I actually agree with Stanton and Sherpshutter: for me, You Only Live Twice is a dissapointment with only a good final to save it. I felt bored most of the the time while watching it. I very much enjoyed Octopussey, even though it isn’t very highly regaurded. The stupid gags are as dumb as I expected, but the rest was a pleasent surprise, especially the auction and pre-credit scene. I felt let-down by For Your Eyes Only: there is quite a lot of good stuff in it, especially the stunts and a new hardness in Bond, but I find the music terrible and too many sequences underwhelming.
Prefer For Yours Eyes Only to Octopussy. Moore is younger for a start and this should have been his last Bond. The Man was just getting to old for the part. Can never really get into Octopussy for some reason.
He definitely was getting too old, and he knew it. However, I think it only resulted in disaster in his next (and finally final) appearance as Bond, A View to a Kill, in which he really looked like grandpa with his wooden leg.
I liked Moore so much as Simon Templar that I never really fully thought of him as Bond. -More like The Saint, with gadgets. I loved his 007 outings though, without question.
There are not as much bad gags in Octopussy as many think (but the ones which are there are indeed bad). For Your Eyes Only has also its quantum of those, and not less. But the JB King of those stupid-would-be-funny gags is Moonraker, the worst of all.
I like Maud Adams. She has a comparatively good role, looks still good compared to The Man with the Golden Gun and her age is more suitable for Moore than the other girls in his later Bonds.
And the other girl (Magda) in Octopussy is a fine addition to Adams.
You Only Live Twice belongs for me, just like Moonraker, to the few mechanical and lifeless Bonds. Tomorrow Never Dies and A view to a Kill are the other 2. These 4 are partly boring.
The Long Arm Of The Law - Some ruthless criminals jump the border from Mainland China into Hong Kong to do a heist that should net them enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives but as to be expected not all goes to plan.
Great stuff.
The Soldier (1982) James Glickenhaus
Strange film, strange in a weird kind of way, not your typical action flick from the 80’s, it does own a lot in style to Cronemberg way of filming, a feeling helped by the cold Tangerine Dream (the experts in music for films) soundtrack.
The story is not bad also, even if made in full cold war period, its kind of original, KGB agents try to start a war between Irael and the US, treating through terrorist to blow 80% of the world oil supply, if Israel doesn’t leave Gaza and other occupied territories, of course the US will almost invades Israel. But we got our hero and his team to solve the problems, the action scenes are decent with some slow motion and the usual explotions, theres one nice scene with Kinski in bad guy weird looking mode, but in the end it a too pretentious work for its simple ambitious of another action flick that’s why I use the word weird to describe it. It worth a look if you like Tangerine Dream at least, I did it only for no other reaseon, cause it was Joaquim D’Almeida first film credit. The cover is another fool’s gold case its promises you Bond and some unleash beast character, you got nothing of that, only prog rock.
Last film I sat through was Fear is the Key starring Barry Newman. I thought it was marvellous although it didn’t quite live up to the excitement of the first twenty minutes or so.
Before that I watched Joysticks with my fiancée. We are both big fans of cheesy eighties movies and were hoping for something a bit better from this one. It looked great but turned out to be only okay – I preferred Black Roses last week.
Best section of the film. Thought I was watching Vanishing Point 2 during these minutes.
Kaidan Yukijoro (Ghost Story of the Snow Woman) (Tanaka / 1968)
Have had this sitting in the ‘to watch’ pile for months and for some reason or other have not got around to it until now. Well worth the wait. A beautifully shot and touching ghost story that is more romantic drama than fright fest but very satisfying nonetheless.
Recommended.
[size=12pt]Le Rapace [/size] (1968) Jose Giovanni
How the hell I’ve only watched this one now, this is the closest you can get having Lino Ventura in a SW, from the Zapata branch at least. I really enjoyed this film, trueI can watch all Lino Ventura and Jose Giovanni films in a row, without getting tired so you already notice I’m a fan, now image what it means for someone like me, to have a film that is similar in context to some of my preferred style of SW, couldn’t get much better, and Ventura was an incredible acting talent and one without any training just pure raw talent, you just can’t doubt any of the character he plays.
It’s just seems like just one of those films about the Revolution with the usual ingredients, a strange (with no name in this case) foreign anti-hero that’s hired to kill someone, the idealist young hero (a also very good character actor Xavier Marc) that wants to lead the revolution and free the people, but its much more than that mostly cause of Ventura and Giovanni, the last one must had seen SW before sure, but he did one in his own terms, Ventura was no cowboy.
The time window of the events are the late thirties before WWII and during the Spanish Civil War, some revolutionaries in a fictitious South American country are planning to kill the president and put the grandson of the old president in power for that they hired a mysterious mercenary/killer that doesn’t believe in revolutions or in man and its kindness, betrayal its all there is in these affairs, all this environment isn’t much different from Mexico at the beginning of the xx century.
The first part of the film works slowly like a theatre play we got to know the main characters and the secondary and their reasons and how they study each other trying to know their weak points, the president lover was clearly inspired in Eva Peron, also it really helps that the film language is other French or Spanish depending of who’s speaking.
Some of the dialogue is just great but that was something to expect from a film that starts with a Dostoevsky quote. Giovanni eye to detail is magnificent and is also great in character development and telling a story; we get to know things in the small details, like when Xavier Marc character founds in Ventura wallet some images related to the Spanish civil war, or like when we see the waitress being pushed by the policeman but with the camera filming their only their feet in the stairs, also the action scenes are well done and are believable ones, the rest of the cast are also prefect in their parts with both actress doing very well, but Rosa Furnan (As the President whore) in particular, also the guy with the small monkey was indeed very good.
Contrary to many SW our anti-hero El Straniero how it’s called, never shows his weakness and to a point never has any, except revenge he also doesn’t have even any change of heart, the ending and final scene are pure Giovanni at his best great cinema.
The film doesn’t loose anything to any of Sollima’s best SW I risk saying, and with Giovanni behind the camera it gains a splendid sense of reality, to add to all these, we have great cinematography and a wonderful score Mexican style, what could we ask for more.
Men this great film that every SW aficionado should watch and respect.
5 stars
Is it released anywhere with English sub or dub Topo?
I’m afraid not Yodlaf I know only a French and a Spanish DVD edition and none has English subs, but of course not 100% sure on this
Capone ( 1975 ).
The fall and rise of Al Capone. Not bad or not great. Sylvester Stallone is a standout though in an early role for the star.
“The Beast Must Die” long time since i saw this in fact it was back in the days of bbc 2’s horror double bills on Saturday nights but i still quite enjoyed it and i still got the werewolf wrong! ? :-[
Deep End - Watched this this evening, a simple yet effective film, I liked it but don’t really know why.
Just got back from a screening of Odds Against Tomorrow. Pretty good noir with Harry Belafonte. Caper story with some racial stuff thrown in. Lots of cool shots of New York also.
Marked for Death - Good action scenes (as I expected from the director of Rapid Fire) and a very sinister Jamaican villain.
[quote=“chuck connors brother, post:5658, topic:1923”]Marked for Death - Good action scenes (as I expected from the director of Rapid Fire) and a very sinister Jamaican villain.[/quote]I can’t make up my mind whether this or Out for Justice is my favourite Seagal.
AND SOON THE DARKNESS - This was viewed last night. Although it’s a seriously low-budget affair, it’s actually a very enjoyable flick about two english girls and a killer/rapist that lurks in some isolated place of France. Director Robert Fuest makes sure that the viewer is never sure about who’s the killer and keeps the suspense at a steadily increasing level until the end of the film. I saw that there’s also a remake of it, but I have the feeling that it won’t capture the atmosphere of the original, however if there’s any extra spare time I might see it one day in the distant future