Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 21, 2011 in
Videogames 
Just a day ago, Activision announced their upcoming title GoldenEye 007 Reloaded for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. If you don’t count 2004’s GoldenEye: Rogue Agent — and most people wouldn’t — this would mark the first time an official GoldenEye title will be appearing on a non-Nintendo console. It’s sort of a big deal, I suppose, but will fans of the original really enjoy this new title? At Activision’s Comic-Con showcase, I had a chance to play a pre-alpha build of the title and while it still had its issues it was actually quite fun. The only problem? It really didn’t feel like GoldenEye. Sure, they had Bond — in this case, Daniel Craig — and the setting was spot on, but the game literally played like Call of Duty. In fact, I over heard several journalists jokingly referring to it as Call of Duty: 007, or GoldenEye: Modern Warfare. While I couldn’t get anyone to confirm that the game used the Modern Warfare engine, every element led me to that conclusion. In fact, the in-game HUD looked spot on, with indicators for thrown grenades, location of the mini-map, and obligatory blood splatters filling the screen. Even the button mapping was exactly the same, leading me to believe that Activision seems to be under the impression that they’ve stumbled on a winning formula and simply don’t want to let it go. Suffice to say, if you’re a fan of the Call of Duty franchise, and the Modern Warfare series in particularly, you’ll probably love this. No word on an official release date, but I’m looking forward to seeing how development progresses in the months to come.
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Tags: 007, Activision
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 6, 2009 in
Cinema,
Hobbies and Collections 
Mattel is getting brilliant with their marketing to collectors these days: Shown above is the James Bond Girls Barbie Doll Assortment Case. This set only has three Bond girls: They picked Honor Blackman in Goldfinger, Halle Berry in Die Another Day and Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder from Dr. No. For reference here are the real ladies of the silver screen: Read more…
Tags: 007, Barbie Dolls, James Bond
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 14, 2009 in
Cinema,
Television 
Today is the 82nd birthday of Sir Roger George Moore, who sadly is known to most folks as “the James Bond that isn’t Sean Connery!” Now I know it’s a classic fanboy argument to rate each James Bond and then chastise poor Roger Moore for being too slick, too smooth and too English to be James Bond. Yet I think that’s an unfair argument because to really appreciate why Moore got the 007 role you have to go a few years back in time to 1962 when Moore made his name as The Saint. Read more…
Tags: 007, James Bond
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 14, 2008 in
Cinema,
Television 
It’s 007 season again and countless fanboy hours will be wasted debating the merits of who was the best James Bond of all time — a sad process of sorting out the pecking order of a sad line up that started with Sean Connery and ends with Daniel Craig. And while I have my favorites in the role, the best James Bond of all time for my money is Patrick McGoohan. Read more…
Tags: 007, Danger Man, James Bond, Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 5, 2008 in
Cinema 
Come November 14th I’ve got to so see this flick! I’m already in love with the poster art — it’s like James Bond is thinking “Yeah it’s perfectly normal to have some explosive residue on my designer tux while strolling down the desert with my fashion model friend with a handgun on hand to deal with any arch villains whom we might just run across in the hood”. Not only that but James Bond can even wear a hanky in his jacket pocket and make it look good…
Tags: 007, Daniel Craig, James Bond, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko, Quantum of Solace
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 3, 2008 in
Cinema,
Television 
My favorite John Barry theme is from the 1960 film Beat Girl, but with the current James Bond buzz I’m happy to see John Barry get some long overdue recognition for his talent.
John Barry invented the spy movie score
Unique arrangements ushered in a new genre of films
“Very few composers can be said to have created a new style of film music,” says David Arnold. “John Barry single-handedly created the spy genre.” Arnold, who recently completed scoring “Quantum of Solace” (his fifth James Bond score), has a long way to go to catch up to Barry’s record of 11 complete 007 scores (not counting his arrangement of the original “James Bond Theme” for “Dr. No”).
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Tags: 007, 1962, James Bond, John Barry, Soundtrack
