B5Erik

I missed this comment years ago, but it's worth discussing...

YES. Dalton (a 35 year old Dalton) would have been absolutely perfect as Bond in OHMSS. Dalton's take on Bond totally resonated with me once I saw Licence To Kill. I liked him, but wasn't sold on him in The Living Daylights (it was a huge change in acting style from Roger Moore), but after Licence To Kill came out I got it. Then I went back and re-watched The Living Daylights and loved his performance in that one. It just took me another movie to really get it and appreciate what he was doing with the character.

And you hit the nail on the head with your assessment of his performances as Bond. I would add this, too - he's a little burned out. He's been through so much that he just doesn't give a shit about following orders or trying to win points with his boss. He hates the politics of his job by that point, and he just wants to do what he has to do to get the job done right. And as you saw when the other agent was killed by that sliding door in TLD he really cared about his fellow agents. Dalton's performances were amazingly nuanced. He's still my favorite Bond.

Craig took a lot of the personality traits and characteristics of Dalton's Bond and put his own spin on them, but that's the same guy. I wasn't sold on Craig after the first movie, either. Ironically, it was Quantum of Solace that won me over to Craig's take on Bond. (I initially liked him to a point in Casino Royale, but I wasn't sold on him right away - just like Dalton.)

Decker

Man it kills me that there's one more Bond film, totally done and just sitting in the can waiting for theaters to be safe again. Whenever I am safely able to go, I really look forward to it.

B5Erik

I just re-watched Die Another Day for the first time since the first Blu Ray release last night, and I was shocked.

I liked it.

The over the top ridiculous stuff is still over the top ridiculous, but it does fit in with a You Only Live Twice/Moonraker world, while the first hour fits in with the Dr. No/From Russia With Love/For Your Eyes Only/Licence To Kill world. And there is kind of a transition period where the movie shifts in tone (about 50 minutes in), so it isn't totally jarring.

It's still not a great movie, but definitely better than I remembered (pretty good, really, even if significantly flawed in spots). I'll gladly watch it again in a couple years.

OldBoy

i always liked DAD, that had a great ice chase sequence and despite Madonna's horrible tidbit...

dvd-4-life

I thought Golden Eye was Brosnan's best Bond movie followed by DAD while his middle two rank among the worst Bond movies.

OldBoy

Yes, GoldenEye is superior. I kinda like The World is Not Enough, but I can see why it’s maligned. Don’t remember shit about Tomorrow except Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and her and Bond on a motorcycle doing something crazy...

Mike86

I stand by my original vote of Goldfinger being my favorite. It’s just a classic and a lot of fun to watch. Dalton I think is my favorite overall Bond though. Such a shame he only had the two films.

Hokeyboy

Eight years later, From Russia With Love still owns. But I recently rewatched Dr. No -- which I always enjoyed a good deal -- and was surprised at home much I fucking LOVED it. Both it and FRWL are amazing adaptations of the novels. It's too bad that afterward, for the most part, they went their own way (with exceptions, like OHMSS and Casino Royale).

Here's how I'm currently ranking them (in order):

From Russia With Love
Skyfall
Casino Royale
Dr. No
Goldfinger
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Living Daylights
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The World Is Not Enough
For Your Eyes Only
Tomorrow Never Dies
Live and Let Die
Thunderball
Goldeneye
License To Kill
Spectre
Octopussy
Moonraker
You Only Live Twice
Quantum of Solace
Die Another Day
The Man With The Golden Gun
A View To A Kill
Diamonds Are Forever

OldBoy

I want to do a Craig marathon, especially see Skyfall again, give Spectre another chance, but really dreading Solace as I remember not liking it or understanding it or whatever. But I’ll see...

dfmaverick2

It seems like the ones that I watch the most are
Goldfinger
On Her Majestys Secret Service
For Your Eyes Only
Casino Royale

Many seemed to rip on OHMSS back in the day because of Lazenby, but that one was always my favorite to watch. Maybe Diana Rigg was the reason.

Mike86

Dr. No is quite good. I always remembered liking it, but hadn’t seen it for quite a while before this year.

One thing I was surprised at watching the first three again recently is how they tie into each other. I hadn’t seen the Connery films in a while (still haven’t seen all of them I realize), but I kind of always thought the continuity was non-existent.

While the films can stand alone there are references spread throughout at least those three. I need to watch the others. Prime Video had them all and my girlfriend and I were streaming them there, but sadly they were removed. I need to either buy the ones I’m missing or wait until they’re available to stream again.

Hokeyboy

OHMSS is great despite Lazenby.

That flying uppercut move... ugh...

wishbone

I like how Lazenby falls on his opponent after the punch.

d2cheer

Licence to Kill- Dalton owned that movie and got me back interested in Bond and it is such a lean mean flick. Of course it was his last one and I think did poorly at the Box Office.

It is too hard to rank the earlier ones with Moore and Connery has a favorite to me most are great. Although A View to a Kill is probably my favorite Bond song.

It may have also been that I had not seen a Bond film in the theater since Moonraker until I went to Licence to Kill.

Hokeyboy

That just made me realize; I didn't see a Bond movie in theaters between Octopussy (1983) and Goldeneye (1995). Twelve years!! Of course, that ended up being only three movies in between. THREE!

For the 13 year period of 1962-1974 (non-inclusive of Dr. No and The Man With The Golden Gun), there were seven Bond films. SEVEN!

That's a lot of entertainment!