tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-449435543689622165.post8769421020147349501..comments2024-02-15T01:05:07.101-08:00Comments on The Smoking Pen: Bondploitation.M. Hufstaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08710221415534490058noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-449435543689622165.post-31646713102984736542011-10-01T22:52:12.397-07:002011-10-01T22:52:12.397-07:00No contrarian douches here! Thanks for the lengthy...No contrarian douches here! Thanks for the lengthy comment! I do like your interpretation, it at least settles a little better. Much easier to give it a black power twist instead of a racist screen. With that said, I think what it comes down to is that it plain just doesn't hold up well. Whatever statement about race they were trying to make in this movie was something that you can probably only get the full effect of if you're living through 1973. <br /><br />I will be the first to admit I'm not entirely well versed in blaxploitation films, so it's possible it just went straight over my head. Either way, the fact that Moore's Bond is so...poshy and the evil guys are all black Harlem bros...just didn't sit quite so well with me. MAYBE I would've stomached it better if Rosie Carver wasn't completely and utterly useless. Except, you know. For the killer body and all.<br /><br />I'll agree with you there, race-issues aside, it's a solid Bond movie. The boat chase definitely had some badass stunts, and I am really a sucker for New Orleans, so I should just be happy that Bond went there at all. Shazam is really painfully pretty, that's the only way to describe her. I did like how, while "fragile Bond girl" is something we've seen over and over, she takes it to a whole new level with her doe eyes and her china doll face. Delicate, yet gorgeous. Which should be all anyone asks for in a Bond girl.M. Hufstaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08710221415534490058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-449435543689622165.post-54002983998345686632011-09-30T16:23:28.445-07:002011-09-30T16:23:28.445-07:00I don't want to be a contrarian douche, especi...I don't want to be a contrarian douche, especially because I'm light-skinned with latino parents and african as well as white ancestors. So here's how I took it.: wtf, every black guy for miles is a crook tracking Bond?! They got ever guy in the hood? Oh, wait they're trying to say that poor, uneducated folks can have a spy-net just like James; they're making him a laughable outsider, especially in a time when Harlem was torn apart by heroin. How will a sauve spy survive people who won't fall for well-mannered bs?<br /><br />The answer was a ton of 70s blacksploitation stuff, and I still can't tell whether it's bigotry or an effort to be different, dynamic, and topical. It leans a lot more toward the former.<br /><br />Still, the stunts are fine (better than Arnie's The Eraser), the story works without rehashng old Bond material, and Moore makes a good entrance (tho I prefer Connery). I also love the theme song, and think Seymour's character is a nice spin on the damsel in distress. She's also painfully pretty. Shazam pretty, really, and gets enough material that I don't feel offended by how the pic uses her.<br /><br />And, yes, the Bond sister in here is used awfully. I thought the rest was a nice pallette-cleanser, for a film made by English people who might not realize (or worse, care) about how the race stuff might play. I might be distracted by great action and Seymour's beauty.Thaddeushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17414047155226211676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-449435543689622165.post-38278370153261423682011-09-29T20:06:25.268-07:002011-09-29T20:06:25.268-07:00Agreed! And the thing is...it's a fun movie. I...Agreed! And the thing is...it's a fun movie. It's a good movie. Plotwise, villainwise. But the racism is laid on way too thick for me to enjoy it without cringing here and there, and the Bond girls are way too flimsy to be really interested in. <br /><br />112! Can't fucking wait.M. Hufstaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08710221415534490058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-449435543689622165.post-91582117990051040712011-09-29T18:04:49.414-07:002011-09-29T18:04:49.414-07:00Make that 112 days until Haywire.Make that 112 days until Haywire.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04443736284850057306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-449435543689622165.post-17586287188329096102011-09-29T18:00:00.961-07:002011-09-29T18:00:00.961-07:00Ah the blackploitation that was Live and Let Die. ...Ah the blackploitation that was Live and Let Die. The first time I ever saw this, my jaw was unhinged for about a month at all the overt racism. I had just taken a college course on cultural and racial tolerance so I was already puffed up on the righteousness. I've only ever seen this one other time and I don't think I'll be watching it any time soon.<br /><br />Jane Seymour was not bad, but she was a very weak Bond girl. I wanted to jump into the screen, grab Rosie's gun from her and tell her to shut the fuck up. I hate screaming girls, unless it's a primal scream of rage. She does not qualify. 113 days until Haywire.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04443736284850057306noreply@blogger.com