the screen repeating “what is this?” Especially as he had paused it right when it went through the flames. But we do find it funny the moral is “don’t fuck with Felix Leiter.” Not because Felix will kill you, but because James will hunt you down personally. And fuck up everyone else’s plans while being the best bro around. Also we agreed more people should have been high on cocaine during the final action sequence.

3. A View to a Kill: Entertaining. Silly. Stupid. For those wondering why I showed him VTAK it’s because I have recently watched a lot of the Sean Connery’s films on my own and didn’t want to watch them again, and I gave him a choice between Live and Let Die and this. He chose VTAK. We had a good time watching it. Really wanted there to be Robot horses (but was happy there were cyborg horses). And of course the woman that she is, Grace Jones. We love Grace Jones. Favourite moments were the San Francisco police chase, the many blimp scenes, and so much dynamite. He still agrees it’s a bad film, hence why it’s not higher, but enjoyed the campiness for what it is. I sold it as a “so bad it’s good film” and he agrees.

4. Casino Royale. This is one he has watched before, but not in a long time. He completely forgot sections existed. But he enjoyed it and does think it’s does a lot of things well. However, he wished for Bond to have his quips still. He’s not for the over serious bonds. Give him something slightly camp over serious is the take away. And post casino game, the ending dragged in pace. He felt it could have ended 20 minutes earlier and I do agree. We both checked out a little after the poker match wrapped up.

5. Goldeneye: No real change in his mind here. Goldeneye is still good, but it really just is the tank sequence working over time that makes it stand out to him. Alec wasn’t a villain he could love to hate, we still just joke about it being Sean Bean and his death is needed to correct the timeline.

6. The Living Daylights: Again not much change. Still enjoyed this more because Dalton’s performance and “The Milk Man” (Necros). Also the whole mountain sequence, with the Aston firing rockets, sledging down the mountain in a cello case, all doing this while trying to keep from Kara who he actually works for. He, like me, wished SMERSH actually comes back in a story now that I explained what the whole “Smiert Spionom” sign was about (and how bad of a romanisation of the Russian that is).

7. Tomorrow Never Dies: The moral here is, give my partner a slightly campy but also scary villain, a competent Bond girl who has a personality, and a secret lair and he will probably be happy. He adores Carver as a villain (his favourite amongst them all), also the idea that he must be hella charismatic to get so many people to swear to secrecy while working for him. This still takes top spot and I don’t think it will be dethroned.

Dishonourable Mention: Die Another Day. Those with astute observation skills might realise DAD wasn’t on the list, but was in the original. My partner said it should exist on its own separate list entirely. He has no words to describe the film. Credit where credit is due, he does think Toby Stephens did a good job as Graves, and finds it funny that Rick Yune knew his angles to continually mog the camera during the opening (and we both think they made Zao bald and weird looking because Rick Yune was too distractingly hot) but that is all the compliments he’s willing to give. But it is the film we have the most conversation about, for how much he loves and hates it and the plot. Also because I’m currently writing a novel that, kind of, fixes some of his major grievances with said plot (AKA Korean Man becomes a White Man and got a knighthood in record time). This also led to us discussing Asian Sean Connery but that’s another point entirely.
It is also, currently , the only film he’s willing to rewatch. Sure, in about five years with a drinking game and some more of our friends, but still…

He also wanted me to mention that he knew going in DAD was going to be rough as he was dealing with the tonal dissonance of the Madonna song playing, me dancing along to it, and Bond being tortured in front of him.

They usually only did this for major movie stars, so maybe it was having Christopher Walken in the cast that made them include it?

The latest album from Fontaines D.C. contains Where Is Gone, which feels very "Bond soundtrack" to me.

Hey! First time making a post in this subreddit I constantly check. Sincere apologies if this has already been discussed.

This isn’t about actors but rather scenes they audition with. I know they always do the Tatiana hotel scene from Russia, and the 2005 auditions had the Xenia Bond Casino Goldeneye scene.

My question is what other audition scenes would you put in there for the actor to play with?

Mine are:

First meeting with Dr No (which asylum did they take you out of)

Spy who loved me- when Anya discovers the lighter and Bond explains he killed her love interest.

Tomorrow never dies- Paris goes to Bond’s hotel room “did I get to close/yes”

Obviously more to choose from- but I like to see how they deal with the villain (dr no here), their thoughts on their job (Anya scene) and past romances (Tomorrow never dies). You sort of get the ego, the realism, and the personal toll of the character.

“You earned it, you keep it old buddy” has got to be one of my favorite moments of Licence to Kill. Ed obviously deserved to die because he was a snake

These are all free on the zon, so I rewatched TLD.

His positives are obvious. The opening parachute scene is fantastic, as is the finale. He is believabIe in all his action scenes. A welcome relief.

I think his problem is he doesn't seem comfortable playing Bond - at least in TLD. He's always got that forced wolf smile look when he's not fighting someone.

He does not have the sauve sophistication or class that Connery had. No patience.

It does not help that he is not given lines, scenes and direction to help further this along.

Maybe the producers recognized this and went for someone who at least looked like they had style.

Did you know there are rejected Bond theme songs that get minorly reworked and released?

GoldenEye - Swedish pop band Ace of Base also recorded a song that was optioned to the studio. Ace of Base's "The GoldenEye" was later reworked into "The Juvenile" which appeared on their Da Capo album in 2002.

Tomorrow Never Dies - Alternative rock band Pulp, wrote a song for the film, which was later retitled "Tomorrow Never Lies" and released as a B-side to their This Is Hardcore album in 1998. Britpop band Saint Etienne recorded their own version of a song titled "Tomorrow Never Dies", which was later released as an exclusive to their fanclub on their Built on Sand album in 1999. Canadian country and pop singer k.d. lang's optioned theme, "Surrender", which was co-written by the film's composer, David Arnold, ended up being used as an end-title song.

Spectre - Radiohead wrote a theme that was rejected for being too somber. They released it themselves on Christmas Day 2015, a couple of months after Sam Smith’s song had already been announced and the film was in theaters. They said at the time that it had been written for the film but wasn’t used.

when Baron Samedi lights a tarot card on fire and casually hands it to his boss.

Something about Kananga taking the card mid-sentence and angrily putting it out just gets to me.

So hard to find serious focused henchmen these days.

Why doesn't it exist? It would be the British/action movie equivalent of Disneyland & much like the Bond movies themselves would appeal to adults as well as kids. Opened by King Charles with Barbara Broccoli, Pierce Brosnan, Teri Hatcher & Denise Richards

Some ideas:

• Theme park rides based on the movies with the Thunderball ride being a version of the log flume, Goldeneye being a rollercoaster, Skyfall based on a drop tower etc with Dodgems, each one based on vehicles from the franchise, Moonraker chair lifts based on the movie etc

• The World of 007: A museum full of costumes & props from the movies including gadgets, weapons & vehicles from cars like the Aston Martin & Lotus to Little Nelly, the Acrostar Jet etc

• For Your Eyes Only - a gallery full of the global artwork of the movie posters as well as original artwork & designs by Ken Adam, Peter Lamont etc

• Scaramanga's Funhouse: a fun house complete with shooting gallery that opens up into a museum/games room dedicated to the villains of the franchise

• A View To A Kill: A cinema that screens each movie in order

• Various screens around the park playing non-stop clips of the most iconic moments

• EoN Studios: create your own movie quality Gun Barrel & Title sequences featuring you, your family or friends in name or image with help from an industry standard film professional

• Lotus sponsored: SUPER TANKER, A water park, multi swimming pool aquatic attraction with slides, floats etc

• Casino Royale: a casino for adults only

• Moneypenny's: an arcade for families complete with Bond theme arcade games, fruit/slot machines etc

• Q's go-cart & motorcycle arena

• Goldeneye: a VR laser tag style game with headset & weapons based on the Nintendo 64 Goldeneye game

• M's Coffee Shop in association with Starbucks or Costa

• Shaken Not Stirred: A fast food restaurant for families in association with KFC, Dominos, IHOP, etc

• Octopussy's: a none fast food restaurant ran by Michelin starred chef

• Living Daylights: a pub, disco & night club for adults only that serves food & alcohol

• A sound system that plays only the theme songs & portions of various musical scores in the franchise

• Statues of each Bond actor & various villains such as Oddjob, Jaws, Mayday etc

• Bond Girls Are Forever: another museum dedicated to just the women in Bonds world

It'd be a nice touch if for each week the park welcomed an actor from one of the movies who would do autograph sessions

I'm sure you guys can come up with other suggestions & ideas. But what do you say? Wouldn't you love to take a family vacation at such a place?

Russell: This Seamaster version, selected for Brosnan, came out two years before Golden Eye. "Would I buy this if James Bond had nothing to do with it?"
EDIT: I'm puzzled by some reactions. MadWatchCollector Russell is critiquing the watch as not being good enough for James Bond. He's attacking the choice of this prop and defending the character of 007 that deserves better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1qJfheADuQ

Seeing a lot of posts lately pitching a tech-billionaire or rogue algorithm villain, and honestly, I really hope Amazon avoids it

​It feels completely overdone right now, and computer-heavy tech plots usually age terribly. Bond works best when it's grounded in real human stakes personal betrayals, gritty espionage, and physical danger, not glowing server rooms

​Keep it traditional.

Seen the release yesterday in Ohio
Always liked the film but now I love it
Much better wh no distractions and big sound Picture

Nothing threw me off . Has hints of past classics

I believe Barbara has cameo at beginning as a bridesmaid

Q was great

Let's talk about GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Released in 1997, this game became one of the most iconic James Bond video games ever made.

From the single-player missions and objectives to the legendary multiplayer mode, GoldenEye 007 helped set the standard for first-person shooters on consoles.

My question is: Where does GoldenEye 007 rank among the greatest James Bond video games of all time?

What are your favorite missions? How was the multiplayer experience for you? And do you think the game still holds up today, or is it mainly nostalgia?

Let's hear your thoughts! 🎮

I just realized that had Rufus Sewell been in contention to play Bond when he was younger, he would made a great bond.

I don't know the first thing about actor analysis. But at first glance, his physical attributes match Fleming's depiction of Bond. He is British. His acting has a wry sense of humor. When needed, he can have an extremely menacing presence– The Man in the High Class has plenty of that. And on and on.

In fact, he would have made for perfect casting. Oh, well.

I forgot how great this movie is!