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James Bond: Daniel Craig Era
281 Plays3 years ago
With the release of No Time to Die, Adam and Fraser (Satsunami) look back on the era of Daniel Craig's run as the famous spy James Bond. From 2006 to 2021, do these films still hold up today? Or are they a spectre of their former selves? Join us as we dive into this period of the spy's run.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview of Daniel Craig's Bond Films
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chad Tsunami. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Chad Tsunami. I'm Sad Tsunami and I am proud to welcome you to this royal night with the skies falling and we have a quantum grade episode. Joining me today is a fellow specter, Adam. Adam, welcome back.
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello, hello, double of Adam, reporting for duty. Yeah, I was gonna make a pun in the new film, but yeah, there was no time to try. There I was, I stood up and gave you an ovation. Ah, thank you, thank you. Much appreciated. So, as you can tell by those undercover puns, we are indeed focusing on, quite honestly, a very particular set of films, that of course being the Daniel Craig James Bond films. And I've got to say, what a rollercoaster these films are.
00:01:03
Speaker
Oh, definitely. They definitely cover the spectrum of good to bad to boring. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to give our opinions away too fast, but there is definitely a 50-50 split when it comes to these films. Most definitely there's, yeah.
00:01:20
Speaker
they are quite divisive. I mean, sorry, before we get into that, it cast your mind back to 2006, you know, the year before games got good, of course, and the world was anticipating a new James Bond film.
00:01:39
Speaker
The kids weren't on my lawn. Chat Tsunami didn't exist. It was a darker time. We all had money, the financial recession. It's dark times nowadays, that's what I'm saying. So it's like a glimmer of light. But just the kind of contextualised art experience.
Personal Bond Beginnings: Casino Royale's Impact
00:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, what is your relationship with the series?
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, so the first James Bond film I ever saw was Die Another Day, which was Pierce Brosnan's last film and the one just before Casino Royale. So I'd never seen a James Bond film before, but I went to a friend's birthday party and that's where we all went. And yeah, like I loved it. And then I subsequently went back and watched all the other James Bond films. So Casino Royale was the first Bond film that I was really excited about and was really looking forward to seeing in the cinema. And yeah, I remember seeing it and loved it and was excited to see where the rest of it went.
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah I was actually just trying to think myself when I got into the series because I know my dad he is like a absolutely massive fan of the series. In fact he was phoning me just before we started recording this podcast to ask if I wanted to go see the new one or
00:02:44
Speaker
Which, by the time this episode comes out, it will be coming out tomorrow. So, if you're listening to this on the day of release, it is indeed coming out the day after. Again, you know, we will get to that. But, yeah, he was a big fan and there always used to be the old films used to come on TV. So, for example, you had the Roger Moore classics, the Sean Connery, the George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton. Bless him. Probably.
00:03:09
Speaker
And the rest of them, you know, Piers Brosnan. What's the one we're talking about today? I don't know, anyway.
Bond Transition: From Brosnan to Craig
00:03:17
Speaker
Craig David? Yeah, Craig David, yeah. Cristino Royale with Cheese. Yeah, that was his first film. I remember sitting with him and watching like all these old James Bond films and like, I can't remember my first film with James Bond in the cinema. It must have been a Piers Brosnan one because Piers Brosnan was definitely the kind of, he was still James Bond in that era, wasn't he, in the 90s.
00:03:39
Speaker
That's when he was hitting his stride. He was very popular. James Bond was kind of going through, let's face it, James Bond was going through like a kind of facelift at that time. You were saying that earlier about like certain lines that, and I think it was Golden Eye, wasn't it? Yeah. That tried to distance like the Bond and the Piers Brosnan films from like the Roger Moore era, the Sean Connery, the George Lazenby, the David Niven one, whatever the hell that was. We don't talk about that, we never will.
00:04:09
Speaker
It's going on the pile with Turkish Star Wars. We don't talk about that. But you know, it's like they were trying to distance themselves and then we get to 2002 and Piers Brosnan's tenure basically comes to a close, doesn't it? Yeah, it comes to a... the train literally crashes off the side of an iceberg.
00:04:25
Speaker
I was laughing at this because I was watching a retrospective, I think a couple of years ago, and someone said that because there was so much advertising attached to dying the other day, that they called it, or they kind of nicknamed it, no time to buy or something
Influence of Other Spy Films on Bond's Evolution
00:04:40
Speaker
like that.
00:04:40
Speaker
It wasn't the best of the series at the time, I have to say. And I think probably that's due to other films coming out. You've got your Mission Impossibles, your Jason Bourne. I think Jason Bourne is special, although see personally, I don't know how you feel about this but I don't see the appeal for Jason Bourne. I re-watched it recently and I thought the action was good and everything but I thought...
00:05:06
Speaker
Oh, I love the board. In fact, I've only ever seen the first trilogy. I've not seen any of the later ones, so I can't speak to them, but I love those films. I think they're fantastic. I don't know whether it's something you need to watch as a collective, because I remember being disappointed at the ending, because it kind of just ends the first one, I mean. If you watch it as a kind of collective, then I think definitely. Anyway, this isn't a Jason Bournemouth story, that was a white.
00:05:31
Speaker
That was a total tangent there. Those kind of like spy films were coming out, you know, and it was showing like a more gritty side of spy work. Like, would you agree with that? The landscape was changing. Sorry. Oh, definitely. Oh, definitely. Sorry, I was too eager to agree with you there, right?
00:05:49
Speaker
I jumped into quick, no, you're totally right. Like it was, it was a far more grittier, a more like quote unquote realistic as well, obviously still said everything, but it was, it felt like a far more realistic take on what it was actually like to be like, you know, an international, an international spy. So I think the Bond films kind of really had, and because the Bourne films was a crazy popular, you know, like, I think that the Bond films kind of had to react to that, you know, and respond to that moving forward.
00:06:14
Speaker
and then of course when Daniel Craig came along, I think. I mean, it's the same with any other franchise, isn't it, that has like a change in lead actor? You know, like Doctor Who is like the other example for all the Britons listening out there. And Americans, and I know it's popular over there now, but you know it's like people get so attached to an actor and then all of a sudden they bring in a new guy and you know it's like the five stages of grief. It's like, I don't want them.
00:06:40
Speaker
And then eventually, you know, you accept him by the end of it. Yeah, he brought quite a more gritty version. Similar to the other spy films that were coming out at the time. Yeah, they were gritty. What was your experience? I'm quite curious, because I know you said to me that you went to the cinema to see this
Casino Royale: A Standout in the Bond Series
00:06:56
Speaker
film. Like, what was the general feeling coming out of it?
00:06:59
Speaker
I can't remember if I went to see this with my dad or I went as a school trip. I might have done both, actually. I might have gone to see it like both occasions, but I remember personally myself coming out and absolutely loving it and like just thinking it was amazing. I was absolutely drawn into it. And as far as I don't think I'd seen the Bourne films yet. So it wasn't like I was, I really liked those and I was like, Oh, that reminds me of that. I don't know. I just really was just, I really liked it. And I remember a lot of people at school really liking it as well. It was really only,
00:07:26
Speaker
It was only like in my later years, like my later years, but it sounds like I'm bloody 80 now, but like it was only later on when I was at university and stuff that I remember kind of meeting people who didn't like it. And I was like, Oh, you know, do you ever have that feeling where you just presume something's really popular and then you're like, Oh wait, people don't like this? There's all kinds of opinions to this. And I was really surprised, but I know some people didn't like it, you know, maybe still don't, but yeah, like I absolutely loved it at the time. And I don't remember meeting anybody who had a contradictory opinion.
00:07:53
Speaker
I have to admit I was in the camp of not liking it to begin with and the only reason I say this is because I don't know if I saw this in the cinema. I'm trying to remember. I don't think I did see this in the cinema but I remember watching it with my family and they weren't too keen on it and I wasn't really and the only reason is that again it's like you were saying like you weren't influenced by like
00:08:14
Speaker
you know the Jason Bourne films and I think for me it was more to do with it didn't resemble the old Bond films you know I was so used to like you know you turn on the TV during the day and you see like the Roger Moore films the Sean Connery and they've got the wacky gadgets and you know the kind of spectacle and it's all kind of quite light-hearted spy work
00:08:36
Speaker
if that's the thing. You know there was still the grittiness of it but you still had that fun and things and then when you go to Casino Royale it was like all dark and brooding and things like that. So at the time when I was younger I really didn't like it but going back as an old man clearly I'm right in there with you because the two non-80 year olds of course
00:08:57
Speaker
identify as an 80 year old. It's not a phase mom, it's who I am. Speak up. But yeah, that aside, I really didn't like it and then I rewatched it when I was older and I absolutely love it now.
Vesper Lynd's Impact in Casino Royale
00:09:10
Speaker
It's one of my favourite films. I would genuinely go as far to say it is like in my top five Bond films.
00:09:16
Speaker
like it's just so when you watch it when you're younger you know and we will get to like in detail but it is just there's so much like details that you don't really pick up on and yeah it's just a fantastic film but then of course you have the subsequent films which
00:09:32
Speaker
kind of have a rocky footing and after that I always remember a lot of people not really on board. I think it was received well. I do think it's in all I was received well generally but I remember hearing a lot of people saying they didn't like it because they didn't have the gadgets and didn't have the clips. Daniel Craig isn't as charismatic as the ones who came before him.
00:09:53
Speaker
I can see that, but it is definitely an interesting entry into the series, and it is going to be interesting exploring this particular era of Bond with you tonight. It is going to be great. So yeah, we are about to dive in, but before we do, here are some messages. Welcome to Shatsunami, a variety podcast that talks about topics from gaming and films to streaming in general interest.
00:10:19
Speaker
Previously on Chatsunami, we discussed Game of the Decade, Deadly Premonition, the romantic thriller, Birdemic, and listen to us get all sappy as we discuss our top 5 Christmas movies.
00:10:31
Speaker
If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can find us an anchor, Spotify, YouTube and all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated. So speaking of being all in for a particular film, you were saying there that you were impressed by Casino Royale at the time. Did that, and this again sounds like a morbid question, but did that give you hope for the rest of the run of Daniel Craig's tenure?
00:10:57
Speaker
It definitely did. I was really excited to see where it would go. Some lived up to it, some others didn't. I remember being really excited to see where this character was going to go.
00:11:11
Speaker
That's the thing about Casino Royale, I rewatched it again yesterday, just in preparation for this, and it stands out, I think it's the most unique of any of the Bond films. It feels so different, even compared to some of its direct sequels, some of Craig's Lair Bond films.
00:11:27
Speaker
It just feels such a separate thing, and I think that's why I like it so much. Like, it just has this kind of, like, raw edge to it, and that's really fitting for this being, like, this is, like, a true origin story. You know, this is, like, Bond, this is Bond becoming, basically, you know, the agent and the person that he is in later life and stuff. And I just thought the film captured that so well, and it just, it was just such, like, the story, I think, is excellent. I love the characters in it. I don't think there's a weak character.
00:11:58
Speaker
Certainly out of all the major ones, I think all the major characters are just excellent in it and play their parts so well. The actors do amazing jobs. The action scenes in this, I was rewatching that. There's a bit quite early on in the film set in Madagascar where Bond has to chase down this bomb maker and they have this parkour style chase through a construction site and up a crane and that is still incredible to watch. It is amazing.
00:12:22
Speaker
Just even the opening to this film, the opening to this film is so different from, usually with a Bond film, like the way a Bond film opens is like, it'll be some exotic location, and then, you know, there'll be a bit, it's quiet, quiet, quiet, and then the action starts and there's usually some kind of crazy stunt, like, you know, whether it's like, The Spy Who Loved Me with the M...
00:12:39
Speaker
him skiing off the edge of the cliff and then opening the Union Jack parachute, or Goldeneye where it's him jumping off the dam, you know, things like that. This one starts with basically a conversation, shot in black and white, in just the rest of this incredibly brutal fistfight in a public restroom. But it sets the tone so perfectly. I just think everything about this film is amazing. The more I watch it, the more I just love it and appreciate it.
00:13:03
Speaker
I definitely think it is a retrospective film, especially for me in the sense that when I first saw it, it didn't entice me because I was sitting there thinking, oh, you know, he's so violent and thuggish, this isn't James Bond. And that's the thing, though. In Casino Royale, technically, he isn't James Bond. And by that, I don't mean like, you know, literally, of course he's James Bond, but he's not the character that we've grown up to know and not doctor know. OK, there's your only pun of the night.
00:13:34
Speaker
The puns never stop here dammit. That's the thing though, in the film, just to kind of contextualise it, the film follows Bond just getting, like as you said, at the very beginning it starts off with this very unique like black and white. It's him having a conversation with a dirty agent and on the other side it's this very visceral
00:13:53
Speaker
brutal fight between two guys and then after that, during the credits against his double-o starters, can I just say the theme song for this absolutely is, it's incredible and the visuals that go with it, it's all the you know the casino iconography and it is just absolutely stunning. One of my favourite openings of all time and you know it's this story about him building up his identity as double-o-seven
00:14:20
Speaker
You know, because basically he goes around in the axe very thuggish. To the extent there's like one particular scene I think that encapsulates this perfectly. So the film mainly focuses on Bond trying to win like a high stakes poker game. And
Unique Style and Departure from Bond Tropes
00:14:33
Speaker
you think, okay, that's not very interesting. And I have to admit, when I first watched that, I was like, okay, this isn't very interesting. But when you rewatch it, you can see the dynamics between Bond and Le Chiffre who's like the, you know, the main antagonist in this film.
00:14:47
Speaker
Did you feel this way as well that it's quite interesting Le Chiffhe isn't a diabolical, you know, mustache twirling villain? Like a typical Bond villain. He's just like a guy who needs money. He's an accountant, basically. He's a glorified accountant. He's basically, as you say, a very problematic gambler. Did you really get a little help with that?
00:15:09
Speaker
the dynamic between them is so great. And as I was saying there before, there's a scene where Bond tries to stab and push him right in the middle of the game just because he loses a hand. Oh, he loses all his money. And he just grabs a knife and he's just thinking, right, okay, I'm gonna stab the chief. And you're like, what's wrong?
00:15:29
Speaker
But that's the thing though, this is like, far gone from what we know as Bond, you know, the kind of womanise- I mean, he still is a womaniser but he's got like a terrible temper in this. It's not like anything, I mean, maybe except for Timothy Dalton or maybe Sean Connery to an extent but you don't really see that for a lot of Bonds, that they lose their temper that quickly. There has to be like a kind of crescendo into you've pushed the button, you know, you shouldn't have done that.
00:15:56
Speaker
Oh, definitely. I think you draw a really interesting comparison. Certainly for ones like Moore and Brosnan, it always felt like they were very much in control of their emotions, and especially Moore. You could argue they were quite devoid of emotion. Maybe Connery, to an extent, as well. Dalton's Bond does have some emotional outbursts, but it's like they're basically predicated by, in license to kill, it's predicated by his best friend.
00:16:19
Speaker
being, like, savagely, just savage, basically, you know, and that's what unleashes, like, he can't restrain his fury anymore. But as you say, with Craig's bond, like, it's just, he seems to just be on this, like, this razor's edge of just, like, at any moment, he's just gonna fall into this just, like, well of emotion and anger and just react. So it's a really interesting contrast.
00:16:38
Speaker
This might be a controversial opinion but I do think that Craig's bond is the best in Casino Royale. I think he suits it perfectly and I don't feel as if his bond like lives up to... it sounds terrible to say like oh he's not as good in the other films which I'm not like saying like as an actor or anything because he is a great actor but I feel as if his bond is the best in Casino because he is again this volatile very angry very violent man who
00:17:08
Speaker
you know, he's just triggered easily and he thinks, oh, I'm a double low, I can do anything, I've got my license to kill. And he soon comes to realise, you know, he gets humbled very fast in this film, you know, from torture scenes to basically spoilers ahead.
00:17:25
Speaker
In case you didn't know, spoilers ahead, to the extent where he loses the love of his life. And I do think that Eva Green, who plays Vesper Lynn, she is by far one of the best and most interesting Bond. I don't want to say Bond girls because I know there's a whole thing, but one of the most interesting love interests
00:17:43
Speaker
but because usually for Daniel Craig or not Daniel Craig but for Bond especially like as a whole they have this really weird thing with the love interest where it's like either they're just let's face it either they're just parodies of themselves you know you've got Dr. Goodhead and Moonraker you know you've got all of these like kind of parodies and then you've got other ones that are supposed to be the tough you know ones that really don't like him was it Jinx and
00:18:10
Speaker
die another day yeah which i yeah i still don't get that one but anyway you know you've got all of these like you never really get that much of a middle ground for some of them you do for a lot of them but no the majority is what i'm saying is quite weak but for Eva Green's character she is fantastic in this you know she's quite realistic i have to say because again she's an accountant and i don't know if an accountant wrote this film
00:18:39
Speaker
I'm getting to think that this is maybe an accountant's power dream. Have you noticed that? I know, there is quite a lot of that, isn't there? Money holders. I love that theory. This is a frustrated accountant. I'll go the world. We are important people.
00:18:56
Speaker
I'm just wondering if this was an accountant who was writing his own fanfiction and they got mixed up with another script and they were like, brilliant! Let's bring him in! As I said, her character is just so well-rounded because she is this. She goes into the field with Bond to look after the money that he's been given by the British government to gamble so that
00:19:19
Speaker
But basically the plot is that they're trying to get Le Chiffre to bet everything and become bankrupt and then he has to turn to the British government to make sure that he doesn't, you know, he doesn't get killed by this mysterious organisation which we will come to. Trust me.
00:19:35
Speaker
we will get to them but he has to win first and Vesper really like again she's a great parallel to Bond in the sense that on the one hand she is you know she's like this confident tough woman and they make out you know it's the like male dominated workspace and she's like very confident and powerful in her own right but at the same time she's also vulnerable and
00:19:58
Speaker
And it's not just like a cliche, vulnerable, like she literally sees someone killed in front of her and she takes like quite, she doesn't take it well. And it's such like a unique scene because I can't remember many other scenes in the series that do that because usually they just, you know, shoot them and that's it.
00:20:16
Speaker
that that's it done with but like they have this long scene where they're just like hugging together in the shower just you know she's like still in her dress and everything just not moving and she's covered in blood and things and it's just like really well done and I could gush about this film for ages so apologies for going off in a rant there but it is it's just so unique and it kind of makes the ending so much more heartbreaking when you realize that she is basically betraying him to save him I think
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah, you find we find out towards the end that basically Vesper is like a it is like a double agent because the person a person that she loves has basically been apparently like kidnapped by like this shady organization and like they're using like his
00:20:59
Speaker
you know threatening his life to blackmail her into doing these things and but yeah as well like yeah as you say as well like she does try to protect Bond as well as like their relationship grows and she kind of falls for him she also tries to like keep him safe from the shadow organisation but it's just I totally agree with everything
00:21:19
Speaker
you said like it's so well that like she is one of the best she's one of the best characters I think to be honest oh yeah not like not just like the Craig bonds but I don't you probably like that bond films as a whole yeah their relationship is I think as well because it like for so many of these relationships bond has with with like female characters like
00:21:36
Speaker
They're just clearly there for like one film and it's like, oh, on to the next one, you know, it's just like, it's so flippant. It's kind of the way the deaf gets treated as well in a lot of the Bond films. It's just kind of like flipping and, oh, here's a time to make a pun and now we'll move on. And like, you know, there's no kind of real, there's no like emotional impact. But as you say, there is an emotional impact to deaf in this film, which is another way it's like so different.
00:21:54
Speaker
And just their relationship is just so, like, it is so powerful and it really gives the end, like, it gives the film, first of all, like, a real emotional core, which is something that has lap-bond films have lacked before, you know? And it does, as you say, gives the end a real, like, it's a real gut punch, the end. And you can see why this is, like, such a formative event in, like, his life, because he's contemplating at the end of Tine Royale, he's contemplating just giving up. As he says, like, he says, like, you know, I've lost so much of my soul already, but I don't want to lose it all. I don't want to spend time with you, but, you know, she ends up, spoiler alert, she ends up dying.
00:22:33
Speaker
After going back and rewatching this film, I was really excited to see what they would do next.
00:22:39
Speaker
And this is a weird thing for Bond, because sometimes they do it quite, you know, they do like one-off films, and then other times they'll have like a kind of underlying consistency with them. You know, they'll have the same actor to play Em, though of course they have Q, which I think at this point Q was no longer in the films.
00:22:58
Speaker
And this is the film, Casino especially, this is the film that they started moving away from gadgets and things and the funny clips, which I think divided a lot of people because they thought, well, where's my James Bond with his clipping and things? But it's exactly as you said, it's an important part.
00:23:13
Speaker
of his character development to turn him into, you know, the bond that he's going to be in the future. Even with Roger Moore, you get some moments where he does reflect on his marriage from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which, spoilers for that, he loses his wife, and
00:23:32
Speaker
yeah I bet you didn't expect a George Lazenby spoiler in their way. But that's the thing though, he loses his wife and it's even referenced in the Roger Moore films where it like gets prodded by another character and I think it's the spy who loved me and that's quite an interesting scene you know that it shows development. Like even the Piers Brosnan ones, they had like a kind of consistency with their characters, you know Judi Dench's M and she returns for the three quarters.
00:24:00
Speaker
of the Bond films or the Craig films so far for the obvious reasons it will get to. So when I heard you know that they were going to be continuing this as like a overarching story it sounded interesting I have to say and then I walked out of Quantum of Solace with my dad and those like hopes were shattered in an instant.
Was Quantum of Solace a Missed Opportunity?
00:24:19
Speaker
I remember sitting there dejected in a pizza hut with my dad and more eating pizza and they just went, I don't think that was as good as the last couple of them. I was like, yeah, yeah. But yeah, what did you think of the sequel? I don't think it's bad, however I think it's boring.
00:24:37
Speaker
I think it's quite dull. I rewatched this today, in fact. I wasn't going to rewatch it, but I was like, you know, I've not seen this in a long time. I was like, I'll rewatch it. I think it's worth saying that this film suffered because it was in production during the time of the writer. There was a big writer strike in 2007. Oh, yeah. A lot of TV and film at that time. And this was one of the films. So I was reading that they were kind of like developing the plot on the fly.
00:25:04
Speaker
You know, Daniel Craig, I had a lot of involvement as well. It was kind of him, the director, I think, would try and do a lot of the writing and stuff. I mean, you can kind of tell. You can kind of tell. It doesn't hold together very well. The story is pretty dull. Do you know what?
00:25:20
Speaker
I think one of the big problems with this film is trying to be a revenge film. Because as you said, this is an immediate follow up to Casino Royale. And basically this is like the main theme of this is Bond trying to get revenge for the death of Vesper. Now, there have been revenge Bond films before. We talked about License to Kill, which is also a revenge film.
00:25:38
Speaker
And I absolutely love License to Kill, and I know you really, really love it as well. However, License to Kill works because it's a fairly simple story. We have The Big Bad, and it's quite clear that this is The Big Bad, you know, and we can see why Bond wants to get revenge on him, and, you know, that's the story arc, is Bond, you know, setting out to get revenge on this guy.
00:25:56
Speaker
Quantum doesn't have that simple story because the people that Bond goes after for revenge, to me, doesn't really make sense. They don't really seem to be the people that he should be getting revenge on. It's muddled. It just feels muddled. It's about as muddled as my ramblings right now on it, and that should tell you the quality of it. But yeah, not bad. I don't think it's bad. I just muddled and boring.
00:26:19
Speaker
I think it's more spectacle than substance with this film. I think that probably sums it up because I was thinking back to it thinking what did I really find wrong with this film and you look at it and it's between like the stereotypical jump cuts and I don't know it feels like a step back from
00:26:40
Speaker
from what Casino Royale is. I have to admit, I think if Casino Royale came out nowadays, obviously people wouldn't bat an eye at it. They think, oh, it's just another, you know, spy villain. But back then, because there was this, like, transition between Piers Brosnan, who was, let's face it, really silly with his gadget. Still a lot of fun to watch. I'm not, like, saying that as a diss to him. But just everything seems like a step down from, like, the editing. Do you remember taking two?
00:27:07
Speaker
Yeah. Oh no, well, sorry, I've never seen Taken 2, but I remember hearing the criticism of Taken 2. Oh yeah, well Taken 2, Taken 3, Taken the you-know-what. It's very haphazard. It's very, like, there's a lot of jump cuts in between. You've got, you know, one minute you're sitting on a couch, the next, you know, you're standing up, the next cut you're walking across the floor. You know, it's just all over. It's disjointed. It's all these senses bombarding you at once. You're like, I don't believe this.
00:27:37
Speaker
It's just very rough to get through. At times this film is just very, you know, bombard you with this and that. And I'm gonna be honest, as you said before, the characters in Casino Royale, top peak, absolutely top of their game, and then you get... Ugh, yeah, you get the characters in these. Do you want to talk about the quote-unquote Bond Woman in this one?
00:27:59
Speaker
In fact, no, sorry, not the Bond woman, the other love interest. Well, I say a love interest, sorry, but that is... Yeah, the main quote unquote Bond girl, and you didn't use that term despite his problems, the main one, Camille, is very much falls into that strong woman type, you know, no nonsense, tough and everything.
00:28:19
Speaker
There's nothing totally wrong with her character. It's just a very stock character. There's not really much to it. That's the real problem with it. The other one, however, there's another character called Strawberry Fields. So we're back to our classic Bond female character naming here. Who's played by Gemma Artisan? Who's a good actor? But she's given nothing to work with here. I was saying this to you before we started. The character is literally everything wrong when you think of a
00:28:47
Speaker
like a female character in a Bond film. It's all like the negative, all the crosses. Not in the film for very long. She appears in it and then about five minutes later she's like she's having sex with Bond. She does like one helpful thing for him and then like he abandons her and then when he comes back she's dead. Like that is her arc. She is hardly in the film you know and like as I said that's literally the five things I've listed are literally the five like things you need to know about that character.
00:29:13
Speaker
And it's just terrible. It's just a sham. There was no point. You could just cut that character out. You lose nothing in the film. The only thing you get is a homage to the very famous Death and Goldfinger. That is kind of what it feels like. It's just like, oh, let's reference this. But rather than painting a woman to death with gold, we'll just pour oil over her. Which makes no sense. It's terrible. And can I talk about the main, can I rant on the main villain as well?
00:29:40
Speaker
go for it. Yeah, well, Dominic Green is called Dominic Green, which is the most boring name for a Bond villain I've ever heard. Sounds like I read somewhere somebody says sounds like a door to door insurance salesman. So he is the leader of what he's he's sorry, the CEO of this company called Green Planet, which is supposedly like an environmental company, like dedicated to like preserving the Earth's kind of natural landscape. Oh,
00:30:03
Speaker
surprise surprise turns out he's actually not em he's like part of this secret group called quantum who are this like shadowy like cabal of like of senior of senior like people throughout the across the globe he is just oh my goodness like he's such a like unintimidating unimposing Bond villain what do you think of
00:30:21
Speaker
Like the cool like suave like Nate of like Mad Michael since Le Chiffre casino Royale and the kind of groggy we're going to talk about more but they kind of like megalomania and like kind of craziness of having a Bardem's like silver in Skyfall Dominic Green and the actor I think is Matthew Almerick I might have said his name wrong apologies if I have but Dominic Green just oh, he's just such a
00:30:44
Speaker
Boring character and like what's that what really epitomizes it for me is him and bond have a fistfight at the end and we're supposed to believe that like this guy this weedy scrawny like Elon Musk type is literally supposed to be a match for like Jake for Daniel Craig's like ripped James Bond it reminds me of you've seen commander right the honest wasn't a good one
00:31:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It reminds me that we're supposed to believe in the end that this, like, tubby Australian is a match for, like, muscly, like, you know, muscles bursting out of his chest on Schwarzenegger. But, like, that is just ridiculous, like, how they do it. And he said he's no threat. Like, his plan is so small scale. He wants to basically, like, install regime change in Bolivia's mean water supply. And you're like, that's not a bond. That's not a bond, like.
00:31:28
Speaker
at all. No offense to Bolivia, you know, but like, oh, I don't know. Like he just, he just fails on all accounts. I mean, and the whole quantum, like the whole quantum organization, like, I mean, this was originally supposed to be, they were supposed to try and introduce Spectre into this film because like, there's been a lot of like problems with who owns the rights to Spectre. It's basically like, it's in conflict between Ian Fleming's estate and one of the screenwriters on Thunderbolt.
00:31:52
Speaker
One of the early Connery films, Respective, were first introduced. They both claim ownership of it, so it's been in dispute for a long time. And they were hoping to get the rights to include it in this film, but they couldn't, so they then substituted. Respective for this other organisation, Quantum, which is very much that same kind of idea of a shadowy cabal behind the scenes. But it's just... I don't know. It's just non-threatening. You're just like, why are these people? Why am I supposed to care? Why is Bond going after them? It's just muddled.
00:32:18
Speaker
It's just like the whole film is muddled. I mean, you've hit the nail on the head with that, in all honesty. It's what you were saying before, the fact that this is supposed to be like this huge revenge film and then yeah, all of a sudden it's like, oh look, it's Spectre light diet, Spectre. Spectre without the octopus legs. Honestly, I could go on forever. I do not like quantum. Like, I remember watching the old films and thinking that Spectre were quite a cool, you know, villain to bond.
00:32:44
Speaker
I mean obviously it's kind of, it's like over the top and everything. In regards to like spy films nowadays, because usually they try to ground it in realism that, oh it's like a rogue agent from let's say the CIA and like Jason Bourne, or I don't even know who the one is for Mission Impossible, but you get what I mean.
00:33:02
Speaker
you know it's like relatively like they're associated with someone already and they're like pulling the strings but for Specter, Specter was this like massive you know as you said shadowy organization that pulled the strings for basically everything bad going on in the world but when they brought in Quantum it was like oh cool they're gonna bring in you know Quantum what they gonna do are they gonna be the shadowy villain? Spoilers, they don't appear again until two films later and they get relegated to middle management which is something
00:33:30
Speaker
I will always stand by. They don't do anything beyond this film. Like they'll say oh yes Quantum is a bad organisation but they literally retcon it about two films later in Spectre when they're like oh no Quantum is a subdivision of Spectre. It's like you know those graphs you get where it shows you like how many companies like Disney and Pepsi and things like that own?
00:33:53
Speaker
And it's like you go up the chain, so you're like, oh, I like this company. And then you go up the thing and you're like, oh, they're owned by them. That's what it feels like. They're just this tiny, tiny organization that become completely inconsequential to the extent that they have to shoehorn them in to be like, oh no, they actually mattered. And you're like, go away.
00:34:12
Speaker
Yeah, take your pens and go away. And speaking of that though, skipping films, that of course leads us into Skyfall which, yeah, I have to admit was a huge improvement from Quantum of
Skyfall: A Cinematic Triumph
00:34:23
Speaker
Solace. Oh god, yeah. This is my favourite James Bond film. It still is.
00:34:27
Speaker
Because I have to admit, going back to what you were saying earlier, we do have a particular friend who doesn't like this film, which I have to admit, the first time I heard it, I was really shocked that he didn't like it. Did you feel the same way? I didn't realise people didn't like this film. I just thought it was one of these accepted things that we all thought Skyfall was the best Bond film.
00:34:48
Speaker
Were they unspoken rule? I just thought it was, yeah, you know. I thought those were the three indisputable facts of life, death taxes, and Skyfall was the best James Bond film. Well that's true, but you forgot the license to Kelcause.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah, I was surprised at that as well, because I have to admit again going back to what I was saying before seeing these films, because I think I've seen all of these films with my dad. Like, I remember going to see it with him. He absolutely loves this film, by the way, to the extent that whenever there's another James Bond film on, he'll be like, you know, take her, you know, take it or leave it. But with Skyfall, he's like, yeah, get that on, you know, he absolutely loves this film. To the extent I've seen it so many times, I'm just so tired of it.
00:35:30
Speaker
But it is great, from the intro to, you know, the opening by Adele is fantastic, the visuals are great. I like the idea of Bond being this really cynical shunned away from MI6 and things. The only criticism I would levy against it is he seems more disinterested.
00:35:53
Speaker
I feel as if he's like really the least interesting part of the film and by that I mean like there's a particular scene so sorry just to contextualise again Skyfall basically focuses on a rogue MI6 agent or a disavowed MI6 agent who comes back to try and kill Em who is played by Judy Dench for her
00:36:14
Speaker
final time in the series and he's got all these resources that he's like pulled together just solely so he can get revenge so it's like kind of an opposite of Casino Royale. It's like flipped so instead of Bond going for the revenge, or not Casino Royale, sorry Quantum Assaultless, it's like a flip.
00:36:30
Speaker
version of that where instead of Bond going for the revenge it's Silva who again played by Javier Bardem, fantastic actor but he is trying to take out Em and you know cause like Havoc and everything but Bond kind of just takes it in the straight like there's a particular scene where I can
00:36:49
Speaker
I can't remember if he was caught by like... I don't know if they say he was caught by China or Russia or... It's like one of these countries, they have an air bar dems character gets caught and he tries to like take a cyanide pill and his tooth and it ends up his face gets deformed from it so he has to wear like a prosthetic like...
00:37:07
Speaker
face mould thing which is really interesting and those themes are great but there's a scene where they capture him and Judi Dench and Daniel Craig are like walking outside and yeah she basically tells him that like oh he was disavowed and everything and there's no reaction from Daniel Craig whatsoever he's just kind of like
00:37:24
Speaker
Alright, the plot needs to move on. And that's it. Did you feel like that with his character in Skyfall? Because the first half I know he's this weary and struggling to get back on his feet, which I think is fantastic, but then after that it kind of descends a bit. I'm not sure I totally agree. It's funny because I was thinking, as you were talking about Casino Royale, and you were saying, in your opinion, that was the peak of Craig's bond. And I think you made a really good convincing case for it.
00:37:52
Speaker
And again, this is just, again, just personal feelings for me. For me, Skyfall is the peak of his character. I love it for that, like, fact that it is this weird... For me, it's like an evolution of what I loved about Dalton's Bond. And Dalton's Bond is still my favourite, like, version of James Bond.
00:38:07
Speaker
Um, but I like, I feel a lot of that stuff that he did that kind of world weary, like doesn't give a damn. It's like, you know, like a new, like a burnt out cigarette, basically, you know, this really cynical thing that would kind of, for me, kind of reach this culmination in Skyfall of this guy who gets, who actually gets a chance to leave. And he actually gets a chance to have a clean break.
00:38:26
Speaker
and that's one of the things that brings it Ralph Fiennes plays a character that's called Mallory who's who's quite important and he says that to Bond he's like why have you come back like you had a chance to get out and I like that it's that way of this character who you know we see from the casino royale where he's contemplating leaving he just can't yeah he can't like
00:38:42
Speaker
take himself away from this world and from end this film I agree to the extent that you saying that Bond is maybe the least interesting of the main characters because this is really
Skyfall's Finale: A Fresh Bond Formula
00:38:51
Speaker
a film about Em in a lot of ways and Judi Dench's character but I really like how their relationship
00:38:57
Speaker
between the relationship between Bond and M is like a central theme of this and that like why I think Javier Bardem's Silva is the best Bond villain because it's almost like him and Bond are almost like flip sides of the same coin in that like you know they're both like they both can't escape like the shadow of M and they're both like attached to this character in a way like can't live a life without them basically without them in some way and
00:39:18
Speaker
And so I really like that part of it, and I can see what you're saying, like, it is a far more focused on the first half of the film, his kind of like, his fall, and then his like, attempt to climb back, and his like, return to this world, and like, it's probably maybe not as much a focus the second part of the film, but I still think there's enough there that like, interests me in everything is what I would say, but I can totally see where you're coming from.
00:39:37
Speaker
I have to admit, there is, like, I totally agree in the sense that, like, there is not a boring moment in this film. Yeah. Like, although I say it's, like, in the second half, he's maybe not as interesting. And I don't know whether that's because it's a fault of the character itself, in a personal sense for me, or it's just because there's so much going on, like, kind of a
00:39:57
Speaker
lipsism because I mean I'm thinking back to what happened in the film there's a tribunal going on Silva and like two guys dressed as police officers like kicked down the door with guns there's like shooting going on he has to like escape to the highlands with them and they asked Martin you know and then there's the whole like finale the fantastic finale in his childhood home of Skyfall where he has to do and I know people criticize it for this the
00:40:23
Speaker
minority that do that they say like oh it's just Home Alone but an adult version but I loved the finale. I thought it was so like it's such a breath of fresh air. Instead of Bond taking the fight to them it was them taking the fight to Bond for once and it was so fascinating to see that flip side of it and it is just fantastic. I loved it. I think it was absolutely brilliant.
00:40:46
Speaker
I think this film is beautifully shot as well. I think the cinematography is fantastic. Especially compared to, as you completely pointed out truthfully in Quantum of Solace, the action is really disorientating to follow a lot of the time. I think it's so brilliantly shot. There's one fight that takes place in Shanghai and not a part of the
00:41:06
Speaker
building sorry like a office building but the office is dark but there's like neon lights outside and Bond is fighting the other and it's just they're silhouettes basically five things you can't always tell who's who and it just looks gorgeous and you know some of those those shots when they're up in the highlands as well like the kind of wide lens and they're on a they're on a road at one point and it just like pans out of the show like the hills around it just and there's it where he enters a casino as well like he's like traveling on this boat and it goes through this like giant dragons mouth it just looks gorgeous and I just I watch it again I was like it's just
00:41:36
Speaker
fun fact actually about that did you know that see the clip where Bond and Em are like standing in the Highlands and they're like standing in front of the Aston Martin and they're just looking at the house and apparently that particular spot got so popular that they actually had to tell people to stop parking there
00:41:56
Speaker
because people were just coming up to it. It's a bit similar to, you know, Glenn Finnan for the viaduct, for the Harry Potter bridge, yeah. It's a bit similar to that where they were telling people, yeah, stop parking here because you really shouldn't be because it was ruining the grass and everything and it just shows like how popular it made it. In the context of Bond as a whole, so this was like the year 2012 this came out, so this was Bond's 50th anniversary. You had Bond at the Olympics as well in London. Do you remember that?
00:42:25
Speaker
where he jumped out, no sorry, he jumped out but the Queen quote-unquote. They had this big sketch, sorry just a flashback, they had this sketch where Daniel Craig as James Bond as his character goes to meet the Queen to escort her to a helicopter where they both proceed to jump out and obviously it's like a stunt double but it was just so fantastically done.
00:42:46
Speaker
So there was a lot of like bond hype and nostalgia that they banked on. And I think that's why you get a lot of scenes like with the Aston Martin and things like that. And we see the return of Q as well. Only not the Q that we knew growing up, but the... I think it's Ben Wishaw, is it? No, no, no.
00:43:04
Speaker
Yeah Ben Washaw who does a good job but I don't know. I see where they're going with the character that they obviously have to make a more of like a hacker type character. Do you know what I mean? I see what you mean. I think it gets maybe worse in the next film.
00:43:20
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I really, I really liked it. I really like him in Skyfall. Oh yeah. I like that kind of like, I like, I like, he has an exchange with when he first meets Bond, he meets him in the, in the portrait gallery in London. And they have, I love the exchange they have where it was talking about it and he's just like, I can do more damage in a day, you know, sitting in my pajamas before my first cup of Earl Grey. Yeah.
00:43:40
Speaker
I do agree. I think he's great in this one, but yeah, later on it's just
00:43:58
Speaker
yeah it's a bit I wouldn't say it's the worst but it doesn't get any better so that brings us on to the final film of at least sorry the penultimate film because by the time you're listening to this no time to die the final well I say the final of Daniel Craig's series I hope it's the final
00:44:16
Speaker
Yeah, he said that and I think it will be, but you know, they always keep saying that, oh, it'll be the final and then they keep going on. So if there's like a twist where it really comes back for a final, final film. Yeah, this brings us on to the penultimate of the series, that being, of course, Spectre, which I have to admit, I was severely disappointed.
Spectre: Falling Short of Expectations?
00:44:37
Speaker
As I said before, I love the idea of Spectre and I thought they were a really cool organization. But to summarise my thoughts, this film just felt flat.
00:44:45
Speaker
It was like a child at a birthday party, and you've got this person blowing the balloon up in front of them, and they're just about to give the child it, and then all of a sudden they stab the balloon just as it's in front of their face and go, hahaha, you thought you were getting a balloon? What did you think? Before I think of any balloon-related anecdotes.
00:45:04
Speaker
That analogy is more exciting than the actual film. I don't know who is more bored in this film. Me watching it in the cinema or Daniel Craig acting in it. He doesn't look like he wants to be there and honestly I can blame him. Again I'll say I don't think it's bad per se. I just think it is really really dull. It's a tough one yeah.
00:45:28
Speaker
I think it's duller than Quantum of Solace. Quantum of Solace is about an hour and 40 minutes. That overstays its welcome. Spectre is two and a half hours. And you feel those two and a half hours go by. It is not a fact. It does not go by quickly. You will feel them drag out.
00:45:46
Speaker
Your backside will fall asleep in the cinema seat, trust me. I just, I totally agree. I felt so bored. And can I just say, we haven't really talked about the opening. So we talked about the opening for Casino Royale and Skyfall being absolutely fantastic, but I'm just gonna lump them together. Quantum Assaultless and Spectre. I prefer the song for Spectre. Like I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I do like the songwriting on the wall. Yeah. Oh, thank God.
00:46:16
Speaker
But I hate, I hate the opening for Spectre. Like, see the visuals? Like, don't get me wrong, I like the idea they were going for with showing you all the flashbacks to the different films, but I don't like the fact there's like, you know, Daniel Craig and a random woman, you know, they're just kissing, touching, and then there's octopus tentacles coming around them and it's like, I get it, it's Spectre. Imagine if, you know, the whole of the Skyfall intro was just him falling through a sky.
00:46:46
Speaker
Like, for the whole thing, for the whole three minutes, it was just him falling through a sky. And it was just skyfall. And that was it. Just, it kept going on and on. That's what it felt like for Spectre. It was just so, it was so uninspired. And again, I'm not a visual artist or whoever they bring in for these intros. And I like the song, but I hate to say it, but I think the introduction is probably the best part of this film.
00:47:09
Speaker
and then the rest of it just descends into just nonsense. It's ironic, actually, because I was thinking about this earlier, so you know how we said that Casino Royale was the kind of soft reboot that was going into like a grittier bond? You know, they were thinking, oh, we don't do quips, we don't do gadgets, we are, you know, oh, we are mature. And even in Skyfall, they did bring back gadgets, but they were very limited. Like, not the P90, what was it?
00:47:36
Speaker
It's a Walther. Oh, Walther PPK. Oh yeah, the radio. Yeah, it was like small things like that, a bit semi-realistic. And then in this one they literally had a watch that blew up. Was that a watch? Yeah, it was pure back to like Roger Moore.
00:47:51
Speaker
between that and getting strapped to a chair by Blofeld, it was like, what is this film? You know, it was like the traps were there, the, you know, haha, he does eye bond, played by Christoph Waltz. It was bad. And apparently there's a scene where there's like a big car chase in Rome. That was so boring. Like, did you find any excitement out that scene?
00:48:13
Speaker
not out of the car chase. I mean, the only real bits of excitement I found in this film were the scenes with Dave Bautista in them.
Dave Bautista: Spectre's Saving Grace?
00:48:21
Speaker
And I think Dave Bautista is the show stealer, the scene stealer in this film. He is great. I actually, I actually wished to honest to God, this film had been about like, he'd been the main villain. Like, so he plays basically, he basically a glorified henchman in this. I can't even remember the character's name, but like,
00:48:35
Speaker
he's a glor- Dave Batista is most- he was a former WWE wrestler, he's most famous now for playing Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy in Marvel films but yeah he's great in this and like his introduction is great where like they set a big Spectre meeting and this guy is getting tasked with like killing James Bond and then like is it like any objections then Batista comes up and just kills the guy like gouges his eyes out and like snaps his neck
00:49:01
Speaker
I liked the fight that they had Batista and Bond had on the train. Any scene with him basically, I was kind of intrigued, but I totally agree with you. There's so many others. I'd forgotten there was a car chase in Rome and I was like, oh yeah.
00:49:16
Speaker
like we were joking about going back to the more gadgets this goes back to like the Brosnan like levels of ridiculous like you remember like a wave and stuff this one has like Daniel Craig's bond in a plane ski that's like sliding down a snowy mountain wings and stuff it's getting back to that level of ridiculousness it felt
00:49:36
Speaker
so far away as you said from like the tone that had been set by like Cassina Royale. It just feels like we've gone back in time and not in a good way. We're bringing back these old bad tropes of the Bond films. Do you know what it reminded me of? It's do you remember and the living daylights?
00:49:51
Speaker
It's like they're getting chased by the police on the Austrian border. And you know, he cuts the bottom of the car off and it's like salt corrosion and things like that, you know? And they crash through the... Oh, what is it? They crash through like a hut as well.
00:50:07
Speaker
and things like that and it oh it's so funny but see that worked because that was the kind of tone they were saying and they were trying to find the feet there and this one it just felt like they were trying to establish Bond as this realistic gritty oh look at me I'm Jason Bond 2.0 but he wasn't really but you know what I mean they wanted a more serious take and they just got I don't even know they just regressed something awful
00:50:32
Speaker
You know, they had a lot more. This is something that's probably going to be an unpopular opinion. I am sick of seeing the Aston Martin. I am really sick of seeing the old one. I get that's part of Bond's identity and everything. And I get they've probably got the branding for it. But every film now, it's like...
00:50:52
Speaker
Oh look, we gotta have the Aston Martin in. Oh look, we gotta have gadgets now, you know. It just seems like it's such a step back from the tight writing from Casino Royale. And I'm gonna be honest, I think this is where the characters are possibly the weakest.
00:51:08
Speaker
I would say. Especially the love interest. I do not. I don't get it. Like maybe I'm missing something, maybe I need to rewatch it like a clockwork order style. It just had my eyes open. But I don't get why there's like supposed to be a chemistry there because you can tell when he goes to visit the quantum guy. And I can't even remember who the quantum guy is who goes to see. But he goes to see some guy from quantum and he's like, oh by the way, I have a daughter.
00:51:35
Speaker
And he dies. Yeah, Mr White. And it's like, okay. Okay. Okay. You have a daughter? Imagine if Bon's like final words to Mr White. Mr White's like, I have a daughter and then Bon's like, you know, I'm going to go bang her.
00:51:52
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if that was like an outtake or something. Or not an outtake but like a deleted scene or
Spectre's Retcon Problem
00:52:00
Speaker
something. Because there is no way. I don't know. It just felt as if she was put in to be the love interest and I think that's like the worst for him. Like I know it's kind of ironic saying like
00:52:12
Speaker
oh the love interest is acting like the love interest but you know she's got no... can you think of any like discernible personality traits that she has outside of being the love interest or being a psychologist? Damn it I was going to say I'm going to be honest I can't remember a single thing about I can remember her name was Madeline I remember that she was a scientist of some kind but I had no idea I can't remember anything and you're totally right like about like
00:52:38
Speaker
all the main characters in this. It was great to bring back Blofeld, he's such an iconic villain, but he's a really boring character and I absolutely hate with a passion that they basically put this personal link between the two of them. And it ends up that after Bond's parents die, Blofeld's father adopts him and then this makes Blofeld seem so petty.
00:53:01
Speaker
it's like oh and my father loved you more than he loved me so i had to kill my father and now i'm going to ruin your life and by the way all the things that happened in the previous films i was behind all of those and as you say quantum is just middle management here
00:53:17
Speaker
I mean, I find this film boring. I don't hate the film, but I hate what it does to the previous films. I hate that way of like, you know, it keeps revealing like, oh, we were the real evil or we are the real bad guys. You know, like, what's the point in getting invested? You know, if I go back and rewatch Skyfall, I'm like.
00:53:35
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's just Silva though. He's just like, you know, part of Spectre. And so about what, you know, it's not really the real bad guy. They could have done like, they could have done something without having to like, feel like the need to tie everything back together. I think that's maybe the one problem with trying to do this kind of overarching narrative. Like, it's like, we must link everything back together. It's like, you don't need to, it's not necessary. You can have smaller links. You don't need to tie everything back together.
00:54:00
Speaker
probably the Catcheries of the Night, but I totally agree with you. This is the major problem I have with the Daniel Craig films. I feel like Casino Royale, definitely, and I know I keep praising this, so apologies to anyone out there saying, God, that tsunami we know, you love it.
00:54:16
Speaker
You love them because you know who I am. But that's the thing though, it set up this almost wider world and it gave them... Again, it's ironic because much like, you know, the character himself wanting to try and break away and have like a clean slate, like these films are trying to break away themselves.
00:54:33
Speaker
And you know, they're trying to establish themselves as something completely different. You know, this isn't the Bond that your granddad used to grow up with kind of thing. And then by the end of it, by Specter, it completely did a 180. And we're back to the beginning again of, oh we've got the wacky gadgets and Bond for some reason has like impeccable aim.
00:54:53
Speaker
There's a scene where they go to Bluefield's secret lair, it's as stupid as it sounds, and he shoots his way out and it's not exciting at all. There's actually a scene in Skyfall where he has to do the marksman test and he misses most of the shots and that couple of minutes was so much more engaging than that entire sequence where he shoots all the guards first time. Any Call of Duty fans out there
00:55:21
Speaker
If you've ever seen a person go on with an aimbot and just like shoot everyone at once, that's literally what it is. It's just he shoots them first time as if he's got cheats on. And then the facility blows up, which I heard was an expensive stunt, but I don't care. It's like, oh wow, spectacle. Yay, great. There's no point in having that spectacle if you can't.
00:55:42
Speaker
back it up with a good story because I mean there's a scene in the end where Madeleine gets kidnapped and you know she's tied up in the middle of MI6 and you're like oh no not Madeleine she was my favorite love interest you know like forget Vespa one forget you know
00:56:00
Speaker
any of the others you know especially the Timothy Dalton one you know like forget forget those well fleshed out characters you know it is a bit silly and I hate the fact that let's face it see at the end of the day although Bond is like very iconic in his line of work Bond is just a spy he's not anything bigger than that yeah
00:56:18
Speaker
like and I don't want to put him down for it but you know he's just this character who comes in he saves the day for Queen and Country on His Majesty's Secret Service all of this and he is doing it for the good of the country. Now all of a sudden as you said they've like introduced this link between him and Blofil and it just doesn't work.
00:56:39
Speaker
although it has one of the funniest lines I think I've ever seen parodied, where he basically blow-filled, turned round and it's as you said, he admits to being the author. This is what he says, he says, it was me, James, I was the author of all your pain. But people have misheard it and thought he was introducing himself as an author called a volya pain.
00:57:03
Speaker
I think every time I see that image pop up, it makes me laugh every time. The jokes that came out of it should not have come out of it, that's all I'm saying.
00:57:13
Speaker
You know, they were trying to get this very serious, you know, gritty, like spy thriller with twists and turns, but there's too many twists. Oh yeah, and the guy who plays Moriarty out of BBC's Sherlock is in this, and he's there, and he has a fistfight with Voldemort. Yeah, and Voldemort kills him.
00:57:33
Speaker
I know I'm being very flippant here with the character names versus the actors but yeah, that's all you need to know. There's a whole sub story about how old they're gonna have this international spy ring for these countries and know it's gonna be bad and it's like two and a half hours. There's no thing of popcorn big enough to get you through that two and a half hours, that's all I'm saying.
00:57:54
Speaker
You were making a joke about you need to watch it like Clockwork Orange style. You need to watch it Clockwork Orange style so you stay awake at points. Oh yeah, absolutely. It drives jammed open because it is duh-uh-uh. And I mean I feel as if as well a lot of, and I don't want to like linger on like the Bond girl or the Bond woman thing for ages, but do you feel as if
00:58:14
Speaker
with the Daniel Craig films, they kind of, like ever since Casino Royale, they go backwards with them. You know, like in Quantum, I don't think it's too bad because I was actually laughing because someone pointed this out that if Bond actually sleeps with a woman, well, the Daniel Craig version of Bond sleeps with a woman, then they'll die like a couple of scenes later.
00:58:33
Speaker
So, it happens in Casino Royale, it happens in Quantum for Strawberry Fields, but they were saying how the main bond woman in Quantum Assault was because he didn't sleep with her, he just kissed her, and that was fine. It's like, it's okay, you're good to live another day. And then of course, like, throughout Skyfall as well, he meets the woman in Macau, and yeah, that's a really weird, like, off scene.
00:59:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's very problematic. He basically, just to kind of contextualise it, he meets a woman who, I think it's hinted at or kind of overtly said that she was part... Is it openly admitted, yeah, that she was part of like a trafficking ring?
00:59:15
Speaker
as in she was like one of the yeah she was like one of the women who was trafficked and then he sneaks in the boat waiter to try and get to Sylvan they sleep together and it's just it seems out a place for what they were going for in this like new series and then of course eventually you get to yeah you get to spectre where it's just he sleeps with someone who is close to someone and spectre in fact no i think it's the person that he kills isn't it at the very beginning it's like yeah it could seem with his his widow
00:59:44
Speaker
yeah it disappears from the film because her role has been done i know i'd agree actually you're saying that i think with skyfall the only slight caveat i'll say is that because like skyfall is so focused on the relationship between bond and m yeah lump m in is like a bottle on the bond women yeah that's maybe the only thing but it's not like a traditional yeah kind of bond relationship with a woman but yeah your your main point is completely correct there is
01:00:14
Speaker
And I mean in that note, kind of just like wrap up. I'm interested to hear what you think about this but I really do not have faith in the next film, No Time To Die.
Concerns About No Time to Die
01:00:25
Speaker
I'm really nervous about the next film, purely on the standpoint that
01:00:30
Speaker
It looks as if it's continuing right from where Spectre ended. So basically, at the end of Spectre, he gets his wish. He leaves MI6 with these fully kitted out Aston Martin and everything. Yeah, he just, he goes off into the sunset with, um, Psychologist Lady. I know it's Madeline Sloan before anybody says.
01:00:49
Speaker
like the Madeline Swan is like yeah the one person in the Madeline Swan slash Atari fan club is a very niche fan club but trust me it probably exists but no jokes aside it is definitely going to be continuing from that you know you see Blofell and you see the one of the like lines that really got to me i was just like
01:01:06
Speaker
They're going for this angle where Madeline turns round to Bond and goes, you're dealing with something that you know nothing of or something like that or you don't know what you're dealing with and I think he's literally a spy. This is his job. You know, it's like walking into McDonald's and saying like, you don't know what you're cooking. It's their job. They know what they're doing. Bond knows what he's doing. Why? Apologies for that rant there, but do you have any hopes for the next one?
01:01:32
Speaker
I'll be cautiously optimistic. But I agree with what you're saying, and I think you're right. I think you're probably valid in that thing. I'll be cautiously optimistic because in a way, as much as I just rail the inspector for retconning previous continuity, it seems that with No Time to Die, they're going to retcon slightly some of the characters, especially because Blofeld is going to be back.
01:01:55
Speaker
and stuff so it looks like they're gonna try different kind of twists so I'm kind of keen to see what that is if they like resurrect you know if they can slightly resurrect that character purely as well this is there's no there's no evidence to back this up but i'm purely going by the fact that with craig's run it's been good bad good bad so i'm like well the next one has to be good it seems all the odd numbers of films are good so that for those reasons your honor i submit that i am cautiously optimistic for no time to die
01:02:23
Speaker
I mean I am gonna still see it though. Like I have just spent like the last couple of minutes here saying oh I'm not optimistic about this and that and I'm like yeah I'll still see it and I'll probably put out like a short stream of thought or something and be like this was the worst album ever.
01:02:39
Speaker
This was the best film ever, you know. Whatever happens, like, I just hope it's good. I think it is now Pop. Well, it's not popular to hate on Bond, but you know, I think it's just people are kinda tired of it now. You know, because it is, it's like a 50 plus year franchise. You know, it is. I think next year must be the 60th anniversary then. Wow, they should have just waited then.
01:03:04
Speaker
I mean they're literally, apparently they're only releasing it for I think they said 45 days. They're releasing it in cinemas tomorrow which will be the 30th I think of September and then they are releasing the DVD and the blu-ray on the oh I think it's the 21st of December so right before Christmas so it seems a very weird they just want it rushed out you know they just want it completely gone.
01:03:35
Speaker
People are tired of waiting because it's been on the backlog ever since the pandemic and they didn't release it in streaming services so now they have to release it. Just before we wrap up, I'm going to ask you a quick fire question here Adam. How would you rank all four films? I think I know your answer but
01:03:54
Speaker
Oh, I know my answer. No, well, number one is Skyfall for me. Then Casino Royale. Oh God. I don't know. You know what? I'm going to say Quantum 3 and then Spectre 4. Purely because I rewatched Quantum again and the fact that I was more willing to rewatch Quantum and I didn't consider rewatching Spectre probably says that I prefer Quantum. Plus it's shorter. It took up less time of my life than if I decided to rewatch Spectre again. So what's your ranking?
01:04:23
Speaker
I would probably swap around Christina Rell and Skyfall, but see, initially I was gonna make a joke and say I would put like Quantum and Spectre on a plateau, you know, at the bottom to support the better films, but I can't believe I'm saying this because years ago Quantum was like one of my least favourite Bond films, like from the theme tune to the whole, you know, the plot to the guy. Like have you seen that? There's like a scene where the guy's like sweeping, he's like sweeping nothing behind Bond.
01:04:53
Speaker
It's like he's meant to be sweeping the street but he's just like sweeping thin air or something. I don't get it. I genuinely don't know if that's a thing or you know to anyone who's like a street sweeper or something you know. Like please let us know because I have no idea what that was all about. But yeah I would say Quantum Third is sticking to my throat saying that. I'm like yeah.
01:05:14
Speaker
Could you? Yeah I don't like Spectre at all. I think it's the worst one so far out of all of them and it makes me worried. I wouldn't say like I've lost all hope but it does make me worried for what's to come in no time to die and I'm hoping it was the villain can rescue it or there's gonna be some like twist that they pull out but we'll see, we'll definitely see. Fingers crossed, all we can do is hope. We're not quite, or maybe we should just take a page from Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton's bond and just be cynical and world weary.
01:05:43
Speaker
Exactly. And on that note, these two, yes, these two weary world weary reviewers are gonna go away and probably at the time of this are probably gonna go away and watch the film anyway. Yeah, probably. Eventually. Like, whether it's today or next year or whenever.
01:06:01
Speaker
Oh, you bet you'll be watched. For good or for bad. It's good content. And yeah, on that note, Adam, thank you for strolling down memory lane. My pleasure again. One of my favourite lane strolled down.
01:06:16
Speaker
so I'm always, always up for it. To all those Daniel Craig Bond fans out there, tell us what your favourite out of the four was. Or, if you're listening to this in the future, tell us what your favourite was out of the five. And yeah, as always guys, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated with a shaken, not stirred, drink. Bye guys. From Chatsunami with love. Love it.