Sean Connery might be THE James Bond, but Daniel Craig's Bond is my personal favorite. Timothy Dalton wildly underrated - overall I prefer the butch Bonds to the more posh, quippier, prettier ones. and On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best Bond movies ever made.
Indeed.
Daniel Craig, same
I wonder what kind of Bond Patrick McGoohan would have made?
I so agree on Dalton. His energy is so magnetic.
it's tragic that we didn't get a few more outings with him as 007. imho he feels like the Bond who most matches the character's energy in the books.
at least we can see him going absolutely wild as Rhett Butler in the made for TV Scarlett (he's genuinely so good in it)
Hell yeah! That alternate timeline where Goldeneye came out in like 1992 with Dalton lives in my head rent-free.
I really go to bat for The Living Daylights at any opportunity though.
it's weird because I like Goldeneye, but don't really care for any of the other Brosnan movies (I'm 50/50 on Die Another Day) whereas both of Timothy Dalton's movies rock, I am always there for either of them, so a Dalton Goldeneye would be super cool
I love GoldenEye and I like Tomorrow Never Dies, but I feel like maybe growing up with Remington Steele reruns made it hard for me to take Brosnan seriously as Bond (I love Brosnan in general). but yeah, I love both of Dalton's movies
Dalton in GoldenEye could have been great, though we'd likely lose Joe Don Baker unless they heavily lampshaded the repeat casting. I feel like Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough both also improve with Dalton, even though I do like Brosnan generally. Die Another Day is unsalvageable tho
Haha good point about Joe Don Baker! Loved seeing him reappear as a totally different guy 🫡
The more Joe Don Baker the better, I always say
Die Another Day is *hilariously* unsalvageable, and I wouldn't have it any other way
I have grown to appreciate it more, similar to Batman and Robin (which I now realize both are heavily ice themed), but it is still the Bond movie I find the hardest to like. Honestly, Rosamund Pike might be the only part of the movie I enjoy, and she *may* just be enough to put it over Thunderball
That part in the 007 documentary where Brosnan says he remembers Goldeneye and the rest was a blur, that’s me as the audience too (I do remember several things about tomorrow never dies though!).
TND and TWiNE both have their qualities, but I do get a lot of their constituent parts confused from time to time
Man, just picturing how he'd deliver the "no...for me" line.
Agree. He should be a brute. He's a killer, a villain even. He just quite often has to do heroic, sometimes noble things as part of his job. He's the dying fantasy of a fading imperial power. Some terribly ghast conjured up by a desperate state trying to claw its way to relevance in world affairs.
I… agree with this across the board! Was the biggest Dalton fan and always felt he was closest to the book till Craig came along. One of my favorite Bond things is in the beginning of Casino Royale (book) where Ian says “and Bond lit his SEVENTIETH cigarette of the day”!! 70!!!
(Unpopular opinion: Roger Moore was my least favourite Bond and his films my least favourite Bond films.)
it's weird because I love Roger Moore in general but when I was first getting into Bond movies, I felt like his Bond kinda grated. too cheeky for me. I gotta revisit them and give him another chance, but yeah.
Yeah. Moore's Bond is the polar opposite of Ian Fleming's written Bond. To me, the Moore films felt like a mockery of sorts, especially LIVE AND LET DIE and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN because of that stupid Clifton James character, Sheriff J.W. Pepper, from Louisiana or somewhere...
Pretty much agree. I ran through the whole Bond franchise with the Blu boxed set, saw some Bond flicks I even hadn’t seen. There are rare folks who don’t like Craig’s Bond, but I always tell them, he has had the most consistent set of films as Bond. At the very least. He also had Ana De Armas.
She’s my favorite Bond girl of every single one the films have had. And OHMSS is as good as the best Bond films both Connery and Moore have done. Dalton had the pleasure of introducing Bond who uses more than just a pistol to do his dirty work, as well as a vengeful, rogue Bond.
And Brosnan in GoldenEye gave Bond more a flavor that reminded me of if John McClane had been in the military; he had that ‘jump out the window with a firehose wrapped around his waist and a submachine gun’ thing going. His final two as Bond I thought were underrated, Madonna nearly killed DAD.
also, I'd be okay with a woman playing Bond, but I don't think it's the right call. misogyny and imperialism are baked into 007's DNA. and it feels so lazy to turn an iconic fictional dude into a lady - I feel like I'm getting the scraps! give me a Modesty Blaise franchise, or a brand new character.
Atomic Blonde should be franchised out the wazoo.
The sad thing is, they can't do a female James Bond because she would instantly be coded as a bad guy. People just couldn't accept it. I do think that mindset is changing. But, oof. It's taking forever.
We should have at least as many Atomic Blonde movies as we have Johns Wick, that's a huge injustice of the industry.
Yep! He's a tool of imperialist patriarchy, and should remain a white British dude for that reason. Same with Bruce Wayne because generational wealth (I have no issue with poc playing "traditionally" white roles in general)
Plus Blaise has something that Bond doesn’t: a theme song by Sparks! youtu.be/MNvAntvPPxI?...
OHMSS wonderful; I strongly feel the helicopter scene in MI: Fallout is lit & set at a similar time of day as a homage.
Clive Owen: the James Bond who never was James Bond :(
What I love about Dalton is he’s the Bond actor who clearly started off as a stage actor, and he brings that theatre energy to the role, playing Bond as he would a Shakespearean lead. He brings the edge and the humour and the humanity, but there’s a theatricality to it which I adore.