Tuesday, November 13, 2012

IS IT BOND or ME ?

Is It Bond or Is It Me? The Question of Why Bond Just Doesn't Seem as Great and Wonderful as Days Gone By?
    I Grew Up Watching Bond. I've Seen Every Bond Film live at the Time It Came Out since my First Experience with Agent 007 James Bond when I was just a young boy of 7 .. That was in 1965, the film "Thunderball" with The Legendary Undersea Battle and the Yacht the divided in two. I also saw my first Bare Breasted Woman in that film when Bond was in a Night Club where a stripper was dancing. A young Boy just Loves that.
   Everything is so much more Magical when your young, all the great movies I saw at the Rivoli Theater in Rutherford, New Jersey Enchanted me to no-end. It was like I was in a Dream, I was in the picture and experiencing everything; Fast Cars (DB5) Beautiful Women, Casinos, Gadgets, and Exotic Locales, Globe Trotting The World. I Always wanted to be just like Bond, and to some small extent I did. I Traveled the World, I Had Unbelievable Gorgeous Girlfriends and brief liaisons and affairs.I traveled the World and though on a small scale always had a Bond-Like bent in my personal life and style, educated, Smart, Sophisticated, stylish, World Traveling Lady's Man..
  Well Back to me, seeing my first Bond Film to the latest Skyfall and every Bond Film in-between along with the first 4 that had come out before I saw my first. Of Course Quantum of Solace was absolutely Horrible and a great disappointment not only for me but Millions of Bond Fans who thought it was horrible as well.
   They axed Pierce who I though was a great Bond. Why did they do that? I was Pissed! They're not going to get someone in this day and age better at Bond than Pierce Bronson who did a great job in 4 Bond films starting with Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, the World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day. Yes Piece did a great Job As Bond, I personally liked him a lot as James Bond and was worried about the new Bond, could he fills Piece's shoes? I didn't think anyone could but I was hoping for the Best. So when Casino Royale came, I went and hoped. And I was pleasantly Suprised, this new Guy Daniel Craig was Great. Casino Royale was Great, I was happy and me and Millions of Bond fans were content, We Got a New Bond and a Good one at that.
   Then came Quantum of Solace. It SUCKED! So we were all kind of apprehensive with the release of Skyfall, would it be good, Great, So-So, or Suck? Of course we were all hoping for the Best, we always want Bond to be Good, Great! So the verdict. Well I'm Happy to say "Skyfall Didn't Suck" Was it Great? Afraid Not! How bout Good? Yes Skyfall was good, just not Great "Nothing to Get Excited About" ! OR is it me? Am I jaded, do O read too much into it, and pick it apart, instead of viewing it like a kid, but there's no way you can ever get that Childlike Magic back. Or can You? Well a little anyway.
   Well to answer those question. No I can never get that Childlike Magic back, small pieces but the whole-blown Childlike Magic can never fully be gotten back. Maybe in a Dream, but we're talking reality here.
Yes i do not have the childlike magic. Yes I pick the movie apart and analyze it, which you never do as a child, you just watch it and Love it or not.


  Bond "James Bond"




   Well, I may not process the Childlike Magic any more, But Let Me Tell You This, though I Love Bond and always want him "It" (The Movie) to be Great, "It's Not." And it's not Methe editing, the , "It's Bond" Not as Good, no Great as It Used to Be. The Movie that Is. It's Not Daniel Craig, he proved he's a fine Bond in Casino Royale. No, it's the producers, the Director (Get Rid of Mendes), the decisions they make, in the story-line, the Music, direction of the Movie, should tone-down the Girls, Sex innuendos, Gadgets, the Music, The Cliches. Yes, YES, YES! It's the Decisions and Direction the Producers, Writers, and Director take. And Speaking of "Taking" Do Not Take Out the Cliches. They May Be Cliches but Cliche may be good, it's what makes a particular "Thing" Good, a THING Like Bond, The Bond Franchise. We the People that pay a Whopping $14.50 as I did, Expect and Want the Cliches, and "ALL" of them, and full-on. Give us Hot Sexy Bond Girls, Give Us all The Great Music and plenty of "Dant-Dant-Di-Dant" Music affects, it charges us up, it's what we Expect "What We Want." Give us plenty of Cool Gadgets and Q and Bond  in ther Gadget Lab and later in the Movie Agent 007 Bond using the Gadget to get out of "Danger." Give us Bonds quirky remarks, charm, and wittiness  a GREAT THEME SONG, Play the Cliche Bond music through-out  the movie. "We Want It All" ! Don't worry Broccoli, there can never be too many Cliches when it comes to Bond. We Want Them. "We Demand Them." So Bond writers, Producers, Directors and Actors, if You Want Great Bond Films for the next 50 Years as in the first 50 despite a few glitches her-and-there, "Leave in All The Great Cliches" that made Bond Great over the years, "That's Your Formula for Another successful 50 Years" and to make the Millions of Bond Fans Happy and content, Bond Cliches! 



Daniel Bellino Zwicke

Saturday, November 10, 2012

SKYFALL DIDN'T SUCK


Went to See Skyfall Last Night, The First Day in NEW YORK and The U.S. ... Like Most Hardcare "Bond Fans" I Wish Wishing and Hoping This the 23rd Edition of The Great Thing We Know and Love as Bnd Films.. I Like Millions of Other Fans was Waiting in Great Anticipation of "The Return of Bond" as it says in the ending credits of every Bond Filml, "James Bond Will Return" There's no question of a Sequel, Bond is a Franchise and you know there's always going to be aother Bond Movie, another Adventures, a New Evil Villain in a Quest for World Domination "Or Something Like That" and if need be, there's going to be a New Bond (actor Playing James Bond).And we got a New Bond 3 Movies ago in Daniel Craig. Craig's First Film was hugely anticipated as here we have a "New Bond" and Pierce Bronson had don a great job in his Bond Films. How was Craig going to be as Secret Agent 007? A very Big Question. Craig didn't disappoint, He Was Awesome in Casino Royale. The Movie Was Very Good as Well. We were all Happy. Then came Quatnum of Solace a "Big STINKER" It SUCKED, most would agree. So now we have Skyfall coming along and everyone is wondering, is it going to be a "Dam Good Bond Film" or a "Crappy Stinker Like Quantum" ??? Of course We were all "Hoping For The Best."



   


So Did SKYFALL Deliver you want to know? Yes and No! Yes ... It Delivered yes in the fact that it Didn't SUCK Like Quantum of Solace, which was thee Most IMPORTANT Thing this Movie Needed to Accomplish, "Just Don't SUCK." !!! It didn't and Thank God for That. Hoping for the Best from Skyfall, did we get it? Well, I wouldn't say we got the best, but we did get pretty goo. Not The Best, No I Didn't walk out of the Theater All Pumped Up and Supercharged like I saw a Great Movie. No, I did feel satisfied, entertained, I like the Movie and felt it was quite good. It was Bond and an Event, The First Night and all that, but this latest Bond Movie is "Far from Being Great or Oscar Worthy" as some writers and reviewers have coined it. Far from it! People like to jump-On-The-Band-Wagon. I'm Not, I tell it like It-Is! I wanted to and wish i could say SKYFALL was  great and Ranks Anong The Best Bond Films of All-Time like some have. The Problem Is, "It Isn't" wish it was but it's now. But what is Very Important is the "Fact" That Skyfall was Good and Din't SUCK Like Quantum, that would have been a Disaster. Let's be happy for that.
   Skyfall does have a good number of the Elements that we love most about a Bond Film. The Movie starts with a great chase scene through the Streets of Istanbul that was quite good. The Skyfall Theme Song while not of the Caliber of Shirley Bassey, Nancy Sinatra, or Sheena Easton was pretty good, sung by Adele. The great Bond Theme Song and background music was good, but could have been used a bit more as it always excites and pumps the audience up.
   There were Beautiful Woman but not used in the optimum as in the best and most Classic Bond Films and Best Bond Girls, a bit lacking in Skyfall. Lacking again in the Much-Loved Gadget Department. But one super great job of Pulling a Rabbit Out of The Hat was the appearance of Bonds Original Car The Famed DB5. Awesome! There was a joke by "M" about Bond pressing the Ejector Seat Button on her, and the audience roared when Bond used the specially equipped DB5's Machine Guns on The Villains.
  And Yes, as always, there were Exotic Locales, includin; Shanghai, Istanbul, Macau, and London.
OK, they Overall Best Thing about Skyfall is, "It Didn't SUCK" !!!


Daniel Zwicke