Timewaster's Guide Archive

As a huge Bond fan, I quite liked this article, and have a lot of opinions on the subject. I pretty much agree with your ratings, though I want to point out that Valentin, the Russian smuggler, was a strong recurring character and gave us the best moment in "The World is not Enough." There was so much potential in that movie, and it breaks my heart that it sucked so much. Also, despite the buzz that Berry got for role, I think it goes without saying that Michelle Yeoh was much better and would make a far more interesting and watchable character were they ever to bring a Bond Girl back or spin one off into her own series.

As for new Bonds, Clive Owen is the obvious one, but I could see Gruffud doing something interesting with the role. Mcmahon has been wretched in everything I've ever seen him in. Mcgregor is awesome, but I'm not sure I can see him as Bond, and Grant I just...I can't see it working. He's never played a character that didn't evoke a puppy dog at some point, with his stammering and bumbling and fawning, and I doubt he has the range to turn that around into a good Bond. Ledger is an intriguing suggestion, and I could probably be convinced.

My favorite suggestion, however, is not on your list: Christopher Walken. He would be older, yes, and the accent would either be gone or terrible, but just imagine him in the role--he could do everything Bond needs to do, and he'd do it with a perfect mix of style, wit, and underlying danger. Bond is a man who kills people for a living, often casually, and often accompanied by heartless one-liners--Walken could bring out the darker undercurrents of that character in a remarkable way.

To jump to another topic altogether, I hated 4 Feathers.

The guy gives into his cowardice in the first place and then decides to go to Africa.  While it could have been a good movie if at that point he had been smart brave and clever for his friends.  He was neither.  Deciding to go to Africa was the last thing he did of his own free will.  Everything else was just stuff that happened to him and most of the time he failed even to take advantage of the situations he was swept into.  The only redeeming quality of the film was Djimon Hounsou's character.  He was a stud.

I understand that the original version of the film was very different and quite good.  I have yet to see it.

edit: having said that, I have nothing against Heath Ledger as an actor.  

Crowe is a good actor, but an absolute tit IRL. Kinda sad really.

That's exactly what I was talking about. Nobody can charge a musket line and not take massive casualties. It's not going to happen. The American Indians were outnumbered by troops that should have mown them down in that open terrain and yet miraculously won with little loss.

Oh, and the main character is apparently using the Artic Warfare Sniper Rifle version of a musket at several points

Though the end fight sequence was amazing, irregardless of it's unrealism.



The 'inept' fighting style comments seem to forget that the americans firing from behind trees is just another form of guerrila warfare. Good at pining troops down maybe, but name me a single guerrila warfare force that has managed to take and hold terrain and cities? I can only think of the VK capturing cities during the Vietnam war, and they were heavily backed up by regular north vietnamese army units and tanks.

It's also worth mentioning briefly that the British in america had very few reinforcements coming in, compared to the revolutionaries who were drawing on a civilian population for multiple waves of troops. We were destined to lose a war of attrition.

It was the gratuitous nature of working that out. Why are we interested, in any way whatsoever, in a villain with absolutely no redeemable values at all? I don't care about the historical reality of incest in Rome. I don't care about the historical reality of his capriciousness and total selfishness. If he can't at least APPEAR to have at least ONE thing about him that is REMOTELY sympathetic, then I can't even think of him as human. Thus stories about him are uninteresting. The incest was just some tacked on crime to make him that much more dispicable. Maybe they made a reason for it, but it was completely uneccessary for the story.

the emperor was my biggest problem with the film
"I want to sleep with my sister! For absolutely no reason whatsoever other than it will make you hate me more! blah! Aren't I evil?!"

jeez.