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It's time for another Bond edit. This time a Brosnan one. Working title: The World is Not Enough - Millennium Edition.
James Bond's 1999 adventure is a mixed bag. Interesting ideas, several strong characters, and a rather coherent plot. All buried under an overdose of 1990's action flick, Roger Moor-ish one-liners, and too much effort to misdirect the audience as to who the main villain is.
Brosnan plays Bond much closer to Daniel Craig's roughness than to Roger Moore's suaveness. But he's given so many cheesy Moore lines that this Bond feels tediously immature.
This can be improved! Several big cuts and many small trims make this Bond less cheesy, less sexist, more hard-boiled. It has fewer puns, a better balance between suspense and action, and is a lot snappier.
The big cuts:
1) No more ski chase with paragliding snow-mobiles. It always bugged me that Elektra supposedly staged this to misdirect suspicion: she'd have died if not for Bond's interventions (including the laughable coat / avalanche protection bubble). Plus other Bond films have better ski chases.
2) No Renard showing off to other villains that he can grab a smouldering rock with his bare hands. It slows down the flow of the story and has no pertinent information.
3) Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones. Remove dumb moments. Make her character more enjoyable.
4) No buzz-saw helicopter. Yes, the battle is dramatic and memorable. But it's long, has low stakes (Bond fights faceless minions, not the main villains) and no consequences for the story. Also, it broke my suspension of disbelief that the helicopter takes only 3 minutes to fuel, lift off, fly from its work site to the Caspian Sea, and attack. This new transition reminds me of my Back To The Future 2 edit where I cut Marty and Doc at the graveyard: I don't see how I can do it better with the available material, but it's not invisible.
5) No more Bond swimming outside the submarine. Added benefit: Bond no longer needs Dr Jones to work the buttons, which enabled me to have Bond go straight for Renard. He's focused on preventing a nuclear disaster, not freeing the girl.
6) No more M watching Bond shoot Elektra. Nor Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
7) No closing scene at MI6, where M watches Bond have sex on the infra-red screen. That was awkward, juvenile humor. Now we close on the high-note of Bond in black-tie, kissing his girl, with champagne and fireworks. We can imagine the rest.
Change list:
- Remove Bond's quip about Cigar Girl's body.
- To rebalance the build-up of the film, the opening song moves back to its originally intended place right after Bilbao.
- Remove Bond and Moneypenny quip about cigar.
- Cut two short shots from Boat Chase.
- Cut M's line "We'll chase them to the farthest ends of the world if needs be." Too much hyperbole.
- Trim Q's lab to make John Cleese less snarky.
- Retain: Cleese demonstrating the Avalanche Protection coat. The avalanche is cut, so this coat becomes an unused gadget. However, it sets up Q's wonderful final scene. I refuse to cut that, so had to retain the now unused Coat.
- Small trims to M's conversation with Bond. More matter-of-fact.
- Trim briefing about Renard, cut Moneypenny's jab at Bond's doctor (used photoshop to remove Moneypenny walking behind the doctor).
- Cut Ski Chase. We cut straight from inspecting the pipeline to Elektra's stately house.
- Trim Bond / Elektra conversation.
- Trim Bond ogling women in the casino with his x-ray glasses.
- Trim Bond / Valentin conversation, because Bond no longer has fabric from the (cut) ski attack.
- Cut Renard / Davidov meeting with hot rocks.
- Cut half of Bond / Elektra conversation after sex.
- Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones and Bond's dialog with her throughout the film. Most annoying bits are gone, including an illogical jealous snipe at Bond having slept with Elektra.
- Small trims to fight inside muclear site.
- Cut Renard shooting bystanders as he exits the nuclear site. Yes, he's a bad guy. We know. I don't need a mass murder to figure that out, and I don't like how cavalier the film treats it (i.e. no further mention that all those people were killed).
- No buzz-saw helicopter. Instead, Bond pushes Valentin into the pool of caviar (or is it oil?). (Used photoshop again to remove saw-blade from almost hitting Valentin as he falls into the pool).
- Small trims to Elektra / captive Bond. Less corny.
- Cut M watching Bond shoot Elektra.
- Cut Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
- Man trims in the submarine. Bond goes straight for Renard. Cut freeing Dr Jones. Trim Bond / Renard fight. Jones only reappears during fight.
- Cut Bond swimming outside the submarine.
- Cut closing scene at MI6. Cut M watching Bond have sex in infra-red. Insert 3-second shot of sunset over Istanbul (from youtube) to transition from Bond in water to Bond in tuxedo.
New run time: 1h45m (23 minutes cut).
Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas and counter-ideas to Tubes' TWINE edit 'Pressure Point'.
James Bond's 1999 adventure is a mixed bag. Interesting ideas, several strong characters, and a rather coherent plot. All buried under an overdose of 1990's action flick, Roger Moor-ish one-liners, and too much effort to misdirect the audience as to who the main villain is.
Brosnan plays Bond much closer to Daniel Craig's roughness than to Roger Moore's suaveness. But he's given so many cheesy Moore lines that this Bond feels tediously immature.
This can be improved! Several big cuts and many small trims make this Bond less cheesy, less sexist, more hard-boiled. It has fewer puns, a better balance between suspense and action, and is a lot snappier.
The big cuts:
1) No more ski chase with paragliding snow-mobiles. It always bugged me that Elektra supposedly staged this to misdirect suspicion: she'd have died if not for Bond's interventions (including the laughable coat / avalanche protection bubble). Plus other Bond films have better ski chases.
2) No Renard showing off to other villains that he can grab a smouldering rock with his bare hands. It slows down the flow of the story and has no pertinent information.
3) Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones. Remove dumb moments. Make her character more enjoyable.
4) No buzz-saw helicopter. Yes, the battle is dramatic and memorable. But it's long, has low stakes (Bond fights faceless minions, not the main villains) and no consequences for the story. Also, it broke my suspension of disbelief that the helicopter takes only 3 minutes to fuel, lift off, fly from its work site to the Caspian Sea, and attack. This new transition reminds me of my Back To The Future 2 edit where I cut Marty and Doc at the graveyard: I don't see how I can do it better with the available material, but it's not invisible.
5) No more Bond swimming outside the submarine. Added benefit: Bond no longer needs Dr Jones to work the buttons, which enabled me to have Bond go straight for Renard. He's focused on preventing a nuclear disaster, not freeing the girl.
6) No more M watching Bond shoot Elektra. Nor Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
7) No closing scene at MI6, where M watches Bond have sex on the infra-red screen. That was awkward, juvenile humor. Now we close on the high-note of Bond in black-tie, kissing his girl, with champagne and fireworks. We can imagine the rest.
Change list:
- Remove Bond's quip about Cigar Girl's body.
- To rebalance the build-up of the film, the opening song moves back to its originally intended place right after Bilbao.
- Remove Bond and Moneypenny quip about cigar.
- Cut two short shots from Boat Chase.
- Cut M's line "We'll chase them to the farthest ends of the world if needs be." Too much hyperbole.
- Trim Q's lab to make John Cleese less snarky.
- Retain: Cleese demonstrating the Avalanche Protection coat. The avalanche is cut, so this coat becomes an unused gadget. However, it sets up Q's wonderful final scene. I refuse to cut that, so had to retain the now unused Coat.
- Small trims to M's conversation with Bond. More matter-of-fact.
- Trim briefing about Renard, cut Moneypenny's jab at Bond's doctor (used photoshop to remove Moneypenny walking behind the doctor).
- Cut Ski Chase. We cut straight from inspecting the pipeline to Elektra's stately house.
- Trim Bond / Elektra conversation.
- Trim Bond ogling women in the casino with his x-ray glasses.
- Trim Bond / Valentin conversation, because Bond no longer has fabric from the (cut) ski attack.
- Cut Renard / Davidov meeting with hot rocks.
- Cut half of Bond / Elektra conversation after sex.
- Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones and Bond's dialog with her throughout the film. Most annoying bits are gone, including an illogical jealous snipe at Bond having slept with Elektra.
- Small trims to fight inside muclear site.
- Cut Renard shooting bystanders as he exits the nuclear site. Yes, he's a bad guy. We know. I don't need a mass murder to figure that out, and I don't like how cavalier the film treats it (i.e. no further mention that all those people were killed).
- No buzz-saw helicopter. Instead, Bond pushes Valentin into the pool of caviar (or is it oil?). (Used photoshop again to remove saw-blade from almost hitting Valentin as he falls into the pool).
- Small trims to Elektra / captive Bond. Less corny.
- Cut M watching Bond shoot Elektra.
- Cut Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
- Man trims in the submarine. Bond goes straight for Renard. Cut freeing Dr Jones. Trim Bond / Renard fight. Jones only reappears during fight.
- Cut Bond swimming outside the submarine.
- Cut closing scene at MI6. Cut M watching Bond have sex in infra-red. Insert 3-second shot of sunset over Istanbul (from youtube) to transition from Bond in water to Bond in tuxedo.
New run time: 1h45m (23 minutes cut).
Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas and counter-ideas to Tubes' TWINE edit 'Pressure Point'.