My Word Is My Bond - Being Here

My Word Is My Bond
Or How I learnt To Stop Worrying And Enjoy Bond!
02/11/08

Sunday, a day much like any other, apart from the fact that I seem to be permanently exhausted at the moment. The only shame I have is that I can't really think of a reason for my exhaustion other than bone idleness. I was out late last night making merry and earning money (Not servicing men folk though). I was earning my crust in a whole heartedly above board venture, being musical. Whilst it was not the Albert Hall or anything very grand, it was still a nicely paid bit of work, which is always nice in this day and age what with Le Credit Crunch on at the moment. Incidentally, why are the kids from the Le Crunch adverts now targeting the worlds economy? I remember when all they cared about was apples.

After a quiet morning the wife and I decided to partake in the latest Bond adventure. We arrived at the cinema fearing the worst as most reviews (UK reviews anyway) have been very scathing, most pointing out that it doesn't make any sense, lacks any structure, you cant see what is happening during action and generally isn't much fun. Mark Kermode particularly attacked it. Mark Kermode was a trusted source of reviews, but not since he said that The Big Lebowski was rubbish. I have news for you Kermode, The Exorcist is a big pile of shit. It also annoys me that Kermode and the like keep querying the title. It is a Fleming title, it was a short story in For Yours Eyes Only. It's pretty much a given that most Bond titles dont make any sense anyway, Thunderball? Moonraker? Or are utter crap like Octopussy. If these reviewers bothered to do any research, they will find Fleming's explanation of the title, and I quote Mr. Craig, "Ian Fleming says that if you don't have a quantum of solace in your relationship then the relationship is over. It's that spark of niceness in a relationship that if you don't have you might as well give up."

I don't tend to hold much stead in reviews these days, well not since Empire gave Star Wars Episode 2 five stars, which was the most ridiculous piece of journalism I have ever seen.
I am happy to report that they are wrong again (The other reviewers I mean, not Empire, who I think called it correctly.

I was basically ready to not like the film when it started, a combination of the negative reviews and the outrageously over the top merchandising, which has been fucking ridiculous to the extreme, I have seen two adverts that tell me that they are James Bond's favourite product, which makes no sense as he is a fictional character. There is product placement a plenty in this film, but is it any worse than any modern film? Not really no, it is no where near as bad as I,Robot was, that was the biggest whore on the block in my opinion.

So, does the plot/structure hold up? Yes.
Can you see what is going on in the action moments? Mostly, but admittedly there were moments of bewilderment, but this is the way of things these days. I must say though, some of the punch up's in this film are fantastic, there is a scene in a hotel room, it is a very brief slice of action, but it works really well. Most of all, the action is realistic and Craig proves once again that he is the best man for the job. There are also some nice nods to the earlier films, such as the Bond girl being on a revenge mission (For your eyes only) The man being knocked off the roof whilst holding onto Bond (The Spy Who Loved Me) and the Goldfinger bit, which I won't delve into as it may spoil the plot for people. To be honest, the worst part of the film was the song. It is very bad, but certainly not the worst one, Madonna holds that record. Although, I did enjoy the title sequence, I noticed it is no longer done by Daniel Kleinman and now by a company called MK12, I think they did a great job. Having watched a lot of early Bond lately, I have to come to the conclusion that Maurice Binder (the title designer up until Goldeneye) was a bit of a one trick pony with a naked lady fascination. He put them in everything from a giant champagne glass to on top of a gun barrel in the nude. In those days he was celebrated, now he would be put away!
The new film's intro was very retro from a type face perspective, very bold. I also like the use of typefaces when we arrived at the many locations during the film.
All in all, a great addition to the Bond cannon! I think people will moan what ever the weather to be honest.

I have always had a deep rooted love for all things Bond, they are just such amazing films and no matter how naff they are there is always something fantastic about them (apart from Die Another Day).
I see that Roger Moore has released his autobiography . It is entitled, "My Word Is My Bond". Good old Rog, waiting until a new Bond film comes out and mentioning Bond in the title, good for him, I hope he makes a mint, as long as he mentions the masterpiece that is Bullseye! He does however, have an interesting piece on his website about Bond. He has been putting a promotional shift in in the last fortnight, he was even on the Adam and Joe show, which was very funny as Joe Cornish totally froze up whilst questioning him. He said later that Moore was his childhood hero and was just too over whelmed with excitement when in his company. I would be the same, he was my hero when I was young, even though I thought he looked too old then!

I remember going to the Granada cinema in Harrow as an 8 year old in 1985 and seeing "A View To A Kill" with my mum, when we came out at the end we were both laughing about how old he seemed, so a change was needed! I first saw Dalton as Bond in a teaser trailer for The Living Daylights whilst I was sat in the audience waiting for Superman 4 to start. I remembered how excited I was when he said, "Who ever she was I must have scared the living daylights out of her!" I still love Dalton for that, it was my first excitement about Bond, a new Bond!! I loved the film, and Licence To Kill, they are by no means perfect, but there are much worse Roger Moore and Sean Connery films if you ask me.
I also feel sorry for Daniel Craig at the moment as he has had to do so much promotion for this film it is crazy, he even did the voiceover for the anti piracy ad before the film. I don't think there has been a harder sell for a Bond film ever, I certainly don't remember this kind of promotion previously, I remember that for Octopussy they were putting these really cool stickers in boxes of Shredded Wheat when I was little, I used to stick them on everything, it was picture of that mini plane that came out of that horses bum. If only advertising was that simple now.

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