Illuminati-R-Us

The latest Bond instalment has been posponed several times, apparently for quality reasons. The latest postponement, until late in the fall, seems to take corona virus into account. I figure it would be something of a letdown to have it premiere in front of empty seats, streamed worldwide at competetive rates.

Meanwhle, we can enjoy the latest Bond song. I must say, I like it very much. If the film is as different as the song from what we are used to, it will be quite different. There seems to be a very gifted singer/songwriter on the rise (although the orchestral arrangement is by an old Hollywood hand, Hans Zimmer). Gosh, that girl 18 years old!

The photo on the video is a bit strange though: Kind of self-defeating to post a b/w photo of an artist whose trademark is the green hairstrand.

Can’t stand that theme, it makes me want to go and jump in the canal. Not a fan of the recent trend for dreary Bond themes. They should all sound like Live and Let Die!

Oh, and for the thread title.

Strident strings and power trombones, yeah.


As long as the film is true to the form. Tongue in cheek, over the top, sense of humor, a bit of self-parody.

Enzo wrote:As long as the film is true to the form. Tongue in cheek, over the top, sense of humor, a bit of self-parody.

I wish we were back in those days! But it's not the Bond we've been seeing from Daniel Craig for the last four movies, is it.

Lianachan wrote:Can’t stand that theme, it makes me want to go and jump in the canal. Not a fan of the recent trend for dreary Bond themes. They should all sound like Live and Let Die!

Do you want to jump in the canal just because of the music or because it's Bond music? That's a valid distiction, I think, because Daniel Bond has very little to with Sean Bond, Roger Bond, or Pierce Bond: No smile, no irony, no fun, just hard stares, hard biceps, and hard killings. Drinking Martinis because it's da fucking job, man. He shows feelings for his ersatz mother and, in the end, for his last Bond girl, whom he will undoubtedly lose in his fifth film, tragically, brutally, and be even harder, more brutal and less fun as a result. So dreary Bonds make for dreary Bond themes, right?

If I want just another spy/action flick I can always watch Jason Bourne or one of the Jack Ryan films, but those are not Bond films. Bond should never be just another spy film, any more than Disney World is just another carnival ride.

Exactly. But is that not what they've become?

The problem with another delay is it given them more time to tinker with it.

I'd be interested in what our Visiting Professor of Bond Studies has to say about dreary theme tunes, mood of recent Bond films, etc...

I like the bleak mood of the recent films, though some of them are not very good. I have nothing against the Billie Eilish song either.
Unrelatedly we were at a gig last week, Rachel Newton, a harpist from up your way. She was very good; you seen her? I tried to check if it was her harps which were stolen a couple of years ago but I couldn't find the thread.

I don’t know her but we have mutual friends - one of whom, Cheyenne, is a professional harpist (originally from Alaska, now living half a mile from me) who had harps stolen a couple of years ago.

I like the bleak and, for want of a better word, realistic feel of the Bond films but I share what I think is Enzo’s view that this relegates them to the status of action/spy films and throws them on the pile with all the other franchises. I don’t like that song fair and square as a song, but also think Bond themes should be more lively. No matter how dreich the films are.

I see. And I can see why you don't like it.

Was Skyfall any better for you? That was dark but had strings and power trombones Galore.

Film yes, which I think puts me in a minority, theme no.

The Daniel Craig movies feel a whole lot more like the character in the Bond books I read ages ago. They do leave out the gratuitous descriptions of luxurious accommodations (mostly - they often pan across them) and the supposed gourmet and exotic foods, though. Those bits in the books always struck me as a type of “travelogue” for the times in which they were written, when most people didn’t travel as far and wide as they do today.

That said, I enjoy almost every Bond film (I have a difficult time with many parts of Moonraker and Die Another Day), including On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Sellers’ Casino Royale.

I quite like Skyfall though there are major plot problems, but you can say that about most of them.

I like the Craig films. I think this theme song a bit dark though. I guess they are trying to entice the younger folks with Eilish, but I'm not sure they'll be buying til bond is a bit more inclusive, maybe a 'they' next iteration.

The theme sounded very familiar to me, and I think of a mashup of two themes by John Murphy. Adiago in D Minor from Sunshine, and In a Heartbeat from 28 Days Later (both of which were reused by Murphy in Kick Ass). Eilish' brother apparently wrote the music, maybe he is a fan. But then again, a very standard chord progression.

Pushed back even further now, to April 2021.

My life will be so empty until then.

I like the Craig films and their dark hue, but for me, they aren't really Bond flicks. Bond isn't Bond without a smile, a bit of jovial banter and a good dash of joie de vivre. His quip "do I look like I care?" on the perennial "shaken or stirred" question sums it all up. No, James, you don't. At all.

They have run out of good stories a long time ago and won't pay for quality writing so they are bodge ups. I really don't like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, I know I'm in the minority but I thought Killing Eve was a bunch of toss. Hopefully they have locked the masters in a vault for the last six months and don't keep tinkering with them.
This film has been problematic from the start.

Pushed back yet more furtherer.

The basic melodic idea is quite pleasant, but is underdeveloped, dreary and repetitive. Having noted that, the inaudible mumbled delivery was the key cringe factor for me.

tubeswell wrote: the inaudible mumbled delivery was the key cringe factor for me.

That trendy mumbling, croaking, or auto-tune are three things that get me immediately reaching for the 'seek' button in the car.