Ian’s Bond Education: Part 2

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is a Bond film with a lot of strengths, undercut slightly by some really slow and monotonous down periods. But lets talk about the strengths. The down periods there’s not really much to say except that the movie was about 20 minutes too long and just really dragged at certain moments, especially in the first act.
One thing I loved about this movie was the alpine setting. It is unique for a Bond film and yet fits the premise so well. I also love the idea of a ski chase, and they even throw in a bobsled chase for good measure. But honestly, a ski chase? Gold.
I also really liked the Bond girl Tracy and I actually liked how far they went with her. A pretty somber ending for a fun action movie though. Not sure it really fit…

8/10

p.s.  I am confused about the Blofeld thing.  Didn’t he and Bond meet in the previous film?  How did they not know each other?  Is there not actually supposed to be any chronological canon in these films?

 

Diamonds are Forever

What was that??

Honestly, what a mess of a movie.  The directing was terrible, the side characters were some of the worst I’ve seen, the plot was… who cares, and the charm of those 60 Bond films I just watched a bunch of was simply not present.
Honestly, what was with those two henchmen??  And Bambi and Thumper?  I just shook my head with the ridiculousness of it all.  The Bond girls were awful, a fact accentuated by the terrible performances by the actresses.  And Blofeld?  He lost pretty much any air of mystery or intrigue that shrouded him in the earlier films.
It astounded me how bad this film was.  What was with that moon landing rehearsal or whatever it was?  And how off-tone was the crematorium scene?  And he didn’t even find a clever way out of it, someone just let him out.  So stupid.  So, so stupid.

I honestly have no idea how the franchise survived this.  Was this movie actually well received??

1/10

 

Live and Let Die

My first foray into the Moore films. Its dull. I really dont like the Louisiana setting and it all felt very un-bond-like, which I think is a fault of the era perhaps? Not sure. But it was boring and kinda dumb. Like, what was with that police sheriff?

I don’t think the 70s are a good fit for Bond.  But maybe that’s my own rigidity to what I view the Bond films to be.  Either way, not a fan.   Except Jane Seymore, I was definitely a fan of her in this movie.

4/10