Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
November 14, 2012
David Mumpower: Before Ben Willoughby started writing the Survivor recaps, I was unquestionably the biggest Bond fan at BOP. I feel a bit guilty posing this question the week he is on vacation because I know he would have wanted to chime in. I also know that he and I do not see eye to eye on a lot of Bond subjects. Roger Moore, who has taken a beating in this thread, was the 007 of my childhood. I absolutely loved his hammy take as well as his natural chemistry with the best Bond villain ever, Jaws.
I also enjoy Sean Connery's performances yet when I watch those films now, they are so woefully dated that they feel like Hugh Hefner fan fiction. There is less blatant misogyny on Mad Men. I never formed much of an opinion on George Lazenby, the American Bond. Timothy Dalton is to my mind the truest incarnation of the James Bond of the books. I always felt like his performances deserved a better fate. Alas, the Bond franchise was on life support in the 1980s so nobody cared.
Everything changed with the release of Goldeneye, the Skyfall of the 1990s. Pierce Brosnan had been destined for the role of James Bond since the debut of the Remington Steele pilot. I was thrilled that the quality of GoldenEye matched the elegance and style of Brosnan. It is my favorite of what I perceive as the modern (i.e. post-Dalton) Bond films. Daniel Craig does nothing for me ever and I thought Casino Royale was boring. Quantum of Solace unquestionably stands as the worst Bond title in the franchise. I am the one person in the world counting down the moments until Craig gets replaced by somebody new. I am still bitter about Clive Owen never getting the gig.
My all-time favorite James Bond film is The Spy Who Loved Me. I recently noticed that Vudu.com is selling a Roger Moore Digital Bundle that includes Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker and the Spy Who Loved Me. This pretty much justified the existence of the entire internet for me, as well as media storage in the cloud. Only five years ago, the James Bond Ultimate Edition DVD box sets were the heights of media consumption for me. Now, I have the same titles in 1080p without the need for physical storage. Twelve-year-old David would beside himself with jealousy.
Kim Hollis: As I was growing up and HBO started broadcasting 24 hours a day, my dad was a huge James Bond fan. As a result, over time, I watched a number of the films, either in full or in bits or pieces. I have a real affinity for the series because my father loves it so much. It's a very positive correlation for me.
While I do think that Sean Connery is probably the best Bond, since Roger Moore was the Bond of my childhood, I'm partial to the films with him in it - and that includes the ones that most people would think are terrible. Live and Let Die is my favorite of the films, though I'll also admit to having seen Moonraker, Octopussy and View to a Kill more times than I care to admit. I also enjoy Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger a great deal. So I guess I like every movie that Bruce disdains. Funny.
I can't really choose the worst Bond portrayal, because I have actually never seen the Timothy Dalton films and I think I only saw The World Is Not Enough out of the Brosnan movies. I also never saw Lazenby's Bond. I do feel like I've seen enough of the Bond films to pick a couple that stand out as not-so-good, and they include The World Is Not Enough and Quantum of Solace. I pick both of them because despite being action films, I found them utterly boring.
I'm currently reading Casino Royale because I kind of wanted to know how Ian Fleming portrayed the character in his books. So far, I think the book is pretty cold and clinical, but I'm only halfway through. Mostly, it makes me want to go read John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series again and wish that someone would do the same thing with that character that has been done with Bond.
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