Five Reasons Why... Andrew Loves The James Bond Series

Andrew: So far during our 7 Days of 007 week, Sarah and I have been able to watch and review a James Bond movie every night, but tonight Sarah had to work late, so we’re not going to be able to review one tonight. Instead, I felt like this would be a good chance to share exactly why I love this series so much. I thought about it all day, and these are the Five Reasons Why I love the James Bond Series.

When I was a kid I almost felt like Desmond Llewelyn's Q was
another grandfather to me. That's how often I watched thesefilms.

1.) The Gadgets – Let’s be honest, there isn’t a single guy out there who has seen any of the Bond movies who WASN’T jealous of all the cool gadgets MI6’s Q Branch creates. Off the top of my head I can think of a watch with a laser cutter (GoldenEye), a jetpack (Thunderball), a briefcase with hidden guns and knife (From Russia With Love), the Aston Martin DB5 (Goldfinger),  a magnetic watch (Live and Let Die) and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Bond used Q’s gadgets to get out of jams, to gain information…pretty much anything you can think of (yes, including undressing women!) Q Branch was absent from Daniel Craig’s first two Bond films, but Skyfall sees the character resurrected by Ben Whishaw in a nice modern take on Major Boothroyd. I’m excited to see what inventions he comes up with for 007 in future installments. 

2.) The Girls – Oh c’mon, of course I couldn't leave out the Bond girls. I am a red-blooded male after all. But it’s not just the attractiveness of the Bond girls, it is how they increasingly became stronger female characters as the series progressed. The series has come a long way since Honey Rider’s famous introduction; from Bond girls like Honey and Tatiana from From Russia With Love who were almost nothing more than pretty faces, to Grace Jones’ May Day, Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp and Halle Berry’s Jinx being strong soldiers/spies on par with 007. Craig’s films have been a mixed bag in this regard with Vesper Lynd being a great one, Quantum of Solace’s being absolutely forgettable, and Skyfall has one hit (Naomie Harris’ Eve) and one miss (Berenice Marloh’s Severine).

7 Days of 007: A Two Tickets For... Retro Review of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)

Andrew: Hello readers! It’s Day 4 of our 7 Days of 007 and tonight we watched On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the first Bond movie made without Sean Connery as 007. Connery had decided after You Only Live Twice that he was finished with the role, so the producers moved on with a new actor as their star, and they found George Lazenby. He was a model in a commercial the producers saw and was given an audition, which he won. 

Sarah, now that we’ve seen On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, tell me – what did you think of Lazenby’s portrayal of Bond?

Sarah: At first I was a little skeptical as to whether or not he was going to work, but as the movie progressed I actually didn’t mind him! I actually liked him in the role. I felt he did a good job. Sometimes I feel with Connery that he’s a little too smug, like he knows he can get by on his good looks and his charm. I didn’t get that with Lazenby.

I also found this to be much more action-packed than any of the Connery ones we’ve watched this week. Lazenby does a great job with the action scenes, and that separated him from Connery to me. I thought he did a great job.

A: He’s certainly not the greatest actor in the world, but I thought he did fine for character in his only turn as Bond. Like you, at first I wasn’t sure how he’d fit in the role as he starts off kind of bland, but as the movie goes along he kind of starts to come into the character as his own. We got used to it.

7 Days of 007: A Two Tickets For... Retro Review of "Goldfinger" (1964)

Andrew: Hello readers! It’s Day 3 of our 7 Days of 007, and tonight we concluded our Sean Connery portion of the series by watching the 1964 classic Goldfinger. Sarah, what were your thoughts on it? 

Sarah: I liked From Russia With Love better.

A: And why is that?

S: I can’t quite put my finger on it. I think it’s because I had a hard time with the villain being this chubby white guy from England. I had a tough time because he’s more like the intelligent banker who likes his gadgets versus a villain with some brawn that can hit you where it hurts, like we saw with Robert Shaw’s villain in From Russia With Love.

A: To play Devil’s advocate, Goldfinger’s plan was to hit everyone where it, arguably, hurts more – fiscally.  He wasn’t trying to take over the world, he was just trying to get rich.

S: Yes, there are very different bad guys in these first few movies. I think I like the taking-over-the-world bad guys better for James Bond. It’s just personal preference, and I’m aloud to have a personal preference.

A: Absolutely.

S: I will say though, Pussy Galore is by far the strongest Bond girl so far. She’s a take-no-prisoners girl, although she’s wooed by Bond, but let’s be honest what woman isn’t? Yet she’s still kicking ass and taking names later, and I think that shows a shift in the way women were portrayed in the films and maybe even culture at the time. It was very interesting.

A: Ok, so you weren’t a fan of Auric Goldfinger as a villain, but what did you think of his henchman, Oddjob?

7 Days of 007: A Two Tickets For... Retro Review of "From Russia With Love" (1963)

Andrew: Hello readers! It’s Day 2 of our 7 Days of 007. Yesterday we kicked off our weeklong celebration of Skyfall’s release by watching the very first Bond movie, Dr. No. For our second night I felt it was prudent to have Sarah and I watch the second Bond movie, From Russia With Love. I feel, and it’s generally believed by Bond fans, that From Russia With Love was not only an improvement on Dr. No but is still one of the best films in the franchise. 

So Sarah, now that you’ve seen the first two Bond films on back-to-back nights, how would you compare From Russia With Love to Dr. No?

Sarah: It’s leaps and bounds better. It’s like the filmmakers went back to the source material and decided they needed to choose a certain path to take Bond and go with it. I found that this film was more the Bond we know and love today. He was more a spy, there were more gadgets for him to play with…and you know, we’re introduced to the characters better in the second film.

The villain has an ominous feel to him because you never quite see all of him but you hear his voice. He has these henchmen working for him, we see them, we know what part they play. It’s just so much better than the first one.

They kind of finally figured out the way they wanted to take the series.

A: Now the villain you mentioned, the unseen man who was stroking a white cat, is Ernst Stavro Blofeld – the big baddie in the series. But the actual henchmen that Bond are two SPECTRE agents named Grant, played by a much younger looking Robert Shaw (Jaws), and Rosa Klebb, played by Lotte Lenya.

7 Days of 007: A Two Tickets For... Retro Review of "Dr. No" (1962)

Andrew: Hello readers! In honor of this upcoming Friday’s domestic release of Skyfall, the 23rd (official) entry in the James Bond film series, we are doing a little thing we like to call 7 Days of 007! Each day this week we will be watching and discussing one of seven Bond films I have chosen for this endeavor. 

Essentially, Sarah hasn’t seen any of the Bond films prior to Pierce Brosnan taking over the role of Bond. So I have selected seven pre-Daniel Craig Bond films for us to watch; seven that I have deemed more essential than the others for Sarah’s crash course in 007 history.

To begin our 7 Days of 007 where else would we start but the very beginning with 1962’s Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as everyone’s favorite MI6 agent.

Sarah, just to confirm first: You hadn’t seen ANY of Connery’s Bond films before today, correct?

Sarah: Correct.

A: So I guess the best way to start this off is to ask what your initial thoughts are on Dr. No?

S: My initial thought is that is this is definitely THE original James Bond. Connery has a definite presence about him, he’s very suave, he’s very much a ladies man. But the action aspect of James Bond wasn’t quite there yet in the first film.

The movie is VERY 1960’s. It’s a little cheesy, but other than that it was a great introduction to the character of James Bond on the silver screen.

A: You say it’s “VERY 1960’s.” What do you mean by that?