What I'm watching

Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.

5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.

4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.

3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.

2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.

1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.

0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.

As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.

Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.

free counters

Home
Archive
Subscribe (RSS)
Ask me anything
Random post

Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

My Top 10 Villains/Henchmen from the James Bond Series #1 Oddjob (Goldfinger) #2 Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger) #3 Red Grant (From Russia With Love) #4 Ernst Stavro Blofeld (You Only Live Twice) #5 Jaws (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker) #6 Francisco Scaramanga (The Man With The Golden Gun) #7 Hugo Drax (Moonraker) #8 Xenia Onatopp (Goldeneye) #9 Alex Trevelyan aka 006 aka Janis (Goldeneye) #10 Karl Stromberg (The Spy Who Loved Me)

My Top 10 Villains/Henchmen from the James Bond Series

#1 Oddjob (Goldfinger)

#2 Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger)

#3 Red Grant (From Russia With Love)

#4 Ernst Stavro Blofeld (You Only Live Twice)

#5 Jaws (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker)

#6 Francisco Scaramanga (The Man With The Golden Gun)

#7 Hugo Drax (Moonraker)

#8 Xenia Onatopp (Goldeneye)

#9 Alex Trevelyan aka 006 aka Janis (Goldeneye)

#10 Karl Stromberg (The Spy Who Loved Me)

Scaramanga’s Golden Gun vs Bond’s Walther PPK. Who will be victorious? Well considering there’s 13 more James Bond films…

Scaramanga’s Golden Gun vs Bond’s Walther PPK. Who will be victorious? Well considering there’s 13 more James Bond films…

#100 The Man With The Golden Gun (Rewatch) The British energy crisis requires a solution, and fast, but after receiving a golden bullet with 007 engraved on it, James Bond (Roger Moore) is informed that the million dollar assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) has him in his sights. Can Bond recover the Solex Agitator to alleviate the crisis with the man who never misses hot on his trail? This one is a little like Roger Moore’s Thunderball. It’s very safe and ticks all the right boxes so ultimately it can’t be considered a bad film however there is nothing really about it which elevates it above just an ok Bond film. Moore is still good in the role and isn’t afraid to show a little bit of the darker side to his Bond this time around when he interrogates Scaramanga’s mistress (Maud Adams) for information.  The leading ladies this time around are really dull. The aforementioned Adams works well enough as Scaramanga’s mistress but she doesn’t do a whole lot. On the other hand there is Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) who is probably the 2nd most annoying of all the Bond girls. Her character does little to nothing in the film and it just there to be the eye candy in a bikini. She’s ditzy, she’s clumsy and because of her the mission is put in jeopardy several times. Oh, and I totally admit this is petty, she has the most irritating laugh. Scaramanga is a good villain, but then it’s Christopher Lee, he can do a cool villain character in his sleep. His villain is a little different to all those who have come before however, in that he respects Bond as a fellow assassin. He sees Bond as an equal and actually tells him he would not kill him/track him if Bond would just stay out of his affairs. Bond can’t do this so it comes down to a duel in the end. Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels, is actually Lee’s cousin and recommend Lee for the part of Dr No in the first film but by the time he did they had already cast Joesph Wiseman. There isn’t a great deal to draw attention to in terms of action this time around but there are a few good scenes which stand out. The spiral loop with the car is a pretty cool stunt but they ruin it with the slide whistle going at the same time. Again, a martial arts training school is always cool (used here because of the popularity of Kung Fu movies at the time of release) and I especially like the way Bond takes out the first opponent. It’s like the Indiana Jones sword fighter/pistol scene of the Bond universe. Finally, the duel between Scaramanga and Bond is a good finale and the establishing scenes beforehand at dinner are good for building the tension and showing us each man feeling their opponent out. As I say it’s a good enough film but nothing elevates it higher than just good. 3/5

#100 The Man With The Golden Gun

(Rewatch)

The British energy crisis requires a solution, and fast, but after receiving a golden bullet with 007 engraved on it, James Bond (Roger Moore) is informed that the million dollar assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) has him in his sights. Can Bond recover the Solex Agitator to alleviate the crisis with the man who never misses hot on his trail?

This one is a little like Roger Moore’s Thunderball. It’s very safe and ticks all the right boxes so ultimately it can’t be considered a bad film however there is nothing really about it which elevates it above just an ok Bond film. Moore is still good in the role and isn’t afraid to show a little bit of the darker side to his Bond this time around when he interrogates Scaramanga’s mistress (Maud Adams) for information. 

The leading ladies this time around are really dull. The aforementioned Adams works well enough as Scaramanga’s mistress but she doesn’t do a whole lot. On the other hand there is Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) who is probably the 2nd most annoying of all the Bond girls. Her character does little to nothing in the film and it just there to be the eye candy in a bikini. She’s ditzy, she’s clumsy and because of her the mission is put in jeopardy several times. Oh, and I totally admit this is petty, she has the most irritating laugh.

Scaramanga is a good villain, but then it’s Christopher Lee, he can do a cool villain character in his sleep. His villain is a little different to all those who have come before however, in that he respects Bond as a fellow assassin. He sees Bond as an equal and actually tells him he would not kill him/track him if Bond would just stay out of his affairs. Bond can’t do this so it comes down to a duel in the end.

Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels, is actually Lee’s cousin and recommend Lee for the part of Dr No in the first film but by the time he did they had already cast Joesph Wiseman.

There isn’t a great deal to draw attention to in terms of action this time around but there are a few good scenes which stand out. The spiral loop with the car is a pretty cool stunt but they ruin it with the slide whistle going at the same time. Again, a martial arts training school is always cool (used here because of the popularity of Kung Fu movies at the time of release) and I especially like the way Bond takes out the first opponent. It’s like the Indiana Jones sword fighter/pistol scene of the Bond universe. Finally, the duel between Scaramanga and Bond is a good finale and the establishing scenes beforehand at dinner are good for building the tension and showing us each man feeling their opponent out.

As I say it’s a good enough film but nothing elevates it higher than just good. 3/5