The Bond Age (Pt. XI)

 

 

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

It had to happen, sooner or later.  By 2006, any available actor who could play the James Bond character, and had been alive when the first Bond movie came out, would have been 55.  Pretty old for Bond.  Yes Roger Moore played Bond when he was almost 60, but he had already been established in the Bond role for years.  If you are going to start a new franchise Bond, though, you want to at least start out with him being a bit younger.

There was a legal snafu once again that delayed production of the next Bond film.  In the interim Pierce Brosnan had been ousted from the potential fifth portrayal of the superspy, and producers began to look for a new face for Bond.  I personally remember the discussion when it was announced that a new actor would play Bond.  Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, Colin Farrel and Jason Statham were among the ones the producers considered.  Personally, I thought Jason Isaacs would have made a good Bond.  But the producers chose Daniel Craig, only the second Bond actor to have been born in England.

Of course, Bond women, being what they are, had been being played by actresses not old enough to have been around when Dr. No came out for years.  Bond women are always young and alluring and who wants to see a 50 year old grandmother make out with James Bond anyway?  (For the record, the first Bond woman who was not yet born when the first Bond movie was released was Talisa Soto (as Lupe in License to Kill)

Another younger addition to the Bond saga was in the position of director.  Of course, directors can be of any age, youth is not a requirement there.  Martin Scorcese could conceivably be tagged to be a Bond director and no one would bat an eye.  (At least not because of his age, anyway)  The first James Bond movie in the Daniel Craig era to be directed by a youngster to the scene was Quantum of Solace. It was directed by Marc Forster, who was born in 1969.

The reboot of Bond harkens to an earlier style of Bond in the way of gadgets, too.  In the first two Bond's of the Daniel Craig era there was no character of "Q", and thus there were no especially intricate weapons and gadgets, just your basic car and gun.  (Thus I dispensed with the Best Bond Weapon category for this entry)

The final note is, I should point out that with the new Bond there is a running theme of a secret organization behind all the bad guys throughout the four (so far) Daniel Craig movies.  While each one is separate in it's story, some of the action refers to the running theme, and while each one could conceivably be watched out of order, you will find some of it a little confusing if you do so.

Casino Royale (2006):

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 15

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: # 9

Best Bond Quote: Bond: (to Le Chiffre as he is torturing Bond) "I've got an itch down there... Do you mind?"

Best Bond Villain Quote: Le Chiffre: (during the same torture scene as above) "Wow.  You've taken good care of your body... such a waste"

The movie starts in Prague where Bond has tracked down a double crossing agent of MI6, and executes him.  One point made is that at this point Bond has still not achieved his 007 status because he has not had two confirmed kills.  (Seems a little contrived to me, and I would have thought Bond would have been much younger before he was given his 007 status. )

The movie opens with a song by Chris Cornell, the singer for  Soundgarden, and one which has more of a feel for the style that I think works better for a Bond movie.

In Uganda, a terrorist named Obanno meets with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) who arranges to take possession of , and launder, the ill gotten gains of the terrorist.  Le Chiffre is a less than scrupulous banker.  He gambles with the money and also is shotselling stock in an airplane company, one which goes against the prevailing norm because the company's stock is only expected to increase.  But Le Chiffre knows something the stock analysts don't.  (His plan is to blow up an experimental plane that the airplane company is about to introduce).

While Bond is trying to track down a terrorist bomber, he and another agent find him at a street match between a mongoose and a cobra.  THe other agent inadvertently  gives himself away and the bomber takes off with Bond in pursuit.  It ends with Bond shooting the terrorist and escaping the local army.  M is not happy with Bond's penchant for killing potential prisoners who might give information to MI6  (a theme that runs constantly throughout the Daniel Craig series).

A major portion of the movie involves a high stakes poker game (in the novel it was baccarat, but the producers felt that most of the audience would have no idea how baccarat was played so went this route instead).  The goal being to make Le Chiffre lose his money (which you already know is not his anway: it belongs to the terrorists). Initially Bond loses his entire stake, and his money supplier from the government, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), declines to supply the money for the "buy back in".  Fortunately a Cia agent, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), lets Bond take over his position in the game, with the caveat that the Americans get Le Chiffre after Bond is through with him.

It should come as no surprise that Bond beats Le Chiffre and takes all his money, and it should also come as no surprise that this doesn't set well with Le Chiffre.  Leading to the torture scene referenced above.

Double crosses and intrigue still reign supreme as always.  There is more to this movie than just the poker game, of course, and you will not see some of the surprises coming.  The movie is fairly good, and Le Chiffre makes one hell of a good villain, even if his goal is not the typical world domination scheme one comes to expect from a Bond Villain.

Quantum of Solace (2008): 

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 16

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: # 16

Best Bond Quote:(after leaving the villain stranded in the desert, with just a can of motor oil)  Bond: "I'll bet you make it 20 miles before you consider drinking that".

Best Bond Villain Quote:   (to Camille, referring to Bond) Greene: "MI6 says he's difficult to control.  That's a nice way of saying everything he touches seems to wither and die."





 
Stepping off from the end of Casino Royale, Bond arrives at an MI6 field location with a captive, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), for interrogation.  Mr White claims that MI6  knows nothing about his organization, despite the fact that they have people everywhere.  Whereupon one of the agents present reveals himself as a rogue and shoots up the place killing everyone except Bond, and fortunately, M.  During the ensuing chase of the rogue agent, Bond ends up killing him.  Of course, M is displeased because they still know nothing about this "secret" organization.

For the first time in a Bond film, the opening theme song is a duet.  Alicia Keys and Jack White (of the White Stripes) do the honors.  It's not entirely a bad song (although, to the consternation of White it was later used in a diet soda commercial.  Which I think is prescient since the title of the song is "Another Way to Die"...)

Money found on the agent leads Bond to a man named Slate, and Bond ends up killing him too.  (Things just aren't going well for MI6 to find out information, it seems.) It turns out that Slate was supposed to be an assassin to kill Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko, yes a Russian actress playing a Hispanic, but she pulls it off).  Bond meets up with Camille, but they depart and Bond follows her to a dock where she meets with Dominic Greene (Matthieu Amalric).

It turns out that Greene was the one who tried to have her killed.  Instead he gives her to General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio), wh will kill her after he's finished having fun with her.  Bond gives chase to the boat that Medrano is on and rescues her, which doesn't really please her.  See, Medrano had killed her family, and she was out for revenge, planning to kill Medrano.

The secret villainous plot revolves around Greene, who is acting as an environmental entrepreneur, supposedly trying to help the world.  But what he is secretly doing is diverting water and buying up land, intentionally trying to corner the market on water by creating a drought.  He plans to make big money by selling back the water to the thirsty country.  (Yes, another somewhat ridiculous evil plot, but the action and intrigue work in its favor this time.)

Because Bond seems to be out of control, MI6 sends an agent, Strawberry Fields (really!) (Gemma Arterton) to arrest him.  Bond uses his charm to convince her to hold off, and continues on his mission.  This was probably Fields' biggest mistake because, reminiscent of Goldfinger, Fields is later killed by having been drenched in oil and left to die on a hotel bed.

After resolving the current case, Bond traces down Lynd's (from Casino Royale) former lover and finds out another piece to the puzzle of the secret organization that seems to have worldwide fingers in every pie.

That wraps up this foray into the spy world, folks.  See you next month with the final installment.

Quiggy

  

Food for Thought

This is my entry in the Food in Film Blogathon hosted by Speakeasy and Silver Screenings.

I often wonder what people think of me and how stable my mind must be... not that it would change anything if I did know... I just wonder...

I told Kristina and Ruth that I wanted to go a different and quirkier route with this topic, as is my wont on occasion.  Think of all the movies that have mouth-watering meals, excellent haute cuisine cooking and wonderful cooks standing over beaming patrons.  Is there anything more comforting than a well cooked and well served meal? Well... maybe if it's not too outré...


"Outré" is putting it mildly for the two movies discussed today.  You might want to think twice when you try that new restaurant down the street after hearing about these joints.  If you think twice about the turnover rate of stray cats near the Chinese place down the street, prepare to get really wary about the neighborhood mom and pop place next door.


I really enjoy black comedy.  Note:  if by "black" comedy your first thought is Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, you are in the wrong universe.  Black comedy, also dark comedy,  is a term used to describe a medium (films, but also plays and the like) that take very serious subjects and turn them into a darkly humorous form.  Also called "gallows humor", it was first coined in the 30's by a French writer to describe some of Johnathan Swift's writings.  Swift once wrote that poor Irish people ought to sell their children to the rich to be used as food.   But the term has also been applied to writings even as early as ancient Greek writer Aristophanes.

Eating Raoul (1982):

Paul (Paul Bartel) and Mary Bland (Mary Woronov) are a straight-laced couple living in abject denial of the sexual mores of their apartment.  The two are married, but other than a little hugging and kissing, they are not really sexually active.  (They sleep in separate beds...just like the old 50's sitcom married couples did).

Their neighbors , in fact seemingly the whole apartment building however, are really into the swinger scene, with all the different sexual styles and appetites that entails.  Paul works in a liquor store, but is the ultimate wine snob, and gets fired because he refuses to sell some cheap wine that the owner has in stock and also because he bought a case of $400 a bottle wine, but the clientele who frequent the shop haven't got that kind of spendable income.

Meanwhile on the home front, Paul and Mary want to buy a house in the country and open up their own home-style kitchen, but they haven't got the money that the realtor is asking, and to make matters worse, someone else keeps offering more money, causing them to have to keep upping their own offer for the place.

Paul comes home one day to find Mary being molested by a swinger who strayed from the party being held in their building and kills him with a frying pan.  Finding him with a large sum of money, they decide to ditch the body in the trash compactor and pocket the money.  After killing a second straying swinger, the two decide there is some decent money to be had doing this.

They decide to advertise in a swinger's magazine, with the help of Doris (Susan Saiger), a stay-at-home mom who makes money on the side as a dominatrix.

While out one day, Paul finds an ad for a locksmith who does cheap work.  Because wine snob Paul has a pretty decent collection of vintage wines they call Raoul Mendoza (Robert Beltran).  Raoul, it turns out, has ulterior motives for installing burglar systems...he also robs his clientele after installing their security systems.

As such, he happens to break into the Bland's place after they have just killed another swinger but have not yet disposed of the body.  The three come up with a plan that benefits all three.  The Blands will keep the money and Raoul takes the bodies away, where he sells them to a dog food company and shares the profits with the Blands.



All seemingly goes well until one day Paul is out when a "client" shows up, and tries to rape Mary.  Raoul happens to come in and strangles the would-be rapist.  He then proceeds to woo Mary who is charmed by his demeanor (and his Thai Stick cigarette...).  Although Paul does not know what went on, he begins to suspect, and with Doris, tries to scare Raoul into leaving the country.  None of these ruses works, and Raoul makes plans to get rid of Paul instead and take Mary for his wife.

Be sure to stay for the finale of this movie.  You'll get to see why it was titled "Eating Raoul"...

Delicatessen (1991):

It never really is clear what happened to society in this movie, but from the appearance of the landscape, there must have been a nuclear war.  In this post apocalyptic world in France, food is in short supply.  They use bags of lentils and corn in lieu of money.  In one apartment building, Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), a butcher, runs a shop on the bottom floor to cater to his clientele.  He sells them meat which, it becomes clear, is not your typical meat.

Clapet runs ads in the newspaper advertising for a handyman.  Once the unaware handymen have been fattened up, Clapet kills them and sells their "meat" as meat.  It seems most of the residents are in on the ruse.  For sure, his daughter, Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac) knows.  She falls in love with the new hire, Louison (Dominique Pinon) and alternately tries to help him escape or convince her father to let him go.

The apartment building is filled with other equally bizarre characters.  The best is Aurore (Silvie Laguna), a woman who is haunted by voices she thinks are in her head and tries various Rube Goldbergesque ways of committing suicide.

Also funny are a guerilla group of outcasts who live below the city in the sewers and whom Julie entreats to help her get Louison out of her father's hands.  Of course, they botch the job and kidnap the wrong person.

A warning to the potential viewer, both of these movies are obviously not family friendly (unless you are very liberal about what you let your kids watch...)  Also the second film is entirely in French, so unless you are fluent in French, you'll have to deal with subtitles (always a potential problem with some viewers.)


Whew.  I'm getting hungry now.  There's a new place that just opened up across town that advertises the "best baby back ribs"... (or maybe it says "baby ribs"...I'm not sure.


Quiggy

The Art of the Hustle

 The Also Rans (Post #1)

This post is part of an ongoing series that will cover movies that were nominated for Oscars in all five of what is affectionately known as the "Big Five" (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay), but failed to win any of those awards.

Years ago, there were thousands of pool halls across America.  These weren't the glitzy, yuppie-infused hangouts of today, where college students go to drink and pick up potential sexual liaisons, with pool being just a side attraction.   These were low-lit halls where working men went to play pool and relax.  As one of the proprietors says to Eddie Felson early in The Hustler, there's "no bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alley.  Just pool."

The aura of The Hustler is one that will either attract you or repulse you.  The grittiness of the movie and the seedier sections of the towns where these pool halls are located seems to have an effect on the viewer.  Personally, I would find such an atmosphere intimidating at first, but once I got adjusted to it, I think I would start to appreciate the lack of pretense.  It's too bad I was a little late coming into the world because I would dearly love to find such places.  You however, may feel like you want to go wash your hands after seeing this movie, and that's OK.

One of the things that makes this movie work so well was the decision to film it in black and white.  Of course, Robert Rossen, the director of the film, preferred to work in black and white anyway, but the darkness of the story works much better in this medium.  I refer you to the sequel, The Color of Money, which was made some 25 years later, and was filmed in color.   Although that movie, directed by Martin Scorcese, is very good, it just doesn't have the zing of the original.

Paul Newman was not the first choice of Rossen.  He wanted Frank Sinatra, whom he expected would have made an extension in portrayal jumping off from his character in The Man with the Golden Arm (a movie about a heroin addict).  But Sinatra was not available.  Other actors were sought after and auditioned, including Jack Lemmon and Cliff Robertson, but Newman got the nod for the role and history was made.

Piper Laurie was a relative newcomer when this movie was made.  She had been in a few movies, but nothing really substantial until The Hustler.  Her performance as an alcoholic and part-time college student was a bravura portrayal.  Unfortunately, nothing came her way after her Oscar nominated performance and she decided to marry and retire from acting.  Her next role didn't come for 15 years when she was again nominated for an Oscar for her role as the evil mom in Carrie.

Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott were also nominated for Oscars in the Best Supporting Actor category.  Gleason, in particular, stands out because he manages to essay the role of Minnesota Fats with a minimum of dialogue but a maximum of body language.  The cool pool wizard (Gleason was a prety good pool player in his own right, BTW) manages to be a presence in the movie just by being on camera.  Scott also puts forth a grand performance, as described by one writer I read, "a devil in sunglasses".

The fantastic part of this movie is it never drags, not even once.  The scenes in which the action primarily involves playing the game of pool are especially entrancing.  The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies by Ray Didinger and Glen Macnow rank this movie as #8, and the website digitaldreamdoor ranks it as #2.  While you may wonder how pool is considered a sport, ranked with football, basketball and baseball and the like, I remind you that quite often ESPN has broadcast pool tournaments, and I personally think pool is more exciting to watch than tennis.  I won't even discuss how uninteresting it is to watch people play poker.

The Hustler (1961)

"Fast Eddie" Felson (Paul Newman) and is partner Charlie (Myron McCormick) arrive in a town, claiming to be on their way to a convention.  Felson hustles some money from the locals and they continue on their way.  Eddie has plans to meet with the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) and challenge him to play pool for big money. Eddie is the up and coming wizard and already has a legend following him.  But he is a victim of his own making because he is an alcoholic and sometimes lets his drinking get in the way of his playing.

When he finally meets up with Fats he manages to beat the pool legend for a total of  $18,000, but his ego and his drinking get in the way and he loses all but $200 of it right back to the fat man.  He is hampered by the fact that Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) has insulted his ego by calling him a "loser" and encouraging Fats to keep playing him.  A falling out occurs between Eddie and Charlie and Eddie leaves the hotel room in which he and Charlie are staying, leaving half of the $200 with him.

 At a bus terminal Eddie meets Sarah (Piper Laurie).  They chat for a while and Eddie tries to put the make on her, but she becomes nervous and dismisses him.  Eddie meets up again with Bert who again calls him a "born loser", saying that he has talent but that he lacks character.  Bert tells him he will stake Eddie to play Fats again, but he wants a 75-25 split of the winnings, with bert getting the lion's share.  Eddie scoffs at this prospect.

Eddie and Sarah meet up again, and the relationship begins to blossom.  He moves in with her.  He wonders where she gets her money, since she seems to have no job, and she is not very forthright in revealing her situation, but these are two people who know where they stand in society and he accepts her ruse.

Eddie hustles a local shark and in revenge the shark and his buddies break Eddie's thumbs.  Unable to play pool for the time being he becomes entirely dependent on Sarah.  After he heals from his injuries, Bert reappears with his offer and Eddie decides that "25% of something is better than 100% of nothing" and agrees to the deal.  Bert takes Eddie to Louisville here Bert has a prospect for Eddie, a rich man who loves to play and gamble.  But the game turns out to be carom billiards instead of pocket pool, which Eddie had never played, and he promptly loses.

Telling Bert that he knows he can win, he continues to play and manages to win a substantial amount which nets Eddie the $3000 stake he needs to play Fats again.  Bert  and Eddie have a falling out after Sarah commits suicide, a result of her humiliation from having a sexual encounter with the evil Bert. 

The final encounter, between Eddie and Fats is one to see.  Once again Eddie is on his game.  It plays out just as you would probably expect from a 60's movie, but it is well worth seeing.

As stated in the prologue, The Hustler was nominated for all five categories of the "Big Five".  In case you were wondering, here are the winners who actually got to go home with those statuettes:

Best Picture:  West Side Story
Best Director: Robert Wise for West Side Story
Best Actor: Maximillian  Schell for Judgement at Nuremberg
Best Actress: Sophia Loren for Two Women
Best Screenplay: Abby Mann for Judgement at Nuremberg

As an added note, The Hustler did take home two Oscars, on for Best Art Direction and one for Best Cinematography, both in the "Black and White category.

That's it for this first entry.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Quiggy

 

Coming Soon: The Also Rans

Since it's inception in 1929, there have been numerous times that a movie has been nominated for multiple awards in what is affectionately known as the "Big Five"  (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay). Although not quite as often as getting two or three of the categories for nominations, there have been a total of 43 movies that managed to get nominated for all five awards.  Some years had multiple movies that achieved this accolade, but the mathematical fact is that in 36 of the 89 Academy Awards shows at least one movie managed to be represented in the Big Five.

That comes out to 40% of the time that a movie had a nomination in all five categories.  Odds would say that a movie with this sort of representation at the awards ceremony would come away with at least one or two of the awards and, indeed, most of them did manage to take the stage to accept at least one of the coveted statuettes.  Three of them skipped out the door with all five.  {It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)}

On the other side of the coin, 8 of the movies in this category were snubbed for all five nominations.  Now in all fairness, the losers lost to equally worthy films, but it must have been hard on all those involved to find themselves going home without the ultimate Hollywood accolade.  In point of fact, 3 of the movies in that list did manage to get an award in other categories, just not one of the Big Five.  But that still leaves 5 movies that had multiple nominations but were sent home empty-handed at the end of the night.

I am going to be writing a series of blog entries I am calling The Also Rans. These will appear intermittently, whenever I feel like writing another entry, and the first eight entries will be dedicated to those eight movies that failed to achieve one of the top Big Five.  Later I may expand it to movies that received multiple nominations in other categories, and failed to receive any awards (there are quite a few), but initially I am only going to cover these eight.  The eight are (in alphabetical order): American Hustle (2013), Atlantic City (1981), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Lenny (1974), Love Story (1970), The Hustler (1961), and The Remains of the Day (1993).  Expect a review on each of these in the coming months.  Expect the first one sometime later this week.


Quiggy

Reluctant Heroes

This is my entry in the Hispanic Heritage Blogathon hosted by Once Upon a Screen

The Three Amigos stars Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short.  It is a comedy (you were expecting something else with those three...?) that takes place in 1916.  Most of the film takes place in Old Mexico, and has several familiar faces if you are a frequent viewer of movies with Hispanic actors.  Tony Plana, who plays El Guapo's second-in-command, Jefe, will probably be the most recognizable, but there are others, to be sure, depending on your movie-viewing habits.

It also has Alfonso Arau, a Mexican film star, but one who has had numerous appearances in Hollywood films, too.  You've seen him in The Wild Bunch and Romancing the Stone, as well  El Topo, if you are a devotee of foreign films.  He has also directed a few movies.  Like Water for Chocolate and A Walk in the Clouds will be the most familiar to American audiences.

Fred Asparagus, who plays the bartender at the cantina  (real name Fred Reveles) will also be familiar as a character actor in several movies. Jorge Cervera, a face you seen on countless TV shows, plays one of the banditos.   A fully clothed (darn!) Rebecca Ferrati, a former Playboy model, has a brief appearance.  And Patrice Martinez, the female star of the movie, may also look familiar.  She was the receptionist in the afterlife in Beetlejuice.

Three Amigos! (1986):

One for each other and all for one,

The three brave amigos are we.

Brother to brother and everyone,

A brave amigo.

Wherever they need us

Our destinies lead us, 

Amigos we'll always be together.

Wherever we go

We're three brave amigos,

And we'll always be amigos forever.

We are the three amigos.

We are the three amigos.

We are the three aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamigos!

 

Lucky Day (Steve Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase) and Ned Nedermeyer (Martin Short) are three actors in Hollywood during the silent era, who have a career as characters in a western series as "The Three Amigos".  As the movie starts they are in the office of the head of the studios, Harry Flugelman (Joe Mantegna).  It seems the Amigos films have started to become box office bombs, and Flugelman wants to go a different direction. But the egos of the actors cause them to get fired instead.

Luckily for them, a woman who lives in a remote village of Santa Poco in Mexico has trouble.  Carmen (Patrice Martinez) is looking for men to help her fight off a villain, known as "El Guapo" (Alfonso Arau), who has been consistently raiding their village.  None of the "upstanding" citizens who frequent the Cantina de Borracho (which translates as the Drunk's Bar) will help her.  She goes to a local mission which is showing one of the Amigos movies, and believing them to be real heroes, sends a telegram asking them to come save the village.  Of course, they have limited funds, so the message gets a little truncated.

When the Amigos receive the telegram, they think they are being asked to put on a show and head straight for Santo Poco.  At the same time, a German shows up in Santo Poco looking for El Guapo, to whom he is bringing guns and supplies.  If you see the potential for confusion already, you are well versed to know what happens next.  After killing a few hecklers and telling the bartender that his friends are much less understanding, the German leaves. The villagers initially think the German's  friends are the Amigos, who show up shortly thereafter.

When three banditos show up to raid the village, the Amigos put on what they think is a show and the banditos are startled and leave.  Of course, the villagers think the Amigos have successfully scared off the banditos, but they just go back and tell El Guapo about what has happened.

El Guapo vows to go back to the village tomorrow with 50 of his men.  When he arrives, the Amigos, still thinking this is all in fun, do their act again, including the Amigos' oath which is just fantastic, not only in its message but in the perfunctory seriousness in which it is stated:

"Wherever there is injustice, you will find us.

Wherever there is suffering, we'll be there.

Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find...

The Three Amigos!"

 (I don't think it's just a coincidence how reminiscent it sounds of Henry Fonda's speech in The Grapes of Wrath).  Jefe shoots Lucky in the arm, and the three realize that this just ain't the show they thought they were hired for and ride off in panic.  El Guapo takes Carmen prisoner and his men lay waste to the village.

Having second thoughts, the Amigos return to the village and find they are not exactly welcome anymore.  At this point Ned convinces the other two to help the Amigos become real heroes.  They ride off in search of El Guapo's hideout.  Meanwhile the Germans have shown up at the hideout and present El Guapo with the guns they brought.  The clueless Amigos arrive and are captured.  Hijinks ensue as the three try to escape from the clutches of El Guapo.

They rescue Carmen and ride back to the village.  But El Guapo is not pleased.  He takes his entire army with him to attack the village.  Reminiscent of The Magnificent Seven, the Amigos use the villagers innate abilities to help defend the village. In a dramatic (and comedic) soliloquy, Lucky exhorts the villagers to band together to help defeat El Guapo.

"In a way, all of us has an El Guapo to face.  For some, shyness might be their El Guapo.  For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo.  For us, El Guapo is a big, dangerous man who wants to kill us.  But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be the actual El Guapo."

Since it would spoil one of the best scenes in the movie, I won't reveal how they defeat El Guapo.  But I will tell you it is funny as all get out.

Time to ride off into the sunset, folks.  Hasta la vista!

Quiggy

 

Announcing the Inspirational Heroes Blogathon

I was listening a few days ago and the song "Holding Out For a a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler came on the radio.  As I listened to it, I realized that the song could have fit into dozens of movies at crucial points in said movies. (It was actually a part of the movie "Footloose").  My first thought was that it would have fit in the movie "Rocky", the scene where he is jogging in downtown Philly.

Inspiration came to me.  A new blogathon.  I got in touch with my friend Hamlette and discussed the potential of the idea.  We agreed that it was an interesting blogathon idea and she came on board to help host it.  So....

 What movies make you want to stand up and cheer?  It could be a downtrodden everyman who overcomes the odds.  It could be a man (or woman) who challenges the prevailing ethos and champions right over wrong.  It could even be a idealistic "Joe Blow" who got inadvertently bit by a radioactive spider and  uses his new found abilities to fight crime and injustice.

The object here is to delve into heroes who inspire you.  And there is no limit here.  Inspiration is a unique thing that is subjective.  If it inspires you, it inspires you, and no one can argue with your personal feelings.  So pick a movie that inspires you and write about it.

If you need spark to your inspiration here is a list of movies you can use, but you are definitely not limited to just these.

http://www.afi.com/100years/cheers.aspx


Rules:

1.  We would prefer a variety of movies.  As such, we would like you to limit multiple choices for the same movie, so only one person per movie.  However, if one person chooses a movie, that does not mean another couldn't choose an actor in said movie and write about him or her.

2.  Please choose one of the banners below for your blog.  Hamlette worked made them and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.

3.  The blogathon runs from Dec 29th to Jan 1st.  But since this is a holiday and you might have other plans, early submissions are copacetic.  Just be aware that they won't be linked until the blogathon actually starts.

4. Have fun.

The Inspirational List:

Your Hosts:
The Midnite Drive-In:  Rocky (1976) and Hoosiers (1986)
Hamlette's Soliloquy:  Apollo 13 (1995)

Angelman's Place:  It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
Caftan Woman:  Torchy Blane
Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews:   Stella Dallas (1937)
Cinematic Scribblings:   The Ascent (1977)
Coffee, Classics and Craziness:   Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Crítica Retrô:  Boys Town (1938)
Hamlette's Soliloquy:  (A guest post by Jessica Prescott) Stand by Me (1986)
Love Letters to Old Hollywood:  His Girl Friday (1940)
Maddy Loves Her Classic Films:  To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Meanwhile, in Rivendell:  Secretariat (2010) and Meagan Leavey (2017)
MovieRob:  Rogue One (2016), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), United 93 (2006)
Movies Meet Their Match:  Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Movie Movie Blog Blog:  Rocky Balboa (2006)
Once Upon a Screen:  12 Angry Men (1957)
Realweegiemidget Reviews:   Blade Runner (1982)
Sat in Your Lap:  Sergeant York (1941)
Silver Screen Classics:  Meet John Doe (1941)
Silver Screenings:  The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Story and You:   Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Story Enthusiast:   Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Wonderful World of Cinema  Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

The Bond Age (Pt. X)

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

By the time the series reached the dawn of the new millennium, the Bond saga had been going on for 40 years.  Many of the series regulars over the years had come and gone.  We had seen a woman take over as M, we had seen four separate actors don the tuxedo and persona of Bond, and we had even seen the departure of the stalwart Lois Maxwell, and her unrequited passion for Bond.  The only remaining figure who was still being played by it's original actor was "Q" (Desmond Llewelyn).  But even that was not a taboo role to change.  In The World is Not Enough, we still had Llewelyn's "Q", but looking forward to the eventual retirement of the actor, a new associate was introduced in this outing.

John Cleese, the Monty Python star, was introduced as an assistant to "Q".  Although he was not actually named in the film, Bond quips that if Llewelyn was "Q", Cleese must be "R".  The introduction turned out to be more prescient than the producers had thought.  Shortly after the movie was completed, Llewelyn was tragically killed in a car accident in December.  Having John Cleese take over the role added a bit of a twist to the character.  He continued the role of being exasperated by Bond's nonchalance with his gizmos, but he also added a twist of an acerbic wit, reminiscent of some of his characters on Monty Python's Flying Circus.

The World is Not Enough (1999)

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the movie: #14

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the theme song: # 14

Best Bond Quote:  I couldn't resist...The last line as Bond and Dr. Christmas Jones make their ubiquitous liaison in the finale:  Bond "I thought Christmas only came once a year."

Best Bond Villain Quote: Renard: "There's not point in living, if you can't feel alive"

Best Weapon:There are lots of neat little things in this one.  I'm particular fond of the helicopter that has five circular saws attached to it for use in tree trimming.  Of course, you just KNOW that's not the only use they have...

In one of the longest opening sequences ever in a Bond film, James Bond is in Spain, where he is retrieving a satchel full of money.  While he and the Swiss banker who is holding the money converse, the banker is killed by his personal assistant, just as the banker was about to name the killer of another MI6 agent.  The killer gets away.

 Bond returns to MI6 HQ where he gives the satchel of money to its rightful owner, Sir Robert King.  But King has been rigged so that a lapel pin explodes killing him while he is inspecting the money. Bond sees the same assassin from Spain, and gives chase. She commandeers a boat, and Bond hijacks an experimental boat from Q to try to catch her.  An exciting chase scene around the Thames makes for a very good opening.  Bond ends up injuring his shoulder as the assassin explodes in a flaming balloon.

 The opening credits feature a song by a band called Garbage.  The song, however is not truly garbage, although it does push the envelope a bit with the sultry style that lead singer Shirley Manson brings to the song, but as far as I'm concerned, it is much better than some of the other songs that were chosen over the years.  I still feel a hard-driving style, like the themes for A View to a Kill and Live and Let Die fit the Bond theme more, but I'll take this one.

Bond is eager to go after the killers, but M decides that his injury is too severe, so she denies him the opportunity to be on the case.  Bond of course has other ideas, and he convinces his physical therapist to give him a clean bill of health.  Bond takes off to investigate the terrorism angle, first by meeting up with King's daughter, Electra (Sophie Marceau).  Electra has taken over her father's oil business, and is overseeing the installment of a pipeline.

It turns out that the money that Bond retrieved is somehow connected with an extortion ransom that Sir Robert had paid to get his daughter released from being kidnapped by an anarchist named Renard (Robert Caryle).  Renard has one unique attribute.  He is dying from a bullet lodged in his brain, which has the effect of rendering him immune to feeling pain and gives him extraordinary endurance.  Bond is sent to protect Electra from further harm, but she is initially indifferent, since she thinks MI6 is responsible for her father's death, by not preventing the assassination.

Bond and Electra go skiing to view the pipeline and are attacked by some terrorists.  Bond manages to save Electra, and wins her trust.  Bond then goes to see an old nemesis, Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who now runs a casino.  Zukovsky tells him about the Renard connection.  Electra shows up at the casino, and promptly loses a million dollars to Zukovsky.  She dismisses the loss when Bond expresses his dismay and  tells Bond "there's no point in living, if you can't feel alive".

Bond follows a lead and goes to Kazakhstan where he meets nuclear scientist named Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), {who must be the most improbable scientist ever, but this is Hollywood and they were trying to reach a younger audience}.  Jones betrays Bond, who was posing as a scientist, to Renard.  She doesn't know who he is, she just was suspicious of him.  Renard, it turns out, is working on getting a nuclear bomb which he plans to use to blow up the pipelines that compete with Electra's pipeline.  If you are already ahead of me, you know what that means.  And so does Bond.  He confronts Electra, who it turns out, has been a victim of what is called the "Stockholm syndrome" in which a victim ends up falling into a romantic relationship with her captor.

The finale has Bond, with Jones, who is now on his side after discovering who he really is and what Renard's evil plans entail, trying to stop Renard from his plan.The movie works on several levels, but this trope of using nuclear weapons to cause havoc has started to become passe' in my opinion. Still, I think that the story is entertaining enough that it keeps one riveted throughout.  My only quibble is the casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist,as I intimated earlier.

Die Another Day (2002) 

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the movie: # 9

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the theme song: #19

Best Bond Quote: (Bond has just turned over a briefcase full of diamonds, rigged with a bomb) Bond: "Don't blow it all at once."

Best Bond Villain Quote: Graves: "You only get one shot at life.  Why waste it on sleep?"


Best Weapon:  Without a doubt, it's the invisible car.  I want one of those!


Bond is in North Korea with a couple of South Korean agents.  He poses as an arms dealer where he trades a satchel full of diamonds for a cache of weapons from Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee), along with his aide, Zao (Rick Yune) .  But he is revealed as a impostor, and  he is exposed.  A chase ensues which ends in the death of Colonel Moon, but Bond is captured by General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), the colonel's father.

As the opening credits roll, featuring one of the worst Bond theme songs in recent years, by Madonna, instead of seeing the classic dancing shadows and such that one has come to expect, we instead are treated to scenes of Bond being tortured while in captivity.

After the credits, Bond, who is now almost unrecognizable with shaggy long hair and beard, has been traded in exchange for Zao, who had been captured by the West during Bond's captivity.  M, who thinks that Bond probably revealed secret information while in captivity, has revoked his  007 status and plans to have him removed to a re-education facility (or possibly imprisonment, it's kind of vague to me).  Bond insists that someone must have betrayed him and wants to go after the traitor, but M refuses.

Bond engineers an escape from the hospital and goes to Hong Kong where he gets help from a Chinese agent.  He makes a deal with the head agent because the Chinese have had three of their secret agents killed by Zao.  The Chinese agent sends him to Havana where Zao has gone to a gene therapy clinic.

In Havana, Bond encounters Giacinta "Jinx" (Johnson (Halle Berry), who it turns out has her own agenda.  It turns out, as Bond later discovers, that Jinx is an agent for the American NSA.  While Jinx performs her own operation, Bond finds Zao as well as the diamonds that had been given to Colonel Moon. The diamonds now have a signature of Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a wealthy industrialist.

Bond seeks out Graves and manages to make an enemy of him right away.  Graves has an assistant, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) who is helping him.  But Miranda turns out to be an agent of MI6 and is trying to find out what Graves' plans are.  Graves has created a satellite called "Icarus" which, ostensibly, is his gift to the world.  It can focus light from the sun to create ideal climates in areas for growing food.

But of course, that isn't Graves real objective.  You see, the Icarus satellite can also be used to create a giant laser than can be focused to destroy military installations.  Something quite similar to the object Scaramanga created in The Man with the Golden Gun, but 30 years later, technology has made an even more devastating weapon possible.

And once you find out what Graves true agenda is, you will be just as surprised as I was.  I won't reveal who Graves actually turns out to be (although you may guess just based on that passing comment).  The last 20 minutes of the movie is what puts this one so high in my personal rankings.  That and the invisible car of course, which I still want..

Time to go off and try to save the world.  Or at least save the part where I live...


Quiggy