Off Topic: Bond, James Bond. Good, Bad & Indifferent

For several years, I have generally rated the various James Bonds in the following order. Connery, Moore, Brosnan, fairly sizeable gap, Dalton, daylight, Lazenby...

I spent most of last week laid low by a lurgy, and so dusted off the Bond DVD collection to watch (and sleep) my way through most of them (not the Woody Allen "Casino Royale", or Connery's "Never Say Never Again"). I was amazed at how my perception of the actors and their movies changed in such a marathon setting.

Connery - still class, performances still shine, great mix of dry wit and suspense, but the stunts look a bit lamer than I remembered them being. Given their vintage though, the movies still stack up niceley.

Lazenby - much better than I remembered. Hampered by being the bloke who took over after Connery, and a dud script, despite the book being one of the best.

Moore - Oh. My. God. When seen in this context, he was just crap. Instead of keeping the witty comments to a couple a film, by 'For Your Eyes Only' he was seemingly delivering ine every second time he said something. The stunts just look terrible - it's obvious that it's not him, and he scores the honour for possible the most cringe-inducing Bond scene ever, the car chase in 'Octopussy' with Indian tennis player-turned-actor Vijay Armritraj driving. Something that was funny to me as a teenager, but now just looks sh!t. To be fair, I suspect the producers weren't really sure what they were tryting to achieve with Moore's movies, other than 'bigger, louder, more spectacular...'

Dalton - A complete change in direction, that wound up going too far. The largely sex-free Bond doesn't work, and the harder edge took the movies into the 'Die Hard' or Steven Segal area. Licence to kill works well as an action movie, but not as well as a Bond title. Still, he was better than just about everything Moore turned up in.

Brosnan - Really good. Still not at Connery's standard, but the mix was just about right. The witty throw-away lines were almost exculsively back to where they should have been, as asides, not as feature lines. He looks really funny whenever he runs. The invisible car was a step too far though.

Craig - Has the potnetial to go on to be the best Bond. Not there yet, but has the advantage in that the producers have decided to reinvent the series, setting the movies at the start of Bind's career, albeit in a mind-and-time-bending way with him starting his career in the 21st century. The witty lines in Casino Royale were in the right places, and the action sequences looked great. His Bond style seems to be somewhere between the Connery original and Dalton's hard-ass.

So, reserving the right not to include Daniel Craig yet, becase things could go horribly worng for him yet, here are my revised Bond rankings.

1. Connery
2. Brosnan
3. Lazenby
4. Dalton
5. Moore

Zog, check your PMs here or at TB, pls.

1) Connery, but a very close second.....
2) Brosnan
3) Moore
4) Lazenby
5) Dalton
6) Craig

skully wrote:Zog, check your PMs here or at TB, pls.

Checked.

Cheers.

I'm not really into Bondage, I'm afraid.

Apparently Dan Craig is good. Even Mark Kermode agrees.

Connery
Craig
Brosnan

Moore was always cringeworthy.

As for the 'popular' rest, the less said the better.

But for me, the ultimate actor who played Bond (note, not 'Bond worthy' actors, but actors who stumbled into the Bond roles) was Niven in the satire Casino Royale. Remember?

How could you guys forget David "The Moon's a balloon' Niven?

For those who do not know, 'The Moon's A Balloon' is the funniest autiobio ever written. Hell, it almost lays claim to literature.

Connery
Craig
Dalton
Brosnan
Lazenby
Moore

The Roger Moore era was a seriously bad time for James Bond. Bond is best when he's a bastard - not when he's a camp

I did a similar thing to Zat when I was laid low last year and watched all the Bonds again.

From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service really stood out above the pack for me. If Connery had been in the latter I have no doubt it would be the undisputed number one for everybody. Lazenby's a bit wooden, and his one-liners don't come off, but he nails the action.

I liked Dalton's Bond because I'm a fan of the novels. Dalton played it like the man Ian Fleming wrote about.

Brosnan would have been better if he had better scripts, but I always felt his era was always in danger of slipping back into Roger Moore camp.

Craig was great in Casino Royale - the only other man to have the presence of Connery.

Looking at the thread title ... Lee van Cleef as Bond?

Might have shaken the stiff old boy up (whether stirred or not).

All of the Bond's pre Craig look outdated now. The Bourne movies redefined what was expected of 21st century action films, and forced the creators of Bond to be more edgy, modern, realistic, and dark.

I don't mind Roger Moore. Mainy because his Bond movies were the one's I seemed to watch most when I was growing up- Octopussy, For your eyes only, The spy who loved me..... Sure, they're outdated now, Moore's fake tan looks ridiculous, and the one liners are cringeworthy, but it still brings back memories of my youth, and the exchanges between Bond and Q in the secret MI-6 gadget labs are still genuinely funny.

I don't mind Roger Moore.

Now there is a surprise.

Moore was camp but my two favourite Bond films star him.

furriner wrote:Connery
Craig
Brosnan

Moore was always cringeworthy.

As for the 'popular' rest, the less said the better.

But for me, the ultimate actor who played Bond (note, not 'Bond worthy' actors, but actors who stumbled into the Bond roles) was Niven in the satire Casino Royale. Remember?

How could you guys forget David "The Moon's a balloon' Niven?

For those who do not know, 'The Moon's A Balloon' is the funniest autiobio ever written. Hell, it almost lays claim to literature.

Lazenby was very underrated, but the first successor to Connery was always going to get nailed.

He wasn't forgotten, Zat mentioned in in the the first thread.

And yes, the good was good, as was the follow up.

And I thought I was one of the few who felt Moore as Bond was cringeworthy...

Brosnan was good, Connery was the best.

Craig was good as well, though I was more interested in Eva Green throughout the whole film, when she was in a scene, and waiting for her to come on when she wasn't.

lazenby was woeful

horace wrote:lazenby was woeful

Have you ever rewatched it?

i would rather have new holes made in my gut for the various bags I fully deserve to the point of looking like a colander than watch another 5 minutes of lazenby or moore for that matter...i thought dalton and brosnan were ok

horrie in 'I'm a stubborn old bastard who's well set in my ways' shocker.

I don't think I've seen either (it was two, wasn't it?) of the Tim Dalton Bond films.

The franchise was rather sad and stale by that stage, IMHO. Pierce Brosnan rather breathed new life into it, and I think both Golden Eye and Tomorrow Never Dies are pretty decent.

Daniel Craig might make a good Bond, but I was bored by Casino Royale.

JD, worth watching Licence to Kill, a most atypical Bond film, but a good action movie.

Subtle humour: there's a bit during a truck chase where bullets ricocheting off a truck with Bind hanging on to it do so in the Bond Theme melody.

I'll keep an eye out for it - I would like to complete the set and see all the films at least once.

It was actually a fun exercise to watch them all in one week. Mind you, it got a bit trying by Moonraker and Octopussy. I'd suggest not doing it while ill though.

I usually watch Back to the Future when I'm ill.

Don't know why - it just perks me up a bit.

A good trilogy to spend a poorly day in front of.

taipan wrote:

horace wrote:lazenby was woeful

Have you ever rewatched it?

Barely noticed Lazenby ... Rigg was the star.