I find Barry's underwater music in Thunderball as repetitive as the sequences themselves...plodding and sticks in your brain for days afterwards lol

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1/10) - easily for me the worst Bond movie of the lot. The "darker side of Bond" Scaramonga is one of the weakest and least interesting Bond villains in the series, and unfortunately the film failed to deliver on the "darker side of Bond" angle except for one table conversation. In addition, it is hard for me to accept that someone as ditzy and stupid as Mary Goodnight could be working for MI6; she is absolutely worthless throughout the whole film. The inclusion of JW Pepper is nothing but a sore thumb in the time he is on the screen. I will admit that I did like some of Barry's score, especially in how it built suspense towards the end of the film. BUT...the final duel between the two made no sense to me and was very anti-climactic. Overall the film seemed more to be to be a series of vignettes than a whole story of its own, and while I am fine with them not taking everything so seriously, the film was too clownish to take anything seriously. This is a dull and boring film that does not get better with age.

BLUE JASMINE (9/10) - Despite being quite the downer movie, I was extremely impressed with this Woody Allen film; I think between this film, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, and TO ROME WITH LOVE Allen is hitting a final high mark in his late period of filmmaking. Blanchett is a joy to watch - she meticulously expresses Jasmine's different moods/states of mind extraordinarily well, and it was the twists and turns of the story, the progressive revelation of Jasmine's situation through flashbacks and memories that makes this movie interesting. Allen did an incredibly good job peeling away the layers of the onion until he got to the core, so the tension is maintained throughout the movie as more and more of the mystery of Jasmine is revealed. At times I felt sorry for her, and at other times I felt like she got what she deserved - I would root for her to overcome her circumstances, and then I would root for her to fail. I give credit to Blanchett's performance for that, and by the end of the film I felt both compassion and repulsion for Jasmine. There is a lot of depth to this film, and the supporting cast was good as well (I was not expecting Andrew Dice Clay to turn in a sympathetic performance). I am really happy with this one. I hope MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT continues the trend of good, solid filmmaking and stories by Allen.

Golden Gun I don't think is that bad. It's weak compared to others but there isn't a single pre-Craig EON Bond film (except for Licence To Kill) that I'd ever give a rating below 6. I tend to like it more than Moonraker simply because its not so outsized.

The J.W. Pepper antics I admit we could have done without because the idea of him on vacation in Thailand is pretty hard to swallow. For people wondering why this character was put in Bond films to begin with, I think he was meant to be a knock-off of the "Dodge Sherriff" an iconic character in TV commercials from 68 to 75 for Dodge/Chrysler cars.

This is from 1970, three years before LALD and this character is J.W. Pepper before there was a J.W. Pepper.

Eric Paddon wrote:The J.W. Pepper antics I admit we could have done without because the idea of him on vacation in Thailand is pretty hard to swallow. For people wondering why this character was put in Bond films to begin with, I think he was meant to be a knock-off of the "Dodge Sherriff" an iconic character in TV commercials from 68 to 75 for Dodge/Chrysler cars.

This is from 1970, three years before LALD and this character is J.W. Pepper before there was a J.W. Pepper.

Lol...that commercial is a keeper! Hard to deny the connection there.

mkaroly wrote:THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1/10) - easily for me the worst Bond movie of the lot.

I realize James Bond is fanciful to begin with, but I could never buy Scaramanga's elaborate island hideaway. He has as staff of, what -- two people? And somehow they are able to maintain that ludicrously preposterous "fun house" and solar power plant? I have to admit I found Scaramenga interesting in one regard -- that we are actually privy to why he became the man he did (the death of the elephant), which hasn't been the case with most Bond villains (who are usually just driven by ruthless greed). Bond himself is also kind of a dark character in this movie (the way he roughs-up Maud Adams). Still, I dislike Goldeneye and Die Another Day even more!

Agreed on Blue Jasmine, a compelling film which commands your attention yet is hard to look at all at the same time. I personally found it unsettlingly familiar, as Jasmine reminded me a bit of my aunt (who likewise married a wealthy man, became a substance abuser, and then moved across the country after the marriage ended, and was never quite right again). My only criticism is that although the film is set in San Francisco, some of the characters talk like "New Yawkahs". I suppose I'm nit-picking, but it stuck-out to me.

Paul MacLean wrote:

mkaroly wrote:THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1/10) - easily for me the worst Bond movie of the lot.

I realize James Bond is fanciful to begin with, but I could never buy Scaramanga's elaborate island hideaway. He has as staff of, what -- two people? And somehow they are able to maintain that ludicrously preposterous "fun house" and solar power plant? I have to admit I found Scaramenga interesting in one regard -- that we are actually privy to why he became the man he did (the death of the elephant), which hasn't been the case with most Bond villains (who are usually just driven by ruthless greed). Bond himself is also kind of a dark character in this movie (the way he roughs-up Maud Adams). Still, I dislike Goldeneye and Die Another Day even more!

Good point about Bond being a darker character in this film in how he roughs up Maude Adams' character. If the point of the film was that Scaramenga was a darker side of Bond, they did a really poor job of making that connection in the film. The little that is there (Bond roughing up the girl, the lunch conversation) is not enough. And am I to assume that Bond retrieved the gun he dropped underneath the funhouse before making his way back up to the top to kill Scaramenga, or was the gun he used the weapon the wax statue was holding which then would have had to have been a real gun? I don't know - I don't usually put a lot of thought into a Bond movie but there is so much I find wrong about TMWTGG that it is hard to watch (though I do chuckle at the "Phuyuck" wine Bond drinks in the film). In addition to this film, the two other weakest Bond films for me are A VIEW TO A KILL and DIE ANOTHER DAY.

Paul MacLean wrote:Agreed on Blue Jasmine, a compelling film which commands your attention yet is hard to look at all at the same time. I personally found it unsettlingly familiar, as Jasmine reminded me a bit of my aunt (who likewise married a wealthy man, became a substance abuser, and then moved across the country after the marriage ended, and was never quite right again). My only criticism is that although the film is set in San Francisco, some of the characters talk like "New Yawkahs". I suppose I'm nit-picking, but it stuck-out to me.

Now that I think about it, you are totally right about that! Allen probably should have just set the story in NY for the whole movie.

A little side note. I finally went through the two vintage TV specials in the Bond Blu-Ray set, "The Incredible World Of James Bond" from 1965 and "Welcome To Japan, Mr. Bond" from 1967. The latter is absolutely priceless for its wraparound material of Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyan as Moneypenny and Q specially done for this program. It's like discovering a whole new "lost" mini-movie in the series with the two who appeared in more Bond movies than any one else (and Lois, I have to say looks her absolute best)

OTOH, the Ford Motor company's vintage 1965 bit wrapped around the shooting of the highway chase car explosion in "Thunderball" is one of those "you've got to be kidding me!" type things! Still, kudos for including it among the other vintage material.

I consider the first three Bond films of the 70's (Diamonds Are Forever, Live & Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun) the low point of the series strictly from a "production values" standpoint...they're pitifully low-key in nature, with threadbare special effects and stuntwork and a dearth of spectacular action...like Paul said, TMWTGG's island hideaway for Christopher Lee's villain couldn't even afford more than two jumpsuit-sporting henchmen. That's compared to the HUNDREDS of stuntmen getting shot, bludgeoned and incinerated in late-60's extravaganzas like You Only Live Twice and OHMSS. That's what made The Spy Who Loved Me so exciting as the 70's started winding down...it was a 007 adventure that the producers actually spent lavishly on and seemed fully engaged by, not just farting out a new entry every two years with nickel & dime production values. Granted, they took the "Bigger & Better" motto too far with Moonraker (a movie so expensive they vowed never to spend that much again...even a decade later, Licence To Kill had the same $30 million pricetag), but at least you could see the money up there on the screen.

Oh, and inserting that goofy slide whistle sound effect over that legitimately impressive corkscrew car jump in TMWTGG is a low point in the Moore tradition of spoiling top-notch stuntwork with inane jokes (down there with Bond emitting a TARZAN YELL while swinging on a vine in Octopussy).

For me, another nadir in the Moore Bond series was the use of the CE3K tones as the security code in MOONRAKER.

mkaroly wrote:though I do chuckle at the "Phuyuck" wine Bond drinks in the film

For all TMWTGG's faults, that was one of the funniest gags of the entire Bond series!

Monterey Jack wrote:Oh, and inserting that goofy slide whistle sound effect over that legitimately impressive corkscrew car jump in TMWTGG is a low point in the Moore tradition of spoiling top-notch stuntwork with inane jokes (down there with Bond emitting a TARZAN YELL while swinging on a vine in Octopussy).

If you want to see the scene without the whistle, check out at about 8 minutes into this sequence from the 1983 "James Bond The First 21 Years" documentary .

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1/10) - easily for me the worst Bond movie of the lot

I agree with you Michael. Growing up I didn't care for it, and even now when I try and watch it, it literally hurts. Everything about the film feels phoned in and plastic -- Barry's score is tired too (the theme song is one of the worst).

LIVE & LET DIE is a great deal more entertaining for me. It might feel like Bond in a "Shaft" type of '70s exploitation picture, and it lacks the scope of the later Moore films, but at least it's alive. MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is like looking at a wax museum for 2 hours.

It's no surprise Eon took an extended hiatus after it to get their act together and really nail it with THE SPY WHO LOVED ME.

AndyDursin wrote:Barry's score is tired too (the theme song is one of the worst).

Interestingly enough, even Barry himself hated the song, and felt it was the worst and most ininspired song he ever wrote!

I believe it Paul!

I should add -- though I agree with Michael on the analysis, I would not give MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN a 1 on a 10 scale. Even the worst Bond film is at least a 4

Paul MacLean wrote:

mkaroly wrote:though I do chuckle at the "Phuyuck" wine Bond drinks in the film

For all TMWTGG's faults, that was one of the funniest gags of the entire Bond series!

Along with the Chu Mei line. lol