EARTH
VS THE FLYING SAUCERS was, although a B picture, one of the major
achievements of the whole flying saucer scene. In the film, invaders
contact scientist Hugh Marlowe to arrange a meeting. Unfortunately, he
doesn't decode the message until after the saucers land and lay waste to
a military project base. When he does make
contact, he discovers the invaders are planning to subjugate our
planet. As armadas of death-ray-spewing flying saucers descend upon our
major cities, the military must fight back with the usual experimental
equipment developed by our heroes at the last minute. What a grand show!
Morris Ankrum is on hand to play another of his military leaders faced
with an impossible situation, and Paul Frees provides the voice of the
invaders. Harryhausen, meanwhile, cuts loose with a crescendo of stop
motion destruction as the saucers invade Washington. Our most iconic
reflections of spinning 50's-type saucers are seen here. The film was
produced during the height of flying saucer mania, which about this time
fell to a ploy by authorities to erase a lot of the sensationalism
connected to the craze. Officially, what the public had been calling
"flying saucers" were re-termed U.F.O.'s. U.F.O. is a pilot's term
referring to any Unidentified Flying Object, but the public in later
decades would embrace the term as a catch-all to describe spacecraft
supposedly of extraterrestrial origin. I kinda prefer the more
descriptive Flying Saucer designation, myself, since it refers
specifically to other-world craft and a U.F.O. could be anything in the
skies. Anyway, the film was a hit for Columbia Pictures, and much of the
destruction footage would be recycled for the next year's THE GIANT
CLAW. The saucers themselves, meanwhile, were given homage in the
woefully misfired MARS ATTACKS! in the late 90's. A decade earlier,
footage from EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS was heavily featured in both IT
CAME FROM HOLLYWOOD and INVASION EARTH! THE ALIENS ARE HERE!. I recall
seeing a commercial as a kid in which footage from the film was used
-replacing the saucers with flying hamburgers! The spacesuits of the
Martians were seen briefly in the prolog to THE CREATION OF THE
HUMANOIDS. Ray would follow EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS with what is
considered his best black and white solo effort, 20 MILLION MILES TO
EARTH, his last film not to be shot in color.
After
being absent from the screen for five years, James bond was set to
return when the legal troubles surrounding the film franchise were
finally resolved. In those five years, however, much had changed. Most
pertinent to the plot of GOLDENEYE, the Soviets had finally been beaten
and the Cold War was (more or less officially) declared over. (This was
ridiculous, of course, since communism hadn't died, only Russia had
been neutralized.) Also, entertainment media had embraced with all it's
might the concept of political correctness -a condition antithetical to
James Bond's very aesthetic. As result, agent 007 was now seen as a
backwards relic and M was played by Dame Judi Dench. Still, our hero
rises to the occasion when a former 00 agent goes rouge and plots world
destruction. Brosnan made a good Bond, but due to the era in which he
held the coveted License To Kill, he never really had a great script to
work with. Still, the films got by on their entertainment value. I don't
want to give you the impression that Brosnan's films were bad, they
were just a product of their time. They tried to balance the traditional
elements of series with an urgent sense of relevance, and the resulting
films are, as a whole, rather so so. GOLDENEYE takes it's name from the
Jamaican mansion where Ian Fleming lived, and the film is largely
considered one of the better Bonds.
So
far, the only really disappointing Bond film has been TOMORROW NEVER
DIES, in which 007 must contend with maniacal media mogul Elliot Carver
and his plot to jump-start a war in order to secure exclusive media
broadcast rights in Red China. Seriously. THAT's the plot. Yes, it's
James Bond vs Ted Turner! Quite a far cry from such memorable heavies as
Goldfinger, Blofeld, Scaramanga, Drax, Stromberg,
etc. One wonders if the writers were even trying. What's more, Bond
falls into bed with Carver's wife, an old flame of his. While 007 has
never been a tower of morality, he usually stuck to something of a code
that never previous involved affairs with married women (though, there
is a line in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN in which M includes "jealous
husbands" among those who might've hired Scaramanga to kill Bond, so
maybe this isn't as radical as it seems -granted M was making a joke).
Bond teams with a female Chinese agent and uncovers Carver's stealth
boat in an adventure which has it's moments despite the weakness of it's
main plot. Part of the problem is that the pre-credit sequence is among
the best in the whole series, making the uninspired film that follows
all the worse by comparison. Again, Brosnan makes for a good 007 even
when the scripts are working against him. His next assignment would be
much better.
THE
WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH was the last Bond I saw in a theater. While it's no
GOLDENEYE, I've always felt it one of Brosnan's better episodes. On par
with one of the better Moore vehicles, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH tells of
Bond's involvement with an heiress who has recently been the victim of a
cruel kidnapping. Bond comes to trust her as he tries to help protect
her pipeline across Europe, the legacy
of her father, who in turn was very close to M. The kidnapper,
meanwhile, is up to something involving radioactive cores from
dismantled Soviet warheads. One of the best entries for both Brosnan and
Dench, with a story that really opens up their characters beyond the
normal play of things (it's with this entry that M's being a woman
actually comes into the story, and the results are pretty strong). Also
the last film of Desmond Llewelyn, Q from the very beginning of the
series. If not his passing, his departure seems to've been planned, as Q
tells Bond he's about to retire and exits in star fashion. John Cleese
comes on board as Q's assistant/replacement. In the next film, he would
graduate to the Quartermaster position. The title refers to the Bond
family motto.
The
20th EON James Bond adventure would also be the last for Pierce
Brosnan. Sadly, the film is something of a mess with a few bright spots
shining through. The plot concerns 007 trying to figure out what's being
unfolded by a British philanthropist and adrenaline jockey, involving a
large assortment of diamonds. DIE
ANOTHER DAY is basically a remake of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, right down to
the villain using plastic surgery, posing as a prominent citizen, and
commanding a deathray mounted in a satellite and powered by diamonds.
The twist is in the heavy being a rouge North Korean with a personal
grudge against Bond. There are some good things to be found here. John
Cleese has taken over the role of Q and he's perfect for the job.
Unfortunately, this would be the only time we get to see him play it.
Brosnan is on the top of his game, and the antagonism between Bond and
his latest foe is handled very well. The film's featured swordfight
between the two is one of the great highlights of the series. Of course,
there's a lot wrong here, too, in addition to the film's plot being
largely a rehash of Connery's last (official) mission. A major bit in
the middle of the film was re-edited and the results are astoundingly
sloppy! A character is seen entering frame before we cut away and then
several minutes later the same character is just now addressing 007,
apparently after taking seven minutes to walk three feet! The film's
theme song is provided by Madonna, a good decade after she ceased to be
relevant (which I only mention because the Bonds in times past made it a point to hire performers at the top of their game), and it's a dreary mess of a tune that twice had me worried
that the disk was skipping! Somewhat more minor is a bit where 007 is
being examined by a medical team and mention is made of a deteriorated
liver. "It must be him" is heard, which sounds more like a gag you'd use
for Matt Helm. It never fails to throw me for that very reason. DIE
ANOTHER DAY carries on a Bond tradition of presenting even the most
impoverished areas of the world as paradises, in this case the island of
Cuba looks like it did before the revolution! (This may sound bizarre,
but it's worth noting that India was also represented as a paradise in
OCTOPUSSY, so it's just part of the 007 aesthetic.) Ultimately, the film
is plagued with numerous issues in both script and technical matters.
Still, it's a fun adventure and remains entertaining. So long, Pierce.
You should've had one more assignment.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST was one of the great Hitchcock "wrong man" thrillers.
Enemy agents take Cary Grant to be a secret agent and target him for
elimination. Adventure takes off from there. This has always been one of
my favorite Hitchcock movies, and it could be argued the film sets the
stage for the spy craze which would erupt a few short years later.
Indeed, the cast is full of future spy stars, including The Man From
UNCLE's Leo G. Carroll, Mission: Impossible's Martin Landau, and Get
Smart's Edward Platt! Cary Grant, in fact, was approached to play James
Bond, but didn't want to do a series! James Mason was the first choice
to play Hugo Drax in MOONRAKER, but that sadly didn't happen. In
addition to a cast dripping with familiar faces, the film features one
of Bernard Herman's most impressive scores. Of particular note is his
pounding main theme, which is enough right there to leave one feeling
exhausted! A certified classic, always worth another look.
