In 1962 “Dr. No” was released and the James Bond 007 was born. Played by Sean Connery, he was an unlikely choice but turned in a great performance, so go that many to this day feel he is the best James Bond. I must admit I agree with them. I can’t image what it must have been like seeing this film for the first time, from the opening gun barrel scene to the end credits this film has classic written all over it. The plot is that a British undercover spy has just been killed while searching for information on the mysterious Dr. Julius No, so Bond’s superiors send 007 to Jamaica to investigate. Along the way James Bond meets Honey Ryder a native shell collector who becomes his companion, Ursula Andress is the greatest most beautiful Bond girl of the entire series. Dr. No has been criticized as being wooden and boring but I found the scenes to have a slight hint of creepiness. There are far too many things to talk about so I’ll try to wrap this up. Felix Lighter is a character most are unfamiliar with until recently but when you watch these early films you can see why, he’s not that interesting. The James Bond theme is one the most recognizable movie themes of all time and my only complaint is that it isn’t used threw out the entire opening sequence. Despite being a tad dated in places this film really holds up well and is a great first film to one of the greatest film series ever. It gets a 5 out of 5.


The second film is my personal favorite of the series. It just does everything right from beginning to end. The story is that SPECTRE wants revenge on Bond for killing Dr. No and plans a complicated scheme to destroy Bond. They lure the British with a lector decoding machine. They play Bond and the Russians against one another while having their operative Red Grant keep a close watch on 007. They convince a loyal (but naive) Russian, Tatiana Romanova to give Bond the machine. Why is this my favorite because it has the perfect balance of serious tone and over the topness. It has the first appearances of Q played by Desmond Llewelyn, Miss Moneypenny making her second appearance. Bond and Moneypenny have the most overt flirting scene in this film of the entire series. Robert Shaw plays the villainous Red Grant and is the perfect adversary for Connery’s Bond. My favorite friend of Bond Kerim Bey played by Pedro Armendariz; He is just a great help to 007 and is played with sure warmth and charisma you can’t help but like him. The actor was very sick at the time but you’d never know while watching; now that’s a pro. This film has great performances, story, location, suspense, romance and just gets better each time I watch it. Go see it, easily a 5 stars out of 5 kind of movie.


The third film “Goldfinger” often called the greatest of the series and I can see why, personally I think it’s the most iconic of the films. We have a new director and a new tone which is much less serious that the last too. James Bond is asked to investigate a shady character by the name of Auric Goldfinger. As Bond comes to realize this person is trouble and is planning some big heist called “Operation Grand Slam”. This has the famous lines “I never joke about my work 007”, “Do you expect me to talk?” “No Mister Bond I expect you die”. We also have the famous Pussy Galore (which my parents never let me say out loud as a kid), but even though she has a great name I’m not much of a fan. The actress just doesn’t do it for me. This film made a huge amount of money and really started the James Bond phenomenon. It’s hard not to like this film, it gets a 5 out 5.