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WORLD_ENOUGH_ALREADY
January 30, 2005
Reactions to a video of
"The World is Not Enough" (1999) (A Pierce Brosnan
James Bond movie).
(a) I was barely able to remember
having seen it in the theater
(b) I think I liked it a lot
more seeing it on video (as
far as I can remember).
Could it be that movie
theaters are *bad* places
to see hollywood blockbusters?
Wide screens, loud explosions,
But there's another endless barely coherent flashy
aspect: has the world cuts... it can be really
caught up to it? fatiguing.
Khazakstan, Caspian Admit it: didn't
sea pipelines, terrorists, you yawn through
stolen decommissioned soviet the final battle in
nukes... Bond actually says "Star Wars"?
"So it's all about oil".
(Supposedly they got
the idea for movie's
background from a
Nightline episode...)
A nice bit of dialog
here and there:
That line would
"And what do *you* believe in, work better if
the preservation of capital?" Bond weren't
clearly "saving
Screenplay by lives" throughout.
Neal Purvis,
Robert Wade &
Bruce Feirstein
(Doesn't help much A lot of the usual
since you don't know problems: incoherent The pipeline
who wrote what. fight scenes, explosion
E.g. the endless physically alone would
single entendre impossiblies etc. guarantee
lines.) concussion,
STANDARD_STANDARDS hearing
loss, etc.
They display a
certain casual
The music is pretty Missed sloppiness that
good, really... it's opportunity: I can appreciate.
not up to the standard
of the original Monty Bond grabs Paving over gaps
Norman piece -- which a boat, with a couple of
they overuse mercilessly as Q lines of dialog,
by the end of the film -- screams ala Roger Corman.
but you can't blame them "It's not
really, because it's one ready!" (It will take half
of the key assets of the an hour to re-shape
Bond empire, one of the But it the plutonium into a
things that makes the works rod in "the extruder",
movies work when they do without eh? Good thing there
work... problems. was one lying around
on the sub.)
(E.g the point where BOND_NOVA
they bring it up A really bad problem:
in the opening scene (I guess the actresses. There
of Moonraker.) the idea are four major female
is it has roles (including
no wind Judi Dench as M).
shield
I'm convinced that the yet.) The most striking of these
score is Monty Norman's is the dark terrorist
and not Barry's, not so woman in red leather, who
much because Norman won is given barely any lines
his law suit, as because of dialog and dies early.
of the use of counterpoint
in the original theme. (Maria Grazi
Cucinotta --
Melody 1: Ah, she was
strings in "Il
Postino".)
Melody 2:
bass guitar
The weakest is Bond's
Melody 3: companion at the end
horns of the film (Denise
Richards)... is it
There isn't anything really possible for a
like this degree of woman to get a part
complexity in the in a major movie
Barry scores for the based solely on the
later movies... surgery she's willing
to submit to?
Consider that stupid
closing score for They don't care that
Goldfinger... that she can't deliver a
awful repetitive single line correctly?
"the suspenseful
operation is under Pierce Brosnan's
way!" garbage. skills at wincing
and gasping are
Getting that stuck in amazingly eloquent
my head is only a in comparison.
little preferable to
the "Green Acres" theme.
Like I said:
no wonder they
Notably the overuse the
theme for the Monty Norman...
"World is not
Enough" is Score: (But can't they
*also* lacking David find any other
in counterpoint. Arnold bright composers?)
The strings always Which is not to say that
go in the same arrangment is not an art of
direction as the it's own.
vocals, sticking to
the same melody. E.g. Using a bass guitar for the
But at least the bassline was a pretty
melody is okay. good move... it punches
it up for the rock n' roll ear.
The lyrics aren't
bad for a Bond (In the extreme case:
theme, either. the work of Delia
Not up there with Derbyshire on Ron
"You Only Live Grainier's Dr. Who
Twice", but close. theme.)
Lyrics by Don Black,
Vocals: Shirley Manson
from a band named "Garbage".
I see this made it to
number 13 in the US,
but I've barely heard
it. He said smugly.
DROPOUT
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