John Nolte, why James Bond used to be good, why the new Mission Impossible is good...

[2aguy]

John Nolte understands movies. He explains why we like them and why the good ones are good. He does that here with the new Mission Impossible movie,and while he does that, he explains why the latest James Bond movies suck, and why the old ones were good....

'Mission: Impossible: - Fallout' Review: Best Action Movie Since 'Dark Knight'

We have now been saddled with Daniel Craig’s pinch-faced 007 for 12 long years and four movies, two of which (Quantum of Solace and Spectre) are by far the worst of the series, while the two decent ones (Casino Royale and Skyfall) are more Jason Bourne than James Bond.

Man alive, I’m tired of dour James Bond, of Jerry Springer James Bond confronting his past, of Deepak Chopra James Bond on his journey of self-discovery, of meterosexual James Bond seeking to become a better feminist.

What the Keepers of the Franchise forgot is what makes James Bond James Bond, which are two very simple things:

First, it is not about him. Nothing is about him. He has a job to do, and he does it. He kills for Queen and Country, not to get past childhood traumas.

Secondly, because profession is either kill or be killed, because Death is his business, when a moment to live arrives, he grabs it and LIVES, and this means the best hotels, the best liquor, the best tobacco, casinos, tailors, and cars; and it damn well means some loveless sex with some smoking hot women.

Bond lives without shame or apology, and if the world he keeps turning fills up with joyless, tight-asses ready to report a man (who just came home from risking his life) to human resources over a double entendre, what is he fighting for anyway?

What I am saying is that the Bond movies are no fun anymore, and fun used to be the whole point. Sure, entries like License to Kill and For Your Eyes Only have an edge, but the pleasure that comes with the trappings of a 007 movie are still there…

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

I have never seen an entire Bond film that did not have Sean Connery in it.

 

[night_son]

John Nolte understands movies. He explains why we like them and why the good ones are good. He does that here with the new Mission Impossible movie,and while he does that, he explains why the latest James Bond movies suck, and why the old ones were good....

'Mission: Impossible: - Fallout' Review: Best Action Movie Since 'Dark Knight'

We have now been saddled with Daniel Craig’s pinch-faced 007 for 12 long years and four movies, two of which (Quantum of Solace and Spectre) are by far the worst of the series, while the two decent ones (Casino Royale and Skyfall) are more Jason Bourne than James Bond.

Man alive, I’m tired of dour James Bond, of Jerry Springer James Bond confronting his past, of Deepak Chopra James Bond on his journey of self-discovery, of meterosexual James Bond seeking to become a better feminist.

What the Keepers of the Franchise forgot is what makes James Bond James Bond, which are two very simple things:

First, it is not about him. Nothing is about him. He has a job to do, and he does it. He kills for Queen and Country, not to get past childhood traumas.

Secondly, because profession is either kill or be killed, because Death is his business, when a moment to live arrives, he grabs it and LIVES, and this means the best hotels, the best liquor, the best tobacco, casinos, tailors, and cars; and it damn well means some loveless sex with some smoking hot women.

Bond lives without shame or apology, and if the world he keeps turning fills up with joyless, tight-asses ready to report a man (who just came home from risking his life) to human resources over a double entendre, what is he fighting for anyway?

What I am saying is that the Bond movies are no fun anymore, and fun used to be the whole point. Sure, entries like License to Kill and For Your Eyes Only have an edge, but the pleasure that comes with the trappings of a 007 movie are still there…

Third: Bond is not a man he is a force of nature. Forces of nature terrify the intellectually arrogant because they cannot be controlled by being thought into nonexistence. Like him or not, 007 embodies the wrath we all fear at night; he is the guilt chewing away at all our consciousnesses, and the payback for all those we wrong.