Icarus

I have been watching a lot of 007 fanedits lately because I consider myself a huge James Bond fan. Yet, every time I watch one, I find myself remembering how truly awful some of the movies in the franchise have been. It is hard to choose the very worst James Bond movie, but this (not your edit, but the original) has absolutely got to be very close to being the most absolutely terrible entry. A lot of the Roger Moore Bonds kinda blend together for me because he did so many. Sean Connery remains the ultimate James Bond. Timothy Dalton was very underrated and I think Living Daylights is one of the better Bond films. And then there is Pierce Brosnon. I loved Remington Steele and thought he would make a perfect James Bond. But the scripts or the directors or someone mishandled the movies, and none was worse than this. From the opening where James Bond is captured, held and tortured fro an indeterminate amount of time (could there be a WORSE way to start a Bond movie!?!). And does our brilliant hero secret agent finally escape? Nope. He gets exchanged for a guy walking around with diamonds in his face. And about that: what the hell? I get that maybe right after the explosion some diamonds got lodged in his face, but there is just no logical reason for them to remain there. I cannot think of any Bond movie with such a ridiculous cartoonish villain. Even Jaws was more plausible---at least those teeth could be used as kind of a weapon. And then, he checks into the Hong Kong Yacht Club where they send up a masseuse with a gun. Why? They're going to kill him? While filming it behind a 2-way mirror? What for? This movie is so screwed up. Okay, I have yet to talk about the edit, but I needed to vent about what a dreadful movie this was to begin with, and seeing this made me realize how fully I managed to block it from my mind entirely.
The editing, sound, picture...everything was done flawlessly. I can't point to a single thing, major or minor to complain about. But it is just such a terrible movie, I think no amount of editing can save it. Certainly this is a vast improvement over the original, but "vast" is not enough in this case. There isn't enough vastness in the universe that could make this movie any good. Such a shame! I'm sure the budget was huge; Halle Berry looks amazing (and is the best thing about the whole movie), cool cars--although the green jaguar that the enemy is driving on the ice is cooler that James Bond's car, but what a misguided movie. This one makes me appreciate the Daniel Craig era quite a lot more. It even makes me feel like I could write a better James Bond script. It's amazing how all the elements can be there--good actors, good locales, the cars, gadgets---everything that you would assume makes a great James Bond movie, and yet fail so spectacularly. It almost makes Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull seem like a good movie.
Well that sure is a lot of negative comments for a movie I am ultimately giving a good review of. The positive numbers and the recommendation are entirely for your edit, which, as I said, is flawless. But it's like getting a bunch of Dr Frankenstein's together to try to recreate the ideal re-animated Hitler; even the best most perfect one is still...you know---Hitler. So this is an excellent, excellent edit of an irredeemably bad movie. Anyone who saw the original should at least give this a watch. It is still, probably the very worst 007 movie, but this version makes it a somewhat better worst 007 movie.

i hated this bond it was a disaster, this is the worse bond movie EVER.
i never blamed Bronson he did the best with what he had you cant polish a turd.

but this edit saves this movie in every aspect bad jokes, horrible guest appearances and the worse title song ever.

Editing:
perfect could not notice any.

PQ:
DVD quality, could not ask for better

Audio:
perfect

Verdict:
the best this movie will ever be.
this will be the version of the movie i will always go to and the version i would show my mates.

thank you last survivor for fixing this mess of a movie.

I was so excited to watch this, and Last survivor didn't let me down.
The tweaks were amazingly done and make this a true bond movie, they don't prevent the flow of the story at all, in fact if Last Survivor hadn't teased us with his trailer which essentially danced around the majority of elements that were bad with the original film, i probably would have only noticed the invisible car and intro song were missing.
as all reviews have to 'critique' in one way or another my only gripe was the surfing intro, i know its required to show bond getting the c4, but to me some kind of establishing shot of the plane landing before bond switches places with the diamond seller would have been more than ample.
also jinx's use of the word 'bitch' on the plane seems out of place, i might have omitted it to prevent it from sounding like an audio hard cut.

Fantastic job Last Survivor!, This is definitely my 'go to' version of the film.

Who could have imagined? The abominable Die Another Day had a fun, entertaining Bond movie hidden behind it!

This edit is a revelation. After removing the stupid humor, the awful CGI, and the reference overload, the result is more than watchable. In this form it's no more the worst Bond film ever, which it used to be for me. I agree with all the choices Last Survivor has made here, including the Q scene, which is about right and nothing seemed missing or abrupt to me, so redoing it doesn't justify a version 2 for my tastes (and if "Saved by the bell" is put back as another reviewer sort-of requested, I'll quit watching LS edits forever ;) The only thing that felt off to me was Jinx's "Bitch!" after stabbing Miranda, which felt edited and incomplete because of the delivery. Everything else was perfectly done. And the audio commentary was, as usual, a more than welcome addition. It's just as entertaining as professionally released ones.

All in all, at last Brosnan's Bond has a non-embarrassing exit from the saga. Highly recommended to all Bond fans.

Bond is BACK!
And Better Than EVER!!!

And it is all thanks to Last Survivor.

As LS has pointed out, the 40th Anniversary Bond film DIE ANOTHER DAY is a mess of movie -- too much bad dialogue, too much bad cgi and just too over the top and all over the place. Which is a shame, as the core story is pure classic Bond, but all that is lost on the audience by the producers kitchen sink approach to story telling and a director who I feel was ill suited for the Bond franchise.

But I knew there was a good Bond movie buried within, as I had seen evidence of it many years before in ADM's version BEYOND THE ICE. While that fan edit was very, very good, I can honestly say Last Survivor's version is aggressively superior and well worth the watch.

As with all of LS's edits, his passion for the material oozes in every scene. He knows Bond. He knows the character and franchise. He knows what works and what does not. And that knowledge gives him power and security in his editing.
He has deftly removed all the truly offending elements of the film -- horrible sexual innuendo, bad gci, the ridiculous invisible car -- and created a Bond adventure more fitting of this iconic character and a proper closing chapter to the Pierce Brosnan era.

It should also be noted, LS has once again done some fantastic audio work throughout this fan edit, replacing music in several key scenes with an expert's touch. Bravo!

To say I enjoyed this edit, would be an understatement. It was a wonderful piece of entertainment. I do have one tiny nitpick -- the John Cleese Q scene. In its new edited form it plays too short, throwing off the pacing of the film. LS acknowledges this in his commentary, but felt this was best for the over all narrative. Myself, I think to remove all acknowledgement that this is 40th anniversary film was maybe a mistake. For me, Q's workshop is the perfect place to pay homage to Bond's past exploits and was one of the few tribute moments in the original that actually worked. I also thought the VR training sequence that leads into it was logical and worked too. But as I said, this is personal preference and only a minor quibble.

Now no Last Survivor fan edit experience is complete until you listen to the commentary! Once again, a very informative and entertaining experience. Professional producers could take a lesson from LS on how to do a proper dvd commentary. He fills his commentary with not only how he made the edit and why he made the cuts he did, but shares his insights and history with the Bond franchise on a very engaging and personal level. Definitely a great listen!!!

And best of all, LS hints in his commentary that he may not yet be done with Bond. That another Bond edit or two may lurk in the future. I sure hope so!!! Bring on the Bond!

Thumbs WAY Up!