Monster of the Day #63

Updated on July 9, 2010 By Ken Begg 28 Comments

One thing we know, the movies love to destroy the Golden Gate bridge. Off the top of my head there’s this, It Came From Beneath the Sea, Jabootu mini-series 10.5 and even the animated Monsters vs. Aliens (great job there, actually). As for this movie, it wasn’t any Megapiranha, but maybe someday somebody will make a good, big budget Megalodon movie. Certainly rumors of a Meg movie adapted from the Steve Alten novel should be swirling yet again, as they always do when there’s a King Kong or Godzilla movie in production. You can help by grabbing your friends and making them buy tickets to Piranha 3-D when that comes out next month.

Hey, that should be showing while I’m down in Texas. Sandy, maybe we should hit this while I’m visiting? It premieres the night the Drauts and I arrive in Dallas.

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By Ken Begg

http://jabootu.net

Plissken79

He is not really a “monster” (although he is an evil fanatic), but Magneto destroyed the Golden Gate bridge in X-Men 3. Also, Max Zorin tried to destroy all of Northern California in Roger Moore’s dreadful last Bond film A View to a Kill.
BeckoningChasm

MS vs GO had a lot of potential, pretty much all of it missed. I can almost see the producers: “Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing? If we make a good film, we can’t sell it to SyFy!”
The Rev. D.D.

Mega Piranha was everything I had hoped MS vs. GO would be. Still, those few moments, like the one above and the scene where the big-ass shark eats a goddamn jet, were welcome bits of respite from the dullness that permeated most of the movie.

If nothing else, that’s the biggest killer shark in movie history, I believe, at least for now.
Gamera

Looks like a job for Aquaman!!!!!

The biggest Megalodon fossil was what? About 70 feet/ 21 meters? Um just how big is this shark? Looks waaaaaaaayyyyyyy larger.

While on the subject of the Golden Gate Bridge though its not a movie or a monster I remember it being shown partly destroyed in the aftermath of the Breen attack on Starfleet HQ/San Fran in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as well.
Rock Baker

What’s not to like about A View To A Kill? Oh, I remember, Grace Jones, the most frightening woman to ever live.
Darren Bennett

AND a Duran Duran title theme, which is now stuck in my head. Thank you all very, very much.
If we’re widening the subject to general destruction of SF, may I present for consideration the two versions of On the Beach, which in its original Gregory Peck version had an eerilly deserted but intact SF. The more recent Armand Assante version, however, with the magic of CGI, showed a more nuked looking version. With, I believe, a broken GG bridge.
Let’s face it, that bridge has shaken off everything that’s been thrown at SF for the last 80 years, it’s iconic, it has the advantage of being over open ocean for attack from sea, land, air, and mutants. Nothing says “we’re in deep sh*t now” better than the destruction of the GG bridge.
Ensor

Plissken79, Jeff Rovin included Magneto in The Encyclopedia of Super-Villains as opposed to his later Encyclopedia of Monsters, so I agree that he falls in the former category.
Rock Baker

Mothra also got in on this, destroying the Golden Gate’s surrogate bridge in ‘New Kirk City’ – or New San Angles as I call it.

I wouldn’t call myself a Duran Duran fan (haven’t really heard a lot of their music, to be honest), but I have to admit I like the theme to A View To A Kill. Really, the only Bond theme I just outright hated was ‘Die Another Day’ because it was just so unmelodic. It was anti-music, really. When the titles started, I actually thought the player was starting to skip. I was wondering if I should clean the disk when I noticed the picture was still moving.
TongoRad

So I just checked on Wikipedia, and the height of the Golden Gate above the water seems to be about 230 feet (according to the diagram). That is a seriously big shark, in other words. Was the size mentioned in the movie, per chance?
BeckoningChasm

I don’t recall if the size was mentioned in detail, but it’s rival octopus takes out four submarines at one go with its tentacles, and the subs appear to be about as big as a Subway sandwich is to a human. The two monsters appear to be roughly equal in size…

Can we just say the shark is as big as a battleship?
Plissken79

Actually, there are so many things wrong with A View to a Kill it is hard to know where to begin, a fitting end to Moore’s generally lousy run as James Bond (with the major exceptions of The Spy Who Loved Me and especially For Your Eyes Only). Let’s see, an uninterested lead actor embarassingly too old for the role, the worst Bond girl in the series, a ridiculous Grace Jones, a plot that is a lame rehash of Goldfinger, even the great Christopher Walken phones it in.

As for that picture for the thread, somewhere some ScyFy executive just got his next movie idea, “The Shark Who Swallowed the World”
Rock Baker

A View To A Kill – On the other end of the equation, John Barry offers one of his best pieces of music since the 60s films (cheifly the scene where Bond carries Stacy down the firetruck’s ladder, the theme for Zorin’s blimp approaching the bridge and his battle with Bond are also good pieces), a refresingly smaller scale evil plot with a more realistic motivation, Patrick Macnee is always fun, the Paris chase has some fine stuntwork, and so on. Not a perfect movie, but not a bad one either. And I must be fair to Tanya Roberts, while she’s not very believible as a genius geologist, she comes off much better here than in the incredibly bad Sheena (I’ll debate some titles being included on this site’s review list, but Sheena deserves to be there without question) movie, not that that’s a glowing report or anything (she was, and still is as far as I know, a fine looking woman though so its not like her casting is overly ruinous to a fun franchise like the 007 movies). I recently (I mean really recently, weeks ago) borrowed all the Bond films from my uncle and watched them all again. I never really cared for the Moore episodes in the past, but this time I really enjoyed most of them (Octopussy and Moonraker were leagues better than I remembered them). I found A View To A Kill to be a highlight, since I’d only seen it once before. Live and Let Die didn’t really hold up, but the only really bad film in the series (tho, to be fair, it also had its moments) was Tomorrow Never Dies. I mean, after seeing Bond tangle with Dr. No, Goldfinger, Largo, Scaramanga, and Stromberg, you can’t milk much out his battle with Ted Turner.

Much as I enjoyed all the different Bonds, it remains as true as ever that “Sean Connery IS James Bond!”
Plissken79

A plot by a Nazi-created, Soviet-trained genetic experiment to destroy all of Northern California through using an atomic bomb in an old mine to cause a massive earthquake in order to to gain a monopoly on MICROCHIP production is a “small-scale” evil plot? Auric Goldfinger’s and Emilio Largo’s plans look very modest by comparison. Besides Max Zorin does not seem to have much motivation at all, besides being a psychopath who is killing time with a lunatic scheme for no apparent reason

Sorry, but A View to a Kill is a bad film, as are Live and Let Die, Moonraker (the Batman and Robin of the Bond series), Die Another Day, The World is Not Enough, and Tomorrow Never Dies (I completely agree with you there, the wimpy Eliot Carver has to be the worst villian in the series). Octopussy and The Man With the Golden Gun are not much better, but they have a few good moments thanks to their villians. There are almost as many bad Bond films as great ones, fortunately, there are also a few of them: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, OHMSS, For Your Eyes Only, Licence to Kill and Casino Royale. Let’s just hope MGM gets its finances in order so Daniel Craig can make one more.
Rock Baker

Yeah, since they worked so hard to establish Quantum as the new Spectre for this new continuity, it would be a shame if they had to end the series where it stands. It looked like we were headed back into traditional territory at the end of the last one. One has hopes.

As to the quality of the older films (which is all over the map, to be sure), it seems hard not to like them anyway. 007, more than most other pop culture icons (and that’s saying something), is all about escapist adventure. As long as we’re served the correct doses of tuxedos, explosions, bikinis, exotic weaponry, world-shaking schemes, daring escapes, and last minute demolition of a massive complex, there’s no room for much complaint. That some of the films are actually really good movies in a traditional sense, well, that’s just gravy. Any series with nearly 30 entries is going to have better moments and lesser moments, but as long as it hits the right marks and delivers its audience what it craves, it seems fair. I can’t be too hard on a series that has given me so much enjoyment. In a similar vein, the Matt Helm movies are anything but high art, but I love them anyway. In the end, I got from A View To A Kill what I wanted to get from it. I can’t knock it for giving me what I want, now can I?
Plissken79

Of course not Rock. There always seems to be two schools of thought on the Bond series. The first school, of which I am a part, enjoys Ian Fleming’s novels much as the films, and therefore like the films that depict Bond and his world as Fleming portrayed, hard-edged and generally realistic, such as the early Connery films, OHMSS, FYEO, the Dalton films, and Casino Royale. The second school basically believes, the more overwhelming spectacle, the better, films in vein of Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker etc. I think is debate will go forever.

On another note, Christopher Nolan’s new film, Inception, has an ending which was apparently inspired by On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’s snow-capped locations
Rock Baker

Can you imagine the debates between fans of the Matt Helm books and the Matt Helm movies? By that yardstick, 007’s cinematic escapades have been rather faithful to their source!

Inception looks like it could be pretty good, or really, really stink. One hopes for the best, and extra points are awarded for the casting of Michael Caine.
Gamera

What’s not to like about A View To A Kill? Oh, I remember, Grace Jones, the most frightening woman to ever live.

I shudder to think- if Grace Jones had married Mister T. their child would have been so bad@#@ that he/she would have taken over the entire world by now… ;)
Rock Baker

Fear not, for if Mr. T is the father the child will’ve been raised to fight for the forces of good, not for evil!
Gamera

I hope so Rock, watching re-runs of the A-Team I was struck that as I lose hair I’m looking more and more like Murdock…
Reed

You know why I love this web site? Because I love bad movies, monster movies, and James Bond. Name 5 other web sites where a picture about a giant shark will generate discussion on the merrits of various Bond movies. Seriously; if you can name them I will definitely check them out.

I love the Bond movies and the Bond books. For the record I think that Timothy Dalton is extremely underrated as Bond, but that he was given some pretty lackluster scripts to work with. I also think that Daniel Craig is quite similar to Dalton in his portrayal of Bond.

My most hated bond theme was the most recent one. The music started and I thought, “This sucks. Did they get Jack White to write this?” And then I saw the credits. Sigh. I long ago mostly made peace with the idea that I am not in touch with popular music, but how this man has a successful career totally escapes me.

The Duran Duran “View to a Kill” is extremely catchy and one of the best things about that movie. I know, damning with faint praise and all that.
Sandy Petersen

I must admit I read many of Ian Fleming’s books, out of loyalty to the movies, and they never really clicked with me. I have no interest in reading them again, and they certainly don’t have the panache and insanity of the films.

In my opinion, the Bond movies are basically whitesploitation. In the same way that even the worst blacksploitation movies are almost always entertaining, I am able to milk a few drops of fun from even Roger Moore doddering around in a clown suit.
Calpso

Did you know that during WWII, when Ian Fleming was working for the Ministry of Tricky Stuff (or whatever it was called) he built a cardboard town to fool German bombers to attack it instead of the (real) nearby town? It was all working pretty well until the Germans caught on, and one of them indicated this by dropping a cardboard bomb…
Plissken79

Dalton’s and Craig’s portrayals of Bond (and the tone of the films) are quite similar, and very close to Fleming’s Bond, rather than the invincible court jester (Roger Moore) or the British Rambo (Pierce Brosnan). That is why I am hoping for at least one more Craig film, the legal and financial problems at MGM and Danjaq prevented a third Bond with Dalton, let’s hope this does not happen with Dalton.

As for Sandy, the strongly anti-communist tone of Fleming’s novels probably turned him off. You are correct about the them, Reed, ironically, two of the worst Bond films, Live and Let Die and A View to a Kill, have two of the best opening songs
Rock Baker

Am I alone thinking the Live and Let Die theme is over-rated?

I’m firmly a Connery man, but I don’t think Moore gets enough credit for his run as 007. While light, they did have their darker moments and some nice acting bits for Roger (Bond’s being nearly killed in a g-chamber in Moonraker and his reaction to it, the scene in FYEO when he briefly visits his wife’s grave, his desperate attempt to convince the brass that an a-bomb is hidden in Octopussy’s circus and is about to go off). True, these scenes are countered with things like “Sit!” I can’t really put Moore down for those scenes eaither, however, because he has always been the first to make fun of himself.

Pop was always the first to champion Dalton as Bond #1, but even he is leaning into the Craig camp. Of all of them, I think Lazenby handled himself best in fight scenes -his were the most realistically physical.
Plissken79

Oops, that should have been not happen to Craig. As for Moore, it is no coincidence that his one really good Bond was the one where he actually took the part seriously, For Your Eyes Only.

However, Moore cannot be blamed on his own for the increasingly comic tone the Bond series took from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. The producers had already decided to take a goofy route before they even cast Moore. Just take a look at Diamonds are Forever, Connery’s last “official” Bond film before the Moore era. It is just as silly, if not more so, than many of Moore’s films
Reed

In one of the movie’s special features there is an interview with a long-running Bond stunt man (can’t remember his name but recognized his face instantly, he’s in a lot of the films) who said that of all the actors it was Roger Moore who threw the best punch. I thought that was very interesting, as most people would have gone with the beefier Connery or Lazenby.

I like several of the Moore films – The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, and Octopussy being particular favorites. Yes, clown costume and all. I also quite like The Man With the Golden Gun.

The Spy Who Loved Me may be ridiculous, but I first saw it when I was quite young and the idea of the underwater city and the submersible car caught my imagination in a way that other Bond movies never managed.
BeckoningChasm

“Goldfinger” for me has the ultimate Bond song. I mean, it just conjures up perfection in my mind’s eye. I like the growly, sneery version Howard DeVoto did with Magazine, too.

I look at my comment, and the picture above, and wow, we sure have traveled.
Rock Baker

I’m reminded of how Ken’s Curse of Bigfoot review wound up a long debate about global warming. This is a great site!

Donna Loren did a version of Goldfinger’s theme on an episode of Shindig! or Hullaballoo, I can’t remember which. But the video is on YouTube. They took the line ‘a spiders touch’ and ran with it, decorating the stage with giant black spiderwebs. Donna even wears a big rubber spider like a pin, and at one point there’s a shot that reminded me of the opening credits of Earth vs The Spider. Given her popularity and powerful voice, I’m a little confused that she was never asked to do an actual Bond theme.

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