Sunday 29 July 2007

Top 5 Bonds

It is an exceedingly quiet Sunday so might as well get another Top 5 up and running with another easy topic. My top five James Bond's.

1. Sean Connery

2. George Lazenby

3. Pierce Brosnan

4. Roger Moore

5. Daniel Craig

Sean Connery - Well he is Bond. Whilst Moore was the big screen Bond for most of the time I was growing up, Connery had already staked his rightful claim to the role by being on the telly every Christmas. The Connery movies seem to be closest to the Ian Fleming books, a classic sixties British spy thriller. For me Connery is the perfect Bond and everyone else are just reaching for second place.

George Lazenby - Yes he only made one film, but it was a good one. It had Diana Rigg in it and that gorgeous end theme by Louis Armstrong. I suspect if Lazenby had gone on to make more films his stock with me might have slipped but from my point of view George was the closest Bond to Connery's version and therefore deserves this lofty position.

Pierce Brosnan - I remember when he was playing Remington Steel I was appalled at the suggestion that he might play Bond. In his place I think Timothy Dalton stepped in and in doing so became the worst Bond of all time. When Brosnan finally did get his chance it heralded and fresh start for Bond and I was excited about the prospect of going to watch a Bond film in the cinema once more. He has one blot on his copy book which is the appalling "Die Another Day" but I'm prepared to let him off that for now.

Roger Moore - My best friend and I used to argue over who was the best Bond. I, obviously, thought Sean Connery whilst he argued the case for Roger Moore. My best put down to this was that in my view Roger Moore was only the 3rd best Bond. With the passage of time he's now slipped to 4th - sorry DB. Actually Roger made some of the best Bond movies so I am probably being too harsh on him but the feeling that with his later films the whole Bond experience took a nose dive is something I still not yet prepared to forgive.

Daniel Craig - I really wanted to like this. The tougher, meaner Bond was something I should have liked. I've only seen "Casino Royale" once so maybe I'll enjoy more with future viewings but initially I felt they were trying too hard to be gritty and real. I'm also a little disappointed they didn't let Quentin Tarantino direct it, not that it would have made it a better Bond, but it would certainly have been an interesting one. Craig's got time to make up the ground though so never say never!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate Pierce Brosnan. However, I'm not sure if this is his fault. The trouble is that he was Bond during the "all style no substance" era, the "whooo! look at these special effects! whooo! More bangs! Whoo!" which frankly I found rubbish.

But I didn't like him either. I grew up on Roger Moore but he's fallen in my estimation as I've seen more of him in his real life fall into old age, but I enjoyed his stuff while he was at it.

I don't know that I'd say he was my number one, but the things around him, like the Yellow Citroen, Jane Seymour, and even that Jaws bloke.. they're what I remember of James Bond. (Jane Seymour was Moore, right?)

Rich

Anonymous said...

Bond is dead. Long live Bourne!

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