007 Movie Tournament Game Match 7

[Winslow Leach]

Johnny Cash's theme for THUNDERBALL:

Thunderball - YouTube

[Markgway]

Thunderball is sharply written and has two HOT female leads, but there are pacing problems, and the underwater stuff drags on...

So, my vote goes to Goldeneye.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Winslow Leach

Johnny Cash's theme for THUNDERBALL:

Thunderball - YouTube

That would make a great theme song to a western but it’s all wrong for a Bond movie.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

That would make a great theme song to a western but it’s all wrong for a Bond movie.

Agreed. Reminds me of this:

The Simpsons - Canyonero - YouTube

[SuperFlyHighGuy]

Originally Posted by MJD64

Damn, this is a tough one for me.

I've had a mixed response to GOLDENEYE since first seeing it opening weekend back in 1995 - it's such a blend of good and bad. Sean Bean's Alex Trevelyan is the best Bond villain in the Brosnan era by miles, and I've always been partial to the lovely Izabella Scorupco's spirited Natalya; one of the most underrated heroines in the series. Gorgeous as she is, Famke Janssen's Xenia Onatopp - with her overreliance on risible orgasmic noises - is obnoxiously OTT, and Alan Cumming's overwrought computer nerd belongs in a different movie entirely...and I still don't know what's up with that Minnie Driver cameo.

Props to Phil Meheux's lensing - this is one of the most eye-catching entries in the whole series - and he imbues many sequences with a dark-hued beauty. The Eric Serra score has some lovely and haunting cues (Bond pulling up to the casino at night) and some real groaners (that car chase betwen Bond and Onatopp). To his credit, director Martin Campbell brings real panache and kineticism to the action sequences and shoot-outs, and that lengthy fight scene between Bond and Trevelyan is one of the best in the series. Still, despite the hot-footing of the action, the movie feels overly familiar and rather meh, and I've never been especially partial to Brosnan's Bond.

Connery's my favorite Bond but THUNDERBALL is undeniably draggy, talky and overlong, and the action, when it does come, often lacks punch - especially in that elaborate underwater climax. Adolfo Celi's Largo is merely ok, and though Lucianna Paluzzi's Fiona Volpe is glorious, Claudine Auger's wan Domino does the film no favors. It feels like sacrilege to prefer a Brosnan Bond film to a John Barry-scored, '60s Bond film with Connery still in his prime, but I gotta give it to GOLDENEYE - warts and all - in this round.

You said everything I was thinking. Connery is my favorite, Brosnan my least, but Thunderball just drags so I'll painfully give this round to Goldeneye.