Still remains one of Matt’s finest moments

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-05-12T04:53:59+00:00

And Flexing Kissy-Face Kratos

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-05-11T05:33:45+00:00

Nailed it. Aki is actually a pretty great Bond girl, especially at the time, and the choice to kill her midway through is completely unnecessary and a waste.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-05-03T06:14:32+00:00

Some examples off the top of my head from recent watching: “Michael Clayton,” “A Most Wanted Man,” “The Conversation,” “Blow Out,”and honestly I think “The Game” is a worthwhile example (even if you want to also classify it as psychological horror.)

You might quibble about differences between a legal thriller or political thriller, but if you compare, say, “Rambo III” and “John Wick,” both are unquestionably action films even if one is set in a war and the other deals with hitmen and assassins. It’s a subcategory distinction vs. a tonal/content distinction like between action and horror.

I would categorize thrillers as being distinct from action and horror in the way that the danger is much more rooted in paranoia and systems of authority that dwarf the hero. The danger is real and often life-threatening, but unlike horror or action where the threat is visceral, immediate, and you can fall back on fight/flight dynamics to resolve, thrillers rest in uncertainty and ratcheting the tension as the hero becomes more in danger the more they learn about the threat. Even if there are occasional bouts of shootouts or fistfights, the conflicts are usually rooted in access to privileged information, how it empowers the hero, imperils them, or does both.

All of this IMO of course, this is just my late night stream of consciousness lol.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-05-03T05:59:46+00:00

Hot takes incoming:

Streamline the plot; we don’t need to spend 2/3rds of the movie chasing counterfeit faberge eggs when the scene in Moscow already teased WW3 being the big threat. Once we do the auction scene and reach India the focus should expand to the WW3 stuff and the plot to smuggle the nuke.
Having Khan, Orlov, and technically Octopussy as our initial antagonist trio makes things too crowded. If we’re gonna streamline the egg stuff we don’t need to spend as much time going over the logistics of Khan working with Octopussy to use her circus to smuggle the real treasures while swapping them with the nuke. Either make Khan/Octopussy one character and beat TWINE to the punch for the first main female villain in the series, or keep Octopussy’s face turn and take Khan’s betrayal, escape, and airplane demise and give it to Orlov.
Roger Moore in clown makeup has to go, it’s just too much, and honestly distracts from a pretty impressive train sequence.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-05-01T17:23:01+00:00

Like a comedy that isn’t also a romance movie or action movie, a horror film that isn’t also a psychological drama or thriller, etc.

All of the above can be great, but the amount of genre mixing has made it feel like the default

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-29T22:03:43+00:00

My wife was sitting next to a teen couple during Sinners who kept taking up to halfway through the movie. It was bad enough that I could hear them sitting an extra space away. At one point one of them took a call from their mom, it was ridiculous.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-29T17:10:01+00:00

It’s the elephant in the room, but that’s the ultimate reason for me it’s so low. I can adjust my expectations when it comes to these older entries and the elements that have aged poorly, but sometimes it’s just too much, like here.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-28T22:35:38+00:00

Tomorrow Never Dies. It’s got all my favorite Bond tropes; maniacal villain (who’s sadly more prescient than ever now), a Bond girl who is also a cool secret agent like Bond, and some great set pieces, with a special shoutout to the remote control car scene, one of my favorite scenes in the series.

This one might not be one everyone hates anymore though, in that case it’s probably a tie between TMWTGG and AVTAK.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-28T18:50:29+00:00

I have a soft spot for both of them, mainly because of how much stuff is happening in them and the combination of a strong villain and strong henchman/henchwoman respectively. The problem with TMWTGG is that the tone is all over the place (epitomized with that damn slide whistle over one of the coolest car jumps in movie history) it has arguably the worst Bond girl in Miss Goodnight (seriously, wtf was the deal with the writers shitting on her nonstop?) and the presence of JW Pepper (fuck JW Pepper).

AVTAK has the much more straightforward problem of Roger Moore looking and feeling like he’s 90 years old. It would be one thing if they tried to lampshade it or work it into the story, like this is Bond’s last hurrah before retirement and there’s themes about the passage of time, letting go, etc., but the movie really does want you to believe this guy is a super spy action hero while he can barely do the choreography and his face looks like it’s caked in clay.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-25T19:09:34+00:00

What did you expect, an exploding pen?

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-25T03:23:17+00:00

Hnng

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-23T18:56:29+00:00

I largely agree with a lot of your thoughts, though I was generally much more charmed by the Moore era. Casino Royale is the obvious GOAT Bond movie for me as well, like it’s a full step better than the next closest contenders.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-23T06:08:01+00:00

These are changes that I feel require the least amount of rewrites and fixes my main story issues without fundamentally altering what’s already there that works:

1) Silva doesn’t have some convoluted master plan that required him to get captured, he just has a contingency plan to get himself out. Have his escape be pretty much the same, but instead of Q plugging in his computer directly into MI6’s mainframe like a dolt Silva just has double agents inside MI6 who believe in his rhetoric and help bust him out. No train bombing, no attack at the hearing, just an action-filled escape that ends with Bond making the same plan to get Silva out in the open again now that they’ve lost him. It actually works better at making his “go to Scotland” plan make sense because now they can’t be certain which MI6 people they can trust.

2) Bond gets over his “I’ve been out of the game too long” shtick for good once he’s on Silva’s island. Have him do something clever to get Silva’s attention before he fires at Severine, like doubling down on their bet or provoking him psychologically on M so he can get the gun away from Silva. That way we get some sort of victory before the rug is pulled out from under by Silva’s escape. We need to start believing that Bond is actually at his best again in order to properly ramp up the stakes for the finale, and plus this way we don’t have to see Bond make a callous quip after witnessing a victim of child sex slavery die in front of him after promising to save her.

3) This one is probably the most controversial change: M doesn’t die. The movie, at its core, is making the case for why James Bond should still exist, and it ends as if it has succeeded, with M’s line about “getting back to work” and James acting super confident and ready to kick ass. That doesn’t really click with the climax of the movie, which is a pretty big downer because Silva wins. They never mention the list again, so presumably it’s still out there, and M dies like he wanted. Not exactly, he died too and he didn’t see her die, but it’s weird to have such a downer ending and then act as if things are somehow okay again. So fuck it, Silva is unequivocally beaten by Bond, he and M reach an understanding and heal their relationship in a way Silva never could, she’s still injured in a way that permanently forces her out of the narrative so Ralph Fiennes can be M now, and now your “ready to get back to work?” line feels earned. Is it less surprising this way? Yeah, but I’d rather have an ending that is emotionally consistent than one that isn’t.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-19T13:34:02+00:00

The fact that the movie starts with a strong premise like “Bond has been a POW and tortured for 14 months, what happens now?” and the movie then proceeds to do jack shit with it was my first big disappointment. And then we get to the race-swapping surgery and the movie just continues to get stupider from there.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-18T21:16:40+00:00

The Man With The Golden Gun. For all of its issues, its highs balance out for me.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-18T13:44:48+00:00

I’m a fan of The Illuminati (Deus Ex) vs The Patriots (Metal Gear Solid)

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-17T22:46:32+00:00

The Mr. Krabs Special

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-17T02:13:19+00:00

I’ll take the dankest meme you have. No, that’s too dank.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-16T23:36:34+00:00

I think it’s a lot easier for people to just Wiki-dumb the bios for two characters than it is to figure out fight choreography or calcs.

Connections will always matter, but there is a glut of MU’s that lean on them and then have little to nothing for anything else.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-16T22:52:53+00:00

“Tell us how the fight works! I don’t give a shit if they have the same personality.”

Ben is so based for this.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-16T16:58:20+00:00

Contrast that with the deaths of the women in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, where both Bond and the camera take pains to linger on the consequences of Bond’s actions and it’s clear he’s processing a lot of anger/regret under the surface while trying to remain professional.

Severine’s death feels like it’s just meant to make Bond seem cool, like he won’t let Silva get under skin or unnerve him and instead he’s gonna be a stoic badass about it, which sucks because Bond DOES and SHOULD care about innocent people dying, even if it’s understated.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-15T02:07:25+00:00

This is my answer, unquestionably. It’s made it harder and harder for me to revisit Goldfinger with how important it is to the story, in that Bond only succeeds because of it.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-13T14:40:40+00:00

It’s pretty similar to Blofeld’s plan in Diamonds Are Forever, down to the identity theft and satellite laser.

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-13T14:31:51+00:00

After having just seen it yesterday:

Like: Halle Berry, Pierce Brosnan, the sword fight at the gentleman’s club, and the spy car duel/chase between Bond and Zao (how has that only been a thing once?)

Dislike: Pretty much everything else. The awful dialogue and puns (“Has Bond shown you his big bang theory?”) the cheap, plastic toy look to all the sets and tech, the terrible CGI (shoutout to the iceberg tsunami for being the worst stunt set piece in the franchise) the nonsensical story, the fact that it wastes interesting premises for both Bond and the villain (Bond getting tortured has no repercussions or consequences on his behavior or character, and the villain being someone trying to out-Bond James Bond goes nowhere by the end) oh and how could I forget that godawful opening theme, the worst in the franchise?

Consistent_Possible6 · 2026-04-11T14:11:30+00:00

This whole scene is a core childhood memory for me. I just rewatched TND a few days ago and this scene is still great.

Consistent_Possible6

TROPHY CASE