Same for me. I was in 5th grade (1995). I had always gone to the movies with my mom or uncle. My uncle was a huge Bond fan and my mom had seen them with my dad previously. It was finally time for me to see my first Bond movie. I was hooked. I've since been obsessed with a few things in life, anything James Bond being one of them. In fact, Duran Duran became my favorite band, because of what started as my mom giving me a cassette tape of theirs stating "they sang a Bond theme." I have Goldeneye to thank.

PS- Also, Goldeneye for the N64 is still one of the best videogames ever created.

I have always been a bond fan regarding the films.
Thanks to this thread i picked up Casino Royal and burned through it. Enjoyable
Everything I read mentioned From Russia with Love being the best bond book, so i got it next, about 60% through now.
Really enjoying it, moreso than CR, Though i think i should have went in order now instead of jumping around.
Should I go back and read book 2 after or continue to pick and chose?

Pretty sure the first Bond movie I saw in the theater was "The Spy Who Loved Me."

I'm befuddled. I can't even imagine what it's like to not have Connery be your introduction to Bond.

Goldeneye was the first Bond movie I saw in theaters, although I was a huge fan of the franchise from TV/VHS from like a very young age. When I was a kid, the goofy Roger Moore Bond movies were probably my favorites.

I'm 28 years old. I was 11 when I saw Goldeneye. I do believe Connery is the best though.

Roger Moore started as Bond when I was 5 and continued until I was 17.

Similar. I remember octopussy was the first bond film I was aware of coming out, but I didn't see it in the cinema. Not sure what the first one was I saw in the cinema. Maybe view to a kill, or the living daylights.

Definitely read Live and Let Die (which is the second Bond book anyway). It's a great read (though patronisingly, rather than hatefully, racist), and has story elements referenced in at least 3 of the movies.

The only really weak book IMO is The Spy Who Loved Me, and some of the short stories. Also Thunderball is overlong (as is the movie).

The weirdest one is easily You Only Live Twice, but thats the second to last full novel, so hold off on that one.

The first Bond movie I saw was Diamonds are Forever. I was six.

Been a Bond fan ever since (with a hiatus after seeing Moonraker that lasted until Never Say Never Again)

My favourite movie memory was being taken to see Live and Let Die at the Odeon Leicester Square (London), the cinema it world premiered at, a few days after it premiered, before out went on general release. Wonderful cinema.

I was 8.

Tomorrow Never Dies




An up and down Bond. The down is a poor villain, mediocre henchman, underdeveloped love interest in Teri Hatcher (who is only there to die), and a lot of shots that tend to be dark or shot in dark corners/locations that make it unmemorable/anonymous. The up is a terrific opening sequence, a great chase sequence with Brosnan and Yeoh ending in some great bike/helicopter action, and a decent ending where Yeoh is kicking as much ass as Bond.


69/100

My assumption was always that Teri Hatcher's character was supposed to play a bigger part (she was kinda a big deal at the time, right?) but that there had been a bust up or something behind the scenes and they were left having to just put her in somewhere. I recall having thought the plotting for this was dreadful.

The best part of Tomorrow Never Dies was the song.

also the villain and his plot was awful

The plot was fine as they go in Bond films, it's just the villain was really not well written or performed (I like Pryce, but he was pretty poor as Elliott Carver), and the big blond German henchman had zero presence. And I think the first-unit direction was overdark and/or bland/neutral in choosing the backgrounds. The second-unit action was pretty terrific though.


Another thing I liked was the Professor of Forensics hitman, played by Vincent Schiavelli. He was great. This is him:



I also forgot to note Joe Don Baker popped up again as the character Wade.

db, as an old school Bond fan what do you think of Judi Dench taking over the role of M in the Brosnan era?

At the time, I heard a rumor she was pregnant, so that was why she was barely in the movie.

I thought it was great. Once Bernard Lee died/stopped being M., the M that took over barely registered at all. During that time, I thought M was a blank - though I really liked the M that was in Never Say Never Again, played by Edward Fox.


I thought she was good in the Brosnan era, and transitioned well in the Craig reboot. There's only one thing I didn't like about her, that was a certain line in Goldeneye. The scene went like this:

M: You don't like me, Bond. You don't like my methods. You think I'm an accountant, a bean counter more interested in my numbers than your instincts.
Bond: The thought had occurred to me.
M: Good, because I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.
Bond: Point taken.

so far, so good, even though it's a little obviously written. Then:

M: If you think I don't have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong. I've no compunction about sending you to your death. But I won't do it on a whim, even with your cavalier attitude towards life.

yep all good there, but then as Bond leaves:

M: Bond...Come back alive.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH. The line and even more importantly the way she played it, in a breathless, girlish manner, really pulled the rug out from the toughness of her character. Thankfully, we did see later she was tough but still cared without doing it in such a maudlin, crude way, and she also added the dimension that she was proud of Bond and her staff when they came through.


I liked Dench's M. you do know that these days Dench is slang for cool here in the UK, right? So, yeah, Dench is...Dench.


However, I really am relishing the new M at the end of Skyfall, a guy with a similar background to Bond, but older seems pretty kickass.

Dench quoting Tennyson in Skyfall was just all kinds of awesome. Sad to see her leave, but the new M looks very promising.

Tied for the worst Bond. Man, this one is truly wretched.

It's nowhere near as bad as Quantum of Solace.

I hated Casino Royale myself. Craig ed. James Bond falls in love, James Bond gets completely fooled and James Bond gets his nuts crushed. NO, NO and NO.

But that is a return back to the original novel, right?

Yes, Bond falling in love, getting played, then having his heart crushed was in the book; and it's an integral part of who Bond becomes. Think of "Casino Royale" as a superhero origins story.

Exactly. Hence the term, "reboot."