Director: Peter R. Hunt
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rating: C+
This is definitely my least favourite so far of all the Bond movies, and I rather suspect that it's going to remain such for a good while (potentially even forever). A lot of my problems with this movie were similar to my problems with The Bourne Legacy; while Bond has become a franchise that is greater than the individuals that have played Bond (at this point, eight actors have portrayed him in twenty six films and one short), the initial foray into a Connery-less Bond film just doesn't really work. Lazenby was not a great Bond in general and the tone of the movie overall felt just... off.
SPECTRE Number 1, Blofeld (Salavas) is back, this time with a plot to sterilize all the world's food supply unless his demands are met. Blofeld is doing this through the use of what he dubs his Angels of Death; a group of women who go to an allergy and phobia clinic in the Swiss Alps, where they're brainwashed. Bond poses as geneologist Sir Hilary Bray in order to gain access to the clinic, where he sets out to defeat Blofeld and sleep with as many Angels of Death as he can. Rounding out the plot is Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (Rigg), a woman who Bond saves and begins to woo in exchange for information about Blofeld from her father. Because Bond's classy like that.
To start; Lazenby's portrayal of Bond was lame. He didn't have the finess or class that Connery's Bond has - I hate to compare actors playing the same role to each other, because it isn't really fair, but in this it's hard not to. This isn't really a reboot of the franchise, a new series, or a remake; it's a continuation of the same series, and thus Lazenby is supposed to be continuing the same character. While Lazenby may be forgiven for attempting to make the character his own, he does so in a manner that's just a bit too extreme.
He's not helped at all by the general story either. Starting a new Bond in a role where he spends most of the movie pretending to be someone else is not the wisest move. Having Bond then go on to do un-Bondly things just makes the situation worse. I've commented before that Bond is rather sexist, but having him date a suicidal woman just so that he can get information from her father is a new low for him. There was just something about him in this movie that made me actually want to root for the bad guys - which is really saying something, given as in Bond the bad guys tend to be pretty much pure evil. I expect better from Bond.
SPECTRE Number 1, Blofeld (Salavas) is back, this time with a plot to sterilize all the world's food supply unless his demands are met. Blofeld is doing this through the use of what he dubs his Angels of Death; a group of women who go to an allergy and phobia clinic in the Swiss Alps, where they're brainwashed. Bond poses as geneologist Sir Hilary Bray in order to gain access to the clinic, where he sets out to defeat Blofeld and sleep with as many Angels of Death as he can. Rounding out the plot is Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (Rigg), a woman who Bond saves and begins to woo in exchange for information about Blofeld from her father. Because Bond's classy like that.
To start; Lazenby's portrayal of Bond was lame. He didn't have the finess or class that Connery's Bond has - I hate to compare actors playing the same role to each other, because it isn't really fair, but in this it's hard not to. This isn't really a reboot of the franchise, a new series, or a remake; it's a continuation of the same series, and thus Lazenby is supposed to be continuing the same character. While Lazenby may be forgiven for attempting to make the character his own, he does so in a manner that's just a bit too extreme.
He's not helped at all by the general story either. Starting a new Bond in a role where he spends most of the movie pretending to be someone else is not the wisest move. Having Bond then go on to do un-Bondly things just makes the situation worse. I've commented before that Bond is rather sexist, but having him date a suicidal woman just so that he can get information from her father is a new low for him. There was just something about him in this movie that made me actually want to root for the bad guys - which is really saying something, given as in Bond the bad guys tend to be pretty much pure evil. I expect better from Bond.
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