MovieChat Forums > Spectre (2015) Discussion > Probably worse than Die Another Day

Probably worse than Die Another Day

posted 8 years ago by fp_ff_fp
11 replies | jump to latest

Daniel Craig never struck me as the Bond sort. He is neither suave nor sophisticated with boyish charm, he is neither good at dialog delivery beyond one with a wooden dead pan facial expression nor particularly good at fighting looking comfortable that he's done this before.

Still, his past Bond movies have been very good. Casino Royale was excellent with Eva Green who really stole the show for me. Quantum Of Solace was decent while Skyfall was really good.

However, after watching Spectre I must really say this is one wretched over the top nonsensical caricature of a Bond movie.

From the bad acting to bad scenes where the director was going for over the top epic, it all just feels cringeworthy.

I mean so many scenes are nonsensical and stupid and yet attempted to convey with super seriousness and everyone really takes it very seriously as if they're in some epic movie like Lord of the Rings or something.

Some examples -

- the whole opening Mexican scene was just stupid and stupider.
- the whole nonsensical Monica Belucci scene with the assassins standing behind her while Bond stands behind them all and then the sex scene with a 50 year old woman etc.
- the whole Spectre meeting scene was bizarre and weird in a very bad way - Bond moves between areas while a dude talks in Spanish, another in German and some random guy walks in and punches the lights out of the spanish guy and then Col. Hanz Landa knows exactly where Bond is and they all then inexplicably fire at him while he jumps out the window and runs to his car and gets in and runs off with the eye gouger following him in another supercar with an over the top chase scene with a bizarre and stupid ending
- then came the piece de la resistance - Bond gets a girl kidnapped easily and nicely and then follows them in plane ?! and it's now 3 cars vs a plane for a really perplexing chase scene and Bond manages to land the place once and take out one car and then other 2 cars keep going while he rear ends the girl (I mean later but for now her car) and then they all keep driving (physics is basically not even in the picture) as he crashes a barn and plows into both cars and shoots one guy while leaving the main baddie alive.

I mean I screamed at that point - WHAT THE F. I'll finish this movie review once I collect my thoughts more.

More thoughts edit:

- the whole train scene was just weird and esoteric...in a bad way. I mean the bad guy is in the train but waits till they sit for dinner? While being impeccably dressed etc. and awaiting a whole night etc.
And then they fire guns and everyone around them seem just nonchalant and no one even bothers to stop the train and call cops
Then the bad guy gets yanked out the train and that's it.
- the whole thing with the stupid train station in the middle of nowhere and a rolls royce sent to pick Bond up??
- then the whole thing with Blofeld - just...cringeworthy. He has a super clear network connection to cameras in London capturing audio and video so pristine....so clear. I mean gimme a break. He then switches off all the desktops/monitors and everyone just stares and just shrug?
- then the whole torture scene - just insanely stupid and bad. And Bond easily runs off with just one watch bomb, goes out ALL the way without being hit by anyone - were they even trying? I mean they must've been like F this S. I'm done with this heat, this insane crazy boss etc. I mean who applies for this "job"? How do you become a henchman? Do they have HR? Sick leave? Paychecks every 2 weeks? I mean just wtf? But I've digressed..
- finally Bond gets to the top of some hill from that crater and then shoots ONE bullet at some gas canister and the ENTIRE facility just blows up spectacularly! What the bejeezus hell. And somehow Blofeld escapes with a small scar only?

- And the whole thing with Prof. Moriarty - I mean - here they are launching some super duper surveillance system and NO ONE is at the office? No maint personnel? no techs? no engineers? nothing? What the hell?

- final scene with Bond easily catching up to a chopper on a stroll over the Thames and shoots a magic bullet that brings the chopper down. Just... get it over with already.

What drugs did the movie makers take? I know now how Daniel Craig felt after the movie and why he said F you to the directors/movie makers and that he won't make another Bond.

I mean this movie is just nonsensical garbage. A comic photocopied from a comic photocopied from another comic from a novel.

Just bad movie.

I rate this movie a 2/10 - one for some beautiful vistas and one for just being Bond.

[–] maggieameanderings 8 years ago

then the sex scene with a 50 year old woman

What's wrong with that? She's a beautiful woman. And Daniel Craig is almost 50 himself.

I mean you want to talk about nonsensical garbage...........how about that scene where a woman has sex with a man 20 years older than her?

Does that change your perspective?

Because it ought to open your eyes to the fact that you consider two contemporaries having sex to be nonsensical garbage because the woman's slightly older.........while you didn't blink an eye at a 20 year age gap when it's the man who's a lot older.

[–] fp_ff_fp 8 years ago

I didn't mean it that way at all. I just meant it that a grieving 50 year old won't just hook up with some stranger who just strolls up and shoots 2 assassins for her. Just seemed out of place and jarring. And Bond goes from a young girl to an old girl to a young girl etc. Just felt cheap and moronic

I won't bat an eye if there's an age diff or if they're gay or polygamy etc. As long as they're legal age of consent, I couldn't care less what 2 or more consenting adults of any gender do with their own life choices.

[–] SuperDevilDoctor 8 years ago

I just meant it that a grieving 50 year old won't just hook up with some stranger who just strolls up and shoots 2 assassins for her. Just seemed out of place and jarring. And Bond goes from a young girl to an old girl to a young girl etc.

"Grieving"? She hated her husband, who ignored her in preference to serving SPECTRE -- and whose death meant that she was going to be killed, too. She was in fear, and Bond took that away. (He seduced her.)

And that "old girl" happens to be fine, jack. I'm about four years older than the actress, and I can only heartily agree with Bond who, when she tells 007 that her husband ignored her, states the movies' most obvious truth:

He was a FOOL.

Send her to the snakes!

[–] maggieameanderings 8 years ago

I didn't mean it that way at all. I just meant it that a grieving 50 year old won't just hook up with some stranger who just strolls up and shoots 2 assassins for her. Just seemed out of place and jarring.

I think that if it were the grieving widow part you found to be nonsensical garbage would have described her as a "grieving widow" not a "50 year old woman." (Though she wasn't a grieving widow. Just a widow.)

And Bond goes from a young girl to an old girl to a young girl etc. Just felt cheap and moronic

But where did Bond go from a young woman to an old woman to a young woman? Are you thinking Moneypenny? Because she made it clear nothing was happening between them by her choice. (As Moneypenny is involved with another man.) Because I can't think of another woman where you would think Bond had had sex.

[–] maggieameanderings 8 years ago

Aside from the one quibble I already expressed, I have to say that I agree with your list.

I'd add to it Q going back to his hotel room when he knew he'd been found out.
1) I didn't think Q was dumb enough to go back to the room
2) Since he did go back, I expected Q to get grabbed and Bond to walk into an empty room
3) I at least expected the bad guys Q gave the slip to show up at the room when Bond and the doctor were there with Q

I was sitting here watching the movie while petting my cat and the next thing I know Bond's gone from a clinic parking lot to an airplane? And I had to ask myself, did I look away from the screen? Then I hit the pause and looked up the running time of the movie to see if somehow I was watching an edited version. (I wasn't.) I spent the entire plane chase scene wondering where in the hell Bond got an airplane from. Yes, Bond has come up with some ingenious forms of travel in his chase (a cello case bobsleigh comes to mind), but they always showed where he got it from. Not a plane out of nowhere. (A chopper, I could have bought. They could have shown a rich person coming to the clinic in their private helicopter. Then Bond steals the chopper. Could have just shown the chopper arriving through the clinic window so it was just part of the background until Bond needs it and steals it.)

Then after bad guy was captured at the end, when Bond went back to see Q, I was expecting Bond to thank him for so brilliantly figuring out Blofeld's plan such that Q had set up the giant net, the arrow painted on the wall and the speed boat ready for the escape. Because as soon as Bond hit that net, I started wondering how all that was set up. But, no explanation there either.

I emailed a friend as the closing credits were playing and said after watching that movie my brain was in revolt.

(Oh, I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think that Bond ever killed Blofeld's cat in any other movie. If Moore's Bond were in that situation, I could see him nonchalantly scooping up the cat and taking it out of there before blowing it all to hell.)

[–] SuperDevilDoctor 8 years ago

...the next thing I know Bond's gone from a clinic parking lot to an airplane? And I had to ask myself, did I look away from the screen? ... I spent the entire plane chase scene wondering where in the hell Bond got an airplane from.

Yes, apparently you looked away from the screen.

When Bond first arrives at (and we first see) the clinic, there's an airstrip below the building with some small private aircraft parked on it.

Send her to the snakes!

[–] maggieameanderings 8 years ago

Thank you for clearing that up.

[–] mariakelly-04164 8 years ago

There is no way in hell that Die Another Day is better than Spectre.

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!

[–] coolslowhand 8 years ago

Every Man who played Bond is different.

Connery was the most impressive of the bunch because he had the suave and good looks as well as the masculinity and danger, plus the boyish charm. Almost like Clark Gable. But Connery could not pull off the middle age Bond as well as Moore did

Moore (in FYEO and TSWLM) was romantic, sophisticated, but still incredibly deadly. He was mature and incredibly likeable as a top professional with a fun, irresponsible streak as opposed to a man child like Brosnan

Craig is a serious, troubled Bond. As someone mentioned, he looks more like a footballer than a model like lazenby, but he has more grit and danger him then lazenby or Dalton ever brought to the role.

In retrospect, maybe too much time was spent on Bond and the aftermath of Vesper's death in his films. But casino Royale and sky fall were perfect for Craig. Connery would have nailed casino Royale (maybe done better even) but he would not have nailed sky fall like Craig did.

Enjoy it for was what it was. Craig was probably not the best to ever play Bond, but he should be very proud of some of the films he released. Many consider casino Royale the best of the entire collection, after all....

The new bond will be very different - probably more charismatic and fun, but I'll always enjoy what Craig brought to the role. Spectre and QOS are fantastic films, but compared to die another day they are Casablanca and the godfather

[–] FridayOnElmStreet 8 years ago

I love both films.

[–] mariakelly-04164 8 years ago

Nope. Die Another Day was WORSE.

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!