Episode 99 — A View To a Kill: LIVE

[ChristopherJohnShoup 2]

Omission: It should also be mentioned that, not only is Roger Moore an older Bond than Connery when playing Bond, but Roger Moore was actually born three years earlier than Sean Connery, 1927 and 1930 respectively. So when Connery was too old to be believable in Diamonds are Forever, they hired an older man to play the role.

[denimgremlin 1179]

The worst bond movie is either Diamonds are Forever or For Your Eyes Only. The worst bond girl's name is "Plenty O'Toole" (Named after her father, no doubt). George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the best bond movie.

 

but Diamonds are Forever has the best henchmen, the weird gay murderers Mr. Wint and Mr Kidd.

[ChristopherJohnShoup 2]

 

but Diamonds are Forever has the best henchmen, the weird gay murderers Mr. Wint and Mr Kidd.

That might be what puts Diamonds are Forever ahead of For Your Eyes Only.

[Joe Lerini 7329]

Aw, I love For Your Eyes Only. I happen to think the worst Bond film is Die Another Day. Lousy Jinx!

 

*looks up a picture of Halle Berry, then menacingly shakes a fist at it*

[denimgremlin 1179]

Aw, I love For Your Eyes Only. I happen to think the worst Bond film is Die Another Day. Lousy Jinx!

 

*looks up a picture of Halle Berry, then menacingly shakes a fist at it*

 

you're right

[ChristopherJohnShoup 2]

Aw, I love For Your Eyes Only. I happen to think the worst Bond film is Die Another Day. Lousy Jinx!

 

*looks up a picture of Halle Berry, then menacingly shakes a fist at it*

Die Another Day is Diamonds Are Forever but much better.

[denimgremlin 1179]

Die Another Day is Diamonds Are Forever but much better.

 

what?? you're insane

[ChristopherJohnShoup 2]

 

what?? you're insane

 

Let me rephrase. Diamonds Are Forever is much more terrible. But both are bad movies. Die Another Day at least had the cool fight scene on the plane. Maybe it's because I'm younger but the Richard Branson blood diamond bad guy was much more fun than the Howard Hughes Vegas tycoon bad guy. I'm also upset because in On Her Majesty's Secret Service Bond has to do real spycraft to find Blofeldt but at the beginning of Diamonds are Forever he's just ripping girls' tops off and frightening people to find Blofeldt. Then he gets pulled to an apparently completely different case and, lo and behold, there's the man I was looking for all along! In Die Another Day he finds clues that sequentially lead him to the mysterious billionaire who it turns out is the bad guy he's been looking for. That one makes a little more sense. Granted, not a lot.

[denimgremlin 1179]

 

Let me rephrase. Diamonds Are Forever is much more terrible. But both are bad movies. Die Another Day at least had the cool fight scene on the plane. Maybe it's because I'm younger but the Richard Branson blood diamond bad guy was much more fun than the Howard Hughes Vegas tycoon bad guy. I'm also upset because in On Her Majesty's Secret Service Bond has to do real spycraft to find Blofeldt but at the beginning of Diamonds are Forever he's just ripping girls' tops off and frightening people to find Blofeldt. Then he gets pulled to an apparently completely different case and, lo and behold, there's the man I was looking for all along! In Die Another Day he finds clues that sequentially lead him to the mysterious billionaire who it turns out is the bad guy he's been looking for. That one makes a little more sense. Granted, not a lot.

 

fair enough! well argued, all I can say is I just enjoy Diamonds are Forever despite it's flaws, there's enough weirdness that it stays interesting for me, the gay henchmen, whatever the fuck is going on with Bambi and Thumper, Blofeld's inexplicable plan, Connery's unconvincing toupee, Tiffany Case's rapidly diminishing intelligence. Die Another Day I just find tedious and just such an everything but the kitchen sink approach to Bond I find it annoying.

[stueygeorge 15]

There's an entire special feature on the blu ray devoted to the butterflies. The commentator (Director?) notes that Cubby Broccoli saw the act somewhere and was so impressed he just had to use it in the movie. There's about a minute and a half long test clip of the butterflies which is hilarious.

[Joe Lerini 7329]

 

Let me rephrase. Diamonds Are Forever is much more terrible. But both are bad movies. Die Another Day at least had the cool fight scene on the plane. Maybe it's because I'm younger but the Richard Branson blood diamond bad guy was much more fun than the Howard Hughes Vegas tycoon bad guy. I'm also upset because in On Her Majesty's Secret Service Bond has to do real spycraft to find Blofeldt but at the beginning of Diamonds are Forever he's just ripping girls' tops off and frightening people to find Blofeldt. Then he gets pulled to an apparently completely different case and, lo and behold, there's the man I was looking for all along! In Die Another Day he finds clues that sequentially lead him to the mysterious billionaire who it turns out is the bad guy he's been looking for. That one makes a little more sense. Granted, not a lot.

I will say that Diamonds Are Forever is a terrible follow-up to OHMSS, which is my favorite Bond film (and one of my all-time favorite films, period). I would've preferred a film-long roaring rampage of revenge against Blofeld, instead of making it the pre-credits sequence so the rest of the movie could be "business as usual". Charles Gray is also a much shittier Blofeld than either Donald Pleasance or Telly Savalas (that may be because of the script rather than Gray's performance, though). But I'll still take 70s lousy filmmaking over early 2000s lousy filmmaking. And I'll also take a Bond film that is actually a Bond film over a backdoor pilot for a Halle Berry franchise.

[BeardedCoffeeMonkey 6]

Hi everyone,

 

Long time listener, first time ... forum poster?

 

I'm not sure if this is a correction or omission ... I think it's an omission.

 

When James is chasing Grace Jones from the Eiffel Tower and his chase car is cut in half, even if the car is front wheel drive ... isn't the gas tank still in the back of the car? How much fuel can be in the (now) severed fuel line to keep the car running?

[tyroneslothrop 124]

Mantzoukas saying that goose the girls sounds like a Don Demillo term was the best thing ever

[junesongprovider 4]

Young Christopher Walken looks surprisingly like Jeff Davis

[Homelessbird 2]

Great podcast.

 

Was a little surprised no one on stage knew how "St. John" is pronounced traditionally, however. As someone who was in Jane Eyre in high school, my delicate sensibilities were offended.

[wyldride 285]

Bond girl name: Justine Cider (which is just the feminine of my porn name, but still)

[Joe Lerini 7329]

And now I'm listening to James Bonding, and I'm hooked.

[WayneMiller 37]

 

but Diamonds are Forever has the best henchmen, the weird gay murderers Mr. Wint and Mr Kidd.

 

Bruce Glover (father of Crispin) is fantastic as Mr Wint. If they ever bring those two back, get Crispin to play him.

 

Plenty O'Toole is played by Lana Wood (sister of Natalie) and she's pretty foxy!

[Smigg 1488]

Another Bond Girl name - Sheila Lauyer-Tepounder

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

whenever there was a fight in this movie i kept getting images of miss piggy and her HIIIIYAAAAA chops. everyone just fell to the floor after one slap

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfJiPPsHJEQ

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

and i really wanted someone to turn their back on mayday. classic grace jones

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpWo15Jc2JQ

[MondayCity 194]

Roger Ebert may have been wrong about the defect in Zorin's microchip plot. In an article by Joe Fay, entitled, "Target Silicon Valley: Why A View To A Kill Actually Made Sense," posted on October 8, 2012, on the IT website "The Register," the author wrote, "By 1984, when filming of A View to a Kill was underway, the chip business was worth $24bn and US firms accounted for between 50 to 60 per cent of this. It’s fair to assume that much of that was designed, if not completely manufactured in the Valley." Who should you believe, Ebert or this other nerd? Now, I'm going to try to find a retrospective look at the movie on a blimp website. Maybe that will also challenge the doubters.

[MondayCity 194]

The film title, but not the plot, was based on the Ian Fleming short story, "From a View to a Kill," but the film producers dropped the word "From" out of the title. It appears that the short story is about Bond traveling from Versailles to a duel with an assassin. Maybe the title of the story meant that Bond was going from a view (i.e., the view of Versailles) to a kill (the death of the assassin) AND that the journey was being taken with the intention of making a kill or from the perspective of making a kill. However, given that the film is not about one particular journey to make one particular killing, the first interpretation of the title does not work for the movie--hence dropping the word "From.".

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Roger Ebert may have been wrong about the defect in Zorin's microchip plot. In an article by Joe Fay, entitled, "Target Silicon Valley: Why A View To A Kill Actually Made Sense," posted on October 8, 2012, on the IT website "The Register," the author wrote, "By 1984, when filming of A View to a Kill was underway, the chip business was worth $24bn and US firms accounted for between 50 to 60 per cent of this. It’s fair to assume that much of that was designed, if not completely manufactured in the Valley." Who should you believe, Ebert or this other nerd? Now, I'm going to try to find a retrospective look at the movie on a blimp website. Maybe that will also challenge the doubters.

If the movie got it right though, I'd say it was accidental, as it's pretty well-documented that for the longest time screenwriters, particularly those writing Eighties techno thrillers, had no idea what computers could do, much less where they came from or anything involving all the moving parts that it took to go from concept to me playing "Parsec" on whatever Texas Instruments thing my family owned in 1984. Because computers, guys. Because computers.

[starri 116]

Le Bon. Simon Le Bon.

 

I must be the only person who doesn't love "A View to a Kill"'s theme. And also the only person in the world who liked a-ha's theme to "The Living Daylights."