Roger Moore


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I didn't notice this until Sean Connery brought it up, but Roger Moore was the only cigar smoking bond. Connery smoked cigarettes because he thought it made him look younger/hipper. Roger Moore was the Quintessential bond to me, he nailed it from the word go. Connery is a close second though. Roger Moore was also the oldest man to play Bond. That seen from Live and Let Die is just amazing, Jane Seymour gets my first 3 votes for hottest Bond girl. 

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Toss up between Moore and Craig.  Both are the two I have owned the most cars of in their movies...   I like Moore's style and satire, while I just like Craig's energy & grit.

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I recall Pierce Brosnan as Bond visiting Cuba on mission in Die Another Day in 2002 and he was smoking a cigar at what looked like an outdoor bar by a hotel pool. It's probably the only other instance of the Bond character smoking cigars outside of Moore.

I believe Daniel Craig jettisoned smoking for the character for the 2006 reboot, Casino Royale.

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I just love the bit where RM says "lovely aroma." Must remember to use it at next cigar night. Also can anyone help with the size he's smoking? Is it a Churchill?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

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i think moore and brosnan, with that scene in cuba, were the only two. moore actually had a clause in his contract to provide him with a cigar budget. i remember one of the producers discussing it. he would not say how much but indicated it was extremely hefty, far more so than he had realised.

as for the best bond, i think that has been done in great depth elsewhere but by any possible standards, there are only two contenders and as much as i like roger moore, he is not one of them. in fact, he took bond to such depths that it was lucky to recover. can anyone imagine connery or craig running around dressed up as a clown? the ultimate 007 nadir. connery and craig tower above all others for me - obviously the writing helps (and the directing, which completely let down craig in quantum). i struggled with brosnan though thought he was getting better. never minded lazenby but a small selection to go on, and thought dalton was much underrated.

as for best bond girl, i tend to find it is all of them, or at least, whichever one is on screen, though very hard to go past ursula andress and halle berry walking out of the surf. weakest was the latest - lea seydoux. talking to a french friend, who actually had a small involvement in the making of spectre, i was a bit surprised when he said that she was not a popular actress in france.

best film? think that has been done in depth elsewhere as well.

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2 hours ago, JohnS said:

I recall Pierce Brosnan as Bond visiting Cuba on mission in Die Another Day in 2002 and he was smoking a cigar at what looked like an outdoor bar by a hotel pool. It's probably the only other instance of the Bond character smoking cigars outside of Moore.

I believe Daniel Craig jettisoned smoking for the character for the 2006 reboot, Casino Royale.

Did he jettison smoking, or was he made to do so by producers wary of the anti-smoking lobby?

That aside, if my memory does not fail me the original Bond (him from the books that too few fans ever bother to actually read) was very much a cigarette smoker.  He wasn't really a gentleman as Ian Fleming created him ... always that bit too flash, too loud, too forward.  Barrow boy made good....

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3 minutes ago, gweilgi said:

Did he jettison smoking, or was he made to do so by producers wary of the anti-smoking lobby?

That aside, if my memory does not fail me the original Bond (him from the books that too few fans ever bother to actually read) was very much a cigarette smoker.  He wasn't really a gentleman as Ian Fleming created him ... always that bit too flash, too loud, too forward.  Barrow boy made good....

I do believe you are spot on @gweilgi. The Bond in the novels was similar to Ian Fleming in real life in his love of cigarettes and alcohol.

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Whether or not they were the best, my preferences are Connery and Craig. Connery for his suave old school bad boy characteristics, and Craig for his grit. 

Something ive noticed in Craig's films is that, besides Vesper Lind, the Bond girls don't tend to be as apparent as they were in earlier films. I may be mistaken, but that's been my observation. 

I grew up with Brosnan, but I always felt he was too polished and "pretty boy". 

 

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3 hours ago, JohnS said:

I do believe you are spot on @gweilgi. The Bond in the novels was similar to Ian Fleming in real life in his love of cigarettes and alcohol.

... As true to Fleming's life as his other great work, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

:D

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I grew up watching The Saint , seeing Roger More play James Bond was a no brainer and i must admit he his my favorite James Bond actor. As for Craig, never liked him, can't wait for the next actor to take that role.

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1 hour ago, jazzboypro said:

I grew up watching The Saint , seeing Roger More play James Bond was a no brainer and i must admit he his my favorite James Bond actor. As for Craig, never liked him, can't wait for the next actor to take that role.

opposite. hope he signs on for a few more. as opposed to moore.

two of the very best of all the 007 films have been thanks to craig - casino royale and skyfall.

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6 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

opposite. hope he signs on for a few more. as opposed to moore.

two of the very best of all the 007 films have been thanks to craig - casino royale and skyfall.

A matter of taste i guess

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I think thats the thing about 'Best Bond' and Roger Moore, there isn't a best bond as all the bonds were written differently and had different appeal. The thing i loved about Roger Moore, was he was a bit like Alan Wicker. I.e he looked like he bought his clothes out of a Help the Aged catalogue, and wasn't physical in any way. One of the great things about the concept of Bond in the books, was that he was a mature man who had leaned that instead of getting involved in a 30 Jason Bourne kung fu battle where you get three of your fingers broken, you can simply press a button that catapults your enemy into a vat of boiling soup, and casually walk away saying something under your breath like "Ooooo Saucy".  Pure Class.     I think until the bond stops chasing the mass appeal of things like Bourne, and remember who Bond was in the books, and its about class and not karate, it will be on the downward trajectory. 

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8 hours ago, 99call said:

The thing i loved about Roger Moore, was he was a bit like Alan Wicker. I.e he looked like he bought his clothes out of a Help the Aged catalogue, and wasn't physical in any way.

Roger Moore was the best dressed Bond, followed by Daniel Craig.  Moore was class all the way.

 

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9 hours ago, 99call said:

I think thats the thing about 'Best Bond' and Roger Moore, there isn't a best bond as all the bonds were written differently and had different appeal. The thing i loved about Roger Moore, was he was a bit like Alan Wicker. I.e he looked like he bought his clothes out of a Help the Aged catalogue, and wasn't physical in any way. One of the great things about the concept of Bond in the books, was that he was a mature man who had leaned that instead of getting involved in a 30 Jason Bourne kung fu battle where you get three of your fingers broken, you can simply press a button that catapults your enemy into a vat of boiling soup, and casually walk away saying something under your breath like "Ooooo Saucy".  Pure Class.     I think until the bond stops chasing the mass appeal of things like Bourne, and remember who Bond was in the books, and its about class and not karate, it will be on the downward trajectory. 

The thing about Roger Moore is that he was always fashionably dressed in whatever role he played (The Saint, The Persuaders, etc) ... and that his tenure as Bond largely fell into the decade the fashion forgot.  Unlike the fashion of the Sixties (Connery), the threads of the Seventies did not age well and are still a bit of a laughing stock.  

 

The trouble faced by the Bond producers is that even though they did not create the whole super-spy action genre, their films were so successful that they became almost synonymous with the genre as a whole, became archetypal.  So how can they reinvent themselves without losing the core formula?  How do they reinterpret and reinvigorate the franchise without looking too much like all the other copies and clones out there (Bourne et al)?  Bond movies have become part of our cultural canon: people go to see it because it is a BOND film, because they and their parents (and grandparents) grew up with them.  To mess with that is horribly dangerous, and why the transition from one actor to another is always such a tricky business.  

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Roger Moore for sure was the best bond. That being said, he would not play well now. The new Bond movies have crazy action scenes like in Fast and Furious. They have to be built like a mini Arnold. The subtleness has be removed. Now it's in your face action. Craig is right for this modern Bond. IMO 

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7 hours ago, stunod said:

Roger Moore for sure was the best bond. That being said, he would not play well now. The new Bond movies have crazy action scenes like in Fast and Furious. They have to be built like a mini Arnold. The subtleness has be removed. Now it's in your face action. Craig is right for this modern Bond. IMO 

interesting. as i said, i do like moore but absolutely the worst of all bonds for me. i saw no subtlety. i saw clumsy obvious, sit-com, laugh-in like attempts at humour (though he was far better at delivering those lines than brosnan). still no real idea what they were going for with him. allowing bond to be dressed like a clown was the absolute low point in the franchise. also, he went on way too long. having an old man throwing clumsy lines at girls 30 years his junior was just awkward.

someone made the really good point about the writing. add the directing.

i loved casino royale but was filthy at quantum. thought it terrible and could not believe things regressed so quickly. but have watched it a few times. the problem is that the idiot director makes an unholy mess of the action scenes. has them flashing through so you cannot tell who is what and what is happening. appalling. and shame on the producers letting it through. however, if you zip through the action scenes and largely ignore them, the movie itself is much better. skyfall was a welcome return and then spectre again a small step back. that, i put down to the writers, trying to shoehorn bond into a half serious relationship with the least convincing bond girl ever - after they have known each other, with no connection, for about 18 hours and did not click in that time. just did not work and threw the film out.

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It's interesting how different people's opinions are!  I came to this thread to post about Moore's genuine love of cigars, and the fact that cigars actually had to be laid on for him if he would star in a picture, but Ken already mentioned this.  I think I heard about it on one of the 'extras' from a DVD a few years back if anyone is looking for it.

But now I have to go against many, and say that Roger Moore was my favourite Bond!!  I also think the movies he starred in actually had the best stories too.  As for Daniel Craig....GOD.  He's awful!  Not only that but all the movies he has done are terrible too, in my opinion.  The least unbearable was Casino Royale, but even that was really bad - especially the laughable vulgarity of a torture scene that occurred near the end.  None of the latest movies are anything like a Bond movie.  They have obviously tried to 'reboot' the series, which is a ridiculous concept.  Why not just start a new series of Action/Spy movies???  What is the point in calling it a Bond movie if you are going to take away all the things that make it a Bond movie in the first place?  It drives me beserk!! :)

Favourite movie would be From Russia With Love, and best bond girl....really difficult to choose, but perhaps Jill St John.

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Completely agree re the new Bond movie style. To me they are just another action flick with a character named James Bond.

It's like the reboot of Star Trek. It just doesn't sit well with me.

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