What on earth are Jimmy Bond and Leiter doing with the matches in this scene? Is it purposefully coordinated and focused on? Is there some hidden signal? A bizarre spectacle whenever I watch this scene from Casino Royale (TV – 1954).
Safin’s masked character from No Time To Die (2021) easily gave the biggest jump scare of any James Bond movie ever:
As a whole, the opening sequence of NTTD was a highlight, but the entire movie was marred by an ending scene that was the worst scene of any James Bond movie. Yes, it was so bad that it singlehandedly made NTTD the worst James Bond movie ever. Read my skewering of the movie here.
As I mention in the review, I would have preferred Mathilde not exist rather than watch her drag that stupid Dou Dou bunny around the movie. Ugh.
It’s sometimes overlooked and odd to think about that James Bond villains have to have a physical headquarters. They need a place to reside, meet and plot. Over the movies, we have seen them in all shapes and sizes, from a hollowed-out volcano lair, an abandoned satellite, an off-shore oil rig or a gold refinement factory.
In Thunderball (1965), we get to visit SPECTRE (Special Executor for Counterintelligence, terrorism, revenge, extortion) headquarters, of which Ernst Stavro Blofeld is its leader and Emilio Largo is number two in charge. What’s unique about Thunderball, however, is that we see the exact perspective of a villain leaving the public world (this time a city) and every step of their commute to their proverbial work desk. Here, Largo enters the Centre International D’Assistance aux Personnes Replacées (International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons), goes to the back of the office and opens a secret door to the SPECTRE meeting room via buttons on a custom cigarette holder.
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I may be biased since TND was the first James Bond movie I saw in theaters, but the remote control BMW scene is nothing but fun from start to finish. I distinctly remember smiling ear-to-ear just as Brosnan does at the end of the scene, and the theater’s collective ooh’s and aah’s as each new gadget appeared on screen. This was nothing short of action movie magic, and is a top-tier action scene in all of the James Bond movies. Who wouldn’t want to drive a car (BMW, nonetheless) remotely and look as cool as James Bond doing it?!
Something about this seemingly innocuous scene (where James Bond meets Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever (1971)) elevates its notoriety in my book. Maybe it’s the loungey, daydreamy, nap-inducing version of the DAF theme, or the way Bond questions endearingly “Weren’t you a blonde when I came in?” Something about it makes me love it. And the Van Cleef & Arpels quip…classic! 🙂
A “recovering” James Bond endearingly says this friendly quote after a session with his rehab aide Patricia Fearing. Although a playful, funny quip, Bond shows his nonchalance (and the 1960s misogyny he’s sometimes known for) after coaxing Fearing for a romp after her incompetence leaving 007 trapped and unaccompanied in the stretching rack machine.
In Licence To Kill (1989) as Bond investigates Leiter’s shark attack at Milton Krest’s warehouse, 007 tosses a security guard into a fish food drawer to a seemingly horrifying death. “Food for the fish food.”
This scene has a particular significance for me, as it’s the earliest memory I have of watching a James Bond movie in my life. I can distinctly remember this scene during a live ABC or NBC broadcast of this movie in the early 1990s. I also distinctly remembering the pity I felt for the security guard, banished to die by tiny bites in a claustrophobic drawerful of menacing-looking fish food.
At the same time, I can remember wiggling and eventually pulling a tooth out of my mouth. I was six or seven years old.
The sign for the Le Cercle club, where we first meet James Bond in Dr. No (1962)
I’m not sure you could dream of a more perfect way to introduce the world to secret agent James Bond, 007. From the start, an indirect request at a club entrance for James Bond, and a casual discreet walk through the casino until we end up in a seemingly high intensity baccarat game. The sexual tension is obvious and the facial expressions are memorable. We owe Trench, Sylvia Trench a debt of gratitude for teaching Bond, James Bond how to properly introduce himself in future movies. It truly is a scene all other James Bond movies would be well advised to replicate.
Paloma (Ana de Armas) is critically underutilized in No Time To Die (2021) and this 1 minute scene proves it!
Aside from the great chemistry between Paloma (Ana de Armas) and James Bond (Daniel Craig), this ass-kicking fight sequence was awesome! That amazing dress paired with those amazing legs made for an effective visual in the fight in Cuba after the Spectre party. Why on earth didn’t we see more of Paloma?! However, I do concede that the salud/booze shot sequence was a bit contrived and forced – not really sure why that made the final cut…
But despite her short on-screen time, I’d argue that Paloma and Bond’s chemistry rivaled or bested that between Bond and Madeleine Swann. Maybe it’s the dress, her naivete, cuteness, humor or a combination of it all that made Paloma stand out. Dare I say it’d be cool to see her return in a future Bond movie to further develop the Bond/Paloma work/personal relationship? It’d be more interesting than the tired and dreary Swann/child plotline we got from NTTD – Bond (and the audience) wasn’t enthused at the prospect!
Maybe in an alternate timeline as well – Swann is murdered, Mathilde doesn’t exist, Bond seeks his revenge with a Paloma assist and they get together. Kind of like the Vesper plot from Casino Royale (2006) without the backstabbing and the suicide, and a little more meaningful than the Anya Amasova/Tiple X relationship from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). One can dream…
Paloma (Ana de Armas) and her legs in an awesome fight sequence from No Time To Die (2021)
Jaws’ (Richard Kiel) intro in Moonraker (1979) has to be the best henchmen intro of any James Bond movie.
We catch the tail end of villain Hugo Drax’s (Michael Lonsdale) phone conversation searching for a replacement henchman for the recently deceased Chang (it’s so weird he refers to him as “Cha” in the phone conversation, but whatever). As he sits atop his ivory tower, he’s pleasantly surprised to hear the prospect of Jaws (Richard Kiel) as his next henchman to help carry out his nefarious plot and subdue James Bond in the process. I also wonder who Drax is on the phone with – is there a villain’s HR department?!
Fast forward to Jaws’ hilariously oversized arrival in Rio de Janeiro – we see him set off the metal detectors for obvious reasons. Without a word (just a smile), he explains the beeping to the Rodney Dangerfield doppelganger customs worker, totally freaking him out. LOL!
Jaws (Richard Kiel) shows his signature metal smile in Moonraker (1979)
