Our James Bond marathon covers six eras of 007
From Connery to Craig, let's tackle cinema's longest-running spy game
Film Features James Bond
This weekend, No Time To Die brings to an end the Daniel Craig era of James Bond, putting a lid on a story that began 15 years ago with the reboot origin story Casino Royale. This is, of course, just one stretch of a franchise that’s been running since the early 1960s, with no more than a few years ever passing between subsequent installments. In honor of this latest turned page in the ongoing book of Bond, we’ve programmed a prospective marathon of 007 adventures, selecting one movie for each of the six actors that have played the superspy. To discuss this daunting, nearly day-long block of espionage blockbusters, critics A.A. Dowd and Katie Rife welcome a special guest: fellow A.V. Club staffer and lifetime James Bond superfan Cameron Scheetz. Fair warning: We do not see eye to eye on Goldeneye.
Here’s what A.A. Dowd had to say about No Time To Die in his written review:
No Time To Die is the 25th film in the endless James Bond series, and also maybe the first to offer something like an actual ending. “Goodbye” isn’t usually in the spy’s vocabulary—not with a sequel always on the horizon, a return always promised in the credits. Even on the cusp of recasting, it’s rare to get any finality from a Bond movie; producers like to leave the door open, in hopes that they’ll lure their star back for one more round of martinis. No Time To Die is different. It’s been conceived as a proper send-off to Daniel Craig, taking his fifth and final spin in the tuxedo, and as an attempt to wrap up this serialized stretch of a series that’s been running since the early ’60s. Unfortunately, the film is so concerned with valediction that it ends up treating the actual pleasures of Bond—the stuff that’s kept audiences coming back for six decades—like an afterthought. It’s all punctuation, no sentence.
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21 Comments
James Bond. You arrive with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season.
Good God you can’t dismiss a movie with a line like that.
It’s a quote from Moonraker. The villain sees Bond as a mere annoyance rather than a threat.
Hey, did someone say “video essay about how Moonraker is secretly really great?”And FWIW:Connery – either From Russia With Love or Goldfinger; the former is a better spy movie, but the latter is a better Bond movie if that makes sense.Lazenby – well, yeah, but it’s still one of the greats.Moore – if I’m trying to maintain some kind of credibility, The Spy Who Loves Me or For Your Eyes Only. If I’m being honest, Moonraker.Dalton – Hmmm, I have a soft spot for Dalton, but honestly both of his movies are in the good-not-great column for me, and it can go either way depending on how I’m feeling. Call it a tie.Brosnan – Goldeneye, though his best Bond theme is “The World Is Not Enough”. Tomorrow Never Dies is underrated, though. Goes downhill from there though. Craig – I enjoyed Spyfall a bit more so I’m giving it to that over Casino Royale, but it’s close.
My problem with Moonraker isn’t the space stuff — it’s that it is exactly the same plot as The Spy Who Loved Me — literally the previous movie! In TSWLM you had Stromberg who wanted to kill everyone except his cult which would live under the sea. In MR you had Drax who wanted to do the same thing except his cult would live in space. I realize that Bond films sometimes recycle plots, but they normally wait for a few films!
Folks were really into their cults in the 70’s.
It isn’t just those two, it’s Lewis Glibert in general. He directed those and You Only Live Twice, which is also the exact same plot. It’s just how he rolled. Tomorrow Never Dies returned to it as an homage.
True, although I’d argue that You Only Live Twice and Tomorrow Never Dies are slightly different from the Spy Who Loved Me/Moonraker in that in that the point isn’t to kill everyone else off to make way for the “chosen people” but rather to profit from a war (in which hundreds of thousands or millions will die, granted).
I can’t believe I watched most of that (FF’ing through the Black Widow parts to avoid spoilers).I still think Moonraker went back to the “destroy most human life and replace it with people of my own choosing” well too soon after The Spy Who Love Me. But I had forgotten how the movie crafts a nice little mystery for Bond to solve — what do a stolen space shuttle, the industrialist who built it, and Amazon basin orchids have to do with each other? The answer, while totally awesome to 7-year-old me, seems a little silly. But I have considered using Moonraker as my kids’ introduction to 007, just as it was mine.One thing the video didn’t mention was Moonraker’s box office. Since it was made to capitalize on Star Wars creating bigger interest in sci-fi, I think a question it should have answered was “did it work?” Box Office Mojo lists it as the 9th-highest grossing film of the year, and coming behind some other big, science fiction franchise starters — Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Alien (oddly, the year’s #1, Superman: The Movie didn’t start the superhero movie blockbuster trend that eventually materialized more than two decades later, but that’s off-topic). The only other new release in sci fi that year was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which Moonraker handily beat. It also did better than Star Wars (in the year 1979, mond you, not 1977). I’m guessing Star Wars that year was a re-release to drum up excitement for the following year’s Empire Strikes Back. BUT Moonraker did tens of millions of dollars more at the box office than The Spy Who Loved Me, so in that respect, I’d say 007’s producers found success.
Thanks for the breakdown. Moonraker: Secret Success!Also, I did not know that Buck Rogers was a theatrical release. Wiki tells me it was the pilot for the show, but Universal released it theatrically to drum up cash and interest.
“Spyfall” you say?
James Bond is a Time Lord, after all.
Just rewatched Moonraker and Octopussy (the clown one) and was surprised at just how much better they are than people give them credit for. Especially Octopussy, it’s much more grounded than Moonraker and View to a Kill
one movie for each of the six actors that have played the superspy
Poor Barry Nelson, maybe it’s for the best that history has forgotten your weirldly-Americanized 1954 TV movie of Casino Royale. The world just wasn’t ready for Jimmy Bond…
I’m not sure the world was ready for “Jimmy Bond” when Woody Allen played him a dozen years later… or, perhaps, the world wasn’t really in the wrong, there…
Nobody ever mentions the 1967 Casino Royal. 13yo me thought it was hilarious!https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061452/Kinja took away my ability to link?
The legit good ones: FRWL, Goldfinger, Thunderball; OHMSS; For Your Eyes Only; Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies; Casino Royale, Skyfall. The campy guilty pleasures ones, I.e. the Connery/Moore ones I grew up on: You Only Live Twice (volcano lair!), Live & Let Die, TSWLM, Moonraker.The first one, historically important but somewhat tangential at this point: Dr No.The water-treaders, entries messily plotted, indistinct, inessential and forgettable, which perversely squander the villainous possibilities of Christophers Lee, Walken, and Waltz: Diamonds Are Forever, Golden Gun, Octopussy, View To A Kill, Living Daylights, TWINE, Spectre.The stinkers, for completionists only: License To Kill, Quantum. The one that doesn’t count, and even if it did, sucks: Never Say Never Again. Best M: Judi DenchBest Q: Desmond Llewelyn Best Villain: three-way tie between Goldfinger, Blofeld, and Le Chiffre. Best song: all respect to McCartney, Cornell and Adele, but it’s obviously Goldfinger.Best pre-credits sequence: the tempting answer is Skyfall’s action extravaganza or Spy’s ski jump, but the correct answer is Goldeneye’s bungee-jumpin’, Sean Bean killin’, motorcycle jump off a cliff into a crashing plane munitions factory explosion escapin’ sequence.
I can’t help but notice you left Die Another Day off this list, to which I say….yup, fair.
Disagree on the 2 Dalton films, but otherwise solid. But where is Die Another Day?(personally, I’d like to launch every extant reel of that one into the sun)
Ah yes. Die Another Day cuddles up between License and Quantum in the stinker pile.
Ooh I love me some Bond Vice in Licence to Kill. Quantum was absolutely shite though. I’d demote Diamonds and Spectre to stinkers too. They’re just so boring