Reviews of Dr. No (1962) and related work

Dr. No (1962Moving picture, 110 minutes)

Pulp superspy thriller. Sean Connery as James Bond.

References here: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963).

moving picture fiction

From Russia with Love (1963Moving picture, 115 minutes)

Sean Connery as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Goldfinger (1964Moving picture, 110 minutes)

Sean Connery as James Bond. Seeing this as a child, I did not reflect on the rape culture expressed in Bond’s “conquest” of a clearly unwilling Pussy Galore by violence.

References here: “Our Man Bashir” (1995).

moving picture spin-off fiction

Thunderball (1965Moving picture, 130 minutes)

Sean Connery as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

You Only Live Twice (1967Moving picture, 117 minutes)

Sean Connery as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969Moving picture, 142 minutes)

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Diamonds Are Forever (1971Moving picture, 120 minutes)

Sean Connery as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Live and Let Die (1973Moving picture, 121 minutes)

Roger Moore as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974Moving picture, 125 minutes)

Roger Moore as James Bond, in the least bloody Bond movie as of 2021, which is a plus.

moving picture spin-off fiction

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977Moving picture, 125 minutes)

Roger Moore as James Bond. This is the way to do pulp superagents.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Moonraker (1979Moving picture, 126 minutes)

Roger Moore as James Bond. Kitsch.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Octopussy (1983Moving picture, 131 minutes)

Roger Moore as James Bond. The name, at least, is hard to beat.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Never Say Never Again (1983Moving picture, 134 minutes)

Seen in 2014.

Sean Connery as James Bond. The writing of Blush is moronic, but the hideous racism of the auction at Palmyra—no connection to the Syrian Palmyra—tops it off nicely.

moving picture spin-off fiction

A View to a Kill (1985Moving picture, 131 minutes)

Roger Moore as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Licence to Kill (1989Moving picture, 133 minutes)

Timothy Dalton as James Bond. Politically docile genre meltdown.

moving picture spin-off fiction

GoldenEye (1995Moving picture, 130 minutes)

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997Moving picture, 119 minutes)

Seen in 2021.

A media mogul manufactures high tensions between the UK and mainland China.

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

The expected amount of product placement includes an Ericsson phone remote-controlling a BMW. When I first saw this movie in 2021, I was working for Tele Radio and had recently tried controlling a driverless Volvo truck remotely with EXSTER. This made the late-1990s technothriller especially cute, but the fridge-stuffing is distasteful and Jonathan Pryce’s villain—though he prefigures the post-Soviet conspiracism that would engulf the US five years later—is too crude a caricature of Pulitzer and Hearst 100 years before. Vincent Schiavelli is funny in his evil bit part as a professional fridge-stuffer and professor of forensic medicine.

moving picture spin-off fiction

Casino Royale (2006Moving picture, 144 minutes)

Seen in 2013.

Daniel Craig as James Bond. A good deal less cartoonish than most of its predecessors, but no less obsessed with gadgets and hysterical masculinity. Boring poker sequences and overblown action set pieces.

moving picture spin-off fiction