We finally reach the end of the Roger Moore era of Bond with A View to a Kill. Many people cite it as a bad Bond movie, but beyond Roger looking like he’s… well, his age, it’s actually a fun film. Close your eyes any time Bond is in bed and you’ve got a fun (and zany) plot with a great villain and so many set pieces that the film never feels like slows down. Let’s take a closer look and wave goodbye to the longest serving Bond while we’re at it…
Ready Player One has the personal distinction of being the first film I’ve ever watched where I had read the book first (well, listened to the unabridged audiobook…) Due to this I did find myself thinking back to the original and how so much was cut and rearranged, something I’m sure many more people have done to many more films in the past, but overall I really enjoyed myself. It may not be as detailed (obviously) or as… 80s as the book, but it was certainly a fun celebration of the crazy amount of pop culture we’ve amassed over the past 50 years, and in general a fun story to follow. Let’s take a closer look then!
My stroll down memory lane with Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex comes to an end as we reach Solid State Society, the final chapter in this version of the GITS world. Given it’s a film with a sub-two-hour runtime, it obviously lacks the depth and slow burn nature of the big cases from the two TV series, but it still has its moments, both with plot and some tense action scenes as well. Let’s take a look!
After several failed attempts to go see it at the cinema, I was resigned to the fact I’d have to watch Solo for the first time on blu-ray in September, but as luck would have it my local theatre did a special screening of the film! My streak of watching all the Star Wars films (made after I was born…) on the big screen continues! ANYWAY, so how was Solo? It was fun and exciting, and had a really good cast. I didn’t need to see so many boxes ticked off, but I’m not unhappy the film exists. So let’s take a deeper look…
I always dislike when I get to Octopussy on a Bond watch through, and given I remember that feeling despite this being only the third time I’ve watched them all in a row goes to show how much is sticks in my mind. It’s not terrible like Diamonds are Forever, but it commits possibly an even worse sin: It’s dull as hell… and full of poor Moore-era humour. Anyway, let’s get Octopussy out of the way so I can never watch it again… unless another new format ends up releasing a nice collectors set, then… bollocks.
Can’t say a Chinese children’s film was high on my “must watch list”, but I’m not unhappy about sitting through the film, my review of which can be found HERE. It’s a visual treat, and its heart was in the right place, even if it was little overly surreal…
For Your Eyes Only is a odd Bond film, it begins and ends with extremely Roger Moore-era humour, but has a far more serious, gadget-free core story to it. That being said the story isn’t massively interesting, but hey-ho, can’t win them all, and the main story is better than the bizarre opening sequence… Anyway, let’s take a look!
Hopefully the last casualty of the “not being able to afford to go to the cinema” period, I finally saw Black Panther on blu-ray over the weekend. It certainly lived up to the hype, both being a really good film and the impressive cast, including a lead villain in an MCU film that’s actually good and well-fleshed out! Hooray! Let’s have a look…
“Hey, you know what’s really popular right now?” “What?” “Star Wars! Let’s do that!” “But… we’re doing Bond films, do you want to shoot Bond into space and have him firing lasers?” “Why not? It’ll be big!” “Why n… *sigh* fine. Let’s have Bond fire some space lasers.” “Hooray!”
The Spy Who Loved Me is a hard film to sum up. It has some plusses, especially mysteriously invincible henchman Jaws, but it also has one of the most stupid lead villain schemes ever and some pretty lazy writing, leading to scenes that just don’t make sense if you stop and think about them… Still, should be fun to review, if nothing else!
Hogan Reviews 