The opening act is Sheena Easton! There was a scene that Moore Bond starts panting while he climbs up long stretch of stone stairs. My impression was like "Oh, this is the portion they gave up when they switched from George Lazenby to Roger Moore!" Since I already checked Timothy's young, athletic version of Bond, now I understand well why people like Princess Di liked newer version of Bond. Aside from those negative portions, this "three-year-older than Sean" Bond was doing great in this title. I thought "Thunderball" would be the only "water intensive Bond film" but now I know it was wrong. I personally liked Carole Bouquet's mysterious eyes. She was like elder sister of Liv Tyler, at least in my imagination. : )
Every time I was asked about opinions on this title, I felt like that I am a Japanese who is not patriotic enough. Finally I checked it out on a big screen thanks to MoMA's effort, and have opinions on this. This is a sort of masculine fairy tale, like other Connery titles as they are in similar ways. Being surprised, giving applause, and then smiling or laughing out loud. That's all. Japan in 60's was perfect place to shoot such a tale because they had everything, from industrious brand new subway system to traditional medieval castle. With a hint of practical nonsense, like ninja sequences, the tale can be concluded beautifully. Originally I was astonished by Tetsuro Tanba's clear British English but that reputation has been brown away once I leaned that it was dubbed one due to his "hard to hear" accent. On the other hand, I would like to give hands to the only "real" English speaker, Akiko Wakabayashi, and I am going to check her other, not many, appearances. Now I can laugh at "unidentified object" portion of Austin Powers really out loud! : )
Welcome Pearce Bond! Welcome Judi M!! I believe this is the first Bond title I watched in a movie theatre, yes not in a theater but in a theatre. With the clear image of a stone horse mounted tank running around a Russian city, I couldn't forget the line, "I am invincible!". This should be a proof of me watching this one in real tme, not a subtitled or dubbed one. Having said that, he must be my very first Bond who has been speaking in English all the way from the beginning. Sad things would be I lost much of my listening comprehension skill on British accent and I started talking like an American. : ( One mistake was I believed Judi Dench had been M forever. Sorry, she was a mature lady from the beginning!! : )
The second and, sadly enough, the last title by Timothy Dalton. Although the record says the lowest earned title, I personally believe many people's comment as "the closest ever Bond, to the original novel", even including Princess Di! The opening is shocking enough as usual and it also contains sad and emotional moments, which had been avoided for the last two predecessors, Connery and Moore. I would say they were not good at these kind of things and those who are "matured" audiences had to wait until Dalton shows up. I was somewhat surprised to see my side of preference to watch Pam like Bond Girl, played by Carey Lowell. Another surprise was she is "the better half" of Richard Gere! A personal trivia was the Hemingway House. : ) Since I just watched recently "Hemingway & Gellhorn" (2012), played by Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman, it was fun to watch the past in the past movie, both of them are pretty new to my current daily life.
Due to schedule conflict, I ended up landing on this title by skipping whole Roger Moore collections except the very first one. I'm not sure how this order changed reception of Timothy Dalton's image because I'd be one of the person who would have been fed up with Moore's too comedic too old Bond around that time. Dalton declined an offer for Bond role when he was 24 years because he felt he was too young for Bond, then declined again at the age of 34 because he didn't want be Bond like the ones in "Spy Who Loved Me" or "Moonraker" with the fact that their script wasn't ready by that time. I believe he made right decisions as a serious Shakespeare trained actor and that didn't lower his reputation and raised Bond's reputation at the same time. If 34-years-old Timothy would be competing against Daniel Craig, they would be serious contenders for each other. I definitely watch this again after completing series!
This title begins with McCartney's voice! The opening scenes shot in NYC were exciting to watch. James Bond in a white suite wondering Harlem and stroll into a soulful bar is just a joke, very huge joke, especially during 70's. Now I can sense that kind of humor. : ) Not only NYC, watching another shooting location, New Orleans, was another joy for me as I finally could be there in 2011. Next time I go there, I am not going to be a spectator of a funeral marching band, though. : )
Going over all kinds of gossips regarding how Sean Connery was in and out for the role of 007 around this time was very interesting. This was the "official" last Connery title but I also have to check "unofficial" last Connery in "Never Say Never Again", which was not listed under MoMA's 50 year anniversary event in 2012. Many articles say this was the beginning of comedic Bond series, which leads to Roger Moor titles. I totally understand after watching "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". It was that serious. The scenes in Amsterdam were fun to watch because I was reading Dutch related book at the same time. "Plenty" Lana Wood reminded me Courteney Cox right away but the answer towards "Tiffany" Jill St. John wasn't easy one. After spending a couple of days, I came up with a Japanese actress's name, Kumiko Okae, but I am still not sure if that was the right choice or not... I know, nobody cares about such a thing. : ) Wow, she did appear in Seinfeld's "The Yada Yada". I've gotta check it!
"He's never been equally valued among other Bonds, somehow, but he was also good." That was my Bond advisor's comment against this "one-time limited time only" version of James Bond, acted by an Aussie-born actor George Lazenby. I didn't know his name and also couldn't come up with his face, totally had no idea before actually watching it. But now I understand why his remark was just like that. He is a cooler type of Bond compared to other JBs, somewhat closer to Daniel version, but yet still it stands out. It was kind of fun to read all the gossipy articles about how this replacement happened, the role went back to Sean, it moved on to another guy, then it came back to Sean again. That kind of stories reminded me that a rumor how Hugh Jackman turned down the Bond role. It was also glad to see the young and "very active" Telly Savalas, as I didn't watch that many his Kojak back then. Now I really want to watch him without Moriyama's voice, who is the famous guy did Kojak's voice over. By the way, this title's the "Bond Girl", Diana Rigg, reminds me younger days of Machiko Kyo. Don't know why... Go out and check the one of Mizoguchi's fine work, "Street of Shame (1956)", if you want to understand what I'm talking about here. Other than that by looking through her titles, I do want check out her Bond version in The Avengers!
Re-visited through 50 years anniversary event at MoMA. This was another friend's best and I still remember when two of them were debating each other over another contender, Goldfinger. An unexpected thing was that the only part I remembered was the meaning of slanted lines on the both side of the big ship. Don't know why... Maybe that would be the most meaningful part of Bond Movies... "You don't need to try to remember every details. They really don't matter. Just enjoy the Bond moments!" That's the main spirit of this series! And then, it is highly likely that I am writing similar review five years later. : )
Through "50 Years of James Bond" Film Festival at Museum of Modern Art in 2012.While MoMA was showing 22 of them in chronological order, I've missed first two of them in a row. The life is not easy...One of my "Bond Otaku" friend named this title as the best but I didn't have further opinions against that simply because I am still at 3 year old level knowledge regarding on Bond collections. At that table, I was rather keeping smiling due to the my only related memory related to this title, which was the one comes from the famous parody version of Austin Powers series : )
It wasn't too long ago that watching "The Dark Knight Rises" at a theatre during the opening week in 2012. I usually don't pay too much attention to big box office titles but it was one of my friend's idea and I did go anyway. The place was so packed and there was no chance to choose a seat. The only place given to us after waiting at a very long line was... the very front row right in front of a way too big screen. In addition to that, air condition was way too cold... I thought that situation was the most of the reason I couldn't concentrate on many parts of the story. The answer was wrong. I wasn't watching this title... the initiation of Christopher Nolan's trilogy. That was causing the confusion. Thanks to MoMA's effort, now I could watch all three stories within single week. What a treat!! I feel very lucky to be the part of celebration!!!
As an in-flight selection on a returning flight. Another great work by Woody Allen along with his actual physical appearance. At an interview scene in the past, he was answering that the budget is a factor why he has been away from New York City for long time. But watching these recent works shot in various cities in Europe, he definitely has a talent to shoot these places quite beautifully. All these become beautiful and funny when they are mixed with his vast area of witty knowledge. Thanks to the time I spent here in the city, I did become a person who can sense some of tunes from Tosca but the pace of growth is still very slow. This work gave me another insight that there are so many things I need to experience to fully lough out loud while watching his movies. This won't be easy and not many people go that directions but I still want to. This is the big difference between his works and other Disney titles. : )
It passed me by as one of an in-flight selections. The last time I saw Michelle Yeoh was that through the 007 film festival at MoMA, "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) was that title. I thought that was her "at the best" in her mid-thirty carrier even though there were so many her aspects I didn't know at that time, such as... - She was an ex-Miss Malaysia - A ballet dancer since age 4 - Never a trained martial artist, just using her dance disciplines Then, now I know she still continues to evolve. She must have gone through tough diet to form Aung San Suu Kyi-like body line. Now, I sincerely want to know more about Aung San Suu Kyi, about Myanmar, and about people of Myanmar. From these points of view, Michelle Yeoh did a pretty damn good job. I can say that for sure.
As an opening act of another Film Forum series titled as "SON OF SUMMER SCI-FI, FANTASY & HORROR" in 2013. Thanks to the new 35mm print, the color quality was superb! When I didn't understand the first sentence of this title's introduction on their brochure, which was "Five musical notes heard around the world", it has become clear that the fact that I haven't encountered this famous Spielberg title yet. This was released five years ahead of another story directed by him for "all generations". It was for sure that this one was for a bit more matured generations, it jumps around all sort of touchy subjects, such as family, religion, politics, and even psychiatric ones. I can understand whole a lot better now with the knowledge of the actual distance between Indiana and Wyoming. : ) My own trivia was one year younger "Apollo", Carl Weathers, as a military personnel. And also, I believe Vincent Schiavelli, who is famous as a subway ghost, was playing a policeman although he was not in the credit. Do I have to watch this again? Maybe, when I have to search for the importance of this finding. Remember his words whenever you feel an extra terrestrial implanted an image to someone's brain, try sculpting, not just drawing!! Some music skills will also a plus!!! : )