Manic Expression

As one of those in the minority who hated Adele's offering with a vengeance, I have often been asked who I would instead have asked to have done the theme song for SkyFall. 

As much as I'd love to change certain choices, I accept begrudgingly that I can't. So tonight, I have decided to share with you lovely lot who I would love/have loved to have done a Bond song at one point in their careers. Not as replacements, but just in general.

MUSE

Seeing as Seth MacFarlane's second (and best) show, American Dad is about a CIA agent, it was only natural that they would do a Bond parody at one point. This became a reality with the release of the Season 4 opener, Tearjerker.

Agent Stan Smith is sent to investigate why every movie star in the world (except Sylvester Stallone) is agreeing to appear in terrible movies directed by Tchochkie Schmear, a known former arms dealer. What Stan discovers is a terrible plot to destro...

And so we come to one year of my time on this site. It has been a good year and I hope to continue to have many good years on this site. But that left me thinking, what should I do on my one year anniversary of being a part of Manic Expression? Well I think we should take a look at where it all began, and by that I mean we look at the original James Bond feature, the 1954 TV movie Casino Royale.

After an attempt on his life, Combined Intelligence agent Jimmy Bond must win a ...

Eight years after the first Johnny English film was released and acheived only moderate success, Rowan Atkinson announced a sequel. Considering that the dynamic of James Bond films changed drastically since the first film, would Johnny English change to suit this too?

After a botched mission in Mozambique, disgraced British agent Johnny English spends his life training in a Shaolin school in the mountains of Tibet in the hope for redemption, however when MI7 learns of a plot...

The year was 2003 and Rowan Atkinson had probably crashed one of his supercars and thus needed the money for another. Mr. Bean wasn't bringing in much and Blackadder was sadly long forgotten in the annals of history. So he decided to get in on that sweet, sweet Austin Powers runoff, thanks to a series of Barclaycard ads ten years beforehand.

After the deaths of every agent in Great Britain, bumbling clerk Johnny English is promoted to the role of field agent and is tasked wi...

And so we come to the last of the Matt Helm films (even though a fifth one, 'The Ravagers' was promised over the end titles) released in late 1968/early 1969 as the Bond spoof started to go out of fashion, would the fact this is the last one be a good thing or not?

After the theft of a billion dollars worth of gold bullion, ICE super agent Matt Helm is sent to Denmark in order to find out who took it, before the culprit uses it to crash the world economy. With only 48 hours ...

Once again we return to 1967. Where Bond spoofs, knock-offs and wannabes were cluttering up the cinemas world wide. But would the latest Matt Helm flick be able to stand up to You Only Live Twice, or even it's lower punching rivals?

After the theft of a US built flying saucer (yes, you read right!) during its maiden flight, Matt Helm is sent down Mexico way to investigate who the perpetrator is and what his motive is. The only clue being locked away in the traumatised mind o...

The second Matt Helm film was released just 10 months after the original, which just goes to show how much faith Hollywood had in the franchise, or how quick they work, or something. All I'm asking really is, is this an example of a rush job, or of a worthy follow-up to the fun yet dated 'The Silencers'?

Matt Helm is dead! Or at least it's made to look that way as ICE fakes his death at the hands of Miss January from the girly calender he was taking photos for in order for H...

With all the press and hype around James Bond during the period known as 'Bondmania' it was only natural for some celebrities to want to get in on the action, in 1966 drunken Rat Pack member Dean Martin decided he'd have a shot at it, but will this film be one of the few exceptions to the rule about singers acting?

Intellegence and Counter Espionage agent Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is coaxed out of retirement (surprise!) in order to investigate the shady activites of  terr...

The Secret of Mamo was the first feature length film based on the characters from the apparently popular manga Lupin The Third, who is (according to the story) the descendant of legendary French master thief Arsene Lupin. Although a master thief himself, Lupin III obviously took a lot of cues from the character of James Bond, with his elaborate gadgets, near invulnerability as well as his womanising ways (although here it's played more for laughs).

When Lupin discovers that ...

1967 seemed to be a golden year for James Bond parodies and spoofs, yet with all those entries, THIS one was the one that EON were fretting about. Whether it was because the James Bond name was used or it boasted star power that included the likes of David Niven, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles I don't know. All I know is that they really needn't have worried.

Sir James Bond is coaxed out of retirement to lead MI6 in a mission against evil organisation SMERSH, so he sends sec...

If ever a 'foreign' (i.e Non American) film ever garners a massive appreciation then more often than not, Hollywood will attempt to remake it, to varying success. So seeing as it's Valentine's Day, I decided to take a look at both versions of the best romantic film of all time, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and compare them to see which one was better.

Best Blomkvist?

Mikael Blomkvist is very much the main protagonist, and therefore needs to be both engaging a...

Although many spoofs were obviously that, parodies of James Bond movies or tropes, I'm not sure where this one lies on the parody scale. I genuinely believe that the Italians were looking to rip-off James Bond with O.K Connery (known as Operation Kid Brother in the UK, Operation Double 007 in the US and Secret Agent 00 in various other markets), yet the way it played out lead to a more parodical feeling. 

After the death of a Secret Agent, England's greatest spy is call...

The second Flint movie was released just a year after the first, and coincided with both You Only Live Twice, the new James Bond film, and Casino Royale, the other parody but one that actually used the character of James Bond. Using the powers of hindsight, we know that this film couldn't be worse than Casino Royale (1967) but would it match up to the real thing?

After becoming confused regarding a missing 3 minutes while playing golf with the US president, ZOWIE head honcho...

I love Sim City.

Ever since I first got the original Sim City installed on my Windows 98 I loved the creativity and sense of achievement the games could garner from me, and on every successive game the creativity and satisfaction garnered increased measurably upto the release of Sim City 4, where the Internet came into play and added a whole new dimension to this type of game, supplying custom made buildings and mods that made the game so much more addicting and fun as well ...

After last weeks article about my favourite James Bond parodies, Les and Big Black Hat Man both asked me about the absence of one Mr. Derek Flint. Honestly I had not seen the films hence the non-appearance on the list.

However, after hearing the praise it got from both men, it got me interested and hence I made a conscious effort to look for the films. I found Our Man Flint in it's entirety (although in two parts) on YouTube's less evil twin, DailyMotion. Let's give it a wat...

Being a 50 year old film franchise that has had such a drastic effect on the pop culture scene globally, the James Bond movies will no doubt pick up a few imitators and people poking fun at elements of the various films and concepts. From newspaper cartoons to sketch shows to whole films dedicated to lampooning tropes that appear, the James Bond franchise has no shortage of spoofs and parodies.

But which ones are my favourites? I hear no-one asking. Well tough, you're gettin...

What? I hear you say? The BAFTA's? Why not the Oscars? Well the BAFTAs are coming first and they are still an important step in the run-up to the Oscars, besides, every one is commenting on the Academy Awards at the minute, so I'm going to do something different, however I may have a 'picks' entry for them at a later date.

So on we go.

BEST FILM

The big award that every one wants is of course, best film, although it's strange that i...

Hi guys, I've managed to get on a computer with t'Interwebs for a bit around my Nan and Grandad's house and I've decided to use it to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

I've been on this site for nearly a year now and I have enjoyed every minute of it, the sense of community we have built up in such a short time is simply astonishing! I never thought that I would ever be a regular guest on a podcast show when I joined up and I never guessed I would get such an large audience t...

Phineas and Ferb is one of those fabled cartoon shows that has a large following in both adult and children's audiences, so much so I'm actually ashamed that I've never actually watched it until I found out that Fusionater was my Secret Santee!

One character stood out to me straight away and his name was Platypus. Perry The Platypus (or Agent P), the double life living secret agent marsupial who day in, day out fights the threat of the not-necessarily-evil-but-still-rather-...