Tag: The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Is Complete!

Last night, just before bed, I finished The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022! Success! It took about 14 years to get through (seems that way at least) but I’ve binged 25 movies covering six Bond actors and I loved every second of it.

The last time I wrote an update I was wrapping up the last few minutes of Quantum of Solace. I had only watched that movie once before. Same with the two that followed it. I had never seen the final Bond movie before so most of what follows was either new to me or almost new to me.

Skyfall isn’t as good as Casino Royale, but it’s so close we’d probably trigger a run off if it were an election. Damn, that movie is phenomenal. I remember the first time I watched it being literally on the edge of my seat for the final 30 minutes or so. It happened again. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. It took the recent trend of targeting M to a whole new level and it paid off perfectly. What a great flick!

Spectre was a bit of a step back. I think I enjoyed it more on the second viewing than the first. I may have been a little put off by the Blofeld reveal for some reason. I’m not sure. I really enjoyed it this time. Much more than I thought I would. It wasn’t as good as Skyfall, but that’s not surprising. I was a little worried that we were bringing back too many of the gimmicks from the pre-reboot era. We have a Q again. We have a Moneypenny again. Those things came back in Skyfall but they were more involved here. They aren’t gimmicky yet, but they actually made me a smidge worried for the next movie. All in all, Spectre is just another killer action flick. That brings us up to four excellent movies in a row, and it brings us to the end.

No Time to Die opened with the scariest thing I’ve seen in a Bond movie, and if you haven’t watched them all you wouldn’t know it was scary. First off, the mold was shattered when the movie opened up and the main Bond Girl from the previous movie was still around! Never before had that happened. Well, there was one girl in Doctor No who shows up briefly in another movie, but she wasn’t an integral part of either story. Not this time. The main Bond Girl in movie #24 is the main Bond Girl in movie #25. Awesome! Not even Bond’s wife did that, though she is referenced in at least two Roger Moore movies. That brings me to the scary point. In the cold open Bond tells her that they have all the time in the world, which is what he tells his wife just before… I thought she was going to be toast before the opening credits rolled. I needn’t have worried though because this awesome movie just plot twisted my ass back to the stone age. I mean I did see a lot of the twists coming, but they all landed perfectly. Daniel Craig deserves all of the Oscars for the scene where he goes back to Bond Girl’s house and sees the big twist for the first time. The look on the guy’s face was perfect. Everything about this movie worked. I loved every second of it. It wraps up the Daniel Craig era completely and it seriously made me want to go back to Casino Royale and watch the last five movies again, preferably in one very long sitting.

So there we have it. I have completed the 25 movie rewatch and it was just as lovely as I’d hoped. Now we just have to wait and see what comes next. No Time to Die ends with the usual “James Bond Will Return” message, but it won’t be Daniel Craig. Who will it be? Will they reboot again? Will they alternate-universe us in some way? I can’t think of any way they could continue the Craig story without ruining the ending of No Time to Die. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I thought about trying to rank the 25 movies from favorite to least favorite. I might try that later, but for now here’s the list once more, just for fun.

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) 95% – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) 97% – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) 99% – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) 85% – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967) 74% – Finished
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) 81% – Finished
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 63% – Finished
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973) 65% – Finished
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) 40% – Finished
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) 81% – Finished
    • Moonraker (1979) 59% – Finished
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981) 69% – Finished
    • Octopussy (1983) 42% – Finished
    • A View To A Kill (1985) 37% – Finished
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987) 73% – Finished
    • License to Kill (1989) 79% – Finished
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995) 80% – Finished
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) 56% – Finished
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999) 51% – Finished
    • Die Another Day (2002) 56% – Finished
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006) 94% – Finished
    • Quantum of Solace (2008) 64% – Finished
    • Skyfall (2012) 92% – Finished
    • Spectre (2015) 63% – Finished
    • No Time to Die (2021) 83% – Finished

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Update Again, Yet Again, Still Yet Again

We’re getting near to the end now. The Bond movies will be removed from Amazon Prime Video at some point tonight (midnight?) and I will likely have three movies left to watch. I own a copy of one of them on iTunes. If the other two (including No Time to Die, which is the only Bond movie I have never seen) don’t move to a new streaming service right away I will rent them from iTunes. Everything is lined up for success.

So where was I? The last time I posted I had just started The World is Not Enough. It’s the first of a new trend of bad guys targeting M movies. It was okay but nothing special. The action sequences were starting to get cartoony again, and Pierce Brosnan was starting to seem a little out of his depth. He’s not bad per se, but he’s just no longer looking like someone who was born to play Bond. The pithy comebacks are not landing quite the way they used to. The villain is good. The henchman who can’t feel pain is blah. The diabolical plot is better than the previous movie but not all that interesting. It’s an average quality Bond movie. I liked it, but didn’t love it.

Die Another Day was better than I remembered it, but the longer I watched, the worse it got. I know it was the 20th movie and they wanted to honor that, but the call backs were just too much. The jet pack was cute and all but enough is enough. We’ve done the lasers thing before, we didn’t need to do it again. The bad guy was awful. The whole -I can’t sleep so I am rich- thing was dumb. The DNA replacement was idiotic. The invisible car was unforgivable. I mean… come on, folks. An invisible car? Give me a break, please. That wasn’t what bothered me the most though (close but no cigar). What bothered me the most was using slow motion in the action sequences. I hate movies that show action sequences in slow motion. I hate it.

Casino Royale is the only Ian Flemming novel that I read before seeing the movie. I read them all, in order of publication. Casino Royale was the first one. They didn’t make it into a movie until the 21st century because Flemming sold the rights to a different studio. The first film version was a made for TV movie in the US where Bond was an American CIA agent (I believe he was called Jimmy Bond). The first film was the spoof from the 60’s that I am pretty sure was written by Woody Allen. The book was good enough to make me want to read them all. The first few Connery movies are reasonably close to the books. Not exact but in the ball park. By the time Roger Moore comes around the only things the movies and the books have in common are the title and some of the character names. That’s all. The Casino Royale movie is someone close to the book. The card game and the torture scene are very similar. In the book it’s baccarat, not poker. I am pretty sure the double cross at the end came from the book too.

How is the movie? It’s the only post-Connery movie that legitimately holds up against the best Connery movies. It’s freakin’ awesome. It’s a reboot so it gave the studio the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start over, without the silliness and the gimmicks and the Bond-cliches. Where the Brosnan era action sequences were feeling goofy, these are riveting and intense. The goal isn’t spectacle anymore, it’s excitement and every single one of them works perfectly. This movie is so good it makes all of the crappy movies that came before it worth while. If I were to rank my favorite Bond movies I think Casino Royale would be forth behind From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball. Actually it might come in third, ahead of Thunderball. It’s not just a great Bond movie, it’s a great movie.

As I type this I am watching Quantum of Solace. It’s good, but it’s not even close to as good as Casino. All of the positives regarding the action sequences are still there. It’s super intense all the way through. Daniel Craig continues to be the perfect violent, vicious, mean and nasty killer Bond. The story just isn’t quite as good. It’s not bad, but it’s just not as good as Casino Royale. I am down to the last 15 minutes so I will consider this blurb my official entry.

Here is the complete list of movies, along with the Rottentomatoes.com score that I don’t always agree with. Three more movies to go, and when it’s all done I will finally be able to say that I’ve seen them all.

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) 95% – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) 97% – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) 99% – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) 85% – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967) 74% – Finished
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) 81% – Finished
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 63% – Finished
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973) 65% – Finished
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) 40% – Finished
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) 81% – Finished
    • Moonraker (1979) 59% – Finished
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981) 69% – Finished
    • Octopussy (1983) 42% – Finished
    • A View To A Kill (1985) 37% – Finished
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987) 73% – Finished
    • License to Kill (1989) 79% – Finished
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995) 80% – Finished
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) 56% – Finished
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999) 51% – Finished
    • Die Another Day (2002) 56% – Finished
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006) 94% – Finished
    • Quantum of Solace (2008) 64% – Finished
    • Skyfall (2012) 92%
    • Spectre (2015) 63%
    • No Time to Die (2021) 83%

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Update Again, Yet Again, Again

I have made so much progress on this idiotic Bond movie rewatch. Amazon Prime Video is dropping the whole series on Friday (I think). I have all of the Daniel Craig movies, except for the most recent one, on iTunes so I need to get through Pierce Brosnan before Amazon fails me. I can do it. Probably with time to spare. Why? Because I blew through FIVE movies since the last post. Woah!

A View to a Kill is the final Roger Moore movie, thankfully. I think he was probably 85 years old (kidding) and it shows. Christopher Walken plays a decent psycho, but he’s a little over the top. Was he trying to make up for the rest of the cast? Probably. Grace Jones… eh. Sorry. Tanya Roberts… ugh. The chase scene with the fire engine is ridiculous but fun. Over all I think it was better than I remembered it, but it’s not very good. There’s nothing overtly bad about it, there just isn’t much to work with.

The Living Daylights is one of my all time favorites. I freakin’ love that movie. Timothy Dalton brings a little menace back to the roll without taking it too far. I think this is the first Bond movie that I was aware of at the time of it’s release, and I clearly remember people trashing it because Bond only bangs one Bond girl. Aids was in full terror mode and the idea of sexual promiscuity was something society was trying to avoid. Hence only one sexual partner for ol’ 007. I didn’t have a problem with it then and I don’t have a problem with it now. The movie is just great. I enjoyed it every bit as much as I hoped I would. In a historical context, rooting for the Afghan resistance knowing that one of those fighters would grow up to be Osama Bin Laden is uncomfortable at best, but they do stick it to the commies, so I guess it’s okay.

Licensed to Kill was better than I remembered, but still not as good as Living Daylights. The bad guy was kind of annoying rather than scary. We’re sort of back into bad stereotype land with this one. Its a good movie but not on my all time greats list. Wayne Newton though? Huh? The worst part of the movie for me is knowing that it’s the end of Timothy Dalton’s reign. We hardly knew ye, oh T-Dal.

Goldeneye is another one of the greats. Pierce Brosnan, on paper, is the perfect Bond actor. It doesn’t turn out that way in the end, but with this movie on it’s own? Perfect. Everything about this movie works for me. Absolutely everything. Sean Bean is great, Famke Jenson (did I spell that right?) is way over the top but not too annoying. The computer nerd hits a little too close to home for your humble computer nerd blog post writer, but that’s okay. The chase scene with the tank would have been stupid if Roger Moore had been driving but Brosnan somehow pulls it off. This is another that goes on my short list of favorite Bond movies.

Tomorrow Never Dies… I didn’t hate it. It’s not terrible. It does feel way too spoofy. In general I just don’t like Jonathan Pryce. There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s very good at his job (go watch Brazil, or Game of Thrones, or Whose Line is it Anyway), I just don’t really care for him. I don’t know anything about the craft of acting so I can’t tell you why, I just don’t like him. Brosnan is okay here, but kind of blah over all. The Chinese agent, who is played by the former captain on Star Trek Discovery who is also in all sorts of things these days but whose name always escapes me (sorry) is really good. I think my big issue is the stealth boat. I have read quite a bit of Tom Clancy and if my memory is correct, stealth planes work not so much because of what they are made out of as their shape, or it’s a combination in some way. The boat was just huge. Radar probably should have seen something, but even that’s not my beef. Navy battleships will have sonar, and with the stealth boat floating on top of the water, the battleship’s sonar would absolutely have picked up the waves sloshing off the side of the boat. I found the invisible boat floating on top of the water too unbelievable to deal with. Had it been a submarine I would have been okay with it, but it’s not. It’s the friggin’ Titanic. Oh well.

There, I am all caught up now. Two more Brosnans and five Craigs to go. I started The World is Not Enough this morning. The last three Brosnans almost feel like new movies to me. I have probably only watched them once or twice, unlike Goldeneye which I’ve seen 100 times. Same with the four most recent Craig movies (one of which I have not seen at all). This should be interesting. Now here is the updated status bar:

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) 95% – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) 97% – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) 99% – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) 85% – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967) 74% – Finished
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) 81% – Finished
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 63% – Finished
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973) 65% – Finished
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) 40% – Finished
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) 81% – Finished
    • Moonraker (1979) 59% – Finished
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981) 69% – Finished
    • Octopussy (1983) 42% – Finished
    • A View To A Kill (1985) 37% – Finished
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987) 73% – Finished
    • License to Kill (1989) 79% – Finished
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995) 80% – Finished
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) 56% – Finished
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999) 51% – In progress
    • Die Another Day (2002) 56%
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006) 94%
    • Quantum of Solace (2008) 64%
    • Skyfall (2012) 92%
    • Spectre (2015) 63%
    • No Time to Die (2021) 83%

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Update Again, Yet Again

Okay, where did I leave off last time I did an update post? Right, I had just watched The Man with the Golden Gun. I have watched four more movies since then. All with Roger Moore.

The Spy Who Loved Me is okay. It’s not great, it’s not bad. Jaws is kinda dumb, but at least they play him as a serious villain. He’s cartoony, but not too cartoony. That will change in the next movie. I remembered Barbara “Mrs Ringo Starr” Bach being terrible, and she sure wasn’t great, but she was better than I remembered. The bad guy wasn’t very interesting and the plot to take over the world and move it underwater was pretty lame. All in all, not a terrible Bond movie, but probably a pretty terrible movie movie, you know what I mean?

Moonraker is just stupid. So very stupid. It was 1979. Two years after Star Wars redefined the movie experience. Hey, let’s send Bond to space! I have to imagine there was a massive amount of cocaine being used during the development process. There’s really no other way to explain this movie. The special effects are laughably bad at times and it’s not hard to tell that most if not all of the cast knew what was going on. The worst part, for me, is Jaws. It’s beyond stupid. He falls out of a plane and flaps his arms. What the hell? Just a terrible movie.

For Your Eyes Only surprised me. Is this the best of the Roger Moore movies? I think it might be. It’s almost like they tried to reset things after the mess that was Space Bond and just made a straight forward good movie. The figure skater is kind of annoying and really doesn’t add anything to the story, other than demonstrating that James Bond probably isn’t a pedophile. Roger Moore is pretty good. The principal Bond Girl is pretty good. The bad guy is pretty good. The twist with the guy you thought was a bad guy thing was pretty good. It’s no Sean Connery movie, but it’s a pretty good Bond movie. …and it’s got Tywin Lannister! He didn’t have any lines, but there was that moment when you thought he was going to say something but… nope.

Octopussy was my first Bond movie. When we first got cable it was on HBO or one of the other movie channels constantly. I probably saw it a thousand times. It was out at the same time as the non-official Connery movie, Never Say Never Again (which was just a remake of Thunderball) and they both hit the cable networks at the same time and they both ran constantly and together they turned me into a James Bond fan. Well, that and my father telling us how the James Bond story was based on his life before he met my mother. It’s a long story. Anyway, the movie is pretty crummy. Roger Moore telling the wild tiger to SIT! is pretty much the only redeeming quality. Roger Moore was way too old at this point. I really didn’t remember that, but watching it last night it hit me like a brick to the face. Bam, he looks old. Connery in Diamonds are Forever was also too old, but it seems more of a problem here. I’m curious how it’s going to play out in the next movie, given that Moore is still there. We’ll see.

So that’s the update. Now here’s the list as it stands now… and I think I am going to throw the Rotten Tomatoes score onto the list as well, just for fun. 13 movies down and 12 to go. I’m half way there!

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) 95% – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) 97% – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) 99% – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) 85% – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967) 74% – Finished
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) 81% – Finished
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 63% – Finished
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973) 65% – Finished
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) 40% – Finished
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) 81% – Finished
    • Moonraker (1979) 59% – Finished
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981) 69% – Finished
    • Octopussy (1983) 42% – Finished
    • A View To A Kill (1985) 37%
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987) 73%
    • License to Kill (1989) 79%
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995) 80%
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) 56%
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999) 51%
    • Die Another Day (2002) 56%
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006) 94%
    • Quantum of Solace (2008) 64%
    • Skyfall (2012) 92%
    • Spectre (2015) 63%
    • No Time to Die (2021) 83%

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Update Again, Again

I went a little nuts yesterday. I cranked through three Bond movies. I probably should have stopped at two and, ya know, slept, but I didn’t and now we’re fully immersed in Roger Moore.

Diamonds are Forever is the worst Sean Connery movie by far. He had already given up the role once, but then came back and made a weak movie (though it’s still pretty good) and then left again. Why? I don’t know how old he was in 1971, but he seems a little older and slower in this one. He’s still the best, but there was a definite step back.

Live and Let Die sees the arrival of Roger Moore and brings a little spring back into James Bond’s step. It’s also the start of the Bond movies starting to feel like parodies of themselves. There are a lot of African American stereotypes here that are pretty uncomfortable to sit through these days, and we’re getting to the point where the stunts are less spectacular and more silly. The boat chase scene is about four hours too long and Sheriff Pepper… what the fuck, guys? It’s still a good movie but it’s not my favorite Moore appearance. I don’t know for sure if I have a favorite Moore movie. They are all kinda equal to me, and when I say equal I mean equally not as good as any of the seven movies that preceded them.

The Man with the Golden Gun is marginally better. Christopher “Count Dooku” Lee is a decent bad guy, though he doesn’t quite get as much screen time as I think he deserves. There’s another endless boat chase, and Sheriff Pepper comes back for not one but two scenes. Again… what the fuck, guys? If I never see that character again it will be too soon. I had completely forgotten that Christopher “Saruman” Lee was in this movie so it was a nice “surprise” for me. I also forgot about Maude Adams. I don’t know anything about her other than she played two Bond girls. She’s in this movie and eventually she plays Octopussy herself. I also forgot all about Hervé Villechaize. His fight seen at the end was embarrassing to watch, but otherwise he’s fine in this role. All in all it’s a decent Bond movie, but probably not that good of a movie all around. Pretty much the same as all Moore movies.

Up next is The Spy Who Loved Me, which makes me want to watch Roger Moore in Cannonball Run where he talks about starring in The Fly Who Bugged Me. Is this the one that introduces Jaws? I know he’s in Moonraker and I think he dies at the end, so this must be his first appearance. I think?

Okay, folks, nine flicks down and 16 to go. Here’s the updated list:

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967) – Finished
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) – Finished
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971) – Finished
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973) – Finished
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) – Finished
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    • Moonraker (1979)
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    • Octopussy (1983)
    • A View To A Kill (1985)
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987)
    • License to Kill (1989)
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995)
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999)
    • Die Another Day (2002)
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006)
    • Quantum of Solace (2008)
    • Skyfall (2012)
    • Spectre (2015)
    • No Time to Die (2021)

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Update Again

I remember why I usually avoid You Only Live Twice, and I am not talking about the pretty racist and stereotypical depiction of everyone and everything in Japan. It’s Connery. He’s clearly bored. He clearly doesn’t want to be Bond anymore. I read an article about it last night that says his performance is so disinterested that it borders on unprofessional.

It’s still a pretty great Bond movie though. It just goes to show you that Connery is so freakin’ good that even when he mails it in and does a terrible job, he’s still great (see: Highlander).

So, five movies down. I started On Her Majesty’s Secret Service this morning during my faux walking. George Lazenby. Okay. In House of the Dragon there is a character who is often referred to as The Queen Who Never Was. That’s what I think of this movie. It’s the bad ass, monster classic Bond movie that could have been. If Connery or Daniel Craig played Bond in this movie we’d be talking about it as the best of them all. Hell, if Moore, Dalton, or Brosnan had played him we’d probably be saying the same. I am not trying to say that Lazenby is a bad actor. He’s fine. He’s just not really an actor and he doesn’t have the chops that Connery or Craig or any of the others have. He’s perfectly acceptable, he’s just not a commanding presence like the other guys.

Everything about that movie is great. Telly Savalas as Blofeld is perfect casting. Diana Rigg does what she always does and steals literally every scene she’s in. Imagine the sparks if she had been playing off of Sean Connery. Just imagine! There is no way on Earth he would have seemed bored when they were on screen together. Hell, if you want to see just how amazing Diana Rigg can be, watch Game of Thrones. I mean her last scene is so fucking incredible that it will burn itself on your soul forever. “Tell Cersei.” Enough said.

Here is the list as it stands now:

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967) – Finished
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) – In Progress
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973)
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    • Moonraker (1979)
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    • Octopussy (1983)
    • A View To A Kill (1985)
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987)
    • License to Kill (1989)
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995)
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999)
    • Die Another Day (2002)
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006)
    • Quantum of Solace (2008)
    • Skyfall (2012)
    • Spectre (2015)
    • No Time to Die (2021)

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 Update

Did I read correctly that Amazon Prime Video is dropping the Bond movies in two weeks? I need to get cracking then!

Here’s the latest update. Goldfinger is as awesome as awesome gets. Sean Connery is the best Bond without question. I mean, Daniel Craig is fantastic as Bond, Roger Moore is iconic, but Connery just IS James Bond. Period. The best there is and the best there ever will be.

I finished Thunderball last night. It is a great movie, but probably not up to Goldfinger’s new standard. It’s the forth movie and the first that isn’t better than the previous movies. I still stand by From Russia with Love being my favorite, but I can’t say anything negative about Goldfinger and the only negative thing I can say about Thunderball is that it isn’t Goldfinger. It’s almost like that movie was just a technical challenge. Can we film a full battle scene underwater? Let’s find out. My favorite part of the big fight at the end is Bond with the jet pack thingie on his back, booking it through the battle and just reaching out and pulling masks off bad guys. Just, excuse me, pardon me.

Up next is You Only Live Twice. I haven’t watched that movie in 100 years. I remember it being good but not quite up to the standard. It’s the first clear step back, but it’s still a good one. We’ll see if my memory is accurate.

Until next time, here is my updated status bar:

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) – Finished
    • Goldfinger (1964) – Finished
    • Thunderball (1965) – Finished
    • You Only Live Twice (1967)
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973)
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    • Moonraker (1979)
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    • Octopussy (1983)
    • A View To A Kill (1985)
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987)
    • License to Kill (1989)
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995)
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999)
    • Die Another Day (2002)
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006)
    • Quantum of Solace (2008)
    • Skyfall (2012)
    • Spectre (2015)
    • No Time to Die (2021)

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022

I had been thinking about it for a while. Over the last month or so there have been a ton of television shows that I have been following closely. For the most part I watch new episodes while doing my morning walkies and that’s how I stay caught up. Most of those shows have ended now so I was thinking of what I could watch in their place (until the next round of must-see shows kicks off).

I started watching the first Hobbit movie but it wasn’t really holding me. I’ll get back to it, but I needed something more engaging. The answer to my conundrum? Bond movies. All of them. It should take me months to finish. Yeah, Bond movies will be the ticket.

I started The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 last night with Dr. No. The first official Bond flick and Sean Connery’s debut. I forgot how mean he was in this movie. He’s pretty brutal for 1962 as well. He just plain murders that geologist dude, including a second insurance shot in the back. Blood thirsty.

During today’s walkies I started From Russia with Love. I didn’t get terribly far into it. I think it’s safe to say that Goldfinger is the template for all Bond movies that followed it, but for me personally, From Russia with Love might be my favorite of them all. It’s still a spy movie first and foremost. With Goldfinger they start devolving into fantasy action movies rather than spy movies. I don’t know. I love them all, and Goldfinger is easily one of the best, but there is just something about From Russia with Love that really works for me.

As with the Marvel rewatch I did a few months ago, I will keep an updated list of the movies as I watch them because… it’s my page and I can do whatever I want, dig? Note, I am not including the unofficial movies. I don’t acknowledge that the spoof version of Casino Royale exists (sorry, Woody Allen), and the final Connery appearance in Never Say Never Again was not made by the same studio and is just a remake of Thunderball. It’s a good movie and I might tack it on to the end, but it’s not official so it’s not on the list.

Here is the full list of Bond movies, in order of release:

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) – In progress
    • Goldfinger (1964)
    • Thunderball (1965)
    • You Only Live Twice (1967)
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973)
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    • Moonraker (1979)
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    • Octopussy (1983)
    • A View To A Kill (1985)
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987)
    • License to Kill (1989)
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995)
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999)
    • Die Another Day (2002)
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006)
    • Quantum of Solace (2008)
    • Skyfall (2012)
    • Spectre (2015)
    • No Time to Die (2021)