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Stephen Chow was the closest Hong Kong Comedy ever had to an international star. Breaking out with “Shaolin Soccer” and “Kung Fu Hustle” he suddenly stepped back to focus on direction. Prior to this was a huge back catalogue of his work that apart from sporadic releases was hardly seen in the west. Eureka Entertainment start to rectify that with the upcoming release of “From Beijing with Love” his Bond Spoof from 1994. Comedy however can be a very acquired taste and what makes them roar in Kowloon may not necessarily do so in Kansas. So time to take a trip back to the nineties and experience Stephen Chow in his prime.

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The head of a dinosaur is stolen by a man in invincible armor and a golden gun. With numerous agents out of commission Ling Ling Fat (Stephen Chow...

Casino Royale breaks tradition in a few major ways with its use of the James Bond gun barrel sequence. Included in every one of the official, Eon-produced James Bond films, the iconic gun barrel sequence quickly became synonymous with the franchise and remained virtually unchanged for over forty years. Daniel Craig’s first outing as 007 in Casino Royale reboots the Bond film franchise, and with a new Bond comes a new gun barrel that no longer serves as its own, standalone sequence.

In 1962 Eon Productions produced the first film, Dr. No, adapted from Ian Fleming’s series of James Bond novels. Dr. No establishes a number of images, musical notes, and narrative elements that have become traditional features of Bond films. One of the most iconic of these features is the gun barrel sequence.

Traditionally appearing at the start of a Bond film, the sequence begins with a white...

When Daniel Craig took over the role of James Bond in 2006, the once-durable franchise was showing signs of rust. Pierce Brosnan's run had collapsed into a heap of terminal silliness with 2002's "Die Another Day," and there didn't seem to be a clear way forward for the character in a post-9/11 world. Matt Damon's humorless, amnesia-stricken Jason Bourne seemed more in step with the gung-ho times than a tuxedoed MI6 agent whose focus is split between saving the world and bedding beautiful women.

"Casino Royale" was a back-to-Ian-Fleming basics effort with a smattering of Bourne-style parkour action. For the first time since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," Bond fell deeply in love, and had his heart shattered for his troubles. The action set pieces were as spectacular as ever, but they had a bruisingly grounded quality to them this time out. Shorn of wit and overt gadgetry,...

At the intersection of big-star international dealmaking, the 70mm epic, and the humble sword ‘n’ shield actioner, this comic book viking saga stacks one absurd, borderline bad taste action scene on top of another. It’s an irresistible mash-up of earlier successes, well directed visually by Jack Cardiff. Richard Widmark at forty must play the Viking action hero, Russ Tamblyn at thirty is still a physical dervish, and Sidney Poitier takes on the strangest casting of his career. Plus, low sexist comedy from a platoon of hearty Brit thesps!

The Long Ships

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 137

1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from Viavision / Aus 34.95

Starring: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, Oskar Homolka, Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Beba Loncar, Clifford Evans, Gordon Jackson, Colin Blakely, Paul Stassino, Leonard Rossiter, Jeanne Moody, Julie Samuel.

Cinematography: Christopher Challis

Production Designer: Vlastimir Gavrik, Zoran Zorcic

Art Director: Bill Constable...

Maverick director Robert Aldrich’s one foray into grand-scale epic filmmaking is returned to crystal clarity in this fine import disc, a restoration from original Italian film elements. Stewart Granger’s Lot allies his Hebrew tribe with the notorious cities of evil, and almost loses his soul to Anouk Aimée’s wicked Queen Bera. Pier Angeli is the slave who becomes Lot’s wife, and Rossana Podestà is the daughter taken by Stanley Baker’s rapacious prince. Second unit director Sergio Leone whips up a terrific battle scene (maybe), Ken Adam provides the spectacular sets and Miklós Rózsa the powerful music score. And yes, the explosive finish involves hellfire, brimstone and the Biblical Pillar of Salt.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Explosive Media

All-region Blu-ray

1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 154 and 117 min. / Street Date December 9, 2021 / Available from Amazon.de /

Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), Anouk Aimée, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia,...

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“Brosnan Before Bond”

By Raymond Benson

In 1986, Pierce Brosnan almost became James Bond, nearly a decade before he actually did so. He had been cast to replace Roger Moore as the iconic 007, but at the last minute, NBC waved his contract for the television series Remington Steele at him, exercising the option to make another season. Brosnan was out, and Timothy Dalton was in.

And then… Remington Steele’s new season ended up consisting of only six episodes, finishing its run in early 1987. So, Brosnan had been baited and switched. Nevertheless, in the interim years between then and his appearance in GoldenEye (1995), the actor set about establishing himself as a leading man in feature films.

One of these early starring roles was in the 1988 production, The Deceivers, a British picture made by the elite Merchant Ivory Productions, and it was produced by Ismail Merchant himself.

James Bond movies’ title sequences are some of the most iconic in film. Bold visuals hint at the film’s plot while a lush Bond theme song plays over elements like a gun, playing cards, a martini glass and even a bullet.

The creative direction for the “No Time to Die” title sequence included an homage to visual motifs featured in Bond movies from the original designer, Maurice Binder. While Binder set the template for the sequences, the titles for “No Time to Die” were a mix of old and new.

Stephen Goalby, Framestore’s head of design, London, and Jules Janaud, VFX supervisor, worked on the four-minute sequence that changes dramatically through color and visuals. The creation of each segment presented unique challenges, whether creating realistic effects in sand, water and smoke or animating a silhouette to move with Daniel Craig’s signature manner and cadence.

The finished title...

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“A Beautiful Mess”

By Raymond Benson

Filmmaker Stanley Donen had substantial success with his comedy-thriller, Charade (1963), which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was hyped and critiqued as “Hitchcockian” in tone and style, especially the light-hearted and glitzy To Catch a Thief (1955). (There are many who mistakenly believe that Charade is a Hitchcock film.)

The studio then wanted to repeat that success with a similar picture, Arabesque, also with Cary Grant in the lead role with Donen directing again. However, Grant felt that the script was “terrible” and passed. Donen allegedly wasn’t too thrilled with the script, either, and he wasn’t too keen on making the picture without Grant.

Then Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren expressed interest in the movie, so Donen acquiesced. Sounds like a fairy tale scenario for the greenlighting of a Hollywood movie, right? The two Oscar-winning stars were cast,...

A musical that charms even audiences that don’t like musicals, this adaptation of a big 1955 Broadway hit is noted for capturing much of the original’s power and brilliance — more legendary stage performances should be filmed like this, immortalizing theater history that otherwise disappears into the ether. Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown and star replacement Tab Hunter shine, yet ‘unknown’ Broadway talent Shannon Bolin and Robert Shafer earn just as much applause. The Verdon-Bob Fosse creative hookup is at its strongest here, complete with a show-stopper of a dance duo. Come to think of it, almost every song in this thing stops the show, like one of Joe Hardy’s home runs: Wow!

Damn Yankees

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date March 16, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown, Shannon Bolin, Nathaniel Frey, James Komack, Rae Allen,...

In a sense, Arabesque (1966) is a sort of warmed-over rehash of Donen's earlier Charade (1963), which was a really nifty mock-Hitchcockian comedy thriller with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. The later film stars Gregory Peck, who's no Grant, and Sophia Loren, who isn't Hepburn but is Loren—which ain't nothing.Donen was reputedly highly unhappy with the script, despite being the movie's producer, and his cinematographer Christopher Challis records him saying that their only hope was to present the story in as stylish and eccentric a manner as possible: this, for the most part, they do. (A pretty-well identical tale is told of Sidney J. Furie and The Ipcress File, and the result is similar in each case: a pop-art expressionist fairyland London in which everyone is or might be a spy or double or treble agent.)The opening scene, in which George Coulouris is murdered at the optician with poisoned eyedrops,...

Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden, tragically committed suicide after playing a show in Detroit, Michigan at the Fox Theater according to The Independent. As a member of Soundgarden, he helped usher along an era of music that helped rid the music world of some of the pretensions and phoniness the music industry and built at that particular time. With his work in Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, and Audioslave, his legacy in the music industry will never be forgotten.

One aspect of his career that doesn't get much publicity is his work in film. With music in such films as Singles, Wayne's World, and Benny and June, his music helped fill the soundtrack of the movies of the 90's. One song he did, You Know My Name, helped usher in the modern era of James Bond as the lead in for Casino Royale.

The song itself is an underrated Bond movie classic theme.

George Lazenby didn’t have much time as James Bond. The Australian model and car salesman notoriously bluffed his way into succeeding Sean Connery in 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (in which 007 falls in love with Diana Rigg, and left grief-stricken when she’s murdered by Telly Savalas’ Blofeld). He then walked away and slipped into obscurity.

But, thanks to “Becoming Bond,” the Hulu doc premiering Saturday, the 77-year-old Lazenby steps out of the shadows. Through a hilarious combination of onscreen narration and re-enactments starring Josh Lawson, Lazenby recounts his wild exploits, filled with sex, drugs, and rebellion. It’s directed by Josh Greenbaum (“The Short Game”) as “Drunk History” meets “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.”

At Wednesday’s premiere of “Becoming Bond” at Cinefamily in Hollywood, Lazenby ranked his fleeting moments as 007 with IndieWire:

1. Messing with that iconic gun-barrel opening sequence.

Lazenby is the only Bond who...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: Inspired by Baby Groot’s “Mr. Blue Sky” dance sequence at the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” what movie has the best opening credits sequence?

April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly

Hands down, it’s R.W. Fassbinder’s “The Marriage of Maria Braun.” I watch the opening sequence at least three times a year and show it to every filmmaker I can. I love any film that begins with a bang, and this one does quite literally: We open up on an explosion that rips out a hunk of brick wall, exposing a German couple in the middle of a rushed marriage ceremony.

As the latest John Le Carré film shows, the worlds of George Smiley, James Bond and Harry Palmer have never been closer

Is it just me or are the John le Carré and James Bond movie franchises slowly converging? At the very least, these two still-distinct, venerable, 1960s-era espionage universes are talking to each other, if only in a wink-wink fashion. In the Craig years, the 007 franchise has arguably acquired a soupçon – no more than that – of the emotional urgency and squalid moral compromise that animates Le Carré’s spooks.

Meanwhile, what are we to make of the fact that in the latest Le Carré adaptation, Our Kind Of Traitor, one of the leads is played by Miss Moneypenny herself, Naomie Harris? Or of that phone number handed to Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager: 44 7007 707070? Or that Zermatt, the Swiss town in that series, is shot so as to...

As the latest John Le Carré film shows, the worlds of George Smiley, James Bond and Harry Palmer have never been closer

Is it just me or are the John le Carré and James Bond movie franchises slowly converging? At the very least, these two still-distinct, venerable, 1960s-era espionage universes are talking to each other, if only in a wink-wink fashion. In the Craig years, the 007 franchise has arguably acquired a soupçon – no more than that – of the emotional urgency and squalid moral compromise that animates Le Carré’s spooks.

Meanwhile, what are we to make of the fact that in the latest Le Carré adaptation, Our Kind Of Traitor, one of the leads is played by Miss Moneypenny herself, Naomie Harris? Or of that phone number handed to Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager: 44 7007 707070? Or that Zermatt, the Swiss town in that series, is shot so as to...

Title sequences don’t have to be boring. They can be just as exciting, creative, or innovative as the films they introduce. These are our picks for the 10 best opening title sequences of feature films.

Spring is upon us, and what better way to celebrate the beginning of brighter days than to celebrate the best film beginnings of all time! Check back all month long as we look at the films with the best beginnings.

The title sequence for a film is more than a bunch of letters spelling words on a screen. A title sequence is an opportunity for a filmmaker to grab the attention of his or her audience. It’s an ideal spot to introduce musical themes, set a stylistic tone, or establish a directorial style. During the opening titles a filmmaker has the opportunity to explain a backstory, show a flashback, or even dictate the setting to the audience.

Goldeneye

Directed by Martin Campbell

Written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirsein

UK / USA

The Essence of Bond has been shaped and re-shaped constantly over its 50-year run and that has been due to its mostly successful ability to plug into popular zeitgeist and meld that aesthetic with what makes Bond, well, Bond: Q gadgets, adventure tourist locales, voluptuous ladies (assuming the role of both friend and foe) and a version of suave and sexist male masculinity first cultivated by Sean Connery in Bond’s first outing, Dr. No in 1962. In the the early nineties it was time again to re-invent Bond, or rather his universe as not only was Timothy Dalton moving on from the Bond Franchise but the politics on the international stage had changed drastically. It was time for Bond to integrate into a post-Cold War world and director Martin Campbell was brought on board, along with...

From Russia With Love

Directed by Terrence Young

Written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood

1963, UK

50 years later, and with twenty-three “official” entries, From Russia With Love represents the very best of the Bond franchise. Skyfall is the closest to be considered, at best – almost equal to what was achieved in ’64 – but From Russia With Love is still unparalleled. Although it is the second in the series, and although it feels like no Bond film that followed, it is the film that solidifies all the Bond elements into a formula – a template that carries on, even today.

Spectre’s Persian-stroking nemesis/mastermind Ernest Blofeld makes his first appearance and so does Desmond Llewelyn’s gadget-friendly Q (starting a run that continued until his death in 1999). Screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood return, as does director and editor Terence Young and Peter Hunt. John Barry supplies the fine score by utilizing Monte Norman’s theme,...

The most commercially successful Bond film to date is Thunderball. The pic earned over $141 million worldwide, of which more than half was generated domestically in the U.S. The film was such a success, it was remade some 18 years later as Never Say Never Again. This is without a doubt my favourite Bond film (although not the best), and the film that perfected the ‘Bond Formula”. Every key player is back: lead actor Sen Connery, director Terence Young, longtime Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum, cinematographer Ted Moore, title sequence designer Maurice Binder, and composer John Barry.

11: Thunderball – Opening Title Sequence

Maurice Binder returns to the fold after two films away and creates the quintessential Bond title sequence. The titles of Thunderball are visually striking, showing silhouettes of naked women swimming around against coloured backgrounds. Binder hired two dancers who actually swam about in tanks in disco clubs and convinced them...

1: Dr No – Opening Title Sequence

The schizophrenic title sequence introduces John Barry’s famous James Bond theme, but instead of transitioning into the now traditional pop song (which uses the title as a lyric), random portions of two calypso songs were used instead. This was also of course the first of Maurice Binder’s many fantastic title sequences, and while some of the standard conventions are absent (such as the silhouetted nude bodies floating about), we still do get the lines of white dots sliding across the screen before transforming into a gun barrel, through which Bob Simmons fires his gun. From then it’s on to a procession of primary colours and shapes and an Atari-like animated sequence. All in all, this remains one of the most distinctive opening title sequences of the series.

(Watch the clip here)

2: Dr. No – Cold Blooded Murder

There’s little doubt...

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published November 1, 2012.

Fifty years ago this month, Marilyn Monroe passed away from a suspected accidental drug overdose (although conspiracy geeks love to contemplate more nefarious scenarios). The commemoratives are already showing up on magazine and newspaper entertainment pages, cable channels have announced their Marilyn film fests and documentary tributes. There’s little of worth I can add either in academic consideration or aesthetic appreciation to all the testimonials as well as the previous fifty years of ruminating in print and on film re: the lasting appeal of La Monroe. I can only wonder, with a sort of melancholy amazement, over the fact we’re still talking about her all these years later.

That persistent hold she has on popular culture is a fascinating study in itself. Her career had already been faltering when she died, she’s been gone a half-century, yet there...

Dr. No

Directed by Terence Young

Written by Richard Maibaum & Johanna Harwood

1962, UK

Author, Ian Fleming had been seeking out a movie deal for nearly a decade until the rights for his novels were finally bought by producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli. Little did they know they would change the landscape of spy-action cinema forever with the release of Dr. No.

Dr. No was the first James Bond novel turned into a film, though it was the sixth novel in the book series The film was adapted by Wolf Mankowitz (who went uncredited by request, fearing the film would bomb), Johanna Harwood (the first and only women screenwriter of the franchise), Berkeley Mather, and long time contributor Richard Maibaum. Arguably Dr. No is one of the closest cinematic interpretations of any Bond novel in tone and plot. The changes they made were mostly cosmetic save for some minor...

James Bond endures, with the 24th film, Spectre, scheduled to open November 6. The sinister organization has plagued 007 from the earliest films but have yet to rear their hoary heads in the current incarnation with Daniel Craig as Bond.

For those who are new to Mi-6 and international espionage, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment want you to come up to speed. To that end, they have released seven of the films in special edition Blu-rays, DVDs and collectible box-sets.

The Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbooks spotlight the six films featuring the Spectre organization (From Russia With Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, For Your Eyes Only) and the three recent features (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall) each featuring packaging inspired by the films’ iconic opening title sequences.

For those who own these in some other high definition incarnation,...

Daniel Craig's latest Bond movie Spectre is out now, and it's positively jam-packed with Easter eggs and callbacks to 007 movies from yesteryear.

Grab yourself a Martini and prepare to get very nerdy about James Bond with Spectre's many, many homages. Massive Spoilers, naturally, will follow...

1. The classic gun barrel is back

Daniel Craig has filmed separate gun barrel sequences for each of his 007 movies. In Spectre he does it again, but this time it's pulled to its rightful place at the front of the film and apes the classic Maurice Binder design first seen in Dr No.

2. Goldfinger's white tuxedo and red carnation

Remember that pre-title sequence from Goldfinger where Sean Connery infiltrated a drugs ring, blew the whole place up then stripped down to a white tuxedo?

Craig wears the exact same suit - complete with red carnation - in Spectre. Other movie stars who've rocked the look?...

Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes follow up their billion dollar box office smash Skyfall with a 007 outing that pulls the franchise back to its formula-driven roots. Spectre is bigger, louder and longer than its direct predecessor - sadly, it isn't any better.

It all starts so well, with Mendes pulling the iconic gun barrel sequence to the front of the film (complete with Maurice Binder design) before following Craig's Bond through Mexico City's Day of the Dead celebrations in a sensational single-take tracking shot. 007 is on the trail of an Italian hitman, and one helicopter corkscrew later he's in possession of a ring bearing the Spectre symbol. Cue Sam Smith's divisive theme song and a title sequence that neatly flips expectations, trading in scantily clad women for a shirtless Craig getting enveloped by an octopus.

From there, Bond pinballs across the globe to London, Rome, Austria and Tangiers,...

Songs On Screen: All week HitFix will be featuring tributes by writers to their favorite musical moments from TV and film. Check out all the entries in the series here. There are very few constants in the world of pop culture. James Bond, however, appears to be eternal. It's more than a movie franchise at this point. It's a generational milestone that gets handed down. My dad took me to my first Bond movie. I'll take my sons to their first Bond movie. And I have no doubt that 20 years from now, there will be a new James Bond and my kids will be able to take their own kids to enjoy it. I am equally sure that whatever Bond film they go see will open with a song written by a hot recording artist, and that song will be on the charts while the film's in theaters, and we'll...

It's not often that you hear TV producers proudly describe an aspect of their show as looking terrible — and using much less polite language than that — but then it's not often you have TV producers both as talented and idiosyncratic as "Better Call Saul" creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. The aspect in question is the show's main title sequence (embedded above), featuring various images from Jimmy McGill's future life as Saul Goodman, all of it presented with the same terrible image quality of early VHS or public access television. Late last week, I spoke first with Gilligan and Gould — who, I should say, had trouble controlling the laughter at times when using a certain profane adjective to describe the picture quality of those credits — and then with "Saul" assistant editor Curtis Thurber, who put together the different title sequences, about what they wanted and what was necessary to put them together.

I don’t make films myself, but it seems obvious to me there are but two places to learn how to make movies: in the outside world constrained by so-called reality, and in the inside world of the cinema’s darkness, constrained by so-called illusion. Travelogue tales and quotidian reportage being of little interest here, a log for illusionary research and experience, I must duly deliver my film report on the films that came upon me in the darkness of the Melbourne International Film Festival, which ran from July 31 - August 17, and the lessons learned.

Awe Sum

Epic of Everest

So many academics and cinephiles alike seem consternated by Walter Benjamin's paen to the the aura of an original artwork, something squandered, lost, obfuscated, or obliterated in the mechanical reproduction of art in post cards, photographic duplicates, and, of course, cinema. But upon encountering at the festival a restoration...

Many major American motion pictures have done away with opening credits, with many, not even displaying the film title until the closing credits begin. This of course isn’t something new; Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil originally waited until the end to display the title as well as the credits until Universal Studios took the film out of his hands, and changed it. But this isn’t the norm and the majority of motion pictures have always had, and will always have opening titles. The Film Before The Film is a short documentary created by film students Nora Thoes and Damian Pérez, that follows the evolution of movie opening titles, while showcasing the work of pioneers such as Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Kyle Cooper. Watch the short below. Enjoy!

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The Film before The Film from ntsdpz on Vimeo.

The post Video of the Day: ‘The Film Before...

One year ago, Nora Thos and Damian Perez released the following short film taking a look at the history of movie titles and today it was brought to my attention thanks to Slashfilm. While only touching on the art of movie titles in broad strokes, it's an interesting look at what the short calls "The Film Before the Film", covering enough territory and offering enough details to make it easy for you to being doing a little research of your own. The film obviously touches on the work of Saul Bass (North by Northwest, The Man with the Golden Arm), Maurice Binder (Dr. No), Pablo Ferro (Dr. Strangelove), Greenberg Associates' work on the original Superman titles, Kyle Cooper (Seven, Mimic), Digital Domain (Fight Club) and the inventive work of Kook Ewo for Splice as well as plenty of earlier work in film from Thomas Edison to the Rko titles before...

From a range of eras and genres, here's Jenny and Alex's light-hearted pick of 50 great opening title sequences from the movies...

Odd List

We don’t go to the cinema much, because we hate people. We also don’t go because there’s always the risk of accidentally going to see the wrong film. It's not helped by the fact that there's no way of telling until it’s too late, because there are no bloody opening credits on lots of modern films. And by the time you do realise, you’ve eaten all your popcorn and you can’t be bothered to move.

The movies on this list won’t give you that problem. These opening credits are perfect scene setters for the movies that follow, so you won’t have to worry about awkward popcorn wasting moments. It's not a top 50, rather a selection of 50 interesting credits sequences,...

On the 50th anniversary of "From Russia With Love"'s Us release our friend and James Bond expert Deborah Lipp (she even wrote a book about him!) is here to talk 007...

Sean Connery in "From Russia With Love" released 50 years ago today in the States

After 23 official films and 2 unofficial ones, From Russia With Love, the second James Bond adventure, remains the greatest of them all. Considered an iconic film in many ways, it may surprise the casual Bond viewer to note that certain "iconic" aspects of the Bond franchise were missing from or created in this film.

Let's focus on From Russia With Love's extraordinary visual signature on this anniversary

The first James Bond film, Dr. No, featured the production design of Ken Adam. Adam is justifiably famous. In Dr. No, he designed such sets as the nuclear launch room, and, needing one last set when the budget ran out,...

I secretly desired the Marvel films to continue the tone that was set in the initial Iron Man film. Tony Stark’s war mongering and checkered past lent for a harsh reality of what he was up against. Captain America was created to establish the history of the universe. Marvel Studios went further away from that in the Thor movies to expand the universe’s geography and The Avengers was a thrill ride to see it all come together. But Captain America: The Winter Soldier goes back to the spirit of Iron Man, rooting the story to a world we can envision and feel its textures. Yet given all of the cumulative experience of the previous films, the facts, characters, and events, this film will surpass Iron Man for some, especially how the last 15 minutes changes the course and direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (McU).

There are so many...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Timeless Media have released the epic 1976 adventure film Shout at the Devil as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. The movie, produced by Michael Klinger and directed by Peter Hunt, is an big budget affair very much in the style of John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King, which was released the previous year. Both films follow the antics of a couple of charismatic rogues in exotic settings. The film is based on the novel by author Wilbur Smith, who also co-wrote the screenplay. The movie was shot in between Roger Moore's second and third James Bond films, The Man With the Golden Gun and The Spy Who Loved Me and boasts a "who's who" of Eon Productions talent. Peter Hunt had edited the early Bond films and directed On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Ironically, Moore and Hunt never worked on a 007 film together but in...

From SneakPeekTV, take a look @ the full feature of producer Dino De Laurentis' sci-fi sex comedy "Barbarella"(1968) that is being developed and rebooted by "Drive" director Nicolas Winding Refn.

From a screenplay by Joe Gazzam, Refn promises the look of his film will adhere close to the languid illustrations of Jean-Claude Forest, creator of the French-language "Barbarella" comics.

The original Paramount Pictures release was directed by Roger Vadim, starring Vadim's wife at the time, actress Jane Fonda :

"...in the year 40,000, 'Barbarella' (Fonda) is assigned by the 'President of Earth' (Claude Dauphin) to retrieve 'Doctor Durand Durand' (Milo O'Shea) from the planet 'Tau Ceti'.

"Durand Durand is the inventor of the weaponized 'Positronic Ray'.

"Earth is now a peaceful planet, and weapons are unheard of. Because Tau Ceti is an unknown region of space there is the potential for the weapon to fall into the wrong hands.

Skyfall, now out on home video from MGM, is a sheer delight, holding my attention for the entire 2:23 running time, long for a Bond film but it felt just right. The four year financially-mandated layoff between the so-so Quantum of Solace and Skyfall is barely noticeable but the passage of time is an unspoken theme for the new entry. Daniel Craig, not at all what Ian Fleming had in mind for 007, made the character his own through sheer force of will. When he helped reboot the series with Casino Royale, my biggest complaint was that he was too old to be an MI6 agent at the beginning of his career. With Quantum a direct sequel, we were still seemingly early in Bond’s career but I bought into it. Now, suddenly, the third film deals with Bond being ready to be retired. We’ve clearly leaped ahead in this incarnation’s timeline,...

According to new reports, the 1968 De Laurentis feature "Barbarella", based on the sci fi comic strip, will be developed by executive producer Martha De Laurentiis and Gaumont International Television into a "Barbarella" TV series, with "Drive" director Nicolas Refn directing the pilot episode.

Episodes will be scripted by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade ("Skyfall"), with the series adhering closely to the style of illustrator Jean-Claude Forest, creator of the French-language "Barbarella" comics.

Paramount Pictures "Barbarella" was directed by Roger Vadim, starring Vadim's wife at the time, actress Jane Fonda :

"...in the year 40,000, 'Barbarella' (Fonda) is assigned by the 'President of Earth' (Claude Dauphin) to retrieve 'Doctor Durand Durand' (Milo O'Shea) from the planet 'Tau Ceti'. Durand Durand is the inventor of the weaponized 'Positronic Ray'.

"Earth is now a peaceful planet, and weapons are unheard of. Because Tau Ceti is an unknown region of space there...

From Russia With Love

Directed by Terrence Stamp

Written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood

1963, UK

50 years later, and with twenty three “official” entries, From Russia With Love represents the very best of the Bond franchise. Skyfall is the closest to be considered, at best – almost equal to what was achieved in ’64 – but From Russia With Love is still unparalleled. Although it is the second in the series, and although it feels like no Bond film that followed, it is the film that solidifies all the Bond elements into a formula – a template that carries on, even today.

Spectre’s Persian-stroking nemesis/mastermind Ernest Blofeld makes his first appearance (even if he’s not referred to by that name), and so does Desmond Llewelyn’s gadget-friendly Q (starting a run that continued until his death in 1999). Screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood return as does director and editor Terence Young and Peter Hunt.

Goldeneye

Directed by Martin Campbell

Written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirsein

UK / USA

The Essence of Bond has been shaped and re-shaped constantly over its 50-year run and that has been due to its mostly successful ability to plug into popular zeitgeist and meld that aesthetic with what makes Bond, well, Bond: Q gadgets, adventure tourist locales, voluptuous ladies (assuming the role of both friend and foe) and a version of suave and sexist male masculinity first cultivated by Sean Connery in Bond’s first outing, Dr. No in 1962. In the the early nineties it was time again to re-invent Bond, or rather his universe as not only was Timothy Dalton moving on from the Bond Franchise but the politics on the international stage had changed drastically. It was time for Bond to integrate into a post-Cold War world and director Martin Campbell was brought on board, along with...

Goldeneye

Directed by Martin Campbell

Written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirsein

UK / USA

The Essence of Bond has been shaped and re-shaped constantly over its 50-year run and that has been due to its mostly successful ability to plug into popular zeitgeist and meld that aesthetic with what makes Bond, well, Bond: Q gadgets, adventure tourist locales, voluptuous ladies (assuming the role of both friend and foe) and a version of suave and sexist male masculinity first cultivated by Sean Connery in Bond’s first outing, Dr. No in 1962. In the the early nineties it was time again to re-invent Bond, or rather his universe as not only was Timothy Dalton moving on from the Bond Franchise but the politics on the international stage had changed drastically. It was time for Bond to integrate into a post-Cold War world and director Martin Campbell was brought on board, along with...

The most commercially successful Bond film to date is Thunderball. The pic earned over $141 million worldwide, of which more than half was generated domestically in the U.S. The film was such a success, it was remade some 18 years later as Never Say Never Again. This is without a doubt my favourite Bond film (although not the best), and the film that perfected the ‘Bond Formula”. Every key player is back: lead actor Sen Connery, director Terence Young, longtime Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum, cinematographer Ted Moore, title sequence designer Maurice Binder, and composer John Barry.

11: Thunderball - Opening Title Sequence

Maurice Binder returns to the fold after two films away, and creates the quintessential Bond title sequence. The titles of Thunderball are visually striking, showing silhouettes of naked women swimming around against coloured backgrounds. Binder hired two dancers who actually swam about in tanks in disco clubs and convinced...

1: Dr No – Opening Title Sequence

The schizophrenic title sequence introduces John Barry’s famous James Bond theme, but instead of transitioning into the now traditional pop song (which uses the title as a lyric), random portions of two calypso songs were used instead. This was also of course the first of Maurice Binder’s many fantastic title sequences, and while some of the standard conventions are absent (such as the silhouetted nude bodies floating about), we still do get the lines of white dots sliding across the screen before transforming into a gun barrel, through which Bob Simmons fires his gun. From then it’s on to a procession of primary colours and shapes and an Atari-like animated sequence. All in all, this remains one of the most distinctive opening title sequences of the series.

(Watch the clip here)

2: Dr. No – Cold Blooded Murder

There’s little doubt...

Dr. No

Directed by Terence Young

Written by Richard Maibaum & Johanna Harwood

1962, UK

Author Ian Fleming had been seeking out a movie deal for nearly a decade until the rights for his novels were finally bought by producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli. Little did they know they would change the landscape of spy-action cinema forever with the release of Dr. No.

Dr. No was the first James Bond novel turned into a film, though it was the sixth novel in the book series The film was adapted by Wolf Mankowitz (who went uncredited by request, fearing the film would bomb), Johanna Harwood (the first and only women screenwriter of the franchise), Berkeley Mather, and long time contributor Richard Maibaum. Arguably Dr. No is one of the closest cinematic interpretations of any Bond novel in tone and plot. The changes they made were mostly cosmetic save for some minor...

This article is part of our 30 day 007 marathon. You can find all the entries by clicking here.

Fifty years ago this month, Marilyn Monroe passed away from a suspected accidental drug overdose (although conspiracy geeks love to contemplate more nefarious scenarios). The commemoratives are already showing up on magazine and newspaper entertainment pages, cable channels have announced their Marilyn film fests and documentary tributes. There’s little of worth I can add either in academic consideration or aesthetic appreciation to all the testimonials as well as the previous fifty years of ruminating in print and on film re: the lasting appeal of La Monroe. I can only wonder, with a sort of melancholy amazement, over the fact we’re still talking about her all these years later.

That persistent hold she has on popular culture is a fascinating study in itself. Her career had already been faltering when she died,...

From 1962’s Dr No to the upcoming Skyfall, James Bond films have been guaranteed to thrill us, grip us, make as laugh and keep us on the edge our seats. And with the plethora of information available in books, on the DVDs and Blu-rays, and in the new cinema documentary Everything or Nothing, there isn’t a lot left to be said about Britain’s foremost secret agent and his cinema exploits. Undaunted, here I present 20 things that you probably don’t know about the James Bond films – surely even the most ardent fan will find a few unfamiliar factoids here.

They are presented roughly chronologically, so let’s begin with the very first Bond…

1. The First Cinematic James Bond Was… Bob Simmons

The first actor to play James Bond was Barry Nelson (who actually played CIA Agent “Card Sense” Jimmy Bond) in a fairly lack-lustre and under budgeted CBS...

The buzz being generated by Disney's upcoming Marvel Studios  outer space fantasy, "Guardians Of The Galaxy" has kick-started producer Dino De Laurentis' Paramount remake of the 1968 sci-fi comedy, "Barbarella: Queen Of The Galaxy".

To be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive") from a screenplay by Joe Gazzam, Refn promises the look of his film will adhere close to the languid illustrations of Jean-Claude Forest, creator of the French-language "Barbarella" comics.

Although actress Rose McGowan was originally considered to play 'Barbarella', casting continues for a suitable actress to play the lead.

The original Paramount Pictures release was directed by Roger Vadim, starring Vadim's wife at the time, actress Jane Fonda :

"...in the year 40,000, 'Barbarella' (Fonda) is assigned by the 'President of Earth' (Claude Dauphin) to retrieve 'Doctor Durand Durand' (Milo O'Shea) from the planet 'Tau Ceti'. Durand Durand is the inventor of the weaponized 'Positronic Ray'.

Graphic designer Brendan Dawes has visualised our data on James Bond's body count in the style of the title sequence from Dr. No

• Download and debate the data

• Explore our interactive guide to 50 years of Bond

• More data visualisations from our Show and Tell series

• More from the Guardian on upcoming Bond film Skyfall

Designer Brendan Dawes has illustrated our data on James Bond's on-screen kills in an homage to the famous title sequence of Dr. No.

The highly stylised sequence, created by Maurice Binder, features circles of different colours jumping across the screen in geometric formations, and was preceded by the now familiar shot of Bond swivelling to pick off a would-be assassin (also created by Binder).

Dawes' graphic uses the same coloured circles to represent Bond's body count. Each red circle represents ten kills, and each blue-green circle a single death.

As you can see, Bond was at his deadliest in Goldeneye,...

The opening shot, viewed from inside the barrel of a gun. The silhouetted beauties of Maurice Binder's credit sequence. That Monty Norman instrumental theme, promising sex and danger in just four notes. The martinis. The game of chance that's really a game of nerves. The women, gorgeous and lethal. The patient Miss Moneypenny, who'd give as good as she gets if he ever gave her a chance. The supervillain, living in a luxurious, elaborate hidden lair. And the line of introduction: "Bond, James Bond." It's remarkable how many enduring elements of the James Bond film franchise were there from day one, built into the initial installment, "Dr. No," (released 50 years ago, on October 5, 1962). That's why, even if you've never seen "Dr. No," you feel like you know it. Even so, there's plenty you may not know about the landmark spy film, including the real-life spies who made it, how...

Fifty years ago this year, Sean Connery debuted the character James Bond on the screen in 1962's "Dr. No." Since then, fans worldwide have admired 007's many incarnations: George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

But because we have to wait until November for "Skyfall," the 23rd film installment in the legendary franchise, Angelenos have some other options to cope with the anticipation.

Starting Friday, Jun. 8, the American Cinematheque begins the 007 At 50: The Complete James Bond Retrospective film series. The Egyptian and Aero Theaters will host all 22 films, concluding on June 24th. Tickets are $11.00.

Lacma is taking the screenings to another level with … Is James Bond, an exhibition featuring a tie that binds all James Bond films: the iconic opening credit sequence. Co-organized by Lacma and Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television, the exhibition pays tribute to Maurice Binder's opening sequences that...

To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and as James Bond prepares for his 23rd official outing in Skyfall later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Fleming’s creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history.

Following the departure of George Lazenby after just one film in the lead role, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were left wondering if the success and popularity of the series so far had been down to just one man, Sean Connery. While Lazenby had made a good impression as Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service his performance was essentially a reinterpretation of Connery rather than a reinvention of the role itself. With the producers keen to cast a new lead they set to work auditioning actors for the part,...