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It gets a bit of stick from quite a few people, I quite like it though. By this time Bond flicks had settled into formula or variations upon a formula, so it does seem that some familiar territory is being retrodden. Although I think the underwater stuff was quite impressive in terms of technique, yeah it does wear a bit thin and it's allowed to interrupt the flow of the narrative. Other stuff works quite well, the hijack, Bond and Fiona's interplay, Bond's still just about the only character who can get away with killing a woman and then make a joke about it, which is kind of makes that bit genuinely funny, cos it's risky. The big weakness is the climax, it just don't work, not dramatically, not cinematically, so there's bit of a ho-hum moment when it's time to navigate the discarded pop corn cartons. I imagine that's why it's not well liked, it's important to get the end right to leave the punters with the right after glow.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 12 or 13, I thought it was cool. But then, it was the first Bond movie I ever saw, so I didn't have much to compare it to. I had seen some other spy-fi stuff (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Secret Agent [Danger Man], The Avengers, Get Smart, maybe the Flint and Matt Helm movies) on TV, but those were mostly imitations or parodies. This was The Real Thing.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, I don't consider it a bad Bond movie, but it is (or feels) too long. It needed a faster pace. Also, after Goldfinger, the series became formulaic, almost paint-by-numbers. But then, any attempts at variation from the formula (OHMSS, the Timothy Dalton films) seemed to be unpopular, so one can't blame the producers for sticking with what worked.
The speeded-up hydrofoil looks a bit ridiculous. Thunderball and YOLT (awful volcano explosion) looked as if they were starting to get a bit tired at the time. There are some good moments of course.
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Yes, there are some good moments, but compared to Goldfinger, it did drag a bit in places. Still very watchable 'though, and better than any spy film imitations.