I watched Skyfall a while back, and I thought it was crap. I hated the serious plot. I hated the bland BBC drama style cinematography. I hated how topical it was, all about hacking and leaks and national security. I couldn't bring myself to hate Daniel Craig because he was so bland, so grim and so dour that I didn't really notice him in the mix. I think he's the worst James Bond, and his films are the worst of the franchise, simply because for me James Bond is Roger Moore spouting one-liners, stuffing a midget into a suitcase, dangling from the golden gate bridge and being really suave and sophisticated. I just find the older films so much more fun, and I prefer older action films in general, I guess because before 9/11 there could be films about planes blowing up and huge buildings falling and it was awesome instead of tragic. There hasn't been a single ridiculous plane hijacking action thriller like Air Force One or Executive Decision since before 9/11 because America is apparently really sensitive about it, and now the whole world is sensitive about terrorism. Those terrorists sure know how to spoil fun, right? Or is it just as much to do with our attitude to it? I mean if we're all sharpening our knives and looking over our shoulders and brandishing pitchforks aren't we giving in to evil? Now I'm not saying the Pierce Brosnan Bond films were great (Die Another Day was incredibly stupid and bad), but they still retained some of the colour and style of the older films. Roger Moore is my favourite Bond precisely because he doesn't take the role seriously and sort of plays Bond as a smug English gentleman who can't lose and always has a line.
I haven't read any Bond books, but apparently Fleming wrote Bond as a hard-nosed, callous anti-hero. When Casino Royale came out, one of the selling points was that it was a new, rough and tough, gritty Bond, and they took every opportunity to show him as such. I think the classic opening was even changed to show Bond beating a guy to death in a bathroom. I didn't really like the film much. It wasn't the Bond I knew. Not only that, it wasn't the first time there was a hard-boiled Bond. Timothy Dalton married the suave, elegant Bond with the direct, hard-nosed Bond perfectly, although he only did two films. He was a brilliant Bond, and starred in probably my favourite Bond film next to A View to a Kill, License to Kill.
License to Kill was a violent, realistic Bond film done in style, John Glen's last Bond, a great action film that doesn't feature any of the camp of the previous films but is still colourful, funny and light hearted. It sees Bond go after a Mexican drug lord who kills his CIA buddy Felix. He is fired from the secret service by M for getting revenge on a corrupt CIA man (Everett McGill from Twin Peaks), by feeding him to a shark, and then goes after the drug lord played by Robert Davi who had Felix fed to a shark. There are so many great villains in this who die violent and horrible deaths, including Benicio Del Toro in one of his first roles. It's almost like a Peckinpah Bond film. There are great action sequences, from Bond wrestling with a guy for control of a plane full of millions of dollars in mid flight, to a a bar room brawl in a very 80s kind of bar, to a chase through the desert in explosive fuel trucks. Desmond Lewelynn actually helps Bond in his escapades, and there are two great Bond girls, a CIA agent and a Mexican who is tired of being spanked by an Iguana. Robert Davi makes a great and menacing villain. The actions scenes are so spectacular it's hard to believe they had budget constraints. Timothy Dalton is tough but also likeable and charismatic. For me it's the absolute best Bond film and my favourite of the series.
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