More James Bond filler: Classic films for the Craig fans

All right, I owe you an explanation as to why the Thunderball review for the 2014 James Bondathon is getting shoved back again. Here it is: I read someone else's review of Thunderball in which this person accused the writer/director/what-have-you of needlessly complicating Fleming's novel. Being the extremely dedicated reviewer that I am, I decided the best course of action would be to read the novel before I published the review.* Well, last weekend there was a giant snowstorm and the book didn't show up until Monday, and then law school stuff got in the way.  I've now finished the novel, but will (likely) not have the time to watch Thunderball again this weekend.

*I'm also going to do this for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (that, and the fact that I want to do these in order, is why I took the OHMSS review I did in January down) and Live and Let Die, and at some point I intent to revisit the From Russia With Love and Goldfinger reviews and do this for them too.  There's really no point in doing it for any of the others until we finally reach Casino Royale because the rest of the films stray so far from the source material.

Having said all of that, I'm determined to have something to post every day in February, and by "something" I mean "something more than just an excuse." With that in mind, here's something I meant to publish a while ago: Bond Films I Recommend For People Whose First Bond Film Was Casino Royale (or Skyfall).

From Russia With Love (1963, Sean Connery)

The second Bond film made and the last one before what I like to call “the comic-book elements” started infesting the series.  This is a rather low-key adventure in which Bond tries to steal a Soviet encryption device.  Unbeknownst to him, a third party is manipulating both him and a beautiful Russian clerk, trying to claim the device for themselves.  Robert Shaw plays Bond’s nemesis Red Grant with considerable menace.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969, George Lazenby)

So you think Casino Royale was the first time Bond lost someone he actually loved?  Think again.  Yes, I just gave away the ending, but it’s very obvious from about two-thirds of the way through the film that Bond’s love interest this time around isn’t walking out alive.  This is really the first attempt to give Bond any sort of character development.  Lazenby is mediocre but not terrible; a larger problem (but still not a fatal one) is the film’s somewhat disjointed pacing.  Diana Rigg plays the doomed Tracy, the best Bond Girl in the entire franchise.

For Your Eyes Only (1981, Roger Moore)

Roger Moore is about as far away as you can get from Daniel Craig’s Bond.  He’s a snarky gentleman where Craig is a brutal thug.  (I might be oversimplifying a bit.)  Anyway, this film is wildly different from the other ones with Moore, and is an earnest attempt to bring some degree of realism back into the series.  It’s a solid meditation on revenge, let down only by an annoying teenager who keeps hitting on Bond (I think this was supposed to be the series poking fun at itself for having Bond Girls young enough to be Moore’s daughters, but this “joke” goes on for too long).

The Living Daylights (1987, Timothy Dalton)

Two decades before Daniel Craig did the same thing to much more critical acclaim, Dalton was playing the James Bond of the novels rather than the gentleman superspy played by Connery and Moore. If you like Craig's take on the character, my guess is you'll like Dalton's too. Daylights is an actual spy film which sees Bond visit Czechoslovakia, Morocco and Afghanistan as he attempts to track down a missing ex-Soviet defector and determine just how true the defector's story is. Boosted by Dalton's ice-cold interpretation of Bond, Daylights is a rather serious film marred only by a scene where Bond escapes his pursuers by tobogganing in a cello case.

Licence to Kill (1989, Timothy Dalton)

Bond goes rogue and embarks on a very personal revenge mission after his friend and CIA contact Felix Leiter is fed to a shark by a druglord named Sanchez (Robert Davi).  Bond proceeds to exploit Sanchez’s paranoia, worming his way into the druglord’s confidence before tearing his organization down around him. 

The World is Not Enough (1999, Pierce Brosnan)

Skyfall borrowed a plot element or two from this film (a superficial injury for Bond and a villain with a grudge against M).  Bond is assigned to protect an oil heiress (Sophie Marceau) after her father is killed.  Meanwhile, a terrorist is working with someone inside the heiress’s organization to deliver a personal blow to MI6.  Without giving away too much of the plot, let’s just say that this is the most emotional depth we get in a Brosnan film, but that Denise Richards is totally unconvincing as a nuclear scientist. This is a very average film that makes it onto this list solely because of Bond's relationship with Marceau's character.