Ok, so I'm not really a James Bond fan at all. I've never really been able to get into any of the movies. I've just seen snippets when they had a marathon on TNT or whatever. They just seemed to be, to me anyways, too full of action and "gadgets" and not so good on the story side. I saw Goldeneye a long, long time ago and didn't think that was too bad. Anyway, I saw Casino Royale at a free screening my friend had and I really liked this movie. For the most part it was pretty realistic and didn't rely on gadgets. I was just wondering if any of the other Bond films are in the same vein and are kind of like Casino Royale. I'd really like to see more of Bond but I just wanna know which are the better ones to see or which ones are along the lines of Casino Royale. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Opinions very, but the general idea is that Casino Royale is more like the Dalton Bonds, particularly License to Kill, and some of the early Connery Bonds. I'd also throw in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which featured George Lazenby in the title role.

I'm not a huge fan of License to Kill as a movie, but I would recommend Thunderball, Goldfinger, and From Russia with Love as good choices among the Connery Bonds. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is also a favorite of mine. I like Live and Let Die most among Moore Bond films, although I'm probably alone of that so I wouldn't put it at the top of my recommendation list. The Moore movies probably aren't what you're looking for anyway, but if you want to get one I'd choose The Spy Who Loved Me or maybe For Your Eyes Only. As for the Brosnan Bonds, Goldeneye blows the rest away and is from the same director as Casino Royale. That's a brief overview.

For me CR had a vibe that was more similar to From Russia With Love, License To Kill, and On Her Majestys Secret Service.

Bond is less of a superman in these films. All good movies too , imo.

Yep, those are my top 3 favorite Bond movies, although not in that order. Another really good "real world" Bond flick is For Your Eyes Only, the best of the Moore entries IMO.

The ones that follow their Fleming novels closely (although minor changes understandably) that use little to no gadgets:
From Russia with Love- My favorite Bond. Attache case w/ ejecting knife, fold-out sniper rifle, tear-gas if opened wrong
Dr. No- My 2nd favorite. No gadgetry
On Her Majesty's Secret Service- No gadgetry

I'll also recommend "From Russia with Love".

INCLUDES ACTUAL SPYING!


I dunno why people always dissed OHMSS....Lazenby was a good Bond.

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate it! Now another question, Is it possible to get individual Bond movies or do I have to buy a set of some kind?

eBay

Otherwise, you have to buy them in sets. Volume 3, which comes out in December, only has one questionable movie (Live and Let Die). The others in the set: From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only and Goldeneye are all considered jewels of their respective eras.

And even Live and Let Die is enjoyable with Jane Seymour in her prime.

In all fairness though the era of "For Your Eyes Only" (the 80's) is considered by many to be the weakest of the series.

Lowering box-office returns led to lowering budgets which didn't exactly help the mediocre direction of John Glen, who unfortunately directed more Bond films than any other director (he did all 5 of the 80's Bond films).

"For Your Eyes Only" and "The Living Daylights" aren't bad but they certainly could have been a hell of a lot better. The other three he made ("Octopussy", "A View To A Kill" and "License To Kill") are definitely towards the bottom of the franchise.

that is exactly how I feel thats why these are my favorite Bond movies. The only thing i would change is switch Liscence To Kill with Dr. No. The semi doing a weelie just kills it for me.

For me The spy who loved me is Probably the best Moore Bond movie.

No one gives Diamonds Are Forever its proper credit. An amazing movie with twists and turns that the average person can follow!!!!!!!!

If you're looking for the more "realistic" (and those should be BIG quotation marks), then I'd agree with these recommendations that have already been listed:

Licence to Kill - GREAT Bond movie, don't listen to the naysayers, this one has a very strong following among Bond fans who prefer Fleming's Bond (more in line with Casino Royale).

From Russia With Love - A great movie, period. Tough, realistic - the template from which Casino Royale (the movie) has descended. Definitely a product of it's time, but it holds up VERY well.

For Your Eyes Only - Like Casino Royale? This is as close as Roger Moore's films got to that. No nonsense (well, maybe a little with the pre-credits sequence), a great plot, and some great acting (really - Topol is always great, and Moore nails Bond in this one).

The Living Daylights - A little larger in scale, and maybe just 10 minutes too long, but a really good, more realistic Bond movie. And it's one of the best of the series.

Dr. No - A larger than life plot to be foiled by Bond, but a no-nonsense delivery of the story. No gadgets, but Connery is already in fine form in the first Bond movie. And Ursula Andresss - DAMN!!!!

On Her Majesty's Secret Service - An underrated movie, and George Lazenby was an underrated Bond. Some minor plot points show that this was made in 1969, but overall a very good, very low nonsense Bond movie.

Thunderball, Goldeneye, Goldfinger, and The World Is Not Enough may also work as well if you like the movies listed above.

Good stuff.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of For Your Eyes Only, but it's pretty good. My problem with it is that I consider it to largely be a remake of From Russia with Love. Take From Russia with Love, throw in the Havelocks from the For Your Eyes Only short story and you get this movie. Don't get me started on how superior Kerim Bey is to Columbo...

That's not forgetting Bill Conti's horrific Disco score.

It is amazing.

It is amazing that somehow Sean Connery got stuck doing a movie that's just as bad a some of Moore's worst movies.

Worth it for the "Plenty O'Toole quip" and thats it.

This was just on the SpikeTV Bond marathon. It is one of the weaker Bond films IMO. Completely agree about the score, it's awful.

I'll second the Diamonds Are Forever nomination. The other interesting thing I notice about this thread is the condemnation of "gadgetry." I thought a lot of the gadgets were well done up until the Brosnan era.

To me, the biggest difference between the Brosnan Bonds and the ones that came before it was the noise. If you watch one of those Bond marathons, you'll notice how many quiet, subtle scenes there are in previous Bonds. The Brosnan crap was always set on loud.

I'll second the "Diamonds Are Forever sucked" nomination.

Seriously, how can anyone defend this movie? It had the worst Blofeld, one of the worst Bond girls, one of the worst Felix Leiters, a ridiculous plot, horrible FX, one of the biggest continuity errors in the series(the Vegas car chase), and Sean Connery looking old, tired, bored, and bloated.

It didn't help that it followed On Her Majesty's Secret Service, one of the series' best entries, and proceeded to ignore everything that happened in that film.

John Barry's excellent score is about all that salvaged the movie.

You forgot to mention it includes the lamest and most nonthreatening henchmen in the entire Bond series.

Wasn't there a scene where Blofield tells Bond not to touch the tape player, Bond touches it anyway, and Blofield gets pissed because Bond did exactly what he was told not to do?


The "Plenty O'Toole" introduction is the only scene i like in that movie.

Plenty: Hi, I'm Plenty!
Bond: (looking at her chest) But of course you are.
Plenty: Plenty O'Toole
Bond: Named after your father perhaps?

So bad its good.

I usually just cue up the theme to OHMSS during the ski chase. It almost fits perfectly.

Yeah I just love running to my stereo to cue alternate music while watching a movie.

I also find that it's more enjoyable to put a second TV next to the one playing a John Glen 80's Bond movie so that I can watch something that doesn't look like a direct-to-video b-movie when Glen's complete mediocrety as a director becomes too much to bear, which is pretty much any given moment in any of his 5 Bond flicks.

Just plain bad, IMO. Only thing that keeps me from forgetting about it is Shirley Bassey's theme song. It's one of my most favorites.

I was referring to that particular exchange between Bond and Plenty as being "so bad it's good".

The movie flat out blows.

Machine gun fire was one of the reasons.

I don't know if it's ever been pointed out before, but prior to the Brosnan era, Bond only picked up a machine gun twice. Only twice. Once during OHMSS when Bond and company were storming Piz Gloria, and later in Octopussy when Moore was sliding down the staircase bannister fro a comedy bit. Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s Bond relied on his Walther or his bare hands.

But in every Brosnan flick there's the obligatory "Bond mows down a horde of baddies with a machine gun" scene.

Ah, DAF is a guily pleasure of mine. Mr Wint & Mr Kidd are more creepy than threatening (one of 'em is Cripin Glover's dad. Guess his son inherited his penchant for weird roles.), Charles Grey is very droll as Blofeld, and Jill St John is very easy on the eyes in a bikini. Also features one of John Berry's better scores.

What is the point of a "creepy" henchman?

Especially when facing off against a super spy who has taken down henchmen far more menacing.