Bond II: From Russia With Love
-Now, that's more like it.I won't be able to sustain this pace but I've finished film #2 anyway.
-First, there's a pre-credit sequence and gun-barrel intro. The latter features a dude who is obviously not Connery (it's a stuntman) but progress noentheless.
Also, I see why it works for us (the viewers) but why does the dude learning to kill James Bond have to kill a guy that actually looks like James Bond?
This irks me in much the same way it irks me that Tony Danza always plays guys named "Tony."
-More rich Austin Powers stuff. Blofeld and his cat (natch), Rosa Kelb/Frau Farbissene and the calling of people #3, #5 etc.
-Also, I'm pretty sure there is a lesbian subtext going on in the Kleb-Tatiana scene. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
-I've wondered this before but...why is Moneypenny American? No one mentioned, it's never explained. She is the personal assistant of the head of the British Secret Service, for gawds sake! (And a dirty wicked flirt, y'all!)
-It's Q! They don't call him Q but it's major progress.
The amazing thing about Q is he always PRECISELY anticipates 007's needs. Bond never reaches for a belt buckle that turns into a laser when he needs a can of shaving cream that turns into a car. No -he never has anything left unused either. Nice.
-This film has belly dancing! Then it turns into a gypsy catfight! Can you ASK for more? I must admit, I don't remember all this gypsy stuff at all. It's amazing, frankly, how consistently non-PC Bond is.
-Why did it take them so long to figure out how to make movie blood? It's DARK red people! Why is that so hard?
-Pedro Armendariz is really great. It makes it all the more depressing to read that he had cancer (from filming some movie near nuclear test sites) so they filmed his scenes early on. Then he committed suicide.
-Robert Shaw will be first, not the last, to explain WAY to much to Bond before (not) killing him. Jackass. And "Old Man?" Really?
-The train fight rocks and remains one of the best scenes in any Bond flick. It's the cool lighting, the ferocity...the only minus is that ends quickly. The close-quarters fight in Kill Bill must go on for 10 minutes and this is maybe 2. Maybe.
-Goldfinger's next. Cool. The only film I haven't seen AT ALL is the Lazenby one and it's not toooo far away. I've even seen the original Casino Royale and I heartily reccomend you avoid it at all costs. I don't know how they could have a movie with people like Woody Allen, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles and make it suck so very hard...but they did.
(I could go on! David Niven, John Huston, William Holden, Deborah Kerr....)
I can't think of a single film - or artistic endeavour of ANY kind - that has such a high talent/suckage ratio.
posted by Heavy Early at 9:58 PM
2 Comments:
In the novel, Rosa Klebb was a raging lesbian (not that there is anything wrong with that) who practically mollested Tatiana during their first meeting. Also, on the whole Bond-as-rapist note, he's at it again in the spa scene early in Thunderball.
The spa scene AND the fight in the hay.
In one instance he kisses a masseuse who fights him off until he gets her and the other engages him in martial arts fighting until he pins her. Romantic.
The important lesson I've learned from this is that all a woman really wants is a good fuck - and then they're in love, right?
This definitely works for Bond - the only question is how about the rest of us?
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