Category - Entertainment
Next James Bond Movie Rumored To Bring Back the Franchise's Secret Weapon
Throughout its long history, the James Bond film franchise has often adopted certain habits, then, more often than not, returned to a trope, because after some time has passed, that idea is now "classic." Case-in-point: Daniel Craig drives a 1960s Aston Martin DB5 more than Sean Connery ever did. Connery only rocked that iconic silver ride in two of his seven appearances as James Bond, while Daniel Craig's 007 Bond is behind the wheel of a DB5 in four of his five films. The point? The James Bond franchise loves referencing itself so much that sometimes the shout-outs become bigger than the original thing being referenced.
This brings us to Bond jokes. Starting with Sean Connery's Bond in 1962, the suave secret agent often accompanied his punches with a punny punchline. In Goldfinger (1964), after electrocuting a would-be assassin in a bathtub, Bond says, "Shocking. Positively shocking." And now, according to some rumors, the next round of James Bond films will bring back these puns in a big way. But, honestly, have they ever really left?
According to a lengthy report in The Times, and reported by other outlets like MovieWeb, insiders suggest that the franchise will "return to a Bond of quips and camp, a shift away from the Shakespearean heft of Craig. More traditional yet easier to sell via memes to Amazon’s younger demographic."
MovieWeb notes that this news "is sure to send a shiver down the spines of many a Bond fan." While Screenrant declares that this move would "would be a mistake." While there is some truth that the Daniel Craig era, beginning in 2006 with Casino Royale, was a fresh start, it's not that James Bond should be taken too seriously in general. Even the Ian Fleming novels have a certain flair for self-parody. In 1961, Bond can be found making jokes in pages of Thunderball, saying: "I'm the world's authority on giving up smoking. I do it constantly." Even the somber Daniel Craig swansong, No Time To Die, had Bond making a joke about an exploding electronic eyeball, telling Q that his watch, which caused the explosion, "really blew their mind."
For kneejerk purists, that kind of quip could only appear in one of Roger Moore's films, even though that last one was from a Craig film. Back in 1973, in Live and Let Die, Bond also uses a fancy watch to deliver a solid pun. This one is magnetic and allows him to unzip the dress of Miss Caruso (Madeline Smith), who says, "Such a delicate touch." To which Bond replies, "Sheer magnetism darling."
Before there were memes, these were the kinds of bad puns that Bond fans traded back and forth as inside jokes. In fact, if somebody somehow thinks that Bond films aren't already meme-able, they should hit up the various websites devoted to the puns and one-liners that are already meme gold.
Plus, there's nothing wrong with Bond rebooting with a slightly more lighthearted feeling. Most agree that in 1995, Pierce Brosnan's first outing as 007 basically saved the franchise with GoldeneEye. But, this film was decidedly more lighthearted than its 1989 predecessor, Timothy Dalton's brooding second mission in Licence to Kill. In GoldenEye, Bond is joking around constantly, noting that Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) "always did enjoy a good squeeze." This is funny because she kills people with her thighs. Get it?
If GoldenEye or Goldfinger or Live and Let Die are somehow lesser Bond movies because they're not as serious as some of the Craig films, then it seems like we'd have to get rid of more than half the Bond canon. If EON and Amazon are really conspiring to make James Bond movies funnier, then all they're really doing is returning to a formula that already works. Like a silver DB5 or a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred, there's nothing more classically James Bond than a bunch of silly jokes.
Related: The 3 Real Reasons Why the Next James Bond Is on Hold