DR. NO (1962)
The first Bond movie and pretty cool. Dr. No introduced the Bond music theme, M, Moneypenny, the first of several men to play Felix Leiter, and the famous phrase, "Bond, James Bond."
James Bond, is sent to the West Indies to investigate the murder of a fellow operative. Bond's enquiries soon establish a connection between the death, a spate of recent failures in the US space program, and the mysterious Dr. No. The bikini-clad Honey Rider joins him. I like the movie, but Sean Connery could have eased up a little bit. But it was cool. It set the standard for the movies.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963)
The best of the best of Bond. The best of Connery's Bond films. Bond is constantly outwitting SPECTRE through a boat chase, a helicopter attack, and more. And a beautiful Russian woman whose mouth is "just the right size for Bond."
SPECTRE sets a trap for Bond, and the bait is the Lektor, a Russian decoding device, and the lovely Soviet Defector Tatiana Romanova. Bond also has to deal with such SPECTRE-employed villains as Rosa Klebb, the Lesbian with poison-tipped spikes on her shoes, and Red Grant, who doesn't flich when punched by brass knuckles. This is also the movie that introduces SPECTRE "Number One" or the "Guy with the white cat" who is faceless. Just watch this one, you won't be let down.
GOLDFINGER (1964)
This is the only one of Connery's Bond films that doesn't involve SPECTRE. And the first one where Bond has a gadget-filled car. And many people consider it to be Connery's best, and maybe even THE best Bond film.
Auric Goldfinger is up to something, and it's Bond's job to figure out. He steals Goldfinger's employee Jill Masters, and outcheats Goldfinger at golf. Then Bond follows him to Austria, and it goes from there. He meets the lovely but stubborn Pussy Galore, who is also an employee of Goldfinger.
Also the best of the best of Bond. Good stunt sequences and car chases. Connery is still in top form.
THUNDERBALL (1965)
This film is huge. For the sixties, anyway. The faceless SPECTRE #1 and his white cat are back.
When a British bomber is stolen with two atomic bombs on board, the 00 agents are assigned to track it down
the aircraft. SPECTRE then announce that they have the plane and will detonate the bombs unless 100 million worth of uncut diamonds are delivered. He tracks the plane down to the Bahamas but still has to deal with the deadly, eye-patched, Emilio Largo. The Shark scene is really cool. I love Connery's line, "You don't think I enjoyed what we did this evening, do you? What I did tonight was for Queen and country!"
The underwater scenes took a little too long, but other than that it's really good.
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967)
At this point the movies start getting real different than the Ian Fleming books. The characters have the same names, but the plot is totally changed. Some space craft opens up and swallows shuttles of the US and the USSR. MI6 believes that the mysterious enemy craft lands somewhere in Japan, and Bond is sent to investigate. And we finally see SPECTRE #1's face. The "Guy with the cat" now has a name: Ernst Blofeld.
Lots of martial arts ninja stuff in this movie. Bond also has affairs with about four different women. Another good movie, but not as big as Thunderball and it lacks the style of the earlier movies.
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