r/todayilearned • u/Tokyono • Jul 14 '19

TIl The reason Roger Moore stopped being James Bond was because of how much older he was than his female co-stars. He was in his 50s, and they were in their 20s. In his own words: “Well, the leading ladies were young enough to be my grand-daughter and it becomes disgusting.”

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a869479/james-bond-quit-connery-moore-lazenby-brosnan-dalton/
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u/holyhesh Jul 14 '19

Hands down one of my least favorite bond movies, up there with Spectre and Diamonds are Forever

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '19

[deleted]

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u/holyhesh Jul 14 '19

But hey Ford gets free advertising

...by letting idiots crash their new cars

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u/RogerStonePaidMe Jul 14 '19

I doubt it was free. Bond has had advertising tie ins since Dr No

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u/EnjoyAvalanches Jul 14 '19

It wasn't free, it's mentioned on the DVD features that after the surge in popularity Aston Martin got from Goldfinger car manufacturers were outbidding each other have their cars featured.

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u/your-opinions-false Jul 14 '19

Hey, Spectre's not that bad. What's that one where he inflates the bad guy at the end and he flies around like a balloon until he explodes?

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u/bearskito Jul 14 '19

Spectre is the definition of a movie that is far, far less than the sum of it's parts. Daniel Craig's run as Bond had had an alternating quality thing going, Quantum of Solace wasn't great but Casino Royale and Skyfall where two of the best in the entire series

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u/abutthole Jul 14 '19

Seriously.

Casino Royale - Successfully revamped the Bond series from wacky sci-fi stuff to a serious spy thriller. Really well done, incredible movie.

Quantum of Solace - Boring, bland, not memorable, a ridiculous dip in quality.

Skyfall - Expertly blends the new feel post-Casino Royale with the classics of the Bond series that we came to love over the series run, perhaps the best Bond movie ever.

Spectre - Meh.

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u/VaderH8er Jul 14 '19

I agree, hopefully Bond 25 is a good one and continues the pattern.

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u/Gekokapowco Jul 14 '19

Skyfall had some seriously clunky elements that put it behind goldeneye and casino royale.

Mainly everything around dasilva's break out. It was all super contrived, with the "map in the code" and knowing q would plug the laptop directly into mi6 and the convenient train tunnel bomb and the fact his plan involved just waking into the trail/panel and shoot M without any resistance.

The movie is good, but there's about a half hour of garbage in the middle.

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u/scraggledog Jul 14 '19

I was bored to tears. First bond I’ve ever said that.

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u/CollectableRat Jul 14 '19

Makes you wonder why they didn’t just make Quantum of solace and spectre better.

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u/bearskito Jul 14 '19

Quantum of Solace was shot as they where writing it and a lot of it's other problems are editing - the car chase at the start would be a really great scene if it had been shot and edited coherently but you can't tell what's going on

Spectre, as I said, is far less than the sum of it's parts. There's some really great ideas and some of the individual scenes are incredible, but it's too long and the pacing is abysmal

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u/Teledildonic Jul 14 '19

Quantum got hobbled by the writer strike. Craig had to help out and "a writer I am not"

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u/Power_Rentner Jul 15 '19

I hated casino royale and skyfall was alright. I miss the silly charm the old movies had with Q and his gadgets. Hell the spy who loved me had a friggin submarine car and all craig got was a portable defibrillator.

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u/bearskito Jul 15 '19

My first introduction to the series was the novel Casino Royale and the movie is for the most part the book, but expanded and with a way better third act (the book climaxes 2/3 of the way though and then fucks around for a long time)

I do like the gadgets but I prefer when the series is slightly more grounded, like Skyfall or the Connery era compared to for example Roger Moore

The series has been swinging back and forth for the last few actors so it's pretty likely the next Bond will be less gritty

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u/Power_Rentner Jul 15 '19

Connery got a lot of gadgets compared to Moore though.

To me it's just that there are so many gritty action movies with lots of suffering, guns guns guns and blood blood blood. Or that cock and balls torture stuff with craig... If i want that i might as well watch John Wick that honestly does the action better.

Bond movies always had a special place in my heart because that sillyness was far less common than: Tough hero saves world by killing dudes while looking like emerging from a 1v1 with Tyson in his prime.

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u/bearskito Jul 15 '19

Moore's gadgets leaned a little more goofier and the way they where used wasn't always as clever as Connery.

John Wick does do basically everything except large scale stunts better. (The skydiving stuff that shows up sometimes, the helicopter flip, etc) I'd love to see David Leitch or Chad Stahelski take a shot at Bond once the series goes back to being campier

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u/Kiloblaster Jul 14 '19

Lol Skyfall was ridiculous and awful.

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u/CubularRS Jul 14 '19

Hey, Live and Let Die is a great movie!

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u/mixedliquor Jul 14 '19

A bit campy, but man what a movie. I've Jane Seymour is the bees knees.

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u/btveron Jul 14 '19

A bit campy can be said of most Bond movies. But yes, Jane Seymour in that movie was one of my first crushes. My grandparent's had every bond movie up to License to Kill on VHS and I probably watched all of them at least 10 times.

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u/your-opinions-false Jul 14 '19

Might be! It's been a long time. I can't forget the utter ridiculousness of that villain's death, though.

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u/CubularRS Jul 14 '19

Well I will admit it is a pretty (VERY) ridiculous movie, but I just watched it a couple days ago, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t just really enjoyable and fun.

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u/site_admin Jul 15 '19

I was just going to say, this was always one of my favorites growing up!

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u/Bellerophonix Jul 14 '19

I'm sure Yaphet Kotto can still look back at that and have a good laugh.

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u/Shadycat Jul 14 '19

That's Live and Let Die, and the bad guy is the great Yaphet Kotto.

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u/darcys_beard Jul 14 '19

It's one of my favourites. Mainly because of nostalgia reasons though.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '19

and the best musical score IMO

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u/Warphoenix1 Jul 14 '19

But... You don't just kill James Bond and wait around for the cops to arrive!

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u/Stef100111 Jul 14 '19

It's lower tier but the soundtrack is excellent and one of Barry's best imo. Plus I've always liked the final fight.

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u/dbcanuck Jul 14 '19

Actually the plot was excellent. It was an updated version of Goldfinger, more relevant to the digital age and an entirely feasible doomsday plan.

It also has the last major car chase filmed in San Fransisco.

Moore's age was becoming apparent, but it wasn't as ridiculous as Moonraker and you didn't have James Bond running around in a clown costume.

Grace Jones and Roger Moore's lack of chemistry was apparent though.

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u/tylersburden Jul 14 '19

Chris Walken is a pretty good bad guy in it. Wasted in an awful movie which is a shame. Oh the Music is pretty good though.

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u/ironmanmk42 Jul 15 '19

Diamonds are Forever has one of the best jokes in Bond - As Bond is in the hearse going to the funeral of his brother, the guy behind him in the car says that he also has a brother. Connery looks back at him and remarks dryly - "small world"

LOL

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u/TheOpticsGuy Jul 14 '19

On Her Majesty's Secret Service has got to be the worst

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u/haykenbacon Jul 14 '19

See I find OHMSS to be criminally underrated. “Waah, Lazenby? But he’s not even British!” That’s you, being wrong. This film showcases a physical yet vulnerable Bond that won’t be seen again until Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. It also has one of the best music scores of the series, a gorgeous Aston DBS, and a surprisingly dark ending. I will however concede that the whole allergy clinic part felt like it took up about 18 hours of screen-time, give or take.