iPod Touch controlled RX-8

Pretty impressive when you think about it especially the fact its done through Wi Fi meaning you could technically start the car from any corner of the planet!

Kinda of reminds me of the BMW 750iL from the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies that was remote controlled through his Song Ericson mobile phone.



Although if it could in fact drive the car with the WiFi that means that a ten year old Bond gadget would look hopelessly lo-tech.

why James Bond should have died with the Cold War

Ever watch Dr No and think "wow this is really old and completely out of context in today's world" well its true in one sense but the truth is that the 1960's were when spies were cool and that's when James Bond was at his best.

Remember From Russia With Love which followed in 1963?
The whole move was basically Bond just going around kicking commie ass, and Goldfinger, well if you haven't seen it there is something seriously wrong with you.

The Connery era which started the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis were truly the best and made in the most relevant time, counting out George Lazenby Roger Moore was to follow, and I'm sorry but everybody knows that during this time Bond was an absolutely twat, but the stories were relevant for the time, for instance the 1983 film Octopussy concerned the detonation of a nuclear bomb on a West German air base, and in the end Bond crashes the circus there by dressing as a clown.



Moore made Bond look like an idiot, and a pervert at the same time considering most of the women in his era where young enough to be his grand daughters!

Timothy Dalton took the role as Bond in a more serious approach, The Living Daylights made in 1987 was a good movie, however it has dated quickly considering that at one stage Bond joined the Mujahideen (today's Taliban is a dissident of them) to fight Soviets forces.

In 1989 License To Kill dealt with the bad guy a major drugs dealer in South America, the movie was very good but didn't gross that much money, the producer of the Bond movies since 1962 (Albert R. Broccoli) died shortly later, the Berlin Wall had come down and the Cold War had ended, the series went into a hiatus.

Pierce Brosnans first movie Goldeneye seemed to try and make up a credible threat, spies in the 90's weren't cool, that's final, and they even had Bond level half of Saint Petersburg with a tank, which was kinda cruel when you think about it.



The bad guys base consisted of a satellite receiver for a Goldeneye satellite hidden in an artificial lake!

Tomorrow Never Dies was about a media typhoon who uses a stealth boat to 'make the news', by forcing the west and the Peoples Republic of China closer to war by using stealth to use a sea drill to sink British ships, there's one big hole there, how did the cooperation manage to buy a stealth boat, and further how did nobody know about it?



The World Is Not Enough had a modest enough plot, Die Another Day however shows another media typhoon who buys a large laser like satellite to create an artificial sun, he promises to do nothing bad with it, apart from melting his ice palace to kill two people, yeah two people for Christ sake instead of just shooting them!!!



He then uses it to start destroying the 38th Parallel kills Bond and gets away with it, (just kidding, good won at the end of the day).

Casino Royale however has started to reboot the series into something that was (in 2006) a lot more promising for today's world, showing Bond not as a super hero spy, but a good one who makes mistakes, and has weaknesses and feels pain.

Quantum of Solace however is the worst Bond movie ever to come out, there I said it, the movie can't seen to identify itself or who Bond is, is he Jason Bourne in the Bourne Supremacy or is he James Bond?

What the series will bring next I don't know, but I doubt it will be of the quality of Casino Royale, or anything before 1989!

Bond movie franchise faithful to the books

A friend of mine recently thought that the Bond movies were exactly like the books, how wrong he was in the end.

Here I list all 14 Bond novels and 2 short stories to see how exactly like the movies of the same name they are.

Casino Royale: Back in 2006 the first seemingly faithful Bond movie Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig was made, roughly 80% of it is faithful to the novel. It is obviously updated from to a post Cold War setting.

Live And Let Die: The 1973 Roger Moore movie had the voodoo parts, Mr. Big the crime boss and drugs but the rest of it was completely made up.

Moonraker: Written way before Star Wars the book contained a man named Drax who ran rockets in the UK to defend against Russia (basically done up V2's), obviously they don't go into space like in the movie and have big Star Wars like laser fights.

Diamonds Are Forever: The same Bond girl who does diamond smuggling is in the movie and so are the homosexual killers, the rest of the real movie involves diamond lasers and an oil rig!

From Russia With Love: From Russia With Love the movie is nearly exactly the same as the novel (probably because Ian Fleming was still around at the time.

Dr. No: Again very like the novel except there was more action in the novel (that's a switch), and as far as I remember even involved a scene where Bond and Ryder steal that flaming dragon car thing and escape off the island using it (that would have been awesome if it had been in the movie).

Goldfinger: That famous laser scene that was about to melt Bond's balls in half in the movie was actually a buzz saw in the book (ouch), the golf scene in the movie is exactly the same as in the book but in the book they actually planned to steal the gold from Fort Knox instead of nuke it.

Thunderball: Nearly identical to the book but still has some minor differences that can still be ignored since Fleming himself helped write the screen play!

The Spy Who Loved Me: The novel only featured a minor character with steel teeth that involved into the killer Jaws, didn't involve the ship that could swallow up submarines or the submarine Lotus.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service: George Lazenby's only outing as James Bond was again very like the book except again added in action.

You Only Live Twice: You Only Live Twice (the film) was made as a movie before On Her Majesty's Service and the whole point of the book was Bond getting revenge off Blofeld for killing his wife, it like the novel is set in Japan but instead of a final showdown at a castle the final showdown is in a hollowed volcano, with ninjas fighting off goons in orange jumpsuits.

The Man With The Golden Gun: The book featured an assassin who possessed a golden gun and a third nipple, that was about it!

The Living Daylights: It wasn't a novel but a short story and is pretty much the same as the start of the movie of the same name.

So there you have it, in some cases completely faithful and at other times it appeared the directors went off on their own accord!