Be Excellent To Each Other

That was genuinely fucking brilliant. Couldn't be more impressed. Do not read anything that could possibly spoil it, just go and see it.

Yes, Sir!

Maybe this Sunday. Glad to hear it's awesome.

I'm looking forward to spoilerific discussion! It's a Bond film for Bond fans, but Mrs Bulge loved it as well, and she's not keen on Bond or action flicks generally.

It was really good. Can't say more without spoilers.

I have to wait to see this. Boohiss.

I have tickets for Skyfall a la IMAX next week - SO excited!

Fuck sake.

Was going to go tonight with my new Cineworld unlimited subscription thing, but it turns out you can't book tickets online using the Unlimited card. So I'd have to pay anyway. That's fine for something like Big Mommas House 28 or something, but for Skyfall where queues are literally out of the building and most showings are sold out, that pretty much means I have no chance of actually seeing it.

I couldn't get into see this tonight. Sad face.

Went to see Paranormal Activity 4. Angry face.

It was apparently sponsored by Kinect. Bemused face.

Saw it in IMAX. Frikkin' awesome. The sound system in those cinemas doesn't get talked about enough...

I was going to go see this at the weekend, then I couldn't be arsed.

More news as it happens. Stay tuned.

Saw this yesterday, it's okay, not sure it lives up to all the hype - actually, I am sure it doesn't.

Interesting. First nay-saying report I've heard. All the rest have been raving over it.

Bobby nay-says everything.

He's like a particularly talkative horse

mild spoilers - general plot stuff, no specifics

There was more, but I need to do some work.

I am not saying these things (apart from 3) make it a bad film, it is just not a great film. It certainly isn't as good as Casino Royale.

Saw this on Saturday. I enjoyed it tremendously. It's a very good film, confident in it's own skin and takes the time to play with themes not usually addressed in Bond films.

Totally agree, got a surprise early view of it last night and loved it. Really thought it was one of the best acted bonds, I am a huge believer that Casino Royal was the best bond ever, but this came exceptionally close - for different reasons though. Much more gritty plot, acting, cinematography. Really loved it

My other half was "too tired" to go to see this last night, so I agreed to postpone going in favour of waiting for Orange Wednesday. I knew I would regret granting her this, now this thread confirms it for me. I'm not sure I'll even be able to look her in the eye tonight.

In response to Bobbyaro's spoilered comments... You seem to have a strange picture of what a Bond film should be. Further, your first complaint is COMPLETELY at odds with the fact that you prefer Casino Royale. Move along folks, he's a mental.

They always say this about every new Bond film. With the last couple of Brosnan ones it was just nonsense*. I hope you're right about the new one.

*- Unless the 'themes not usually addressed' are running away from a stupid ice-lazer from space, of course.

Nobody said anything good about the last two Brosnan films, surely? And Quantum of Solace received pretty mixed opinion... I don't think Bond is a sacred cow. If a Bond film is shit, people generally say it is. This one is brilliant.

"Shorter than Lord of the Rings. Thankfully."

Ha!

WTF? Bond flipped his car back over with the ejector seat, fewl. And in World Is Not Enough he says "I thought Christmas only comes once a year" which is ridiculously filthy for a Bond film.

The one with the guy with diamond face he jumps onto a big bell and says "saved by the bell" that's bond in my eyes. Corny jokes and ridiculous chase scenes.

That was to counter Denise Richards' spectacularly stilted delivery of the already awful line, 'Do you wanna put that in English for those of us who don't speak spy?'

I've got a stilted delivery for Denise Richards, or something.

I think this belongs to you

I thought the plot was great. The story wasn't as over complicate as some Bonds, and the baddy was suitably creepy and nasty. Also thought the Adele song suited it perfectly when it started playing over the starting credits.

Certainly creepy, the way we meet him for the first time, definitely creepy.

FFS, can't wait to see this bloody film!!!

I actually quite liked The World Is Not Enough, despite Robert Carlyle being a surprisingly rubbish baddie and Denise Richards a not too surprisingly rubbish Bond girl.

Die Another Day may actually be the shittest thing ever, mind. A friend once told me he had a fan-edit of the movie that removed 'all the shit bits'. I can only presume it was basically the opening credits set to different music.

I enjoyed it but didn't come out feeling like it was a *great* film, and it's hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong.

I still prefer Casino Royale.

Finally got to see it. I saw the final scene coming from miles off, but by fuck did I enjoy it anyway! Felt like standing up and giving the screen a standing ovation... but didn't, because I'm not the sort of fucking clown that does things like that.

The one where nothing actually happens other than watching people play poker? FOR HOURS.

I watched this(Casino royale) (again) the other night and cutting lots of the cards bit would have been good. it was about half an hour too long.

Watched this on Saturday.

I thought it was a largely a bag of wank. The A-Team style ending was entertaining although they should have dug up the gamekeepers cabbages and fired them from bits of drainpipe.

Nothing has been anywhere near as entertaining as the Roger Moore era stuff.

As per my recent blog post, I thought the film was horrible, and it sailed very close to derailing our entire weekend. My wife was fuming as we left the cinema, and she got angrier the more she thought about the film. I was surprised at the decisions, too. Casino Royale was the first Bond that really clicked with me—I thought it was a gritty, modern take on a character that had become a relic. This new Bond, however, has even less subtlety than the advertising for Yorkie Bars. "WOMEN? GET BACK IN BED OR BEHIND A DESK, WHERE YOU BELONG!"

I find it baffling how many articles—including some by women*—were championing this film as the series showing women in a new and positive light. All I saw were failures and set dressing, throwaway tokenism and a desire to get men in charge, because that's what's right, dammit. Giles Coren hit the nail on the head, so I guess that's why The Times spiked his article—wouldn't want to do anything to hurt a British institution, eh?

* Although it's notable since I wrote my blog post that I've got shit from quite a few blokes, but the majority of women have said they felt the same on watching the film. Not everyone's interpreted the film the same way, but there's clearly something very wrong with that script and how the women in the film were presented. And, no, it being a Bond film doesn't excuse anything.

I respectfully disagree with the chaps article.

M (Judy Dench) said in one of the previous Bond films that bond was a masojanistic (excuse the spelling) dinosaur. Womaniser etc.

I don't think it was any worse than any other Bond film in this way.



As I have been told off for my opinions I will pipe down

There's a big difference between Bond being sexist and the film itself writing all the women as inept, useless or throwaway. And that shower scene was absolutely abhorrent. I'd hope it came from the film getting a ham-fisted edit, so we're missing some context. If not, Bond was essentially told by a woman that she had been routinely sexually abused for years through being a victim of trafficking and was still essentially a prisoner; and then Bond sneaked into her shower and had sex with her. Bleurgh. Quite a few people I saw in the screening I was at were visibly uncomfortable with that scene in particular.

was it Casino Royal, where the woman was murdered because she had slept with Bond.

and in QOS when the Agent was killed by being drowned in oil because she was with Bond.

Have to say I will also respectfully disagree.

We already knew M ended up a guy and that Moneypenny sat behind a desk, so actually for me it was really nice to a) get some back story and b) that lady M was actually WAY ballsier than man M, in my opinion.

The whole Moneypenny thing worked for me - it dispelled the long standing 'oh she's just some pretty doe-eyed thing sitting behind a typewriter so that Bond can play with her occasionally and then forget about her' image that has been in all the previous (now later) Bonds. It shows her as a much tougher, much more capable woman who was first a field agent. No shame in deciding it wasn't for her, the woman did some bad-ass driving, could take someone out, and had ace logistic skills that made her great for the job she ended up choosing (not made to do - she was cleared to go back out into the field).

The whole Sévérine shower scene was a bit sudden / out of context, and felt a little like he was taking advantage, but firstly as you pointed out that may have been the result of a big bad edit that didn't show he was perhaps already there and very much invited it. And, she was also totally using a guy she knew nothing about - please save me, even though I know you'll probably die doing it. Perhaps a case of in love with my knight in shining armor there that made it seem less horrific (believable from her POV) to me. And that set up is very Bond, so I don't know that I'd say it's a terrible notion that they've suddenly introduced. I don't like the I-can't-cope portrayal of women, and she was one of the most like that, but it definitely didn't make me want to shout at the screen.

Let's not forget that Bond's opening line in the shower scene is something like "I like you more without your Beretta" - i.e. "I like you more when you're powerless to stop me."

I found that scene incredibly uncomfortable. It's a direct parallel to a similar scene in Casino Royale, where Vesper sits in the shower crying, fully clothed, after witnessing Bond kill a couple of fools. He is a completely different man in that film, he comes in to the shower with her, again fully clothed, and comforts her. He doesn't try and bone her.

I know that's partly the point, in that the years as a 00 have shaped him into a ruthless, unfeeling killing machine, but yeah - wasn't keen on that bit of the film.

I took it as as Vespa ( a woman he loved enough to quit being a 00)betrayed him at teh end of CR, that stopped him caring about any one.

In Skyfall, I took it as he was invited in, how else would he be on the boat?

So? It's not about shit things happening to women, but women entirely being portrayed in an ultimately negative manner, and mostly as disposable, inept or throwaway.


We already knew nothing. Casino Royale was a Bond revamp, and the writing team could have chosen to do anything. My hope is that Moneypenny becomes something more than she was. For a capable field agent to effectively become a secretary and the means of receiving Bond's innuendo would be horribly depressing. At the very least, she should be a core asset to the team, planning missions and the like. But from Skyfall's general direction, I don't see that happening. As for M, why did Dench need to disappear? And if she did, why not send her out in a blaze of glory, rather than limping along until she did on Bond's arms? Bleurgh again.


It will only dispel any of that IF the subsequent films showcase her as more than a pretty doe-eyed thing sitting behind a typewriter so that Bond can play with her occasionally and then forget about her.


Which, note, is all we get to see: he edit. Even if she did invite it, that scene doesn't sit well with me even if Bond is an arsehole. Creeping up and screwing someone who's been trafficked and sexually abused for years? Just ugh. And "a waste of good scotch"? Ugh.

@GazChap: Agreed.

Also, remember that in the casino, Severine invites Bond to the boat "if [he] survives".

The fact that he turns up on the boat (apparently already naked) tells Severine that Bond has likely killed the guys that were trying to kill him (think back to the earlier conversation in the casino: "Can you kill him?" - "Someone usually dies.")

So, there she is, relaxing (as much as she can) and having a shower. Suddenly, according to the edit, Bond turns up (already naked) and sneaks up behind her. When she realises he's there, imagine what she might be thinking. "He's a killer. I'd better do what he wants, or he'll kill me too."

I really hope it's just a bad edit in the film - her looking disappointingly at the two champagne glasses on the table suggests she wanted him to come, but it takes a truly arrogant and misogynistic bastard to assume that it's alright to sneak on to the boat and creep up behind an incredibly vulnerable woman, while she's in the shower.

I wasn't the only one in the cinema to find that scene uncomfortable either, as we were walking out of the screening, I overheard many people talking about it and how weird it was. Like, of all of the things in the film they could have chosen to talk about as soon as it finished, that was Number 1.

As far as I was aware / concerned the whole thing was a prequel, otherwise why the set up for Dench to Mallory, the making of Moneypenny, the Casino Royal 'real' Bond transition into I don't care about anyone now Bond. So yes, in my mind I did know those things happen later, which is why I enjoyed it (despite some of the obvious screw-ups if it was definitely a prequel!)

I don't disagree that the treating of women as disposable objects despite how screwed up in the head they might be is a bad thing, I'm just saying that's always been Bond - two Bond girls, one weak, one strong, one or both of them gets saved, he has them both, tends to stay with the strong one post-film (normally implied, anyway). The exception being Quantum of Solace where the 'strong' one wouldn't sleep with him. Which I thought was a nice touch.

That was me. I still can't bring myself to watch it.



That's how I see it. He falls in love with Vesper in Casino Royale, she betrays him and he decides not to get close to another woman again. Until he meets, falls in love with and marries Tracy in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I read it much more as 'wow, you survived, you're my hero, I know you can protect me', especially because of the disappointed champagne glass moment. To me that was, Oh I hope he comes, if he does then I know he's my man.

It is great that there are two ways of viewing the scene. Depending on the way that your mind works.

I would never assume that Bond would force himself on someone.