Me three.

But that whole movie is glorious. The score is legend, the opening Rock sequence, Mujahideen, Hercules, Koskov, Kara, Pushkin, the pipeline (light up like Christmas Tree!), the Aston, smeirt spionam - it's all there.

Dalton was avery authentic Bond, but he's far from the first to do that. You have to remember Bond evolved into the laser in the watch invisible car parody he became. Connery's early Bond was a pretty ruthless son of a bitch, it's only by the time of say Goldfinger that he's become something of a comic figure and the whole things something of a pantomine.

IMO, the Craig 'reboot' wasn't a re-invention of Bond it was a return to Bond's roots. The series had lost it's way but it did start off on the right path.

I really liked Lazenby's Bond. Very under rated, imho.

OK I"m old... I still prefer the Roger Moore / George Lazenby / Sean Connery Bonds. None of the films after that have stayed in my imagination as much. Although the music has always been good and I loved the video for a View to a Kill with Grace Jones

Oh and I liked the fact they put Judi Dench in as M in the new ones.

He certainly was. In the first film he shoots Professor Dent in the back a couple of times which was pretty strong stuff for 1962 and is often cut on TV now. That earned the film a condemnation from those guardians of decency in the Vatican, no less. My favourite Bond was the sequel From Russia With Love which had Bond with gadgets but nothing too outlandish. Goldfinger is a great film but by this time the set-pieces were everything and parts of it absurd. You can't watch the scenes of soldiers being gassed at Fort Knox without laughing as they all fall over.

After that they all tend to follow the same much-parodied formula, and the Roger Moore films became ridiculous especially the later ones where he is far too old. Dalton did bring back a grittier Bond but it wasn't until Goldeneye that I really started to enjoy Bond again. The reboot was well handled and Daniel Craig is convincing in the role. I haven't seen QoS yet as everyone I know who's seen it says it is a hopeless mess. I'll give it a go soon though and I do hope that the franchise will continue.

Yeah i was thinking of Living Daylights when I said License to Kill got them mixed up.

I would have to say that my favourite Bond is Daniel Craig, simply because Bond should be able to handle himself in a fight, and DC is the only one I have seen on screen that hasn't made me think "I could beat the crap out of him."

I think that's more down to the writing and general aesthetic of the reboots, than the actor. Roger Moore aside, every previous Bond could've handled the new material well, in their prime(s). Sean Connery smashing a sink with a blokes face - yep it works.

The reboot happened because of Bourne. Bourne was seen as a rebooted Bond for the 21st century.

Living Daylights marked a reboot of sorts, but when Goldeneye arrived in '95 it blew me away and is still superb. The damn free fall is still cinematically amazing. The Brosnan efforts became slowly worse, but I guess it's tough to match that first effort. Licence to Kill isn't as good as Daylights, Tomorrow Never Dies suffered by the same comparison and QoS is the biggest victim of this phenomenon yet.

Still, of the original Connery efforts, You Only Live Twice still rules for me. The Japanese angle, score, Little Nelly, ninjas, spaceships all add up to an entertaining movie IMO and along with the best secret base ever (and of course one of the most parodied) they tick all the boxes. But also, you have a decent story with superpower war starting potential (a classic Bond/spy theme) and some great performances. Thing is, it's probably the weakest of the Connerys on paper, but it's highly enjoyable. And isn't that the point?

It's not often that I have a complete change of heart. And this isn't one of those moments!

I do, however, agree entirely with your last statement. The whole point of Bond, (and most other films of this genre, surely?) should be to make them fun to watch, and in that respect they are all good.

Mine too, actually. It feels like a 'Bond' movie but it also feels like a proper spy movie. I don't they got that balance near right again until Dalton came along. Then when Dalton didn't review well they reverted back to the gadget/cheesefest again until Craig got the job.

Jon

+1
That was a top film. Though for some reason For Your Eyes Only has always been my favourite.

IMO Lazenby was the worse Bond ever and Moore looked about ready for his pension in View to a kill. Shame as it was a good film, but he was just to old to be believable.

In fairness, Lazenby only had one bite at the cherry, and who's to say he wouldn't have improved if given more time? For what it's worth, I thought that his was a rather good film.

I think it's a better film than a lot of the Moore stuff.