Bond, Bullets, And Nanobots: A Look Back At The James Bond Film 'No Time To Die'

Although I’m an Ian Fleming aficionado and I love his Bond novels, and I’m a fan of the Sean Connery Bond films from the 1960s, I not as big a fan of the later Bond films.

But I watch them.  

I recently rewatched the James Bond film No Time To Die on cable TV. I went to the movie theater to see the film when it first came out and I wrote a column on the film in October of 2021.

You can read my Crime Beat column below:

I ventured out last week to see the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die (perhaps it should have been called No Time To Think of a Better Title). 

I haven’t been to a movie theater in years, preferring to watch films on TV at home even before COVID 19, but I wanted to see this film on the big screen, even though I fully expected to hate it. 

Instead, I came away with a mixed review of the film. 

As I’ve noted here before, I became an Ian Fleming aficionado when I bought and read all of the Bond novels as a teenager in the early 1960s after seeing Sean Connery as Bond in the first two Bond films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love. 

Reading the Fleming novels, I was surprised and pleased that the thrillers were darker, more complicated, and more interesting than the films. 

I did not initially like the selection of actor Daniel Craig for James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, as he did not fit Fleming’s physical description, but I was glad that the producers had returned to making true thrillers rather than the silly, action-comedies of the past. Craig is a fine actor, I admit, and he handles the action and fight scenes well.  

The five-film Daniel Craig arc now ends with No Time To Die. 

There are no spoilers here. 

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and written by a committee consisting of Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is overall well done and well worth seeing, in my view.     

But I have to say that I was not fond of the film’s convoluted sci-fi plot, and I yearn for the good old days of robbing Fort Knox, nuclear blackmail and biological warfare that were the high-end crimes featured in Fleming’s novels and the Bond films of the 1960s. 

No Time To Die kicks off with a good opening scene in which a young girl is being attacked by a solo gunman in a broken Japanese mask. It was clever and well done.  

Next, we find that James Bond has retired from Her Majesty’s Secret Service and is living in Jamaica (where in fact the character was born, as Ian Fleming wrote the Bond novels at his Jamaican villa, Goldeneye). 

Bond meets his old friend and CIA ally Felix Leiter, who recruits him to help recover a kidnapped scientist (what, the CIA does not have any paramilitary operators on their payroll?). 

The mission leads to Cuba, where Bond, in his proverbial black tux, is aided in a gun fight with countless men by a woman who claims to have had only three weeks training - and yet fights like a veteran U.S. Navy SEAL. 

Bond is unable to rescue the scientist, who turns out to be duplicitous and escapes from Bond and company with deadly nanobots technology. 

Back at SIS headquarters in London, more commonly known as MI6, the SIS gang is all there, with Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny. Ben Whishaw as Q, and Rory Kinnear as Tanner. There is also a newcomer, Lashana Lynch as Nomi, the operator who assumed the 007 codename after Bond retired.  

I like that the SIS is holding Bond’s arch-enemy, Spectre's founder and leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (portrayed by Christoph Waltz) in a Hannibal Lector-style prison. I like the idea that Blofeld manages to control outside criminal events from his supposedly secure, high-tech prison. 

I would have liked to have seen Blofeld as the primary and solo mastermind villain, and done away entirely with Rami Malek’s character, a creepy little guy named Lyutsifer Safin. 

One mad, disfigured villain is quite enough for one film, thank you.  

I didn’t mind the romance of Bond and Madeleine Swann, or even Craig appropriating Bond actor George Lazenby’s line from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, “We have all the time in the world,” - but I didn’t think Lea Seydoux was a strong enough actress to pull off the role. 

I liked that the film also used the late, great Bond composer and conductor John Barry’s We Have All the Time in the World song, sung by the late, great Louie Armstrong, as well as other songs from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but I do tire of the endless self-referencing the Bond films appear to love. 

The highlights of the film are the splendid and exciting actions sequences that were so well done. The money was up there on the screen, as the late Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli used to say. 

But on the downside, the film was far too long. 

And lastly, I didn’t care for the film’s ending, which I won’t divulge here.

I suspect the producers will come back in two years’ time and once again reboot the Bond series, as they did in 2006 with Craig in Casino Royale. 

I’d like to see Aidan Turner (seen in the below photo) get the role of James Bond, as he fits Ian Fleming’s physical description, and he is a fine young actor. 

I liked Turner in Poldark, and I especially liked him in And Then There Were None. 

He was very good as a cold, tough, tux-wearing killer. The part was practically an audition for Bond – and Turner nailed it in my view. 

As No Time To Die notes in the film's end credits – James Bond will return.

Happy 70th Birthday, Mr. Bond: On This Day In History 'Casino Royale,' Ian Fleming's First James Bond Thriller, Was Published

On this date in 1953 Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's first James Bond thriller, was published.

Fleming, a British journalist and WWII naval intelligence officer, wrote the gripping thriller while on holiday at his Jamaican villa, Goldeneye. Raymond Chandler, a friend and fellow thriller writer, believed that Casino Royale was Fleming's best novel.  

Ian Fleming would go on to write more Bond novels and short stories and millions of copies of his books have been sold around the world. 

The film series based on Fleming's Bond novels, which began with Dr No in 1963, is one of the most successful film series in cinematic history.

Scottish actor Sean Connery appeared as James Bond in the early Bond films in the 1960s. Daniel Craig appeared as James Bond in the 2006 film Casino Royale.  

Ian Fleming died in 1964 at the age of 56. 

You can read my Crime Beat columns on Ian Fleming and James Bond via the below links: 

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/my-crime-beat-column-happy-anniversary.html  

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html 

My Crime Beat Column: 'No Time To Die' - Bond, Bullets, And Nanobots

I ventured out last week to see the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die (perhaps it should have been called No Time To Think of a Better Title). 

I haven’t been to a movie theater in years, preferring to watch films on TV at home even before COVID 19, but I wanted to see this film on the big screen, even though I fully expected to hate it. 

Instead, I came away with a mixed review of the film. 

As I’ve noted here before, I became an Ian Fleming aficionado when I bought and read all of the Bond novels as a teenager in the early 1960s after seeing Sean Connery as Bond in the first two Bond films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love. 

Reading the Fleming novels, I was surprised and pleased that the thrillers were darker, more complicated, and more interesting than the films. 

I did not initially like the selection of actor Daniel Craig for James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, as he did not fit Fleming’s physical description, but I was glad that the producers had returned to making true thrillers rather than the silly, action-comedies of the past. Craig is a fine actor, I admit, and he handles the action and fight scenes well.  

The five-film Daniel Craig arc now ends with No Time To Die. 

There are no spoilers here. 

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and written by a committee consisting of Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is overall well done and well worth seeing, in my view.     

But I have to say that I was not fond of the film’s convoluted sci-fi plot, and I yearn for the good old days of robbing Fort Knox, nuclear blackmail and biological warfare that were the high-end crimes featured in Fleming’s novels and the Bond films of the 1960s. 

No Time To Die kicks off with a good opening scene in which a young girl is being attacked by a solo gunman in a broken Japanese mask. It was clever and well done.  

Next, we find that James Bond has retired from Her Majesty’s Secret Service and is living in Jamaica (where in fact the character was born, as Ian Fleming wrote the Bond novels at his Jamaican villa, Goldeneye). 

Bond meets his old friend and CIA ally Felix Leiter, who recruits him to help recover a kidnapped scientist (what, the CIA does not have any paramilitary operators on their payroll?). 

The mission leads to Cuba, where Bond, in his proverbial black tux, is aided in a gun fight with countless men by a woman who claims to have had only three weeks training - and yet fights like a veteran U.S. Navy SEAL. 

Bond is unable to rescue the scientist, who turns out to be duplicitous and escapes from Bond and company with deadly nanobots technology. 

Back at SIS headquarters in London, more commonly known as MI6, the SIS gang is all there, with Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny. Ben Whishaw as Q, and Rory Kinnear as Tanner. There is also a newcomer, Lashana Lynch as Nomi, the operator who assumed the 007 codename after Bond retired.  

I like that the SIS is holding Bond’s arch-enemy, Spectre's founder and leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (portrayed by Christoph Waltz) in a Hannibal Lector-style prison. I like the idea that Blofeld manages to control outside criminal events from his supposedly secure, high-tech prison. 

I would have liked to have seen Blofeld as the primary and solo mastermind villain, and done away entirely with Rami Malek’s character, a creepy little guy named Lyutsifer Safin. 

One mad, disfigured villain is quite enough for one film, thank you.  

I didn’t mind the romance of Bond and Madeleine Swann, or even Craig appropriating Bond actor George Lazenby’s line from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, “We have all the time in the world,” - but I didn’t think Lea Seydoux was a strong enough actress to pull off the role. 

I liked that the film also used the late, great Bond composer and conductor John Barry’s We Have All the Time in the World song, sung by the late, great Louie Armstrong, as well as other songs from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but I do tire of the endless self-referencing the Bond films appear to love. 

The highlights of the film are the splendid and exciting actions sequences that were so well done. The money was up there on the screen, as the late Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli used to say. 

But on the downside, the film was far too long. 

And lastly, I didn’t care for the film’s ending, which I won’t divulge here.

I suspect the producers will come back in two years’ time and once again reboot the Bond series, as they did in 2006 with Craig in Casino Royale. 

I’d like to see Aidan Turner (seen in the below photo) get the role of James Bond, as he fits Ian Fleming’s physical description, and he is a fine young actor. 

I liked Turner in Poldark, and I especially liked him in And Then There Were None. 

He was very good as a cold, tough, tux-wearing killer. The part was practically an audition for Bond – and Turner nailed it in my view. 

As No Time To Die notes in the film's end credits – James Bond will return.

My Washington Times Review Of 'The Many Lives Of James Bond: How The Creators Of 007 Have Decoded The Superspy'

The Washington Times published my review of The Many Lives of James Bond: How the Creators of 007 Have Decoded the Superspy.

I’ve been a James Bond fan since I first saw “Dr. No” back when I was a pre-teen. I was hooked the moment I saw actor Sean Connery introduce himself with what would become his signature line, “Bond. James Bond.”

Viewing the early Bond films with Connery led to my reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels as a teenager. I was pleased to discover that the novels were darker, more complex and more interesting than the films.

I’ve been an Ian Fleming aficionado ever since. I’ve read all his novels and short stories and nearly all of his journalism. I’ve been to the building in London where Ian Fleming once lived, and I even spent a week with my wife at the Mecca for James Bond fans, Ian Fleming’s Jamaican villa Goldeneye, where he wrote all of the Bond stories.  

I love Ian Fleming’s vivid descriptions of exotic locales, beautiful women and evil villains. The stories are suspenseful, atmospheric and compelling. Dedicated to queen and country, Fleming’s Bond is a British patriot and a modern knight who fights the good fight against Soviet assassins, international criminal syndicates and megalomaniacal masterminds who would wreak havoc on the world if not for Bond. And along the way, he enjoys a good drink, a fine meal and the companionship of attractive women.

So, what’s not to love?  

Mark Edlitz, another Bond fan, albeit from a later generation, offers a book for Bond fans called “The Many Lives of James Bond: How the Creators of 007 Have Decoded the Superspy.”    

“Pick a Bond, any Bond. When you hear the name James Bond, what comes to mind? For many, it is likely to be a favorite Bond movie or one of the actors who has portrayed the secret agent,” writes Mark Edlitz in his introduction. “After all, it is natural to think first of the cinematic Bond. The multibillion-dollar franchise has retained its remarkable box office power for nearly 60 years — the first Bond movie, “Dr. No,” appeared in 1962 — and its popularity shows no sign of waning. Still, another Bond aficionado might think first of the twelve novels and nine short stories written by Bond’s creator Ian Fleming.

“But the movies and books are just the most prominent facets of the diverse and ever-expanding James Bond universe. Bond fandom extends to continuation novels, video games, comic books, comic strips, radio dramas, and even to an animated television series.”

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/18/book-review-the-many-lives-of-james-bond/ 

On M's Orders: Ralph Fiennes, Who Portrays M, James Bond’s Boss, Says 007 Must Not Be black Or Female - Secret Agent Should Stay True To Ian Fleming's Vision

Amid the various calls for a black, female or transgender actor to portray James Bond once Daniel Craig gives up the role, the Daily Mail offers a piece on Ralph Fiennes (seen in the above and below photos with Daniel Craig), who states that the character of James Bond should remain a white Brit. 

The actor, who portrays M, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service in the James Bond film series, said that Bond should be true to author Ian Fleming’s vision..

He took over his pivotal role in the Bond movies from a woman.

But Ralph Fiennes has walked into a major casting row by saying that 007 should never change gender. Nor, he believes, should James Bond be played by a black actor.

Fiennes, who succeeded Dame Judi Dench as spymaster M, insists black or female stars should be given their own action films to showcase their talents, away from the Bond franchise.

‘I would like to see a great black actor inhabit a Bond-like persona,’ he said. ‘But not necessarily be in the same franchise.

Ralph Fiennes says James Bond should remain a white man and black or female actors should be given their own action films.

… Fiennes’s stance was supported by Graham Rye, who runs the James Bond 007 Magazine, who said: ‘I agree 100 per cent. Nor should Bond be an Oriental or Asian actor – the same way a Caucasian actor should never be considered to play Shaka Zulu, Jawaharlal Nehru or Genghis Khan.’

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6817719/James-Bonds-boss-Ralph-Fiennes-says-007-not-black-female.html 

You can also read my Washington Times piece on no "Jane" Bond” via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2018/10/no-jane-bond-says-007-film-producer.html 

Next Up, 007 Sniffs The Undertaker’s Wind

Ben Macintyre, a London Times columnist and author of For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond, and A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, offers a clever and amusing column on what title the James Bond film producers will use for the next Bond film.

Daniel  Craig is to be paid $25 million for playing James Bond in the forthcoming film, which raises the 64,000-dollar question: what title to choose for 007’s next outing, his 25th?

The selection of a new Bond film title has become a familiar ritual of world culture that comes around every three or four years, surrounded by artificial mystery, simultaneously silly and commercially significant. It is also very tricky, because the titles are running out.

Ian Fleming wrote 12 Bond novels and nine short stories. There are just four short stories left that have not been made into films, all of which came from arcane corners of the novelist’s brain.

Risico, a story in the 1960 collection For Your Eyes Only, is Italian for risk, or a Dutch word meaning peril as in “Je loopt het risico te vallen”: You run the risk of falling. It doesn’t quite have the ring of Skyfall.

The Hildebrand Rarity was first published in Playboy, and refers to a fictional species of fish hunted by the criminal tax dodger Milton Krest: “A unique member of the squirrelfish family . . . caught by Professor Hildebrand of the University of Witwatersrand off Chagrin Island in the Seychelles, April 1925.” As a film title, The Hildebrand Rarity might cause as much bafflement among Bond fans as Quantum of Solace.

… The film-makers will probably have to fall back on the newer species of fabricated Bond titles (nine of the last 12), which sound pithy, glamorous, dramatic, often contain a reference to death and usually mean nothing at all.

In the Piers Brosnan era, the titles veered close to self-parody, by eliding a death reference with a familiar catchphrase. After Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day, and A View to a Kill, the possibilities seemed endless: Once Bitten Twice Dead? You Only Die Twice, Tomorrow? Shaken, Not Dead?

The title of A View to a Kill was so odd (and grammatically dubious) that scriptwriters felt obliged to make some sense of it during an exchange between the villain Zorin (Christopher Walken) and his henchwoman May Day (Grace Jones). Her: “What a View!” Him: “To a Kill.”

The philosophical-sounding and essentially meaningless Bond film title reached its finest expression with The World is Not Enough (the Bond family motto, apparently derived from Alexander the Great’s epitaph). With Skyfall, the franchise returned to the blunt, compound-word titles of Thunderball and Goldfinger.

Fleming himself struggled with titles. His second novel, Live and Let Die, was originally entitled The Undertaker’s Wind, a reference to the wind that blows across Jamaica (where Fleming wrote). He thought it sounded romantic and eerie. It actually sounds like a mortician with flatulence. If he had stuck to his guns, the book would probably have bombed, and there would be no James Bond as we know him.

Dr No was originally The Wound Man. Goldfinger started out as The Richest Man in the World. From a View to a Kill was first entitled The Rough with the Smooth. The working title of For Your Eyes Only was Man’s Work, which definitely would not go down well in Hollywood today. He also toyed with calling it Death Leaves an Echo, which is rather good.

Fleming found it particularly hard to settle on a title for his third novel, about an evil financier who threatens to destroy London with a £10 million rocket. He rejected Wide of the Mark, Mondays are Hell, Out of the Clear Sky, and The Inhuman Element, before finally settling on Moonraker.

The character of James Bond was a mixture of the various adventurers Fleming had encountered while working in naval intelligence: “a compound of the secret agents and commando types I met during the war”. In the same way, his titles were gathered, magpie-like, from whatever came to hand. Diamonds are Forever was a direct lift from the De Beers advertising campaign slogan dreamed up by copywriter Frances Gerety in 1947. “You only live twice” was a phrase coined by the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Basho.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/next-up-007-sniffs-the-undertaker-s-wind-q9zvj3rg8 

You can also read my Crime Beat interview with Ben Macintyre via the below link::

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/12/crime-beat-column-q-with-ben-macintye.html 

Coughing Up Fleming: A Look Back At Mad Magazine's Take On Daniel Craig's James Bond And The Film 'Skyfall'

The web site 007dossier.com offers a look at Mad magazine's take on Daniel Craig's James Bond and the Bond film Skyfall. 

You can check out the clever satire via the below link:

http://www.the007dossier.com/007dossier/post/2014/12/01/Casebook-Spyfail

My Crime Beat Column: Seeing 'Spectre'

I saw the new James Bond film Spectre yesterday.

The film was not as bad as I thought it would be, or as bad as Skyfall, the previous Bond film.

But I thought the film was too long and had a thin and undramatic plot. I also didn't care much for the phony total surveillance versus 00 license to kill debate. And despite some fine action scenes, I thought the film's pacing was a bit slow. The film could have used the editing skills of the late Peter Hunt, who edited the early Bond films and directed On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

The film could have also used a better music soundtrack to provide the proper thriller atmosphere, like the late John Barry's Bond soundtracks. Thankfully, Barry's famous 007 theme was used prominently throughout the film.

The Bond film makers ought to end the endless homage to earlier Bond films and just go with a straight story. And call me traditional, but I think that M, Q and Moneypenny belong in the office setting of headquarters and should not be traipsing around in the field with 007. Who was running the rest of British intelligence?
     
Like most old-school Bond fans and Ian Fleming aficionados, I still have trouble accepting anyone other than the great Sean Connery as James Bond, but I have to admit that Daniel Craig did a good job under the circumstances.

Craig does not look anything like Ian Fleming's James Bond (Fleming thought Connery looked like his character), but I thought he carried himself throughout the film like Bond and he did the fight and the action scenes well.

Spectre is no Dr No, From Russia With Love or Goldfinger, the classic Bond films I grew up with, but if you are looking to be entertained by a well-made thriller with a good cast, then go see this film.

Spectre: New Poster Released For Upcoming James Bond Film

Looks good, but to me, Sean Connery will always be Ian Fleming's iconic character, Bond, James Bond.

Note: You can click on the above photos to enlarge.

'You're A Kite Dancing In A Hurricane, Mr Bond': Brooding 007 Confronts A Face From The Past In Dramatic FIRST Teaser Trailer For SPECTRE

Jason Chester at the British newspaper the Daily Mail reports on the recently released SPECTRE trailer showing Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's iconic character James Bond.

You can watch the interesting trailer and see photos of the upcoming film via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3015208/James-Bond-onfronts-face-past-dramatic-teaser-trailer-SPECTRE.html
 

Welcome Us Back, Mr. Bond: Producers Announce That 'SPECTRE' Will Be The Name Of The Upcoming James Bond Film.

MI6, the James Bond web site, not the British intelligence service, offers a look at the Bond film producers' press release regarding the upcoming James Bond film. The title of the film will be called SPECTRE.

SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, is the international criminal organization created by Ian Fleming in his James Bond novel Thunderball. The organization was run by the mad, evil genius Ernst Stravo Blofeld, who appeared in the next two Fleming thrillers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice. SPECTRE was the principal villain in the early Bond films.   

PRESS RELEASE: James Bond Producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli today released the title of the 24th James Bond adventure, SPECTRE. The film, from Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, is directed by Sam Mendes and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fourth film as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007.

SPECTRE begins principal photography on Monday, December 8, and is set for global release on November 6, 2015.

Along with Daniel Craig, Mendes presented the returning cast, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear as well as introducing Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci and Andrew Scott. Mendes also revealed Bond's sleek new Aston Martin, the DB10, created exclusively for SPECTRE.

A cryptic message from Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organisation. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

You can read the rest of the press release via the below link:

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond-24-spectre-title-announcement

You can also read Ryan Smith's piece in the Daily Mail and watch videos of the Bond film announcement via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2860541/Daniel-Craig-set-joined-star-studded-cast-anticipated-James-Bond-movie-Spectre-sleek-new-Aston-Martin-unveiled.html

And you can read my Crime Beat column on the Ian Fleming and the James Bond phenomenon via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

Sean Connery Voted Best James Bond Actor In CBS Poll

CBSNews.com offers a piece on the poll taken on which actor best portrayed Ian Fleming's iconic James Bond character.

Over the past 50 years there have been 23 official James Bond films, and the character has been portrayed by six different actors. So who was the best Bond?

Americans strongly favor the first man to portray the character in film, with 51 percent picking Sean Connery as the best James Bond.

Connery originated the role in the 1962 film "Dr. No." He would go on to star in five more Bond adventures, in addition to the non-official 1983 Bond film, "Never Say Never Again."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-who-was-the-best-james-bond/

You can also watch Sean Connery's introduction as Bond in Dr No via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xDj3NRYTU8

Note: I agree that Sean Connery was the best James Bond, but I would rank Timothy Dalton as the second best and George Lazenby as the third best.

Timothy Dalton offered film viewers a harder, more serious Bond than the previous Bond, Roger Moore, and although their were some silly bits in his two Bond films, I thought they were well done.

George Lazenby was a good Bond, in my view, considering that he had never acted before, and he had to follow Sean Connery. He looked like Ian Fleming's Bond and he did the fight scenes very well. Had he continued as Bond he might have grown into a very good Bond. I also think On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best Bond films. 

As for Pierce Brosnan, he had some good moments as Bond, but I was not too thrilled with the films he starred in.

As for Roger Moore, I liked him as the Saint on TV when I was a teenager, but I didn't like his light-hearted portrayal of Bond and I didn't like the silly films he starred in.

Lastly, I'm glad that the film producers have returned to making Bond films thrillers, instead of silly comedies, and Daniel Craig is a good Bond, even he does not look like Fleming's Bond.

I think the producers should have hired Clive Owen instead of Craig. Owen would have perhaps offered a Bond to rival Sean Connery.

I'm looking forward to seeing who the next Bond actor will be.

Yahoo Movies: 25 Things We Learned About 'Skyfall' And The Future Of James Bond

Orlando Parfitt at Yahoo! Movies offers a piece on the film Skyfall and the future of the James Bond films.

To mark the DVD release of ‘Skyfall’ (out now), Yahoo! Movies was invited to travel from London to Edinburgh aboard the magnificent 'Skyfall' train.

When we weren’t marvelling at the ‘Skyfall’ seat covers, we chatted to producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and star Naomie Harris.

With the film now done and dusted at cinemas (it did okay), we felt safe to discuss why they killed off a main character and introduced some new (actually old) ones. We also got some candid answers on Oscar and BAFTA snubs, as well as tantalising tidbits on the future of the franchise.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/25-things-we-learnt-about-the-origins-of-skyfall-and-the-future-of-bond--132513731.html 

Author Sebastian Faulks Pans Latest James Bond Film 'Skyfall'

Ruth Whitehead at the British newspaper the Daily Mail reports on the poor review author Sebastian Faulks gave the latest James Bond film Skyfall.

Skyfall, the latest James Bond blockbuster that grossed more than US$1 billion in ten weeks, has been lambasted by author Sebastian Faulks.

Faulks, who was commissioned by the estate of Bond creator Ian Fleming to write a Bond novel, described the film as 'pretty distasteful', criticised some of the acting and said the film's attempts to show a sensitive side to the spy hero had failed.

He told an audience at India's Jaipur Literature Festival, as reported in the Telegraph: 'I found the last film pretty distasteful. One [of the Bond girls] couldn't act and the other had been previously exploited as a sex worker. And Bond walks into the shower and makes love to her. Casino Royale was much better.'

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268672/Box-office-busting-Skyfall-ridiculed-distasteful-Bond-author-Sebastian-Faulks.html

You can also watch a video of the discussion via the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEb8Q6N66M4

Note: I agree with Faulks that Daniel Craig's Casino Royale was a better film than Skyfall and that Albert Finney, an otherwise great actor, was truly awful as a Scottish groundskeeper with an English accent.

I also thought that Javier Bardem, an otherwise fine actor, looked more like a Batman or a Dick Tracy villain than a Bond villain with that awful blond wig.

I could criticize the film more, but I don't want to spoil the plot for those who have not yet seen it.   

I thought Skyfall was a well-made thriller and Daniel Craig was very good as James Bond, but I don't  agree with many of the film critics who hailed the film the best of the Bond series.

In my view, Skyfall is no Goldfinger and Daniel Craig is no Sean Connery.

You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Faulks' continuation James Bond novel via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/DevilMayCarereview.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/DevilMayCarereview2.jpg  

Give Oscar To James Bond Film 'Skyfall,' Says Former James Bond Actor Timothy Dalton

Henry Fitzherbert at the British newspaper the Daily Express offers a piece on former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton, who believes the new James Bond film deserves an Oscar.

AND the Oscar goes to…James Bond. Well, if former 007 Timothy Dalton has his way then the world’s most famous secret agent will finally receive awards recognition at next year’s Academy Awards.

 

“It is absolutely time for Bond to get proper attention at the Oscars,” says Dalton, 68, who was hugely impressed with Skyfall. “On almost every level this Bond movie is right at the forefront of what cinema is capable of. It is an absolutely modern James Bond, a movie truly of its time. Daniel Craig is fantastic and it feels very real. It has also got a great story about M with a nice streak of cynicism. I thought the film was fabulous.”

 

In 50 years of Bond movies the series has received only a handful of nominations and then in only the technical and music categories, winning best sound effects for Goldfinger in 1964 and best visual effects for Thunderball in 1965.

 

No Bond movie has received any acting nominations but that could change with recognition for Dame Judi Dench, Javier Bardem who plays the villain or possibly Craig himself.  

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/view/367782/Give-OO7-Oscar-says-licence-to-bleed-James-Bond

 

Timothy Dalton, who in my view, ranks only behind the great Sean Connery in his portrayal as Ian Fleming's iconic character James Bond, is generous and modest. He is a gentleman.

 

You can read an earlier post on Dalton as Bond via the below link:

  

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/12/a-q-with-john-glen-director-of-licence.html  

A Q & A With John Glen, Director of 'Licence To Kill' And Seven Other James Bond Films

Peter Howell at thestar.com offers an interesting Q & A with John Glen, the director of eight James Bonds, including one of my favorites, Licence to Kill.

With Roger Moore, he’s a fairly light actor, not a hard-edged one, and he always used to say to me, “Oh, what would the kids think?” He was always very conscious of that. He’s more of a personality actor. He’s very, very good and very charming and very good with his one-liners and humour. All his films had to be designed that way, I think, so that Roger could do his best with what he’s comfortable with.

And funnily enough, looking back at the two films that I did with Timothy Dalton, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, I find him to be quite similar to the new Bond. He and Daniel are both harder-edged Bonds. I think Timothy was before his time. You look at Licence to Kill now and it keeps up. It’s more in vogue now than when I shot it, I think. I still think it’s one of the best Bonds, certainly the best that I directed.

... Up until now, I’ve always thought that probably Goldfinger had the best original story, because we’ve now run out of original Fleming stories. But I think Skyfall really got that; I’d certainly rank it amongst the top three.

I’d say The Spy Who Loved Me was the best one I did with Roger — and it’s his favourite, too — and I’m still very fond of Licence to Kill.

You can read the rest of the interview via the below link:

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/1299261--john-glen-james-bond-s-main-director-q-a

Note: I agree with John Glen that Licence to Kill is one of the best Bond films.

Although I believe Sean Connery is the best Bond actor, Timothy Dalton in my view is the second best actor to portray James Bond.

He is a very good actor and he looks and acts like Ian Fleming's James Bond. I wish he had made more Bond films.

I also like Robert Davi as the drug lord villain in the film. Murderous, vicious and a bit crazed, Davi is one of the best villains since the Sean Connery-Bond films from the 1960s.

The supporting cast is also very good, including the two women in the film, Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto, who offer strong performances as well as being very attractive.

The other good supporting cast includes Anthony Zerbe as a criminal associate to Davi, and a nasty young Benicio Del Toro as Davi's henchman. David Hedison portrays Bond's CIA pal, Felix Leiter, repeating the role he portrayed in Live and Let Die, and Desmond Llewellyn gives an expanded performance as "Q" as he aids Bond' in the field.      

You can read my earlier post on Licence to Kill via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2012/01/look-back-at-timothy-dalton-as-james.html

A Montage of Sean Connery As Ian Fleming's Iconic Character James Bond

 

While Daniel Craig is receiving rave reviews as James Bond in the film Skyfall, and deservedly so, I thought I should remind people of the first, and in my view the best, actor to portray James Bond in the film series - Sean Connery.

Below is link to a montage of Sean Connery as James Bond that Ian Connor MacLeod placed on youtube.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84dX-gLHjKI

Bond. Evolving Bond

Steven Rea, the Philaelphia Inquirer's movie critic, looks at the 50-year cinematic history of Ian Fleming's iconic secret agent character James Bond.

On Friday, Skyfall, the 23d 007 enterprise, with Daniel Craig in his third turn as the British intelligence operative, opens in theaters - the 50th anniversary of the formidable franchise. (The rogue 1967 romp Casino Royale, with David Niven and Peter Sellers, isn't considered part of the official 007 oeuvre.) To date, the Bond movies have earned more than $5 billion in worldwide box office.

Yes, people have been ordering their vodka martinis shaken, not stirred, for 50 years.

"Ian Fleming created an amazing character," says Craig, who has followed in the footsteps - and the tailored suits - of Connery, George Lazenby (an Aussie, and the forgotten Bond, appearing only in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. "There's this internal conflict in the way Fleming wrote Bond," Craig says, in an interview.

"You know, he's an assassin. The whole idea that he kills people is something that Fleming really fought with. . . . He fought with that emotionally. That's who the character is."

The character is more than that, though. Down through the decades, the different Bonds, and the men who played them, mirrored what was happening in the culture, in the tenor and temperament of the day.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20121103__I_wish_I_had_had_James_Bond_on_my_staff__quot__John_F__NO_HEAD_SPECIFIED.html

You can also read my 2006 column about Ian Fleming and James Bond via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

'Skyfall' Miraculously Resurrects Sean Connery's Audience Gripping James Bond

 

D. Chandler at the Guardian Express wrote an interesting piece about the new James Bond film  Skyfall.  

After 50 years, in which the movies have often descended to abject self-parody, Bond is a hero who should, by rights, have long ago shuffled off to the retirement home.

Instead, as Mail film critic Christopher Tookey wrote in later editions of Saturday’s paper, the new 007 adventure, “Skyfall,” is ‘one of the finest of all time’.

Intelligent, bursting with thrilling action set-pieces and filled with top-drawer turns by some of Britain’s finest acting talents — Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney — in Tookey’s words, this is a film that assures the future of the Bond franchise ‘for years to come’.

The film hits cinemas a week on Friday and its opening sequence is dynamite.

Now the critics have my attention. I have been on the fence since Sean Connery bowed out decades ago. In fact, I have not seen a James Bond movie since “Thunderball” and “You Only Live Twice” that I can honestly say rose to the level of the classic spy movie Ian Fleming perfected. So when I hear a critic emphasizing the opening sequence, pointing out that it explodes, which is what dynamite does, I am encouraged because Ian Fleming’s James Bond featuring Sean Connery gripped its audience from its opening scene until its equally attention-grabbing, closing foray.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://guardianlv.com/2012/10/skyfall-miraculously-resurrects-sean-connerys-audience-gripping-james-bond/ 

Picking The best James Bond: Connery And Craig Rise To The Top

 

Bill Chappell reports on the NPR.org poll on the best actor who portrayed Ian Fleming's iconic secret agent character James Bond.

It's official: Sean Connery IS James Bond, according to NPR readers who weighed the question this week. The final results show that Connery set the gold standard as 007, the spy known for his playfulness, his ruthlessness — and his ability to look good in a suit. Today marks the Bond film franchise's 50th anniversary.

Six actors have played James Bond in the Eon Productions films that began in 1962, when Connery established the role in Dr. No. He went on to star in six of the first seven Bond films. And more than 50 percent of those who voted think that he made the most of his head start.

"Sean Connery," commented reader Pops Parker, is "the clear number one. There is humanity behind the noble facade and the man has an unassuming style."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/10/02/162175114/picking-the-best-bond-connery-and-craig-rise-to-the-top