Paul is doing a great job on all of these reviews, I think they should be collected and put up on the front page!

I agree Boba Mike on Scorupco. What is odd about her -- when I saw her in a few movies afterwards, I was surprised how much more attractive she was in them. Whether it was the character, her short hair, make-up, her outfits -- she makes no impression in GOLDENEYE at all.

I mean, she looks like this in the movie...



...but looks more like this in everything else...

Amazing how we're so much at variance in these reviews! To me, Goldeneye was a return to fun after the horror of LTK. Brosnan immediately won me over as just right with the right blend of Connery/Moore styles and that it represented a step away from Dalton helped.

I also have to disagree on Scorupco. Her one scene with a bikini top she's radiant. Frankly she has a more refreshingly 'real' quality than Famke Janssen and coming off Cary Lowell who I felt was whiny and who gave us the ultimate cheap laugh in the series with her hissy fit "BS" remark, also an improvement for me.

The Serra score of course was awful and the film's one big flaw. But overall, I liked it and it meant I could reconnect with the series again which I did through the end of Brosnan.

AndyDursin wrote:LAST STAND

7/10

About my take on the film. I even found myself digging the score by "Mowg" (is he his own best friend? ), which had a pleasingly relaxed Morricone/Schifrin vibe in the quieter cues and action scoring that was a few steps over the usual generic chugga-chugga-chugga string ostinato we get from Zimmer's "pets". Arnie has obviously lost a lot of his muscle mass from his prime, but otherwise is game and fun to watch as always, and at least the film doesn't overdose on the I'm Getting Too Old For This Poop self-awareness of his advancing age the way so many films with 80's action stars do these days. It's a modest riff on Rio Bravo, but it's certainly entertaining, and well-shot with minimal shakey-cam (figures how we have to import filmmakers from Korea to get action sequences that are visually competent these days ). No classic, but a solid return to the screen for Arnie.

On THE LAST STAND, in hindsight, one thing that bothered me: did they have to stage the climactic fight on a green screen/backlot set? Maybe the desert was too hot for everyone lol.

Paul MacLean wrote:On the plus side, the film is beautifully shot by Phil Meheux (an immensely gifted and underused cameraman whose most recent credit, sadly, is Here Comes the Boom).

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but does anyone else find it deeply, deeply depressing that so many of the great DPs of the 80's and 90's (Meheux, Dean Semler, Dean Cundey, John Toll, ect.) are wasting their time on crap comedies like Here Comes The Boom, Click, Jack & Jill and Elizabethtown these days? Is this honestly the best work they can get in the era of Teal & Orange?

CABARET

Is it OK for me to admit that I just didn't like this film? (Am I going to be tarred and feathered at FSM when I write this? lol.) Seriously, this cold, empty, slow going -- albeit critically celebrated -- 1972 picture seems like a relic of its time that hasn't translated across the decades. Liza Minnelli stars and seems a tad too polished as Sally Bowes, an American singer trying to make it in Germany during the early '30s and the beginning of the Nazi era. She does a bang-up job with Kander and Ebb's climactic "Cabaret" number, but as a supposedly struggling singer, she's less than convincing, with strong, clear pipes that never miss a note. Michael York co-stars as a bisexual British academic who becomes wrapped up in Bowes' bohemian lifestyle during the decadent final days of idyllic German life before the Nazis took over, while Hermut Griem plays a local playboy who becomes involved with both of them -- sexually -- in a who-cares triangle that falls apart as the film lumbers its way to a downbeat, somewhat ambiguous conclusion. (Marisa Berenson also appears, in a basically meaningless role that simply disappears from the film).

Jay Presson Allen is credited with the screenplay for "Cabaret," which Bob Fosse directed based on the hit Broadway musical (and previous "Berlin stories" by Christopher Isherwood). Discarding most of the musical's book and several Kander/Ebb songs (though the duo wrote some original material for the film to replace what Fosse removed), Fosse's gritty, "realistic" musical is noteworthy because of its then-groundbreaking adult themes and decision to eschew the typical confines of the musical genre for a darker take on mature subject matter. Joel Grey's emcee certainly gives the picture a strange, detached tone right off the bat, but what surprised me the most about "Cabaret" was how passionless the film feels. I never felt anything for the lead characters and their relationships with one another, nor did I find the songs memorable (save the title composition and "Money Makes the World Go Round") or interestingly shot -- they're almost entirely perfunctory, as if they're there to add to Fosse's middle-finger raising to traditional musical benchmarks. That's all fine and good, and certainly "Cabaret" established itself as a dark, moody antidote to Hollywood's big-budget genre bombs of the era ("Goodbye Mr. Chips," "Camelot," "Finian's Rainbow," "Man of La Mancha", etc.). However, when viewed today, the movie looks like, and comes across as, a product of the early '70s, and more of a pretentious statement than an enduring piece of moviemaking. The "love story" is flaccid, the pacing is slow, and the musical component isn't nearly as strong as the film's reputation suggests. When the film ended, I could've cared less about York and Minnelli's relationship, and while I understood the frigid tone that Fosse was striving for here, I can't imagine the point was to make the viewer feel as emotionally detached as I ultimately did.

I certainly realize I'm in the minority on "Cabaret," and admirers of the film have been looking forward, with great anticipation, to Warner's Blu-Ray Digibook release of the picture. Unfortunately, the elements here don't appear to be in the greatest shape, with a general softness and lack of detail permeating the image throughout. Whether it's due to Fosse and cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth employing a gritty look to the film, or Warner working from materials removed from the original negative, the 1080p AVC encoded transfer seldom offers much in the way of high-definition detail. The DTS MA soundtrack is often flat unless a song is present, in which case the sound spreads out to a broader stereophonic stage. Extras include a half-hour retrospective look at the film offering comments from Liza, Joel Grey, Michael York, historians and others; three additional featurettes; a very rough looking trailer; and a commentary track from historian Stephen Tropiano. Still recommended for fans, though the image may disappoint viewers hoping for a revelatory HD presentation of the picture.

The Next Voice You Hear (1952) 6 of 10

-This was one of my Warner Archive discount purchases. I really wish I could have liked this more because there are things about it I find commendable in terms of what it shows regarding how Hollywood once had a conscience regarding the religious sensibilities of mainstream America that has disappeared (and remember that this film was a personal project of Dore Schary, who was the quintessential FDR liberal of the day, and is thus not a product of some producer with what today would be called a "right wing reactionary attitude"). The problem is that the story just really doesn't develop well enough to justify the film's premise, especially since the ultimate gimmick is that we never hear the voice at all. I'm now reading Dore Schary's book about the making of this film which came out at the time of its release ("Case History of A Movie") and the decision had been made that to try and affect a "voice of God" would never have come off well so they avodied it. That kind of skittishness was in keeping with the gimmicks that had existed since the 30s of never depicting Christ on screen because filmmakers felt the public had too many differing interpretations of how it should be. But to all of us who have been comfortable with that ever since DeMille gave us an effective "voice of God" in Ten Commandments, the gimmick of this time in the end damages the film's ability to stand the test of time. It needed to be a story that showed us hearing the voice and being able to identify more with how its impact on the characters affected them.

It is interesting to see the future Mrs. Reagan in what was really her only significant lead role in a film. I also recognized the vocie of future NBC news anchor Chet Huntley as the radio announcer.

I'll be interested in reading more of Schary's book which you can actually download a copy of on-line at archive.org. The film I think was a commendable idea that deserved much better in the way of execution and its a reminder of how having one's heart in the right place is often not enough.

AndyDursin wrote: Joel Grey's emcee certainly gives the picture a strange, detached tone right off the bat...

I remember as a kid seeing clips of Grey's emcee and being completely weirded-out. He reminded me of the Child Catcher in Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang!

Tomorrow Never Dies

If this film is an apology for Goldeneye, I accept it. Tomorrow Never Dies is much better than I remembered it -- very entertaining and and far superior to Brosnan's first turn in 007's shoes. Gone are the pretentious feminist overtones of Goldeneye. M is still tough-as-nails and Bond collaborates (and contends) with a fiercely independent female agent, but this time thankfully without the anti-male propaganda.

The teaser is first-rate -- suspenseful and with a taut ferocity (and fairly believable too). The script has echoes of The Spy Who Loved Me (theft of a nuclear device and maneuvering two nations toward war) but it wears these similarities lightly. There's too much machine gunning for my taste (and I'm pretty sure a helicopter can't hover while tilted forward!), but the action scenes are overall well-conceived. The sequence where Bond drives the BMW by remote control from the back seat goes on a bit long, but is terrifically well-staged (and Brosnan's reaction when the tires self-inflate is priceless).

Brosnan is still kind of a lightweight to me, but he seems to have hit his stride playing the character -- and his performance is aided in no small measure by David Arnold's terrific score (and its liberal references to John Barry). Right from the gunbarrel intro, it's clear Arnold totally "gets" James Bond, and his music hits all the right marks in style and dramatic tone. Equal parts retro and (for the time) contemporary, it is in some ways more of an "old school" Barry score than even Barry's own later Bond scores.

Michelle Yeoh is the best Bond girl in some time -- radiant, sleek, and a phenomenal martial artist. She also has a good chemistry with Brosnan, and I would have liked to have seen her return in a later film.

I'm less fond of Jonathan Price as the heavy, who is a sort of hybrid of William Randolph Hurst and (more obviously) Rupert Murdoch. Price is a great actor, but his performance is a bit over-the-top, and he seems a bit too delicate for the role of a Bond villain intent of destroying the civilized world. Vincent Schiavelli however is amusing as a would-be German assassin.

Tomorrow Never Dies feels more like a traditional 007 adventure than Goldeneye did. There's nothing really new here -- Bond beds a few women, drives a car retrofitted with cool gadgets and saves the world from a megalomaniac -- but it's all presented in a solidly entertaining fashion. Not one of the crown jewells of the Bond series, but a perfectly satisfying picture.

Oddly, my least favorite Brosnan Bond. Yeoh, who I am not familiar with from any other project of hers, was way too over the top (plus, I don't find her that attractive) while Teri Hatcher was an embarrassment in her role, I felt.

But Arnold's score was indeed quite welcome and a return to classic Bond after the Serra disaster.]

I think the publisher that Pryce had more overtones of was Robert Maxwell, who mysteriously died when he fell off his yacht, I think it was.

Eric Paddon wrote:Oddly, my least favorite Brosnan Bond. Yeoh, who I am not familiar with from any other project of hers, was way too over the top (plus, I don't find her that attractive) while Teri Hatcher was an embarrassment in her role, I felt.

But Arnold's score was indeed quite welcome and a return to classic Bond after the Serra disaster.]

I think the publisher that Pryce had more overtones of was Robert Maxwell, who mysteriously died when he fell off his yacht, I think it was.

Lol...Eric, you and I are definitely divided on our opinions of the Bond films! I think TND is Brosnan's strongest film and would be my favorite. GE was okay but not great. TND worked really well due in part to Yeoh (who I find attractive) and how dynamic her charater was next to Brosnan. I enjoyed the story and the action sequences and felt the drama was compelling. It also had (arguably) one of the best "should have been the title song" songs with Surrender by kd Lang...why they wated their time with the horrible Sheryl Crow song is beyond me.

TWINE had potential but they blew it in two major ways for me: 1) they should have kept Elektra as the villain without some goofy dopey male villain with a bullet or a piece of metal lodged in his head (?) She had enough charisma and venom to carry the movie as the primary villain. They totally undercut her. 2) Denise Richards as a physicist? I can't even buy that in a fantasy world.

DAD was awful...Hallie Berry? Awful. Invisible BMW for Bond? Ridiculous. When you want to see the villain (Frost) defeat the Bond girl (Jordan) or see the Bond girl drown in the ice palace, that's not good! Lol...I will say one positive thing about DAD though - excepting Madonna's cameo and title song (who frankly I have never cared for or respected in any way, so her presence in anything is always unwelcome to me), the sword fight sequence was (and still is) one of the best fight sequences in a Brosnan film. I remember walking out of the theater and telling my friend that that sequence reminded me of Errol Flynn/Basil Rathbone sword fights (Robin Hood in particular) - well choreographed and executed with a lot of intensity (but no bend swords after it was done).

TOMORROW NEVER DIES is my favorite Brosnan film also by a wide margin. It's not a great Bond movie, but it works for a number of reasons:

-Tightly edited and paced by Roger Spottiswoode -- one of the few Bonds under 2 hours, especially in the "modern" era
-Brosnan more relaxed and confident in this film
-More of a sense of humor than Goldeneye
-Arnold's score is the best non-Barry score of the whole series
-K.D.lang's "Surrender" is one of the best Bond songs, period (even though it's relegated to the end credits)
-Solid old-school stunts

The end is another Spy Who Loved Me-like submarine climax, and it fizzles out, but by and large I've warmed to the film a lot over the years. I think Paul's reaction is right in line with mine.

Sadly, the good vibes of this film did not spill over to the other Brosnan films, though I still contend there are some good elements in Die Another Day (a villain whose motives are somewhat interesting; fun in-joke references to the earlier films) before it gets bogged down in too many derided action sequences. The World Is Not Enough is a film I don't care for at all and dislike even more.

9.5/10 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Just came from seeing SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and it just blew me away. Nice to see Bradley Cooper in a role that shows what he is capable of; Jennifer Lawrence is feisty yet heartbreaking; DeNiro has his best work in YEARS; and writer/director David O. Russell just never ceases to amaze me: he can do intimate little romances like this film, off-kilter comedies like FLIRTING WITH DISASTER and military epics like THREE KINGS and never feel like he is slumming or just phoning it in. A truly marvelous romantic comedy that does not have a forced or contrived ending-do not miss this film!

Jedbu wrote:9.5/10 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Just came from seeing SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and it just blew me away. Nice to see Bradley Cooper in a role that shows what he is capable of; Jennifer Lawrence is feisty yet heartbreaking; DeNiro has his best work in YEARS; and writer/director David O. Russell just never ceases to amaze me: he can do intimate little romances like this film, off-kilter comedies like FLIRTING WITH DISASTER and military epics like THREE KINGS and never feel like he is slumming or just phoning it in. A truly marvelous romantic comedy that does not have a forced or contrived ending-do not miss this film!

I had the same reaction when I saw it in November! I initially thought it was really odd that it took them 2 months to roll it out nationally and many people are just seeing it now, but the strategic process seems to have worked. Word of mouth is building and the box-office is strong too. Peaking at the right time for award season.

My favorite film of 2012 (of what I've seen)!