Also, there are ninjas literally out of nowhere for a single scene

Brosnan would have been 50+ in Casino Royale, had they made it right after Die Another Day. I think they were right to go with a younger actor, it was the perfect story to introduce a new Bond actor.

Michael Apted directed The World is Not Enough and is as well regarded a director as Martin Campbell.

The tree-trimming helicopters are so ridiculous that you just can’t make it up...because they are real and regularly used to cut tree lines along roads and power lines.

Actually they offered it to Dalton first, he was unavailable filming Brenda Starr, so they offered it to Brosnan. Then the network renewed Remington Steele for another season and Brosnan became unavailable. That delay moved the production schedule enough that Dalton became available.

I’ll defend The World is Not Enough, it’s my favorite Brosnan Bond film. A great companion to OHMSS since Elektra is the anti-Tracy and Bond falls for it. And Denise Richards isn’t that bad, but has become the low-hanging fruit used to discredit an otherwise solid Bond movie.

I’m excited to see him as Dr Fate in Black Adam.

Are the stakes high in Skyfall? Worst case, if the bad guy succeeds, M gets killed - and that actually happens.

Because of the personal role Leiter plays in Licence to Kill I think they wanted a previous Leiter, and Living Daylight’s John Terry was unavailable. I mean, like it mattered since it was 15 years apart.

Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny from Dr No through A View to a Kill. After that Dalton and Brosnan each had their own Moneypenny actresses (Bliss and Samantha Bond).

Ha, no thankfully, just the broad strokes. Fleming’s Hugo Drax is secretly a Nazi who crafted an identity as a British socialite war hero so he can use a nuclear space rocket to destroy London. Similar to Die Another Day’s Gustav Grave’s and his Icarus laser.

It’s not that he should be having fun again, it’s that his experience with Vesper is what makes him the James Bond who coldly carries out Her Majesty’s orders, the very 007 we’ve been watching for decades. What makes Casino Royale unique is the personal nature of it, the impact of which is diminished if every…

The pendulum always swings back and forth. During Brosnan’s run, he was repeatedly hailed as the best since Connery, which has toned down substantially in the years since. Conversely, Dalton was derided as too serious, but has since been reassessed as “Fleming’s Bond”. I recall my college roommate and huge Bond fan…

Definitely more traditional Bond girls than, uh, M.

The biggest offender in movie series is when the movie spends too much time talking about the first 2 movies. Spectre, Dark Knight Rises, Spider-man 3 all stumble in this regard. You can have connective tissue to the past (such as Professor Crane) but you can wrap up a trilogy without perseverating on previous…

They unironically cribbed from Goldmember, which itself was parodying the same type of dumb plot twists that have followed Empire Strikes Back.

Die Another Day actually uses a lot of Fleming’s Moonraker. Not to say they couldn’t try again.

I never understood that decision either, it’s a theme they could have tucked away for 2 films later. Especially considering the same year The Dark Knight Rises unfortunately did the same thing, but at least had an 8-year time jump. Instead Bond gets shot and falls off of a very, very high bridge by Moneypenny.

I got that Bond has training, but Almaric is a desperate and crazy man at that point. Never bothered me.

The differences between Bond movies are such minutia that it’s almost barely worth arguing - it’s the same formula mixed over and over. Sometimes the mood one if in will determine ones appreciation for a film as I’ve seen the same people have wildly different reactions to the same film at different times.