The Bond films expired off Hulu yesterday, so I watched "The Man with the Golden Gun" and "Never Say Never Again."
"The Man with the Golden Gun." A very average outing. It didn't have too much of the outright silliness that marred a good chunk of the Moore movies (with the grating exception of the obnoxious redneck cop stereotype from the previous Bond movie). And Christopher Lee, who was a friend of Ian Flemings and offered the role of Bond at one point, was a terrific villain. But there's little else remarkable about it. The pace is a bit slow, the action choreography is pretty bland, no cool gadgets, and the Bond girls are boring (still hot, though).
"Never Say Never Again." This outlaw 007 movie is not officially part of the Bond series, but I'll still count it. The movie is a remake of "Thunderball" that occurred due to a rights dispute from a writer names Kevin McClory who worked on some material with Ian Fleming. I feel like Sean Connery agreed to be part of this movie just to spite the Broccoli family, who he publicly despised. This movie is a mess. Clunky, cheesy, dull, and charmless. The music is terrible, the jokes are strained, and Connery is made to look foolish, which Bond should never be. It was like a parody. Klaus Maria Brandeur was a good villain, and Barbara Carrera is a special kind of crazy. And the motorcycle chase is well done. But overall, this is a lousy effort showing the same rot that was infecting the official Bond movies during the late 70s and early 80s.
such crazy good deal. I only need to see a few more of the best picture nominees, but there are a few I'd love to see again, Hell or High Water and Manchester in particular.
