If you want to watch all of the James Bond films in order, you'll stumble upon the good stuff right away: all of Sean Connery's films in his first screening are franchise classics. Before Connery's departure from his role as 007 in the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever, you'll find George Lazenby's solo work (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1969) and the 1967 comedy parody Casino Royale, which was made outside of Eon Productions, a company based to control Bond from the book to the big screen.
Critics' Consensus: George Lazenby's only appearance as 007 is a great start to the series, featuring one of the most intriguing Bond girls in Tracy di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), breathtaking visuals and some great ski chases.
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A mysterious message from the past takes James Bond (Daniel Craig) to Mexico City and Rome, where he meets the beautiful widow (Monica Bellucci) of a notorious criminal. After infiltrating a secret meeting, Agent 007 discovers the existence of the sinister organization SPECTRE. Needing the help of the daughter of an old sworn enemy, he sets off in search of her. As Bond ventures into the heart of the SPECTRE, he discovers a chilling connection between himself and the enemy (Christoph Waltz) he seeks.
Visually stylish and a good homage to the Bond films of the 60s, neatly tying plot points from previous Bond films to Daniel Craig but feeling rather run-of-the-mill, I never felt anything for any of the characters: things just happened without any excitement or emotion. At least it wasn't too stupid, but again it lacked humor.
One of the most obvious characteristics of the Bond film series is that each installment in the franchise can stand on its own. Modern viewers are being asked to believe that the character has been the same age for over 50 years, and the show has flexed or fiddled with its conventions just a tiny bit as the decades have passed to stay relevant. While this kept the Bond series as a whole within the realm of fantasy, it allowed individual entries in the series to push towards something more gritty or realistic; if it works, it is accepted and moved forward, and if not, the series reverts to type with very few tears. Since the franchise was actually rebooted with Casino Royale, an approach more suited to comics was taken: different writers and directors come in and somehow try to integrate all of the character's actions into an overarching narrative. Doctor Who, Sherlock and Star Wars have shown that this is not so easy to pull off, and even harder to convince the audience that such an undertaking was always deliberate. Specter tries to tie together the events of its predecessors with the story of chickens returning home to roost - and while Sam Mendes' film has plenty to applaud, it's also full of problems. The first such issue is the amount of emphasis given to each of the previous films. You can imagine that any story that attempts to claim that the events of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall were elaborate means to bring us to this point would give equal weight to each part and the events in it. Instead, "Quantum of Solace" is practically erased from history; aside from the weird mention of Quantum, we don't get any mention of its plot, and Dominic Green is never seen on camera. Failure to even hint at it is too constant a factor for it to be an accident; it's like the whole production threw up their hands, admitted it was terrible, and then asked us to forget it ever existed. A related problem is that the script for The Phantom is deeply inconsistent, especially when it comes to the film's female characters. Madeleine Swann is written as two completely different people who were put together; at one moment she behaves like an icy, irresistible and forced
Critics' Consensus: George Lazenby's only appearance as 007 is a great start to the series, featuring one of the most intriguing Bond girls in Tracy di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), breathtaking visuals and some great ski chases.
We and our partners collect information from your device, such as device identifiers, IP address, and your browser type, to personalize and deliver content, marketing, and advertising across devices and platforms; for analytics and measurements so that we can improve our services and develop new ones; to correlate and combine offline data with your online activity; and for social functions. We share this information with selected partners with your consent. By clicking "I accept", you consent to our use of these cookies. Click "Manage Variants" to learn more about them. We will also use other cookies necessary for our site and Services, including for security and fraud prevention purposes. To learn more about some of our partners, select IAB and Google Vendor List. Please visit our Cookie Notice and Privacy Policy to learn more.
A mysterious message from the past takes James Bond (Daniel Craig) to Mexico City and Rome, where he meets the beautiful widow (Monica Bellucci) of a notorious criminal. After infiltrating a secret meeting, Agent 007 discovers the existence of the sinister organization SPECTRE. Needing the help of the daughter of an old sworn enemy, he sets off in search of her. As Bond ventures into the heart of the SPECTRE, he discovers a chilling connection between himself and the enemy (Christoph Waltz) he seeks.
Visually stylish and a good homage to the Bond films of the 60s, neatly tying plot points from previous Bond films to Daniel Craig but feeling rather run-of-the-mill, I never felt anything for any of the characters: things just happened without any excitement or emotion. At least it wasn't too stupid, but again it lacked humor.
One of the most obvious characteristics of the Bond film series is that each installment in the franchise can stand on its own. Modern viewers are being asked to believe that the character has been the same age for over 50 years, and the show has flexed or fiddled with its conventions just a tiny bit as the decades have passed to stay relevant. While this kept the Bond series as a whole within the realm of fantasy, it allowed individual entries in the series to push towards something more gritty or realistic; if it works, it is accepted and moved forward, and if not, the series reverts to type with very few tears. Since the franchise was actually rebooted with Casino Royale, an approach more suited to comics was taken: different writers and directors come in and somehow try to integrate all of the character's actions into an overarching narrative. Doctor Who, Sherlock and Star Wars have shown that this is not so easy to pull off, and even harder to convince the audience that such an undertaking was always deliberate. Specter tries to tie together the events of its predecessors with the story of chickens returning home to roost - and while Sam Mendes' film has plenty to applaud, it's also full of problems. The first such issue is the amount of emphasis given to each of the previous films. You can imagine that any story that attempts to claim that the events of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall were elaborate means to bring us to this point would give equal weight to each part and the events in it. Instead, "Quantum of Solace" is practically erased from history; aside from the weird mention of Quantum, we don't get any mention of its plot, and Dominic Green is never seen on camera. Failure to even hint at it is too constant a factor for it to be an accident; it's like the whole production threw up their hands, admitted it was terrible, and then asked us to forget it ever existed. A related problem is that the script for The Phantom is deeply inconsistent, especially when it comes to the film's female characters. Madeleine Swann is written as two completely different people who were put together; at one moment she behaves like an icy, irresistible and forced
