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Watching all the James Bond movies (SPOILERS) (1 Viewer)

Sam Favate

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Since Moore, Dalton and Brosnan, every new Bond is simply a reboot of the character (even if the term reboot didn’t exist at the time). (Lazenby was just a stand-in for Connery.) They may carry over some characteristics or life events (Moore visiting Tracy’s grave, for instance, or mentioning he’d been married), but they’re reboots. Connery was a reboot from the novels, where Bond had served in WWII. As long as they tell entertaining stories, I’m good with it.
 

JimmyO

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Random Casino Royale question: at the very beginning when Bond is not yet a 00, he is told that it takes two kills to earn the license to kill status.

But wait...it takes two kills to get a license to kill? How does that work, exactly? Seems if you're already killing, the license seems a formality. What am I missing?
 
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Tommy R

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Radon Casino Royale question: at the very beginning when Bond is not yet a 00, he is told that it takes two kills to earn the license to kill status.

But wait...it takes two kills to get a license to kill? How does that work, exactly? Seems if you're already killing, the license seems a formality. What am I missing?
Sir, I’m gonna need you to get ALL the way off my back about this…
 

CinemaHouse86

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Might post a revised list after my rewatch. But for now here are my rankings and ratings of the official James Bond movies from EON productions.

No Time to Die: A+
Skyfall: A
Licence To Kill: A
Casino Royale: A-
From Russia With Love: A-
Goldfinger: A-
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: A-
For Your Eyes Only: B+
Goldeneye: B+
The Spy Who Loved Me: B+
Octopussy: B+
Spectre: B
Moonraker: B
The Living Daylights: B
Dr. No: B
Quantum of Solace: B
You Only Live Twice: B
A View to a Kill: B-
Thunderball: C+
Live and Let Die: C+
Diamonds Are Forever: C
The Man With the Golden Gun: C-

I haven’t yet seen Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, or Die Another Day. Planning to watch them in the next month or two.

Anyone else care to post a top 10, top 20, or even top 25 list?
1. Casino Royale
2. Skyfall
3. Goldeneye
4. No Time to Die (could go up after rewatching)
5. From Russia With Love
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
8. Goldfinger
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Spectre
11. The Man With the Golden Gun
12. Thunderball
13. The World is Not Enough
14. The Living Daylights
15. Dr. No
16. The Spy Who Loved Me
17. Quantum of Solace
18. Live and Let Die
19. License to Kill
20. You Only Live Twice
21. Moonraker
22. Octopussy
23. Die Another Day
24. A View to a Kill
25. Diamonds are Forever
 

benbess

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"No Time to Die fell an estimated 56 percent in its second outing to a solid-but-not-spectacular $24.3 million for a 10-day domestic total of $99.5 million. The MGM and EON movie continues to ring up impressive numbers overseas, as all Bond films do. It earned another $54 million this weekend for a foreign tally of $348.3 million and $447.5 million worldwide (and that’s without China, where it lands Oct. 29)."


Break-even is thought by some to be around $800 million for the very expensive NTTD, but since it's almost at $450m now maybe it'll get close? Bond movies tend to do well on streaming and home video, which should help too. Product placement in Bond movies also helps to some degree with the cost of producing them.


"“Skyfall,” reportedly had more than a third of its budget covered ($45 million) by brand partnerships. Omega reportedly saw a 20x increase in sales of its Seamaster watch after Daniel Craig wore it in his first James Bond outing."

 
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Worth

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...Break-even is thought by some to be around $800 million for the very expensive NTTD, but since it's almost at $450m now maybe it'll get close?
I think it will fall somewhere between $600-700 million. With video/streaming/television sales taken into account, it will probably break even.
 

benbess

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Is the James Bond franchise in something of a crisis? I'd guess maybe yes. Here's what Variety says about the US audience for NTTD....

"“No Time to Die” sold more tickets to moviegoers over 45 than any other pandemic-era movie, with 36% of ticket buyers over the age of 45 and 57% over 35."

The flip side of the strength of Bond with older moviegoers, of course, is that there's some weakness with younger viewers. A younger Bond might help, but I wonder if tonally EON should also consider a lighter, more adventure-oriented movie. Starting with Casino Royale all of the Craig movies have tended to veer over into more serious and even grim territory.
 

ScottRE

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I haven't given much thought to a complete ranking of Bond films, but I will offer this...

With the exception of Sean Connery, the first Bond film from every actor portraying the character has been my favorite for that version of Bond...

Sean Connery - Goldfinger
George Lazenby - On Her Majesty's Secret Service ( Not a lot to choose from here :) )
Roger Moore - Live and Let Die
Timothy Dalton - The Living Daylights
Pierce Brosnan - Goldeneye
Daniel Craig - Casino Royale (2006)

Perhaps the novelty of the new Bond, at that time contributes to that preference. (?) Of course the down side to this is that my enjoyment of the new Bond tends to degrade a bit as additional films are released. This does vary depending upon the films.

And for the sake of completeness...

David Niven, Peter Sellers, Terence Cooper, et. al. - Casino Royale (1967)

- Walter.
Perhaps also because they are resets (Connery excepting). Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig all brought a new start to Bond, bringing the series back down to Earth after some excesses as the films strived to top the previous picture.
 

Keith Cobby

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They need new producers, director, writers, get rid of the formula and go back to the books. Introduce a Bentley (he only drives an Aston in Goldfinger) and make new films as prequels with less CGI (like Nolan).
 

ScottRE

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As Bond fans know, in 1983 there was competition between two Bond films, with Sean Connery starring in a so-so sort-of Bond movie called Never Say Never Again. That year's release from Cubby Broccoli doubled down on Roger Moore, in the trailers changing the usual Roger Moore as 007 to Roger Moore IS James Bond. I remember being amused by this at the time, and imagining that taken literally Moore had almost been erased/taken over by Bond.



This movie, directed by John Glen, is actually one of my guilty favorites. It avoids some of the silliness that infused the Bonds of the 70s, but is still somewhat more over-the-top when compared to For Your Eyes Only.

Ahhh the "rear projection" days of the Roger Moore films. The trailer is filled with it.

I really kinda disliked the British trailers for the 70's and 80's Bond flicks. The "Dr. No" theme was dated the year it came out and it always sounded ancient and broadcast out of a cracker box to me.

Having said that, Octopussy was Moore's last good Bond film and he should have ended on it. The back half of the film is relentlessly exciting and he's in top form. He's only just a "little" old looking at this point and was still selling it well.
 

ScottRE

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They need new producers, director, writers, get rid of the formula and go back to the books. Introduce a Bentley (he only drives an Aston in Goldfinger) and make new films as prequels with less CGI (like Nolan).
In what way god back to the books? Dalton tried and fans seemed to hate it (I loved his films). Literal adaptations? Adhere too closely and you have a period piece and Bond was never a period thriller. He was contemporary when written. And, honestly, there aren't that many genuinely good books in the original run. They already did Casino Royale really well and a few of the early films were already pretty faith to the source material.

I don't think audiences would line up for a 1960's era cold war thriller in 2025. However, a series of adaptations on, say, Netflix, would be interesting.

However, if you mean the tone and characters, sure. Less about stunts and spectacle and more about counter espionage and double crosses in the shadows with outsized villains...I'd buy that.
 

ScottRE

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Random Casino Royale question: at the very beginning when Bond is not yet a 00, he is told that it takes two kills to earn the license to kill status.

But wait...it takes two kills to get a license to kill? How does that work, exactly? Seems if you're already killing, the license seems a formality. What am I missing?
That goes back to Fleming. Two "cold blood" kills in the line of duty. Not self defense or wartime, but assigned kills.

To quote Wikipedia:

In the first novel, Casino Royale, and the 2006 film adaptation, the 00 concept is introduced and, in Bond's words, means "that you've had to kill a chap in cold blood in the course of some assignment". Bond's 00 number (007) was awarded to him because he twice killed in fulfilling assignments. (This differentiates from deadly force used by non-00 agents in the course of self-defense or offensive action; plus, in the original time frame of the novel—the early 1950s—many MI6 agents would have had recent war service.)
 

ScottRE

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When Bond films were great, they were some of my favorite films of all time. When they were bad, they were frigging godawful.

Favorites by actor:
Connery: His first 3
Lazenby: I wouldn't even mention him but OHMSS is just a brilliant film
Moore: For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy
Dalton: I love both of his films
Brosnan: Die Another Day (I'm in a minority, but this film is awesome), GoldenEye, TND is fun
Craig: Casino Royale; Skyfall; No Time to Die

Everything else I can take or leave.
 

Sam Favate

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In what way god back to the books? Dalton tried and fans seemed to hate it (I loved his films). Literal adaptations? Adhere too closely and you have a period piece and Bond was never a period thriller. He was contemporary when written. And, honestly, there aren't that many genuinely good books in the original run. They already did Casino Royale really well and a few of the early films were already pretty faith to the source material.

I don't think audiences would line up for a 1960's era cold war thriller in 2025. However, a series of adaptations on, say, Netflix, would be interesting.

However, if you mean the tone and characters, sure. Less about stunts and spectacle and more about counter espionage and double crosses in the shadows with outsized villains...I'd buy that.
I’d love to see adaptations of the John Gardener series of novels that began in 1981. These could be updated for modern audiences, of course, but would allow the series to get back to its literary roots.
 

benbess

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In case someone didn't stick around to the very end credits of NTTD, here there are, including: "JAMES BOND WILL RETURN." I do think another thing EON needs to work on is the frequency of their movies. The pandemic, of course, was part of the reason, but it has been six years since SPECTRE was released. In the early to mid-1960s there was a new Bond movie every year. By the late 1960s they'd moved to every other year. And by the 21st century the average was about four years. How frequently do you think Bond movies should come out?

 
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Walter Kittel

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How frequently do you think Bond movies should come out?

I'd say about every three years. (If it was good enough for Star Wars, it is good enough for 007.) I would guess that more elaborate FX and post production work might account for the longer intervals between releases. Still, three years should be obtainable.

- Walter.
 

Camps

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I think it will fall somewhere between $600-700 million. With video/streaming/television sales taken into account, it will probably break even.
To most people this might seem an absurdly high breakeven level but this is after MGM, EON and other producers have been handsomely compensated. Under traditional Hollywood Accounting the folks waiting for breakeven are the net (vs gross) profit participants.
 

benbess

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There have been several books about the Bond movies over the years, but I actually think this is one of the better ones—even if it is rather unusual. It doesn't have an overarching narrative from the authors, but instead has lengthy quotes in each chapter from directors, composers, actors, producers, critics, etc. It's available as an audiobook, and I've been listening to it slowly over the past week or so.

nobody bond book.jpeg
 

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