Britt is okay, but Bach just looks like someone recovering from an eating disorder to me.

Caroline Munro is also very sexy, but was only in The Spy Who Loved Me briefly.

Never Say Never Again




With a title based on the anecdote about Connery signing off of Diamonds Are Forever with the words "Never Again", we have this non-EON Bond, which only came about because of disputed co-authorship of Thunderball - and it's a retread of that particular movie.

This works for me better than the Moore movies of the same era for a number of reasons. Firstly, whilst they are the same age, the 53 year old Connery still looks in good shape (we have numerous shots of his torso to prove it), and is credible as the ageing spy. You can kind of see why women still fancy him. The story has a little more pizzaz than Moore's recent entries before this, and is directed efficiently by Irving Kershner. Kim Bassinger is sexy, but a little too young looking to really suit Connery's persona. M is as mad as a brush as played by Edward Fox, and I do like the Q in this one (here not called Q, but 'Algernon') - they play him as a typical English build-things-in-your-garden-shed practical engineer, and he's nothing but pleased to see Bond. Part of the story is the 00-section have been disbanded, but the emergency means M has to reactivate them, and in Algy's words, "Good to see you Mr. Bond. Things've been awfully dull 'round here. I hope we're going to see some gratuitous sex and violence in this one!"

I like the villains too, the new Largo is played by Klaus Maria Brandauer as a more complex villain than usual, and also Blofeld is nicely underplayed by Max Von Sydow. This Blofeld is a million miles from Doctor Evil, and is more like Moriarty. This is counteracted by a rather good villainess "Fatima Blush", who is deliberately pantomime and fun.

There's some decent set pieces - such as Bond fighting a huge henchman in a health spa (who comically appears to be dispatched by Bond's urine sample, for a brief moment anyway), and a chase involving Bond on a motorbike.

Okay, it wasn't perfect, but after watching several Moores, and feeling less and less interested, it was good to see Connery back.

And you know what, I think I realise why, for me, Connery is the best Bond. I like him. I like watching him. I get why women go for him, other than because the scripts say they should. He has great charisma and charm in the Bond suit. Not many stars can bring that. Off the top of my head, it's maybe Connery and Burt Reynolds that can do that from this era. I can't think of one from this era who can.


Okay it's not perfect, but it's engaging and fun. And Connery helps that an awful lot.

Oh and I prefer it to Thunderball

68/100

okay, to give a brief recap, here's my best and worst SO FAR

BEST MOVIES
1. Live and Let Die
2. OHMSS
3. You Only Live Twice
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. From Russia With Love

WORST MOVIES
1. Moonraker
2. Thunderball
3. Casino Royale ('67)
4. Octopussy
5. For Your Eyes Only

Other bests SO FAR

Favourite main girl: Diana Rigg
Favourite passing girl: Plenty O'Toole
Favourite villain: Blofeld as done by Donald Pleasance
Favourite henchman: Tough, but I have to say Baron Samedi, closely followed by Jaws and Teehee
Favourite set piece: The boat chase in LALD (with apologies to the mountain jump in TSWLM)
Favourite scene: The train scene and fight in From Russia With Love
Favourite song: You Only Live Twice, followed by Live and Let Die

All of the Bond movies are back on Netflix.

I just watched skyfall for the first time last night... wow, what a great movie.
even though the revenge plot was a little "lite" for my tastes, it suffices.

The plot holes are large enough to drive a tanker through, and moneypenny was supremely annoying... still overall is a thumbs up!

Skyfall is pretty amazing. I like the direction they are heading, which is out with the old, in with the new.

Bond went from fuzz butt loose cannon first time agent to aging over the hill horrific marksman in only three films.

I wonder if he still player da pokerz?

Skyfall Bond would never be able to fold a 2nd best hand, even if he knew he was beat.

He'd shove all in on a bluff.

A View To A Kill

Pretty good outgoing entry from Moore. Great villain by Walken, but needed more dialogue, and a nice linear plot. Girl was terrible actress but nice eye candy. Best Moore since The Spy Who Loved Me. I'm glad he went out well, even though I think he should have been replaced after Moonraker.

I liked the song too.

70/100

That was my least favorite Bond movie with Roger Moore.

it's got a good theme song though

Oh yeah! Can't beat Duran Duran. I'm obviously biased though...

Best scene in Skyfall is Bonds tequila shot staring down the scorpion on his forearm. It shows he is a regular guy that can have fun in the crowd. Great movie.

Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming

This is a relatively weak entry in the series. He still writes vividly and excetingly, and it's cool that it's partly set in Las Vegas, but it suffers from some weaknesses. It isn't a great ending (it's adequate), and Bond really misses some obvious clues near the end about men after him without him noticing them - Fleming wrote it in such a way it was blindingly obvious to the reader, but Bond somehow missed it, and he comes across as a bit dopey for missing obvious things. Still a pretty good read though.

My favorite part was when they borke out the old-school Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. I almost cried when they bad guys blew it up. You don't **** with the Bondmobile, I don't care how much of a evil supervillain you are. That's just wrong.

All this talk of Skyfall has me wanting to pop in the blu ray, shake some martinis and enjoy Wolfen's entrance/end scene tonight.

Watching this now and I'm kinda surprised to see a boob complete with nipple.

1:35 in when 007 rips her bikini top off.

Diamonds always seems to catch shyte on the fan base... personally I love that movie!

The Living Daylights 67/100


Dalton's first outing suffers from a weak couple of villains and a convoluted script, but some great stunts in here. Dalton comes off as a pro spy, but replaces relaxed coolness with brooding, even angry, tension. Much closer to the literary Bond than any previous incarnation, imo.

The love interest, Miriam D'Abo, is very attractive in a doe-eyed waif way, but to me the most memorable parts of the movie are the stunts near the end, especially the fight while hanging out of a transport plane - very spectacular.

The end of that clip is one of the most gloriously unconvincing action sequences ever. I love how the scalpel hitting the henchman sounds just like a throwing knife hitting a wooden board.

I do like the "welcome to hell" line though

Diamonds was the start of the extra-campy James Bond era, so a lot of people aren't going to like it for that. I always hated the setting: Las Vegas just isn't a great setting for a Bond movie, they should have set it in Monte Carlo or someplace more exotic.

On the plus side, the theme song is solid, and the creepy assassin duo is legit. There's also Bambi and Thumper.