E.R. Torre's Blog, page 107

Wonder Woman (2017) a (for the most part) right on time review!

Add me to the masses.

I really liked Wonder Woman and would give it a solid “B” or 3 stars out of 4.  As many other critics have said -and, again, I’m going with the flow here- the film has a few problems but overall its positives far outweigh its negatives.

is simply the absolutely right actress at the very right moment for the role, an important thing given the fact that the film follows Diana/Wonder Woman throughout maybe 90% of the its run time.  Even more intriguing -and shows the care Director had in the making of this film- is the fact that two other actresses also played Diana/Wonder Woman and, incredibly, both were also very good in the role: played the 8 year old Diana and played her at 12 years of age.

Further kudos have to be given to  acting as Steve Trevor.  He is at Diana’s side for much of the film and provides a welcome counterpoint/guide to her character while she navigates a world ravaged by the horrors of World War I.  He’s never patronizing and more often than not takes her side while showing his growing affection and thrill at her displays of power.

But before we get to their adventure together, we spend time on Paradise Island, the home of the Amazons and of Diana and there we are presented its culture and characters.  Standouts during these sequences are as the warrior Antiope (Ms. Wright’s come a long way since Princess Bride!) and as Hippolyta, Diana’s mother (I just checked IMDB and it looks like she’ll be back in the role for the upcoming Justice League movie.  Hurrah!).

Later in the film we’re also introduced to Wonder Woman’s quirky companion, Etta Candy, played delightfully by .  I swear this film is filled with so many interesting characters that I wish there was even more screen time afforded to them than ultimately was!

The villains, alas, are a little less interesting though I did enjoy the enigmatic turn of as Dr. Maru, aka Dr. Poison.

As for the film itself, its story goes like this: Diana is a restless soul within Paradise Island even as a young child.  After a fashion, she trains to be a warrior.  One day, when she’s grown, the outside world intrudes upon Paradise Island in the form of Steve Trevor, a spy for the allies whose airplane crash lands just off the island’s coast.

Diana saves Trevor but a German warship which has been hunting him also makes their way into Paradise Island.  A battle ensues and, afterwards, the Island folks are, via Steve Trevor, given an update on the world outside and the war being waged.

Diana decides she must venture forth and stop the fighting.  She believes Ares, the Greek God of War, is behind all this and it is her duty to stop him.

She leaves Paradise Island with Trevor, and the rest of the film follows her as she encounters the “real” world of 1917 and its many perils.

Again, I give this film a very solid “B”.  While it may not reach the heights of the original 1978 Superman, a film the makers of Wonder Woman clearly used as their guiding star, it does enough things very right to make us not only care for the characters, but to look forward to their further adventures.

One last note: The soundtrack to the film is awesome.  Gonna buy it real soon.

Recommended.

Movie thoughts…The Mummy

It’s my understanding there is a review embargo for the Tom Cruise starring The Mummy, which I suppose is the first of the “Universal Monsters” movie series (there was a Dracula movie before this which was originally supposed to be the first one but it did so poorly both critically and at the box office that it has been essentially forgotten, or am I hallucinating this fact?).

The embargo is, according to some pieces I’ve read here and there, until Thursday, the day before the film is officially released this week.

Doesn’t sound all that encouraging, though I’m intrigued enough with the film’s trailers that I’ll likely give it a shot at some point.  By the way, the opposite happened with Wonder Woman.  There was a review embargo that was pushed back to an earlier date as early word was very positive and the folks at Warner Brothers wisely realized it would be to their benefit to allow the good word to get out as early as possible.

Looks like that may not be the case with The Mummy.

Rainy days…

We’re in day four (or thereabouts) of rainy weather and its a little past 9 AM as I type this and it looks like late evening out there…

These are the types of days you don’t want to leave the house!

Wonder Woman box office power…

What with all the gnashing of teeth regarding DC superhero movies and, to many, these same movies’ perceived failures, there was a lot riding on the release of Wonder Woman.  The trailers looked terrific, but then again so too did the trailers for Suicide Squad, a film that even this defender of Batman v Superman couldn’t defend too hard (the plot of that movie was a complete mess, though I had to admit that if you were able to ignore this admittedly significant detail there was some entertainment to be had in the performances of the various actors).

When the Memorial Day Weekend box office turned out to be a bust, matching an 18 year low in terms of box office take, I felt it wasn’t too terribly surprising.

Audiences, I theorized, were perhaps burned by Prometheus and therefore not all that willing -without some damn good reviews/word of mouth- to give Alien: Covenant a try.  This was most certainly my situation.  Had I read good things about AC, I would have gone out to see it.  But Prometheus, despite the beautiful look and some great acting by Noomi Rapace, left me cold.  And when I found out what director Ridley Scott did with her character, the only character I liked in the previous film, I had no more interest in seeing it.

In the case of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, I suspect that’s a franchise that’s gone on two or three films too many.  It didn’t help that Johnny Depp’s bizarre behavior of late didn’t help the situation.

And though I love me some raunchy, “R” rated comedies, any interest I might have for the Baywatch movie was dashed when I saw the very lame NSFW red-band trailer of the movie.  The trailer, to put it nicely, wasn’t funny at all.  Indeed, it seemed to focus on the fact that the Rock gets to say the word “fuck” in several different permutations and audiences were expected to laugh.  Again, I like raunchy comedies, but having a person swear an awful lot does not equal comedy gold.

As for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, that film was released a while back and, while it did very well at the box office, those who wanted to see it seemed to have done so and, therefore, the film was on its way out.

So, in my opinion, people were itching for something new and the three new films, plus this hold-over, just weren’t cutting it, which seems clear based on the weak box-office take.  And that’s why I suspected the release of Wonder Woman the week after Memorial Day would provide plenty of reasons to smile for DC and Warner Brothers.

Now, understand, I’m far from a psychic and I can no better guess what’s going to happen in the next hour much less the next day or week.

Yet I nonetheless had a feeling Wonder Woman would do exceedingly well.  In part this was due to the early reactions, before the review embargo was lifted, which were generally very positive.  Once the actual reviews were released, they confirmed those early tweets.  Like Suicide Squad, the movie’s trailers looked fantastic.

And add one more element: The current times and the fact that this was the first superhero film for this modern era  (defined as roughly from when the first Iron Man was released) which features a woman as its main character.

So with audiences dissatisfied with the current slate of movies it seemed obvious there was a void.  And given Wonder Woman was next in line and looked so intriguing and was getting such great reviews, it felt like a no-brainer to guess it would do exceedingly well.

And, it would appear, so it did.

According to estimates (here’s one from The Huffington Post) the movie broke records in its release.  It most certainly is the biggest release directed by a woman and the $100.5 to $100.6 million it took in I’m sure did bring smiles to those folks at DC and Warners.  There’s already word that director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Godot will return, quickly I imagine, for Wonder Woman 2.

I remain curious to see the film and hope to do so within the next day or two.  I further hope it tracks as high with me as it does with so many others.

After all, that’s all you want in a film, right?

To be entertained.

On Writing…Alien

One of my favorite horror films is the original 1979 film Alien.  I suspect most people out there know of this film, if only because this summer we’ve had the release of Alien: Covenant, the third sequel original director Ridley Scott made of his first film (the second being Prometheus).

I love, love, love Alien.  There is almost nothing about it that was wrong, including the excellent -and super-creepy- theatrical trailer…

As much as I loved Alien, and also loved the first sequel to the film, James Cameron’s Aliens, unfortunately the films that have followed, including Prometheus, have left me wanting.  In fact, so bummed out was I by Prometheus that I was hesitant to see Mr. Scott’s Alien: Covenant.  After reading what he does to the character of Elizabeth Shaw, the protagonist of Prometheus, I have very little desire to see the film indeed.

However, this post is about writing and rather than dwell on the negatives of the more recent Alien films, I wanted to focus on the first and what a clever bit of writing the movie presented.

I’ll be getting into SPOILERS here, but I suspect most people by now have seen the film or know what its about.

Still, SPOILERS FOLLOW…

So in Alien, a group of “space truckers” carry their latest load to its destination.  The ship they’re in is massive but the crew of the ship consists of only seven, plus one cat.

The crew are asleep for the long trip, in hyperbolic chambers, but are awoken well before their destination when the ship’s computer receives a strange signal coming from a planet they are flying by.

The crew is awoken and a decision is made to investigate the strange signal.  When the landing party arrives planet side, they discover an eerie, massive spacecraft and a large, mummified occupant.  They also, tragically, discover that within the ship’s cargo bay are hundreds of eggs.

One of the crew is attacked by the thing inside one of the eggs.  It melts through his space suit’s face mask and entwines itself around the crew-member’s face.  However, he’s still alive and the others bring him back to the shuttle.

It is at this point that I think the most brilliant bit of writing within the film occurs.  What makes it so brilliant is that its a wonderful bit of misdirection, making us feel one way when we should have felt another.  It lays out so much and we realize this only in retrospect, when the film is done.

Basically, the ship’s Captain, Dallas () tries to bring the stricken officer, Kane (), along with the rest of the exploration crew, back into the shuttle.  Kane is still alive and he needs immediate medical help and orders those within the shuttle to let them in.

However, Ripley (), noting that Kane has been infected by an alien presence and therefore may well be a danger to the entire crew, refuses to allow the landing party back in.  She notes that protocol dictates that Kane cannot be allowed back into the ship until he is deemed “safe” from any alien infection.  To allow him in at this point, she states, could endanger everyone.

Meanwhile, science officer/medic Ash (), who is within the shuttle, can barely contain himself.  He is anxious to see/deal with Kane and, realizing the stand-off between Ripley and Dallas will remain, breaks protocol and allows the crew, including the infected Kane, back into the shuttle.

The scene, as played out, makes audiences root for both Dallas and Ash and boo Ripley.  While she is following protocol, it seems incredibly cold and inhuman for her to have the crew out there in the cold.  Especially when it seems at least possible that Kane can be treated and saved rather than being left outside to die.

Yet that scene is beautifully realized because it is only in retrospect that we realize there’s far more going on than it appears.

First off, Dallas, we find, is a very weak leader.  He’s one of those “good guy” bosses who wants everyone to like him and is too lax in following protocol.  Ripley, it turns out, is the no-nonsense firm one.  She knows protocol and, though her actions may be outwardly cold, she’s right while those who are following their emotions are wrong.  Finally Ash, who appeared in that sequence to be following his emotions and choosing to “save” Kane, is revealed to be not interested in him at all.  His actions carry their own dark motivations.

I point this sequence out because it is so (pardon my french) fucking brilliant.

We’re given three characters and their three reactions to this highly stressful situation.  We’re presented with the very human emotion of trying to save a fellow from a fate that seems worse than death.  We’re presented with a cold, too-regulated person who doesn’t seem to understand we’re dealing with human lives here.  Then we have the third person, the one on the fence -we think- who decides for being “human” and saving the stricken officer.

And it turns out all our assumptions of that scene are wrong.

Dallas, while certainly wanting to save Kane, may also be wanting to save his own skin.  He purposely ignores protocol and orders Ripley to let everyone into the shuttle even though this may well endanger everyone else.

Ripley, seemingly an automaton beholden to protocol and therefore a cold-hearted person audiences root against, turns out to be completely correct in her assessment of the situation.  Yes, she may not approach this situation emotionally, but if Kane had been kept from returning to the shuttle as she wanted, none of what followed would have happened.

And Ash, who we thought was anxiously weighing both sides before ultimately siding with Dallas and hoping to save Kane, was doing anything but that.  When it is later revealed who/what Ash is and how he already knew of the alien creature, audiences can’t help but think back to that earlier scene and realize whatever anxiety Ash showed was not because he wanted to save Kane.  Kane, and the rest of the crew of the ship, were eminently expendable to Ash.  What he wanted was the alien creature, to bring it back to his masters so they may use it for their own dark goals.

As I said before, this is a post regarding writing and in that sequence within the film, the writing is terrific, all the more so when the rest of the film plays out.

Too bad the same couldn’t be said of the writing of Prometheus.

Oh, Tiger…

Those who even casually follow sports must know of golfer Tiger Woods.

He seemed to come out of nowhere, a golf protege -or savant- who even in his last rookie tournament (playing against a fellow named Steve Scott) looked absolutely electric.

He would turn pro and prove a formidable golfer, winning tournaments at a pace that suggested he might, when all was said and done, break the records held by golf great Jack Nicklaus.

But a decade ago all that fell by the wayside.

In an era where baseball players were scrutinized for their use of “banned” substances such as steroids, a little seen -much less remembered- article noted that one of the main Doctors known to prescribe steroids to baseball athletes also had Mr. Woods among his clients.

Not much was made of the report -and I would quickly note there is no evidence that I know of pointing to Mr. Woods’ performance on the links being enhanced- because not too long afterwards Tiger Woods had his infamous car accident and, subsequently, his personal dirty laundry was revealed to the entire world.

The married Tiger Woods, it turned out, was far from a faithful husband and the car accident, whose details to this day remain murky, had a blow-up with his then wife and then drove off only to have his car crash.

With the marriage in trouble, stories of his many, many affairs came to light.  Mr. Woods would publicly apologize for his actions and subsequently divorce.  His ex-wife, its been reported, made some $700 million off the divorce.   The golden golfer was suddenly in a very dark place and his game, to add insult to injury, was suddenly gone.

Since that time, Mr. Woods hasn’t won a single tournament and the thought that he might come (ahem) roaring back seems more fantasy than reality nowadays.

Especially after what happened this week.

Mr. Woods was found out cold in his Mercedes in his secluded neighborhood.  Two of the car’s tires were flat and he had crashed the vehicle.  When police arrived, he was awoken and, it was thought, he was drunk.  He wasn’t, as it would turn out, but he claimed his actions were the result of a bad reaction to prescription drugs he’s taking to deal with the latest operation he had on his back.

Today, police released footage of the actual event, and if you want to see it, it’s here.  It’s not pretty and I have no great desire to show it here.

I point all this out because, other than perhaps O. J. Simpson, I don’t believe the public has witnessed a star athlete fall so far and so hard.

Though I’m hardly the world’s biggest golf fan, I did enjoy watching Mr. Woods play in his prime.  He was a fierce competitor and clearly focused like a laser on his play.  There were tournaments I remember where he was down by several shots on the last few holes yet it was clear he still had a shot to win the tournament.

I don’t relish seeing what’s become of him.

While he may indeed have suffered a bad reaction to a prescription medication, its very alarming he seems to have no one around him to stop him from driving when he’s so very clearly impaired.

I suspect the Tiger Woods of old, the world-class golfer all the other golfers feared, will likely never return.

I know I’m just a blogger out in the weeds whose opinion is only his own, but I do hope that Tiger Woods, the man, can get those demons out of his head.  At 41 years of age, he’s still a very young man and he’s got plenty of life to lead.

Timing is everything…perhaps

We’re two days away from the official release of the Patty Jenkins directed, Gal Gadot/Chris Pine starring Wonder Woman film and, thus far, the aggregate of reviews presented over on Rottentomatoes.com are incredibly ecstatic…

Rotten Tomatoes: Wonder Woman (2017)

As of this writing, the film sits at an incredibly lofty 97% positive.  While I suspect this number will drop a bit when we reach Friday and the full forces of worldwide reviewers are heard, the film nonetheless already has 74 “pro” reviews, a fairly high number, and of those only 2 were “negative”.

The two negative reviews come from, respectively, Luke Buckmaster for The Daily Review (the full review is here) and Steve Rose for The Guardian (the full review is here).

Mr. Buckmaster gives the film a mediocre 2.5 stars out of 5 but his review is hardly a body slam against the film.  His main criticism appears to be centered around the movie’s climax, which he (and, to be fair, a few others) felt was just another CGI effects-laden fight-fight-fight-fest as well as the fact that the film felt familiar to him, especially the “fish out of water” aspect of Princess Diana/Wonder Woman emerging into the real world of WWI, which he interestingly noted was not unlike what occurred in the movie Crocodile Dundee.

Mr. Rose, on the other hand, is far less impressed.  Here’s some of what he had to say:

I had no shortage of excitement and goodwill towards this female-led superhero project, but in the event it’s plagued by the same problems that dragged down previous visits to the DC movie world: over-earnestness, bludgeoning special effects, and a messy, often wildly implausible plot. What promised to be a glass-ceiling-smashing blockbuster actually looks more like a future camp classic.

Ouch.

However, his appears to be the only really negative voice out there -so far anyway- and he ultimately gives the film a below average 2 stars out of 5.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ve made my opinion of Batman v. Superman known plenty of times around here.  I really liked the film and, further, thought the addition of Wonder Woman in it was a stroke of genius.  She single-handedly spiced up the movie’s climax which, had she not been there, might have been a far duller affair.

This past Memorial Day Weekend proved a big disappointment to the theaters in terms of revenue.  According to Emma Spencer at laist.com, the theater revenue was at an 18 year low (you can read the full article here).

Frankly, this doesn’t surprise me.  Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which I had no interest in seeing (another dead horse: I didn’t like the first film at all, despite so many others liking it, therefore had no interest in seeing the second) plus the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, Alien: Covenant, and Baywatch were pretty much the “big four” films out there this weekend, and as far as I was concerned, none of them were interesting to me.

In fact, as I looked over the many films coming this summer, there were precious few of them that looked like slam-bang appealing works.  When I wrote my original list, I was indeed curious to see Wonder Woman and was wowed by the trailers that had been released to that point.

Now, given the very positive reviews and what I’m assuming is interest in this film (and lack of interest in the others), I’m most curious to see this film…and see how it does.

Perhaps this is very much the right time, both in terms of box office and political tides, for a Wonder Woman film to be released.

The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017 remix)

Wow.

Just released today to coincide with the (gulp) 50th year anniversary release of what is likely the most famous of The Beatles’ albums (though, as I mentioned previously, many feel it isn’t necessarily their best album), you can now pick up various editions of the new, 2017 remix of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

There are inevitably going to be those who wonder if its worth buying this edition of the album.  If you’re like me, you’ve picked up many different editions of the album and, going in, wonder if this one will be all that much different.

It is.

Oh man, is it.

But don’t take my word for it.  Over on rollingstone.com, Mikal Gilmour offers a review of the album.  You can check the review out here:

Review: The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Anniversary Edition Reveal Wonders

One of the more fascinating things Mr. Gilmour points out is the following, found in the liner notes of this new edition of the album:

Giles Martin (son of the famous George Martin, the original producer of these albums who passed away in 2016 and the man who did the remix for this new 2017 version of Sgt. Pepper’s) observes in his liner notes: “The original Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was primarily mixed as a mono album. All care and attention were applied to the mono LP, with the Beatles present for all the mixes. … Almost as an afterthought, the stereo album was mixed very quickly without the Beatles at the sessions. Yet it is the stereo album that most people listen to today.” In other words, popular music’s most elaborate and intricate creation – and one that helped end the mono era – wasn’t made to be heard in stereo. 

Though they didn’t know it at the time, mono was on its way out and would be replaced by stereo music shortly after the release of this album.  But because of the time it was created, all the care was made toward the mono mix of this album and the stereo mix, the mix most of us have heard/listened to all this time, was a version The Beatles didn’t really bother with.  The mono version was what The Beatles intended us to hear yet what we heard was… something else.

The 2017 remix of this album intends to correct this error and, trust me, they’ve done it.

Listening to the 2017 remix of Sgt. Pepper’s is -and I know this is going to sound like a cliched bit of selling- nothing short of a revelation.  The music feels far more lush than it ever did before.  There is a multi-level to it that makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of the band as they present their songs.

One of the biggest surprises, at least to me, turned out to be the song Good Morning, Good Morning.  Here’s a demo version of it…

I must admit, I never thought all that much of the song.  Of all John Lennon’s works, I always felt this one was slight, perhaps no better than “ok”.

But in this 2017 version?

…Oh… my.

The song engulfs you with a frantic, crazed energy.  The almost circus like music swirls and surrounds you, hitting your ears as if taking several gunshot blasts.

And that’s just one song!

If you’re a fan of The Beatles and/or Sgt. Pepper’s, do yourself a favor: Toss all the other copies of the album you have and get yourself the 2017 version, then give it a listen and see if I’m wrong.

I don’t think I am and, yes, this new mix of the album is that good.

Highly recommended.

On Writing… and a few more thoughts on Roger Moore

While looking around the internet following reading the news of Mr. Moore’s passing, I found the following article by Maxwell Strachan and presented on Huffington Post:

Roger Moore Came to hate the way society glorifies men with guns

The article is pretty much self-descriptive, though it seems Mr. Moore had a lifelong animus regarding guns that first developed when he was a very young man.

There will certainly be those who point out Mr. Moore was a hypocrite.  After all, the most famous character he portrayed, James Bond, often was presented like this…

Or…

…or…

I believe you get the point, no?

Among many other things, James Bond is known for the weapon he carries, a Walther PPK.  Along with romancing beautiful women, high wire escapes, a Martini “shaken and not stirred”, and sophisticated gadgets, the Walther PPK is one of James Bond’s trademarks, the gun the fictional secret agent carries.

I find it fascinating that Mr. Moore, while certainly not slamming the James Bond role that made him a world-wide superstar, nonetheless was quoted as stating:

I regret that sadly heroes in general are depicted with guns in their hands.

Now, as the headline above indicates, this is about “writing”, so how does this relate to my writing?

Because I had something of a same experience with regard to the first novel in my Corrosive Knights series, Mechanic.

When I first envisioned the story, we were just coming off a decade of some very macho -and heavily armed- heroes.  You had Rambo.  You had The Terminator.  You had all the other action roles played by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenneger.

These were next level action heroes who, it appeared, were influenced by Clint Eastwood’s action heroes of the 1970’s, particularly the Magnum brandishing Dirty Harry Callahan.

But as these things go, the spectacle has to be bigger and bigger and therefore the action/violence in many of the films released in the 1980’s and into the 1990’s were bigger and bigger as well…to the point where they made the original Dirty Harry film look positively quaint.

Into that time I first came up with what eventually would become my Mechanic story and the hero of the piece, the tough as nails Nox.

When I first envisioned her, it was through the veil of those heroes and their big guns.

But a curious thing happened on the way to writing the novel itself.

Yes, Nox carries a gun on the cover of Mechanic.  She also carries a handgun on the cover of the fourth book in the series, Nox.  But the character uses a gun very little in either novel.

In fact, the conclusion of Mechanic (MILD SPOILERS!) has Nox taking down those who she’s fighting against without “blowing them away” via heavy gunplay (to be fair, she does shoot one person down with a single shot).

This was done very much on purpose.

The fact is that, like Mr. Moore, when I got down to the business of writing Mechanic I’d developed something of a distaste for the idea of heroes wielding massive arsenals of weapons and engaging in equally massive shootouts.

Though there remain some shootouts here and there, after writing as many books as I have it occurred to me that I’d rejected using this type of resolution.

First, because its been done so many times before and second because I’m just not that into guns and it seemed silly to go there when I can try to be a little more clever with how villains get their just rewards.

I’m not saying that those who love guns and/or are writers/filmmakers/what-have-you who love to do elaborate shoot-outs are somehow creating works I feel are “inferior”, only that my particular creative writing path has taken me elsewhere.

I suppose the bottom line is this: If you’re a writer, write what you feel works for you.  I’ve made many action/adventure novels and the temptation to have elaborate shootouts became, to me anyway, something I didn’t want to dwell on.

I feel the end result was something better, certainly in Mechanic and hopefully in other works as well.

Zach Snyder and Roger Moore

Sadly, it seems tragedies are the order of the day.

Yesterday it was revealed that director Zach Snyder, best known -and made the object of much internet loathing for his Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice film- announced he would be stepping away from completing the Justice League film because his 20 year old daughter had committed suicide and he felt he and his family needed to take the time off to deal with this tragedy (you can read a little more about this here).

As I’ve mentioned far too many times before, I very much liked BvS and, frankly, found myself at a loss as to why so many on the internet were so negative both about the film and, especially, Mr. Snyder.  The loathing, anger, and snipping he got were, in my opinion, way disproportionate to the film -whether you liked it or not- he delivered.

My deepest condolences and its a damn shame all that internet blather forced him to break his silence and announce the reason he was leaving the JL movie.  Unfortunately, had he simply walked away and dealt with this tragedy in private, there’s little doubt many of the more nasty people on the internet would have openly speculated he was fired from the JL film or worse because of course it has to be a disaster.

To them, I can only hope they get over themselves.

Even if BvS were the worst film -much less superhero film- ever released, Mr. Snyder didn’t deserve half the crap he got for it.

Again, my condolences.

Next up, the passing of Roger Moore…

The first Bond film I ever saw -I think!- happened to be the first Bond film featuring Sir Roger Moore.  Released in 1973, Live and Let Die is, to my eyes still, a fantastic piece of action escapism.

In time I got to see not only all of Mr. Moore’s Bond films, but also all the Sean Connery features.  Overall I felt Mr. Connery’s films were stronger, but Roger Moore’s works, though far more tongue in cheek, were nonetheless quite good as well.

To me the biggest problem with Mr. Moore’s Bonds versus Connery’s is that it seemed every really good Bond film was followed by a far… lesser… one.

In order, Mr. Moore appeared in these seven Bond films:

Live And Let Die

The Man With The Golden Gun

The Spy Who Loved Me

Moonraker

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

A View To A Kill

It’s interesting, to me, how I love Live and Let Die and disliked The Man With The Golden Gun.  I love The Spy Who Loved Me (many feel, and with good reason, that this is one of Mr. Moore’s all time best Bond films) and disliked Moonraker.  I love For Your Eyes Only (my own personal favorite Moore Bond film) and love Octopussy (hey, two in a row!) but found A View To A Kill a sad finale to his Bond role.

Of course, Mr. Moore didn’t just do James Bond films.  He was active in TV and movies and was equally well known for playing Simon Templar in the TV series The Saint.

He was also very capable of making fun of himself as evidenced from this scene from the film Cannonball Run.  Easily the film’s funniest scene, where Mr. Moore plays spoiled rich brat Seymour, a man who thinks he’s the super-suave Roger Moore…

Rest in Peace, Mr. Moore.  I can’t help but appreciate all the hours of great entertainment you’ve provided me.